Discursive manoeuvring in the borderlands of career transition: From trade to teacher

Methodological frameworks are constantly evolving as qualitative researchers manoeuvre through contexts, concepts, paradigms, and methods. This chapter offers a distinctive view of the relationship between methodology and method from an interpretive constructivist paradigm (Creswell, 2013; Punch, 2014). In the context of investigating the career transitions of trade-qualified workers to secondary school teachers, this chapter explores three interrelated discourses of methodological manoeuvring: conceptual, methodological, and analytical. This work extends from the doctoral study of the first-named author that focused on tradespeople transition through a career change to become secondary school teachers in their technical vocational areas. The extension occurs as we articulate and examine critically the discursive manoeuvring encountered in the borderlands of research design when being and becoming qualitative researchers.