Heuristic Inquiry

Researching Human Experience Holistically

Nevine Sultan

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781506355481
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506355498
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

Focused on exploring human experience from an integrative perspective, Heuristic Inquiry: Researching Human Experience Holistically presents heuristic inquiry as a unique phenomenologically aligned, experiential, and relational approach to qualitative research that is also rigorous and evidence based. The author describes a distinguishing perspective of this research that treats participants not as subjects of research but rather as co-researchers in an exploratory process marked by genuineness and intersubjectivity. Through the use of real-life examples illustrating the various processes of heuristic research, the book offers an understanding of heuristic inquiry that is straightforward and informal yet honors its creative, intuitive, and polydimensional nature.


"A must-read for anyone interested in qualitative research." 

Graham Bright, York St John University, UK

"This text provides a valuable service to novice and experienced researchers through its straightforward, yet complex and nuanced approach to heuristic inquiry."

–Joseph McNabb, Northeastern University

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Publisher Note
• Series
• Copyright Page
• Brief Contents
• Detailed Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• 1 What Is Heuristic Inquiry, Anyway?
• 2 Locating Heuristic Inquiry Within Contemporary Qualitative Research
• 3 Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of Heuristic Inquiry
• 4 Heuristic Processes and Phases
• 5 Heuristic Research Design
• 6 Heuristic Data Collection, Organization, and Analysis
• 7 Relationality, Reflexivity, and Meaning-Making
• 8 Evaluating the Research: A Collaborative Process
• 9 Writing a Living Manuscript: An Embodied Relational Approach
• 10 Ethics of Heuristic Research
• 11 Universal applications of heuristic inquiry: Bridging research and living experience
• 12 An Ending ∞ Beginning
• Appendix A Sample Cover/Invitation Letter
• Appendix B Sample Demographic Information Form
• Appendix C Sample Informed Consent Form
• Appendix D Sample Instructions for Interview Meeting
• Appendix E Sample Semi-Structured Interview Protocol
• Appendix F Sample Semi-Structured Interview Protocol With Examples
• Appendix G Preparing for and Recording Interviews (Sample)
• Appendix H Open-Ended Relational Probing and Prompting
• Glossary
• References
• Index