Johnny Saldaña outlines the basic elements of longitudinal qualitative data, focusing on micro-levels of change observed within individual cases and groups of participants. He draws upon his primary experience in theater education to examine time and change in longitudinal qualitative studies; contending that "playwrights and qualitative researchers write for the same purpose: to create a unique, insightful, and engaging text about the human condition." Offering sixteen specific questions through which researchers may approach the analysis of longitudinal qualitative data, Professor Saldaña presents a text intended as a primer for fellow newcomers to long term inquiry, based on traditional social science methods from traditional qualitative and quantitative paradigms, but enriched by an artist-educator's unconventional perspective.

"There is much [in the book] for an advanced researcher: in particular, how to think of and track change. . . . This volume is trying to bring rigor to a method that was somewhat ad hoc, whose details had not been previously spelled out. The steps Saldana provides us with to do this kind of work go beyond longitudinal research. Indeed, they are both handy and abstract anough to be worth considering by many of us doing a broad range of different forms of qualitative research." - Field Methods

"I...believe this to be a very good book and one that will be of use to anyone in any field who wished to do longitudinal research!" - Arts and Learning Research Journal, Vol. 20, No.1, 2003-2004