Speed Bumps: A Student-Friendly Guide to Qualitative Research. . - book review

Adolescence, Winter, 2002

WEIS, Lois, & FINE, Michelle. Speed Bumps: A Student-Friendly Guide to Qualitative Research. New York: Teachers College Press, 2000. 144pp. $17.95 (p).

This collection of essays presents information about developing interview questions, conducting observations, coding and analyzing data, and writing up results. More than a "how to" book, Speed Bumps also addresses the political and ethical dimensions of qualitative research while providing practical suggestions about how to actually conduct it. Noted ethnographers Lois Weis and Michelle Fine, in conversations with fifteen graduate students, offer readers varying perspectives on what lies beneath the surface of qualitative inquiry and what it means to carry out a piece of qualitative work.