The Research Journey: Introduction to Inquiry

Designed to foster inquiry-mindedness, this book prepares graduate students to develop a conceptual framework and conduct inquiry projects that are linked to ongoing conversations in a field. The authors examine different ways of knowing and show how to identify a research question; build arguments and support them with evidence; make informed design decisions; engage in reflective, ethical practices; and produce a written proposal or report. Each chapter opens with a set of critical questions, followed by a dialogue among five fictional graduate students exploring questions and concerns about their own inquiry projects; these issues are revisited throughout the chapter. Other useful features include end-of-chapter learning activities for individual or group use. Useful pedagogical features include: * Framing questions for exploration and reflection * Chapter-opening dialogues that bring in perspectives from multiple disciplines * Example boxes with detailed cases and questions for the reader * End-of-chapter activities and experiential exercises that guide readers to develop their own inquiry projects * Suggestions for further reading.This book is designed for graduate students and instructors in education, social work, psychology, and human development and family studies; and applied researchers who want to improve their proposals. It serves as a core or supplemental text in master's- and doctoral-level introduction to research or inquiry courses, and in the capstone course in degree programs.