Educators often want to know about how people understand, or perceive, aspects of their educational experience or professions. We can, of course, quantify these things, using numerical data. We can also work from non-numerical data to count how many times different sentiments, phrases, or constructs are mentioned by our research participants. While informative, these approaches alone risk transforming rich, multidimensional concepts into simple frequencies or magnitudes that tell us little of their robust and varied meanings. Qualitative research represents a systematic approach to narrative (spoken or written) or visual data that explores the meaning of people’s experiences. It opens important ways of interrogating, and improving, education in the health professions. Many health professions educators aspire to become involved in qualitative research projects but do not possess the foundational knowledge and skills. It is more common for health professions educators to hold research backgrounds that are quantitative in nature. This means they are often uncertain about how to approach a form of inquiry that is philosophically different from what they are used to. This beginners-level workshop is designed for educators and students at any level, and in any discipline, seeking a foundation from which to build a qualitative research project. Through short, interactive didactic presentations, small group discussions, and practice activities, the speakers will introduce participants to: ● Theory in qualitative health professions education research ● Selecting from five qualitative research designs: phenomenology, narrative, grounded theory, case study, and ethnography ● Different forms of qualitative data and methods for their collection ● Qualitative data analysis techniques ● Rigor in qualitative research ● The role of qualitative research in mixed methods designs The speakers will also share their own research stories to highlight both the versatility of qualitative work and their diverse journeys which led them to qualitative inquiry. Participants will learn how to select an appropriate qualitative study design and plan rigorous methods for data collection and analysis. Specific resources will be recommended to the participants that will support the continued development of their proposed project after the workshop. Participants will be provided with preparatory readings prior to the workshop.