Researching New Literacies

Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation

This book provides an expansive guide for designing and conducting robust qualitative research across a diverse range of purposes concerned with understanding new literacies in theory and in practice. It is based on the idea that one of the best ways of learning how to do good research is by closely following the approaches taken by excellent researchers. This volume brings together a group of internationally reputed qualitative researchers who have investigated new literacies from a sociocultural perspective. These contributors offer "under the hood" accounts of how they have adapted existing research approaches and, where appropriate, developed new ones to frame their research theoretically and conceptually, collected and analyzed their data, and discussed their analytic results in order to achieve their research purposes. Each chapter, based on a substantial and successful study undertaken by the researchers, addresses the research process from one or more of the following emphases: theory and design, data collection, and data analysis and interpretation. Core elements discussed in each chapter include research purposes and questions; theoretical and conceptual framing; data collection and analysis; research findings and implications; and limitations, glitches, and difficulties experienced in the research process.