ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a glance into the pragmatic aspects of research, namely, the common features of qualitative inquiry. First, we offer recommendations on how to identify a problem, formulate the purpose of the study, and construct questions that provide adequate and appropriate scope. Second, we discuss the importance of reflexivity, including researcher subjectivity. Third, we briefly describe the common methodological strategies used in qualitative research for social justice, and refer to the subsequent chapters in this volume for a deeper exploration of these strategies of inquiry and their implications for social justice. Following these brief descriptions, we explore issues of early interactions with other data collection and analysis strategies, attending to issues of trustworthiness and challenges of representation. Our goal is to offer a broad overview of the project of qualitative inquiry for social justice so that researchers are equipped to more deeply examine the history, disciplinary roots, subtleties, strengths, and weaknesses of the methodologies.
