An Overview of the Qualitative Journey: Reviewing Basic Concepts

Abstract

Like any journey, doing qualitative research is an adventure, with all the accompanying excitement and stimulation, as well as the challenges to confront. Even with an itinerary and a rough plan for how you expect things will unfold, there are always surprises, twists and turns in the road, and unforeseen obstacles that must be negotiated. In spite of all the preparation you might do in the form of reviewing literature, studying maps of the terrain, talking to others who have traveled the roads before you, the one thing that you can count on for certain is that you will not end up where you thought you might. That is why qualitative research requires a degree of flexibility and fluidity while venturing into new territory, skills that mark you as an explorer in the tradition of Columbus, Vasco de Gama, Magellan, Marco Polo, James Cook, Charles Darwin, Margaret Mead, or Helen Thayer, the first woman to reach the North Pole in a solo expedition. Rather than enduring hardships at sea or in the wilderness, you will encounter your own forms of adversity in the form of ambiguity and confusion, yet there is no intellectual enterprise that is more fulfilling and satisfying. During an era in which it seems as if everything has already been discovered, you have the opportunity and the privilege to advance knowledge in your discipline by describing unique experiences, explaining complex phenomena, creating new meaning, developing theories-all based on the data that you collect. As a relative neophyte to research, what could be more exciting?