Qualitative Inquiry in Geoscience Education Research / Качественные исследования при изучении наук о Земле

The enthusiastic response to our initial suggestion for this volume, and willingness of colleagues to contribute manuscripts, are clear indicators that qualitative methods are gaining in acceptance and popularity within the geoscience education and geocognition community. What we currently lack, however, is an extensive, formal literature base for qualitative inquiry into how novice and expert geoscientists think and learn. This volume provides the fi rst reference of its kind for geoscience education researchers to explore in-depth qualitative theory and methods, and to examine case studies documenting both the application of these methods, and the contribution made by qualitative inquiry to geoscience education and geocognition. It is our intention to provide a reference framework aimed at, but by no means restricted to, two key audiences: geoscience educators who are (or who aspire to be) qualitative practitioners; and geoscientists who are new to, and may even be openly critical of, qualitative inquiry. In this volume the “rules” of qualitative inquiry are parsed, the theories are dissected, and examples are provided to allow skeptics and practitioners alike to see examples of how we do what we do. <...>