Qualitative Research: Bridging the Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological

About Nicole C. Mittenfelner CarlNicole Mittenfelner CarlSharon M. Ravitch

Sharon M. Ravitch is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvanias Graduate School of Education. She engages in numerous applied research projects in India serving as a visiting scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai and working as a co-researcher and key resource expert in policy advocacy professional development and community-based participatory research related to corporate social responsibility through TISSs corporate social responsibility hub. She is involved in the design and implementation of assessment and evaluation of statewide performance through mixed-methods research in the Ministry of Human Resource Developments major policy initiative Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) a countrywide reform initiative aimed to resurrect Indias state public university system. Ravitch is also an expert adviser at the Center for Academic Leadership and Education Management at TISS. The center provides professional development and policy advocacy support to school education leaders across India. Ravitch works in the centers capacity-building program to collaboratively develop case studies and technology-innovation frameworks for the higher education and K12 sectors using a participatory approach. She received the prestigious GIAN Scholar Award from the government of India for 20162017 and the RUSA Scholar Award for 20172018. Ravitch also received a Fulbright Fellowship to engage in research and applied development work in India from 2017 to 2019. Ravitch has published five books: Applied Research for Sustainable Change: A Guide for Education Leaders (with Nicole Carl 2019); Qualitative Research: Bridging the Conceptual Theoretical and Methodological (2nd ed. with Nicole Carl 2020); Reason and Rigor: How Conceptual Frameworks Guide Research (2012; 2nd ed. with Matthew Riggan 2016); School Counseling Principles: Diversity and Multiculturalism (2006); and Matters of Interpretation: Reciprocal Transformation in Therapeutic and Developmental Relationships With Youth (with Michael Nakkula 1998). Nicole Mittenfelner Carl is a postdoctoral fellow in the Teaching Learning and Leadership Division at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. She received her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. Carl teaches courses related to qualitative research methods practitioner research for educational leaders and mentoring strategies for veteran teachers coaching first-year teachers. Carl has been conducting qualitative research for more than a decade beginning in 2005 when she was awarded a Mellon Fellowship. Since then she has led and participated in numerous qualitative and mixed-methods research projects. She recently co-authored a text for Harvard Education Press Applied Research for Sustainable Change: A Guide for Education Leaders that exemplifies ways for practitioners to use local research as a driver of school change. Carl has also published several articles on students experiences with schooling democratizing schooling the impacts of educational policies on teachers and leaders and applied research in peer-reviewed journals. Carl has worked with school leaders teachers and students in various settings (public and independent) to consider ways to use research to drive school improvement. She has also led a multiyear multisite evaluation of the impact of these projects on the schools and individuals involved. She continues to research ways that practitioners can conduct and use research in their schools and she supports educators in the implementation of these projects.