Peter is a Professorial Research Fellow and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. His interests are literacy education, educational disadvantage, classroom interaction and research methodology. He has authored or edited 10 books and over 20 research reports to government. He has published in international journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, Harvard Educational Review, American Educational Research Journal and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. He has also contributed numerous invited entries in international handbooks and encyclopedias on literacy, critical literacy, and research methodology. He has served on numerous Australian state and national advisory groups in the area of literacy education and curriculum design. He was evaluator of the Australian national on-line curriculum initiative conducted by the Australian Curriculum Corporation, a co-founder of the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, and lead consultant in the development of the Australian English Curriculum. He is currently a member of the New South Wales State Ministerial Advisory Group on Literacy and Numeracy and is the Australian Commonwealth Government's nominee on the National Literacy and Numeracy Expert Group.

Education as Social and Cultural Practice
Research in Education
Problems with Practical Activity
Exploring the Neighbourhood in Search of the `Qualitative'
Are the Insiders Really `Family'? Categories of Qualitative Research
Methods and Methodologies
Ethnography, Case Study and Action Research
Studying Educational Interactions
Conducting and Analyzing Interviews
Analyzing Educational Texts
Studying Education as a Practical Accomplishment

This outstanding new textbook provides a comprehensive overview of qualitative approaches to educational research. The text draws upon a broad range of real-life examples to describe and illustrate the methods through which educational data may be analyzed. Through a detailed yet concise explanation, the reader is then shown how these methods work and how their outcomes may be interpreted.

Key features of this title include:

- Links theory and practice by locating forms of analysis within a clear theoretical perspective.

- Locates qualitative research in the social and cultural context in which it originates.

- Contains a variety of `real-life' examples and case studies.

- Each chapter concludes with a set of exercises and questions for further discussion.

Qualitative Research in Education presents a thorough explanation of the complexities of educational research and demonstrates the importance of placing this knowledge within cultural, linguistic and sociological contexts. It is an extremely informative text, which constitutes essential reading for those engaged in the research and analysis of educational data.