For my parents, who instilled in me a love for inquiry.
Hannah
For my children, who help me to see the world through ever-changing perspectives.
Sandra
For my son, as always.
Jen
For my parents, my earliest teachers in the art of observation and questioning.
Alecia
Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces
Hannah R. Gerber
Sam Houston State University
Sandra Schamroth Abrams
St. John’s University
Jen Scott Curwood
University of Sydney
Alecia Marie Magnifico
University of New Hampshire
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gerber, Hannah R., author. | Abrams, Sandra Schamroth, author. | Curwood, Jen Scott, author. | Magnifico, Alecia, author.
Title: Conducting qualitative research of learning in online spaces / Hannah R. Gerber, Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Jen Scott Curwood, and Alecia Magnifico.
Description: Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc., 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015038929 | ISBN 9781483333847 (pbk.: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Web-based instruction—Research—Methodology.
Classification: LCC LB1044.87.G47 2016 | DDC 371.33/44678—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038929
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Foreword
Conducting Qualitative Research in the Moment
According to Denzin and Lincoln (2011), qualitative research has undergone the following nine moments that span from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present:
(1) traditional (1900–1950), wherein many researchers who rejected logical positivism gravitated towards qualitative research;
(2) modernist or golden age (1950–1970), wherein attempts were made to legitimize qualitative research (e.g., via grounded theory) by making its methods as rigorous as quantitative research; many textbook authors attempted to formalize qualitative research; and new interpretive theories emerged (e.g., ethnomethodology, critical theory, critical race theory, feminism, phenomenology in various forms [e.g., descriptive phenomenology, interpretive hermeneutic phenomenology]);
(3) blurred genres (1970–1986), wherein qualitative researchers possessed a full arsenal of philosophical stances and methods; early forms of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software programs became generally available to assist the analysis of textual data; new worldviews became popularized (e.g., poststructuralism); several qualitative research journals were launched; and naturalistic, postpositivist, and constructionist paradigms gained prominence;
(4) crisis of representation (1986–1990), wherein qualitative research and writing became more reflexive, culminating in research questions being posed regarding issues of gender, race, class, sexuality, and other issues that previously had been considered to represent taboo research topics; quality criteria used by quantitative researchers, such as reliability, validity, and objectivity, were problematized; the triple crises of representation (i.e., qualitative researchers being unable to capture lived experiences directly), legitimation (i.e., problematizing the traditional [foundational] criteria for evaluating and interpreting qualitative research), and praxis (i.e., involving asking whether it is possible to effect change in the world if society exclusively was represented by text) were highlighted;
(5) postmodern period of experimental ethnographic writing (1990–1995), which marked a struggle for qualitative
