Insider-Outsider Research in Qualitative Inquiry: New Perspectives on Method and Meaning explores the history, practice and particular benefits of conducting cultural research through a partnership of two researchers: one who is an insider to the culture under study and one who is an outsider. This book unpacks terminology around this type of research that has become outdated or cumbersome, looks at ethical issues and suggests specific methodological approaches. It also locates insider-outsider research, which is by its nature qualitative, in the wider research landscape. The authors specifically describe a researcher partnership, a relationship more intimate and fruitful than a team, much greater than the sum of its parts. Through their own nearly twenty-year research partnership and study of the Israeli Druze, the authors have developed mutual trust that has led to new depths of insight in understanding cultural codes and the meanings they embody. This, and the methods they use, will be illustrated through examples of some of their studies with the Israeli Druze. A highly accessible guide, this book will be of interest to ethnographers and other qualitative researchers, both graduate students and researchers of all levels of experience.

Qualitative Research and Intercultural Understanding: Conducting Qualitative Research in Multicultural Settings makes an important contribution to the fields of multiculturalism and qualitative research methods. The first section of the book is a textbook on qualitative methodology. Beginning with a sketch of the historical roots of qualitative research and its place in the research landscape, the book then explores the notion of culture and our individual and collective experiences of culture. The chapters that follow explain how to frame a study and ask qualitative research questions, how to strengthen the trustworthiness of qualitative findings and how to collect and analyze data and write a research report. This section closes with a chapter on research ethics. Every chapter is infused with the idea of researcher reflectivity in order to see beyond the researcher's personal cultural worldview. Examples of research studies are provided in every chapter, and each chapter concludes with questions and exercises for critical thought. The second section of the book is comprised of five contributed chapters in which researchers describe their own challenges in conducting research in multicultural settings. Graduate students, experienced researchers and all those interested in multiculturalism will find something to learn and enjoy in this vivid and unusual book.

Qualitative Research and Intercultural Understanding: Conducting Qualitative Research in Multicultural Settings makes an important contribution to the fields of multiculturalism and qualitative research methods. The first section of the book is a textbook on qualitative methodology. Beginning with a sketch of the historical roots of qualitative research and its place in the research landscape, the book then explores the notion of culture and our individual and collective experiences of culture. The chapters that follow explain how to frame a study and ask qualitative research questions, how to strengthen the trustworthiness of qualitative findings and how to collect and analyze data and write a research report. This section closes with a chapter on research ethics. Every chapter is infused with the idea of researcher reflectivity in order to see beyond the researcher's personal cultural worldview. Examples of research studies are provided in every chapter, and each chapter concludes with questions and exercises for critical thought. The second section of the book is comprised of five contributed chapters in which researchers describe their own challenges in conducting research in multicultural settings. Graduate students, experienced researchers and all those interested in multiculturalism will find something to learn and enjoy in this vivid and unusual book.

A Brief History of Knowledge for Social Science Researchers outlines a history of knowledge from Ancient Greece to present day, in Europe and the Western world. This outline provides the basis for understanding where various research methods originate, and their epistemological, historical, political and social roots. This book provides social science researchers with an understanding of how research methods developed, and how their truth criteria, and what is accepted as knowledge, spring from human history. Research is often reduced to data collection, results and publication in the stressful, results-oriented academic environment. But research is a human enterprise, a product of both individual creativity and historical, political and social conditions. This book will focus on how shared research criteria (as we know them today) were developed through the work and thought of philosophers, social activists and researchers. This book will be useful for graduate and post-graduate students, particularly those studying Research Methods, and Philosophy of Science courses; and for experienced social science researchers who wish to understand how research methods have developed in human history.