Rapid Qualitative Inquiry: A Field Guide to Team-Based Assessment

Rapid Qualitative Inquiry: A Field Guide to Team-Based Assessment

<span><span>Practitioners in need of timely results for program and policy planning—and students looking for<br />realistic research projects—will find solutions in Rapid Qualitative Inquiry (RQI), a team-based,<br />applied research method designed to quickly develop an insider’s perspective on and preliminary<br />understanding of complicated “on-the-ground” situations.<br /><br />In this accessible field guide to RQI, James Beebe provides an introduction to research that<br />substitutes teamwork for long-term fieldwork; uses iterative data collection, data analysis, and<br />additional data collection; triangulates data from multiple sources; and applies techniques and<br />concepts from ethnography and case study research. Extensive examples make clear that “rapid”<br />does not mean “rushed” and that rigorous RQI depends upon flexibility rather than an arbitrary<br />list of techniques. Throughout, Beebe’s clear prose guides interdisciplinary readers through the<br />process, promise, and potential pitfalls of RQI.</span></span>