This teaching module aims to show students in qualitative research methods classes in the field of education the history of the the development of qualitative research. By engaging students in the process of closely looking at the artifacts of now revered researchers—Margaret Mead, Ernest Burgess, W.E.B Du Bois and Abraham Flexner—it aims to expose students to processes of decision-making within qualitative research and the changes to the field over time. 

The primary aim of this teaching module is for students to come away understanding that qualitative research is not a fixed set of methods but rather a continually innovating tradition, changing over time. And that they, as novice educational researchers, can contribute to that innovation as they seek to give voice to contemporary problems.