Teaching the Unteachable

In this essay I broach some of the issues surrounding the teaching of qualitative research methods, not in an effort to necessarily resolve them, but so that we might wrestle with them. Some of the issues concerning the teaching (and learning) of qualitative research include, but are not limited to: the schooling trends of pedagogicization; the politics—global, national, regional, and local—affecting teaching; interpersonal and intrapersonal structures, processes, and relations; the status and hierarchies of knowledge and of curricular subjects; the status accorded research in general and qualitative research in particular; the individual qualities of the instructor and his/her pedagogy; and the nature of the various environments within which teaching occurs. Fieldwork, thinking, and writing—as constitutive elements of qualitative research, are considered in light of the issues raised.