Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches

John W. Creswell, PhD, is a professor of family medicine and codirector of the Michigan Mixed Methods Research and Scholarship Program at the University of Michigan. He has authored numerous articles and 28 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 a mixed methods research office, 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. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar to South Africa in 2008 and to Thailand in 2012. In 2011, he co-led a national working group on mixed methods practices at the National Institutes of Health, 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 president of the Mixed Methods International Research Association. In 2015, he joined the staff of family medicine at the University of Michigan. John has been teaching research methods courses for the past 40 years. Visit him at his website: johnwcreswell.com.

Cheryl N. Poth, PhD, has been a faculty member of the Centre for Research and Applied Measurement and Evaluation within the Department of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta since 2008. 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 community members in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research. Dr. Poth has an adjunct appointment in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and serves as the methodologist on several cross-disciplinary research teams. She has been principal investigator for projects and grants funded federally (e.g., Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada), provincially (e.g., Alberta Education and Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research and Alberta Advisory Committee for Educational Studies), and locally (e.g., University of Alberta and School Boards). She has authored over 30 peer reviewed journal articles and served as guest co-editor of two special issues of the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. In addition to more than 100 conference and 25 workshop presentations, she served as co-chair of the 2013 Advances in Qualitative Methods Conference (AQM). She has led research methods workshops with diverse audiences; for example, at the International Institute of Qualitative Methods’ Thinking Qualitatively Series. She is a current editorial board member of the International Journal of Qualitative Methods and the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. In 2013, she was recognized with the Provost’s Award for Early Achievement of Excellence in teaching, and won the McGuffey Longevity Award in 2018.