Chapter 8: Emergent and Innovative Qualitative Research Methods for Professional Practice Dissertations

In the first two chapters on methods we followed the well-trodden pathways of traditional quantitative and qualitative research methods. In this third chapter on research methods for a professional practice dissertation we will turn off the main highways of methodology and introduce some of the emerging and innovative methods that are increasingly used by professional practice researchers. The chapter covers a number of qualitative approaches to research that are particularly suited to professional practice studies, including dissertation research. The following chapter, which is the last “methods” chapter, covers two additional families of research methods. One family which is covered in Chapter 9 is a group of methods that developed and were nurtured in the humanities but are now used in the social sciences, education, health care, and business to address problems and issues of practice. The other family is philosophical inquiry, a group of methods that is as old as recorded history, but ones that lend themselves to the study of certain types of contemporary professional practice problems.