Handbook of qualitative research in education, by Sarah Delamont, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Pub, 2013, xix + 353 pp., £47.00 (paperback), ISBN 978 1 78100 293 3

The Handbook of Qualitative Research on Education by Sarah Delamont makes an
important contribution to the field, offering a critical perspective of qualitative research
and suggesting possibilities to innovate and reflect on decisions of researchers when they
consider theoretical perspectives, contexts of research, data collection, analysis and
representation. In terms of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, the volume describes
the need for fertile dialogue between disciplines and the need to explore analytic concepts
that allow educational researchers to understand relationships between education and
society. The volume argues for studying learning and teaching outside formal school
settings, asking questions beyond traditional research that examines failure, and encouraging innovative approaches to data collection. The issue that crosses chapters of this
section is reflexivity, that is, the position of the researcher as the “other,” implications of
her personal experiences, theoretical perspectives and research assumptions. The concluding section introduces different ways of representing and reporting research that go
beyond writing. Overall, Delamont challenges us to break canons of research to achieve
deeper, alternative ways of understanding contexts.