ABSTRACT
Tools are all around us. We use and interact with them to solve our everyday problems. Imagine how much easier life would be if you had adequate knowledge about how specific tools are made, their functions, and limitations. Similarly, I see qualitative methods as research tools used to collect and analyze data, and address a research problem, purpose or question(s). So, what constitutes qualitative data? Any collected data that doesn’t have numeric properties could be called qualitative data. Such data include but are not limited to: documents, artifacts, interview transcripts, videos, audio, and field notes. In order to efficiently and accurately use the qualitative approaches, including data analysis techniques, we need to understand how they came about and the philosophical assumptions associated with them. This chapter will focus on describing how qualitative research emerged and the philosophical paradigms and assumptions associated with qualitative methods.
