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Chapter 27 - Framing Qualitative Methods in Engineering Education Research

Established and Emerging Methodologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2015

By
Jennifer M. Case  and
Gregory Light
Edited by
Aditya Johri  and
Barbara M. Olds
Jennifer M. Case
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Gregory Light
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
Aditya Johri
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Barbara M. Olds
Affiliation:
Colorado School of Mines
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Summary

Introduction

In science and engineering research, meth-odologies based on quantitative methods of data collection are prominent, based on their power for building predictive models of the natural world. Research in the social world, of which engineering education is a subset, is only partially described by quantitative models. Much of the subtlety of human interaction rests in complex models of causality that require the use of qualitative data for building explanatory theory.

This chapter provides an introduction to the use of qualitative methods for engineering education researchers. A more substantial consideration than that of methods, however, is the way in which an argument is developed for the validity of the knowledge generated from the analysis of qualitative data. These arguments are encapsulated in a discussion of methodology, which can be defined as referring to a theoretical justification for the methods used in a study (Burton, 2002; Clough & Nutbrown, 2002). This chapter focuses on methodology as a crucial area with which researchers need to grapple in order for the quality and scope of research to continue to develop. It is argued that to be able to answer the research questions at hand, methodological decisions need to be more explicitly represented in reports of research; and researchers need to consider a broad range of methodological options, in particular those methodologies that could be considered to be “emerging” in engineering education research.

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Chapter
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Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research , pp. 535 - 550
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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