Johnny Saldana

Johnny Saldaña is Professor Emeritus from Arizona State University’s (ASU) School of Film, Dance, and Theatre (now the School of Music, Dance, and Theatre) in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, where he taught from 1981 to 2014. He received his BFA in Drama and English Education in 1976, and MFA in Drama Education in 1979 from the University of Texas at Austin.

Saldaña is the author of: 

• Longitudinal Qualitative Research: Analyzing Change through Time (AltaMira Press, 2003)
• The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (5th ed., Sage Publishing, 2025; previous editions translated into Korean, Turkish, and Chinese-Simplified)
• Fundamentals of Qualitative Research (Oxford University Press, 2011)
• Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage (Left Coast Press, 2011)
• Thinking Qualitatively: Methods of Mind (Sage Publishing, 2015)
• Developing Theory Through Qualitative Inquiry (Sage Publishing, 2025)
• a commissioned title for Routledge’s World Library of Educationalists Series, Writing Qualitatively: The Selected Works of Johnny Saldaña (Routledge, 2018)
• co-author with the late Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman for Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook (4th ed., Sage Publishing, 2020; translated into Korean; 5th ed. in development for 2027)
• co-author with Matt Omasta for Qualitative Research: Analyzing Life (2nd ed., Sage Publishing, 2022; 3rd ed. commissioned by Sage for 2027)
• co-editor with Charles Vanover and Paul Mihas for Analyzing and Interpreting Qualitative Research: After the Interview (Sage Publishing, 2022)
• editor of Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre (AltaMira Press, 2005)

Saldaña’s methods works have been cited and referenced in more than 50,000 research studies conducted in over 135 countries, in disciplines such as K-12 and higher education, medicine and health care, technology and social media, business and economics, government and social services, the fine arts, the social sciences, human development, and communication. He has consulted for organizations such as the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, the American Physical Therapy Association, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saldaña’s research in qualitative inquiry, data analysis, and performance ethnography has received awards from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, the National Communication Association—Ethnography Division, the American Educational Research Association’s Qualitative Research Special Interest Group, the American Educational Research Association’s Arts-Based Educational Research Special Interest Group, The Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, New York University’s Program in Educational Theatre, and the ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. 

He has published a wide range of research articles in journals such as Research in Drama Education, The Qualitative Report, Multicultural Perspectives, Youth Theatre Journal, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Teaching Theatre, Research Studies in Music Education, Cultural Studies / Critical Methodologies, the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, the International Review of Qualitative Research, and Qualitative Inquiry, and has contributed several chapters to research methods handbooks.