Call for Chapters and Chapter Proposals

We are interested in receiving submissions for a book tentatively titled, The Craft of Qualitative Research. Like any craft, as Alford argues, the art of “[c]ombining theory, method and evidence… must be learned in practice” (1998: 19). As practitioners of qualitative research, we call on you to explore qualitative research as a craft, emphasizing the actualities of doing qualitative data collection and analysis. We are eager to receive chapters and chapter proposals that focus on one of the following processes of qualitative research:

1. Planning Your Project: Choosing Your Topic, Encountering the Literature, and Generating Research Questions

2. Handling Ethical Dilemmas

3. Making Contact, Gaining Access, and Developing Rapport

4. Doing Observation

5. Doing Interviews

6. Collecting Other Forms of Data

7. Analyzing, Conceptualizing, and (Re-)Framing Your Data

8. Leaving the Field

9. Disseminating Your Findings to Scholars and Other Audiences

We do not envision this text as a how-to manual. Instead, we picture it as a tips and tricks handbook—a teaching aid and reference for novice researchers. Our goal is to excite students about the prospects of doing qualitative research by highlighting the value of firsthand investigation of social life as it happens.

In revisiting your experiences with the actualities of doing qualitative research, consider questions such as: What were your first thoughts when you started doing your research? What obstacles did you encounter? How did you overcome them? Where applicable, how did issues of emotionality, power, voice, and reflexivity factor into your research? What lessons did you learn? What important decisions did you make? What would you recommend? Your chapter should not read as formulaic. It should speak to your thoughts, concerns, emotions, encounters in the field, dilemmas you experienced, and tricks that you learned along the way. Consider: What is most worthwhile about your experience that is relevant for new researchers to learn? The primary audience is third and fourth year undergraduates and graduate students.

We welcome submissions from researchers at any stage of their student, academic, or professional career. Please send your work to craftqual@gmail.com. Include: (1) a 2100-2600 word chapter; (2) your name and institutional affiliation; (3) the primary theme(s) your chapter aligns with (e.g., Doing Observation); and, (4) up to 10 keywords. The submission deadline is May 31, 2016. If at this time you do not have a draft chapter for us to review, please email us a 200 to 300 word chapter proposal.

The publisher is Canadian Scholars’ Press, and we anticipate publishing in 2018. The book will be comprised of previously unpublished material written primarily by Canadian authors. While we do not want to discourage those outside of Canada to submit materials, the publisher’s expectation is that the text be predominantly Canadian.

Thank you for considering this volume as an outlet for your work.