Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed Methods, Arts-Based, and Community-Based Participatory Research Approaches

by Patricia Leavy

This book has been replaced by Research Design, Second Edition, ISBN 978-1-4625-4897-2.

Genres: Nonfiction, Research, Research Methods, Education, Grad School, Design

301 pages, Paperback

Published April 13, 2017

About the author

Patricia Leavy, Ph.D., is a bestselling author. She has published over fifty books, earning commercial and critical success in both fiction and nonfiction, and her work has been translated into many languages. Patricia has received over 100 book honors as well as career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2024 the London Arts-Based Research Centre established "The Patricia Leavy Award for Arts-Based Research." She lives in Maine with her family. Patricia loves writing, reading, watching films, and traveling. These days, she's focused on writing feel-good love stories.

Reviews

[Cheyenne Hume · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read for class obvi. This book helped me out a lot when it came to cleaning up some research holes in my thesis. Without this book, my methods chapter would have remained illegible.

[Peaches · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't nearly as compelling as others I've read from Leavy in terms of it being an interesting read, but it provides a lot of useful information if you are new to qualitative research, a graduate students, and/or someone who is interested in beginning a qual. study. Leavy spends time walking the reader through all steps of the research process, including proposal writing (thanks!) and bolds everything to make skimming for content easier (thanks, again!).
I would have liked if this book had been assigned in my qual methods class, but I was also fine reading it as an additional text because of the usefulness. My favorite part was that Leavy gives ABR its own sections, which is often provided significantly less space in texts about how to do qual. studies.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wearing many hats that cover the whole gamut of research options, Leavy tells a convincing tale about why research must happen, how it needs to be done with care, and what considerations must go into planning the five main types of research. Each of these methods are well represented with a sturdy structure and challenging provocations from examples close to her own social-justice beliefs. Not enough replication of quantitative studies, the harm that comes from misinterpreting qualitative data, the pragmatic stance one must take in adopting a mixed method approach, the expressive freedom that comes with responsibility to balance identity and oppression in arts-based method and finally an inclusive organization of collaborators who each have needs that must be met in a community-based participatory project. Hard to imagine a short book being more comprehensive, and yet there must still be a whole bunch of methods and ideologies that allow researchers to support oppressive systems that usually get whittled down to a garbled headline or catchy click bait: “research proves...” or “study reveals...” anything about climate change, racial injustice, or wealth inequalities. Someone must be doing the dirty research to keep the way the world is, and university positions are just a handful of the rewards meted out to the lucky few that can exploit such an unfair practice. Oh, so much has changed from when I started reading this book and having completed it after my doctoral thesis!

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very effective textbook. It is diverse and comprehensive in its approach to methodologies. It attempts to cover qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, which most similar textbooks do, but also includes Community Based Participatory Research and Arts-based research. Even more surprisingly, it is remarkably deep in locating the philosophical roots of these methodologies, linking Arts based to Husserl and phenomenology, for example, and CBPR to critical theory.

It is also well written, and easy to understood. So easy to understand that I think this could work for advanced undergrads.

It is NOT as comprehensive as textbooks like King, Keohane, and Verba on Qualitative methods and case selection only. But that's the nature of a survey textbook like this one.

[Makayla Kocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book for a public humanities/qualitative research course. Enjoyed it immensely! Leavy has a structured approach to each chapter that makes it easy to read. There are plenty of examples and lots of resources! A great read for anyone interested in different research methodologies and methods. This will be a book I plan to reference again and again.

[Kurnia Putri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more like a "handy" guide for newly researcher to understand how to do some research/thesis. Good for bachelor students and undergraduate thesis.

[Roberta Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book as it include art-based methodology. This is a very clear book about research methods. This is a staple for beginners and experienced researchers.

[p roper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Text for uni assignment. Easy to read.