Qualitative Research on Science Education in School

Specific features in the three steps of theoretical framing, data collection and data analysis characterise qualitative research on science education. As a general tendency, the qualitative paradigm contributes to research results that are gained by the interpretation of non-numerical data collected through a rather open, not hypothesis-driven, process-like research (Bortz and Döring in Research methods and evaluation: for human and social scientists. Springer Medizin, Heidelberg, 2016; Lamnek and Krell in Qualitative social research: With online material. Beltz, Weinheim, 2016). Beyond this pragmatic shortcut to the paradigmatic perspective, it should be emphasised that the following contribution is based on a fundamental understanding of qualitative research in the sense of a multidimensional modular system. The individual components of this system can be used and combined flexibly. However, this must happen based on the solid foundation of theory and the principled orientation towards the object of research or research questions. This contribution presents and discusses current trends in qualitative research on science education in schools. The chapter focusses on the four steps (a) theoretical groundwork for a research project in didactics, (b) data collection implying sampling, methods and technical support, (c) data analysis with its diverse methods and criteria of quality and (d) the interpretation of the analysed data related to the theoretical framework as well as to the research field.