The purpose of this introductory-level text is to provide the reader with a background for understanding the uses of qualitative research in education (and other professions), to examine its theoretical and historical underpinnings, and to provide the “how-to's” of doing qualitative research. This edition places qualitative research within current debates about research methods and alternative ways of knowing. While the authors approach the subject from a sociological perspective, they also take care to reflect the many changes in conceptualization of qualitative research brought by post-structural and feminist thought.