ABSTRACT
The term qualitative research encompasses those systematic inquiry processes through which investigators aim to generate new knowledge about what and why people think and behave, and how they give meaning to what they live in their naturally occurring settings. This chapter offers an overview of a number of these tools, and the way they might be used in a qualitative research project that aspires to advance knowledge in the field of primary care education. In qualitative studies, the available set of methods for collecting and analysing qualitative data will be used differently, in congruency to the research paradigm that frames the investigation, the research question to be answered and the methodological perspective adopted. Qualitative interviewing is the most recognised and used method for generating qualitative data. Several techniques, like content analysis and thematic analysis, can help the researcher to make sense to the empirical material generated in a qualitative study.
