In the Fifth Edition of the bestselling text Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches John W. Creswell and Cheryl N. Poth guide researchers in exploring, evaluating, and applying five qualitative research approaches: narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study. For each of the five qualitative inquiry traditions, the authors explore the philosophical underpinnings, history, defining features, common data procedures and writing structures. The book introduces the philosophical and interpretive frameworks that shape qualitative research, embedding essential discussions about ethical considerations throughout, so that readers get a holistic picture of qualitative research. In one chapter, a single study illustrates applying each of the five approaches to the same research problem. The authors compare approaches across the qualitative research process in a highly accessible manner that shows readers the many options for conducting research. Featuring comprehensive content, new articles, revamped exercises, updated references, and following the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association throughout, the Fifth Edition is an ideal introduction to the theories, strategies, and practices of qualitative inquiry.
Winner of the 2018 Textbook & Academic Authors Association's The McGuffey Longevity Award
Author Biography:
John W. Creswell, PhD, is a Professor of Family Medicine and Senior Research Scientist of
the Michigan Mixed Methods Program. He has authored numerous articles and 34 books on
mixed methods research, qualitative research, and research design. While at the University of
Nebraska–Lincoln, he held the Clifton Endowed Professor Chair, served as Director of the
Mixed Methods Research Office, co-founded SAGE’s Journal of Mixed Methods Research, and
was an Adjunct Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan and a consultant to
the Veterans Administration Health Services Research Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was
a Senior Fulbright Scholar to South Africa in 2008 and to Thailand in 2012. In 2011, he co-led
a National Institutes of Health working group on the “best practices of mixed methods research
in the health sciences,” served as a Visiting Professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health and
received an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. In 2014, he was
the founding President of the Mixed Methods International Research Association. In 2015, he
joined the staff of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan to Co-Direct the Michigan
Mixed Methods Program. In 2017, he coauthored the American Psychological Association
“standards” on qualitative and mixed methods research. The fourth edition of this book on
Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design won the 2018 McGuffey Longevity Award from the U.S.
Textbook & Academic Authors Association. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he gave virtual
keynote presentations to many countries from his office in Osaka, Japan. Updates on his work
can be found on his website at johnwcreswell.com.
Cheryl N. Poth, PhD, is a Professor in the Faculty of Education and faculty member of the
research-intensive Centre for Research and Applied Measurement and Evaluation at the
University of Alberta. In this role, she has developed and taught graduate-level research methods
and program evaluation courses in addition to supervising and mentoring students, faculty,
and local as well as global community members in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
research. She is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, three books as well as
numerous book chapters. Her work has been recognized by the American Educational Research
Association with the Division D Significant Contributions to Research Methodology Award
in 2023 (with Peggy Shannon-Baker) and by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association
with the Most Promising New Textbook Award in 2020 and the McGuffey Longevity Award
for Qualitative Research book in 2018 (with John Creswell). She served as Editor of the SAGE
Handbook of Mixed Methods Research (2023) and as Guest Coeditor of several journal special
issues, including the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. In addition to more than
40 invited talks and 150 conference presentations, she has led research methods workshops
with diverse audiences on four continents. She served as an Advisory Board Member of the
International Institute of Qualitative Methodology (2014–2020); the President of the Mixed
Methods International Research Association (2017–2018); a Research Fellow at the University
of South Africa (2018–2020); a Helen Glass Scholar in the College of Nursing within the Rady
Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba (2022); and as a MERIT Visiting
Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University (2023–2025). In 2009, she
cofounded the interdisciplinary Alberta Clinical and Community-Based Evaluation Research
Team to advance innovative community–university research partnership supports for program
planning and impact assessments of service delivery for individuals with complex needs. She
serves as the Methodologist on several cross-disciplinary research teams and has led federally,
provincially, and locally funded research projects. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of
Mixed Methods Research and is an editorial board member of several journals. Updates on her
work can be found on her website at https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/cheryl-poth/.
