Abstract
Qualitative research in adult education is multifaceted and complex, encompassing various methodologies and approaches. Effective sampling strategies are crucial for ensuring the rigor and trustworthiness of qualitative research in adult education. However, clear, practical guidance on selecting study participants is lacking in the adult education literature, leading to the potential exclusion of voices and limited transferability of findings. This article provides an overview of sampling strategies in qualitative research, followed by an application guide to sampling in adult education research. We present different sampling strategies and the research questions they are best suited for; we illustrate how the choice of sampling strategy can affect the research findings; and we end by considering how to report sampling choices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 10451595251349183 |
| Journal | Adult Learning |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - 2025 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- adult education research methods
- participant selection
- purposeful sampling
- qualitative research
- qualitative sampling strategies
- sampling techniques