Preface

We want to introduce ourselves and this book by sharing that we love teaching qualitative methods in public health. One reason why we are so enthusiastic about it is that in every course there is at least one student who gets a new sense of the possibilities of what public health research can be—and gets energized. Students love to hear that it is important to prioritize people’s lived experiences and that not all data must be reduced to discrete variables. We find that students’ energy and enthusiasm revitalizes our own! Our goal is for this text to be a resource for those who teach qualitative methods in public health—in classrooms that service public health schools and programs as well as out in the field. The primary audience for this book is instructors—not students. We set out to write a book that supports faculty as they prepare to teach the subject, whether for the first time or even if they are a seasoned veteran. We have tried to make sure that this work includes the kinds of content that we, as qualitative researchers, feel is needed in different types of qualitative courses and trainings, and for different types of qualitative students. We’ve also written with an eye toward what we have found we have needed, as teachers of this material. To you, we present our ideas for helping students engage with critical ideas and how we assess those students’ understanding of them.