Introduction: Qualitative Research in Language and Literacy Education

Qualitative research continues to be of relatively lower visibility in areas of language and literacy education. A review of published studies in major journals as well as research methodology books in related fields may illustrate a landscape of inquiry overshadowed by experimental and statistical approaches. In this chapter apart from voicing the need for the further recognition and visibility of qualitative inquiry in language and literacy education research, I argue that qualitative research in these areas should be understood as an epistemological necessity rather than a mere technical reaction to the shortcomings of quantitative studies. Moreover, I raise the concern that qualitative inquiry in the field needs to adopt conceptions of language and learning which are epistemologically congruent with a qualitative methodological position. This introductory chapter also presents an overview of the three parts of the book that probe theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of qualitative language and literacy education research. The chapter foregrounds the discussions in the rest of the book by justifying the combination of literacy studies and language education research and by highlighting the prospect of contributions of such a volume to inquiry in the broad area of language and literacy education.