To understand both curriculum and qualitative research requires multiple perspectives or openings that question the meaning of being. Cooper’s “five contexts” contribute to the future of qualitative research by identifying and utilizing the patterns that underlie all relationships. By viewing these contexts individually and in toto, we may ultimately discover the unique core of existential meaning in our research.

Each chapter in this book represents a unique and imaginative attempt by the author to address a particular research approach or methodology through the theoretical framework of the five contexts. In combination with links to video interviews with major scholars in the field, the multiplicity of perspectives in this book will enhance the reader’s understanding of each research approach or methodology under study.

The authors hope that the ideas presented between the covers of this book become starting points for conducting, engaging in or performing qualitative research, and that they will enhance the reader’s understanding of the many metanarratives that weave through an individual’s life in this postmodern era.