Qualitative Research

Mr. Ralph T. Ariban

 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)

 Research is defined as the (1) scientific investigation of

phenomena which includes
 (2) collection,
 (3) presentation,
 (4) analysis and
 (5)interpretation of facts that lines an individual‘s
speculation with reality.
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)
 Applications of research can be viewed from the
following perspectives:
 the SERVICE / PRODUCT PROVIDER
 the SERVICE / PRODUCT ADMINISTRATOR, MANAGER
and/or PLANNER
 the SERVICE / PRODUCT CONSUMER
 the PROFESSIONAL
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)

 The purpose of research are the following:

 To inform action.
 To prove or generate a theory
 To augment knowledge in a field or study
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)

 The types of research according to APPLICATION:

 PURE RESEARCH
 APPLIED RESEARCH
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)

 The types of research according to OBJECTIVE:

 DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
 EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
 CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH
 EXPLANATORY RESEARCH
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)

 The types of research according to ENQUIRY MODE or

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION:
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
 MIXED METHODS
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)
 The types of QUALITATIVE RESEARCH are:
 NARRATIVE RESEARCH
 ETHNOGRAPHY

 PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH
 GROUNDED THEORY
 CASE STUDY
 ACTION RESEARCH
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)
 The types of QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH are:
 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (Intervention)
 QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
 NON-EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (Non-intervention)
 Correlational Approach
 Causal-Comparative Approach
 Survey Approach
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)

 The types of MIXED METHODS RESEARCH are:

 Sequential Mixed Methods
 Concurrent Mixed Methods
 Transformative Mixed Methods
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)
 The 7 CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH are:
 Empirical  Critical

 Logical  Methodical

 Cyclical  Replicability

 Analytical
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)
 The 3 Components Involved in a Research Design:

 PHILOSOPHICAL WORDVIEW
 SELECTED STRATEGY OF INQUIRY
 RESEARCH / DATA COLLECTION METHODS
 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS LESSON
(Introduction to Research)

 In Practical Research 1, we are going to conduct a research

that is categorized as:
 Application: APPLIED RESEARCH
 Objective: DESCRIPTIVE, EXPLORATORY and/or EXPLANATORY
 Mode of Inquiry: QUALITATIVE
What is Qualitative Research? (part 1)
 It is a type of research that explores attitudes,
behavior and experiences through such methods
as interviews or focus groups.
 It attempts to get an in-depth opinion from
participants.
 As it is attitudes, behavior and experiences
which are important, fewer people take part in
the research, but the contact with these people
tends to last a lot longer.
What is Qualitative Research? (part 2)

 Qualitative researchers are interested in

understanding the meaning people have
constructed, that is, how people make sense of
their world and the experiences they have in
the world. (Merriam, 2009, p. 13)
What is Qualitative Research? (part 3)

 Qualitative research is research using methods such

as participant observation or case studies which
result in a narrative, descriptive account of a
setting or practice. Sociologists using these methods
typically reject positivism and adopt a form of
interpretive sociology. (Parkinson & Drislane, 2011)
Purpose of Research

To inform action

To prove or generate a theory

To augment knowledge in a field or study

Importance of Qualitative Research

 In-depth examination of phenomena

 Uses subjective information
 Not limited to rigidly definable variables
 Examine complex questions that can be impossible
with quantitative methods
 Deals with value-laden questions
 Explore new areas of research
 Build new theories
Sample QUESTIONS for a Qualitative
Research (part 1)
 How do elderly people living in a retirement home
perceive their situation and how are they dealing
with it?
 Howdoes the image of the ideal man influences the
male population between the ages 20 and 35?
 What are the special challenges that students who are
born in foreign countries and have an immigrant
background face?
Sample QUESTIONS for a Qualitative
Research (part 2)
 Whatkind of emotions and attitudes
motivate individuals to take part in mass
events?
 Didthe role models of marriage and
motherhood as perceived by 20 to 30 years
old women in our society change; and if so,
how did they change?
Six (6) Types of Qualitative Research

1. Narrative Research
2. Ethnography
3. Phenomenological Research
4. Grounded Theory
5. Case Study
6. Action Research
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1. NARRATIVE RESEARCH
 Itis a method that includes the analysis of the
characteristics of the narrative text, and recently
of the meaning of inter-human relations in social,
historical, and cultural contexts.
 Itfocuses on people’s narratives either about
themselves or a set of events.
 Itis rooted in different social and humanities
disciplines
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Defining Features of Narrative Research
 Narrative researchers collect stories from individuals (and
documents, and group conversations) about individuals’ lived
and told experiences. These stories may emerge from a story
told to the researcher, a story that is co-constructed between
the researcher and the participant, and a story intended as a
performance to convey some message or point (Riessman,
2008). Thus, there may be a strong collaborative feature of
narrative research as the story emerges through the interaction
or dialogue of the researcher and the participant(s).
 Narrative stories tell of individual experiences, and they may
shed light on the identities of individuals and how they see
themselves.
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Defining Features of Narrative Research
 Narrative stories are gathered through many different forms of
data, such as through interviews that may be the primary form
of data collection, but also through observations, documents,
pictures, and other sources of qualitative data.
 Narrative stories occur within specific places or situations. The
context becomes important for the researcher’s telling of the
story within a place.
 Narrative stories are analyzed in varied ways. An analysis can be
made about what was said (thematically), the nature of the
telling of the story (structural), or who the story is directed
toward (dialogic/ performance) (Riessman, 2008).
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Types of Narrative Research
 Biographical Study. a form of narrative study in which the
researcher writes and records the experiences of another
person’s life.
 Autoethnography. It is written and recorded by the
individuals who are the subject of the study (Ellis, 2004;
Muncey, 2010).
 Life History. It portrays an individual’s entire life, while a
personal experience story is a narrative study of an
individual’s personal experience found in single or multiple
episodes, private situations, or communal folklore (Denzin,
1989a).
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Types of Narrative Research

 Oralhistory. It is consists of gathering personal

reflections of events and their causes and effects from
one individual or several individuals (Plummer, 1983).
Narrative studies may have a specific contextual focus,
such as stories told by teachers or children in classrooms
(Ollerenshaw & Creswell, 2002) or the stories told about
organizations (Czarniawska, 2004).
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2. PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH
 Phenomenology is an approach to explore people’s
everyday life experience.
 It is used when the study is about the life experiences
of a concept or phenomenon experienced by one or
more individuals.
A phenomenological study describes the common
meaning for several individuals of their lived
experiences of a concept or a phenomenon.
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2. PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH
 For example, a researcher takes interview of 100 widows,
and asks them to describe their experiences of the deaths
of their husbands.
 This type of study is the search for “the central underlying
meaning of the experience that emphasize the
intentionality of consciousness where experiences contain
both the outward appearance and inward consciousness
based on the memory, image, and meaning.”
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Defining Features of Phenomenological Research

 Anemphasis on a phenomenon to be explored, phrased in
terms of a single concept or idea, such as the educational
idea of “professional growth,” the psychological concept of
“grief,” or the health idea of a “caring relationship.”
 The exploration of this phenomenon with a group of
individuals who have all experienced the phenomenon.
Thus, a heterogeneous group is identified that may vary in
size from 3 to 4 individuals to 10 to 15.
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Defining Features of Phenomenological Research
 A data collection procedure that involves typically interviewing
individuals who have experienced the phenomenon. This is not a
universal trait, however, as some phenomenological studies
involve varied sources of data, such as poems, observations, and
documents.
 Data analysis that can follow systematic procedures that move
from the narrow units of analysis (e.g., significant statements),
and on to broader units (e.g., meaning units), and on to detailed
descriptions that summarize two elements, “what” the individuals
have experienced and “how” they have experienced it
(Moustakas, 1994).
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Defining Features of Phenomenological Research

A phenomenology ends with a descriptive passage that
discusses the essence of the experience for individuals
incorporating “what” they have experienced and “how”
they experienced it. The “essence” is the culminating
aspect of a phenomenological study.
Types of Qualitative Research (2/6)
Types of of Phenomenological Research
 Hermeneutical Phenomenology. It is oriented toward lived
experience (phenomenology) and interpreting the “texts”
of life
 Epoche (or Bracketing). investigators set aside their
experiences, as much as possible, to take a fresh
perspective toward the phenomenon under examination.
 Transcendental Phenomenology. The study of lived
experience, the study of the world as we immediately
experience it directly or before reflection.
Types of Qualitative Research (3/6)
3. ETHNOGRAPHY
 Ethnography literally means “to write about a group of
people.”
 Its roots are grounded in the field of anthropology
 An ethnography focuses on an entire culture-sharing group.
A qualitative design in which the researcher describes and
interprets the shared and learned patterns of values,
behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group
(Harris, 1968).
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Defining Features of Ethnography

 Ethnographies focus on developing a complex, complete
description of the culture of a group, a culture-sharing
group. The ethnography may be of the entire group or a
subset of a group.
 AsWolcott (2008) mentioned, ethnography is not the study
of a culture, but a study of the social behaviors of an
identifiable group of people.
Types of Qualitative Research (3/6)

Defining Features of Ethnography

 In an ethnography, the researcher looks for patterns (also
described as rituals, customary social behaviors, or
regularities) of the group’s mental activities, such as their
ideas and beliefs expressed through language, or material
activities, such as how they behave within the group as
expressed through their actions observed by the researcher
(Fetterman, 2010).
Types of Qualitative Research (3/6)
Defining Features of Ethnography
 This means that the culture-sharing group has been intact and
interacting for long enough to develop discernible working patterns.
 In addition, theory plays an important role in focusing the
researcher’s attention when conducting an ethnography. For
example, ethnographers start with a theory—a broad explanation as
to what they hope to find—drawn from cognitive science to
understand ideas and beliefs, or from materialist theories, such as
techno-environmentalism, Marxism, acculturation, or innovation, to
observe how individuals in the culture-sharing group behave and talk
(Fetterman, 2010).
Types of Qualitative Research (3/6)

Types of Ethnography
 Realist Ethnography - an objective account of the situation,
typically written in the third-person point of view and reporting
objectively on the information learned from participants at a site.
 Critical Ethnography is a type of ethnographic research in which the
authors advocate for the emancipation of groups marginalized in
society (Thomas, 1993).
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4. GROUNDED THEORY
 The intent of a grounded theory study is to move
beyond description and to generate or discover a
theory, a “unified theoretical explanation” (Corbin
& Strauss, 2007, p. 107) for a process or an action.
 Grounded theory is a qualitative research design in
which the inquirer generates a general explanation
(a theory) of a process, an action, or an interaction
shaped by the views of a large number of
participants.
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Defining Features of Grounded Theory
 The researcher focuses on a process or an action that has
distinct steps or phases that occur over time. Thus, a
grounded theory study has “movement” or some action that
the researcher is attempting to explain. A process might be
“developing a general education program” or the process of
“supporting faculty to become good researchers.”
 The researcher also seeks, in the end, to develop a theory of
this process or action. There are many definitions of a
theory available in the literature, but, in general, a theory
is an explanation of something or an understanding that the
researcher develops.
Types of Qualitative Research (4/6)
Defining Features of Grounded Theory
 The primary form of data collection is often
interviewing in which the researcher is constantly
comparing data gleaned from participants with ideas
about the emerging theory.
 Dataanalysis can be structured and follow the
pattern of developing open categories, selecting one
category to be the focus of the theory, and then
detailing additional categories (axial coding) to form
a theoretical model.
Types of Qualitative Research (4/6)
Types of Grounded Theory

 Systematic Approach of Strauss and Corbin (1990,

1998); and
 Constructivist approach of Charmaz (2005, 2006)
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5. CASE STUDY
 Case study research is a qualitative approach in which the
investigator explores a real-life, contemporary bounded system (a
case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time, through
detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of
information (e.g., observations, interviews, audiovisual material,
and documents and reports), and reports a case description and
case themes.
 The unit of analysis in the case study might be multiple cases (a
multisite study) or a single case (a within-site study)
 The case study approach is familiar to social scientists because of
its popularity in psychology (Freud), medicine (case analysis of a
problem), law (case law), and political science (case reports).
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Defining Features of Case Study
 Case study research begins with the identification of
a specific case. This case may be a concrete entity,
such as an individual, a small group, an
organization, or a partnership. At a less concrete
level, it may be a community, a relationship, a
decision process, or a specific project (see Yin,
2009). The key here is to define a case that can be
bounded or described within certain parameters,
such as a specific place and time.
Types of Qualitative Research (5/6)
Defining Features of Case Study
 The intent of conducting the case study is also
important. A qualitative case study can be composed to
illustrate a unique case, a case that has unusual interest
in and of itself and needs to be described and detailed.
This is called an intrinsic case (Stake, 1995).
Alternatively, the intent of the case study may be to
understand a specific issue, problem, or concern (e.g.,
teenage pregnancy) and a case or cases selected to best
understand the problem. This is called an instrumental
case (Stake, 1995).
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Defining Features of Case Study

A hallmark of a good qualitative case study is that it
presents an in-depth understanding of the case.
 In order to accomplish this, the researcher collects
many forms of qualitative data, ranging from
interviews, to observations, to documents, to
audiovisual materials. Relying on one source of data is
typically not enough to develop this in-depth
understanding.
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Defining Features of Case Study

A key to understanding analysis also is that good case
study research involves a description of the case. This
description applies to both intrinsic and instrumental
case studies. In addition, the researcher can identify
themes or issues or specific situations to study in each
case.
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Defining Features of Case Study
 In addition, the themes or issues might be organized
into a chronology by the researcher, analyzed across
cases for similarities and differences among the cases,
or presented as a theoretical model.
 Case studies often end with conclusions formed by the
researcher about the overall meaning derived from the
case(s). These are called “assertions” by Stake (1995) or
building “patterns” or “explanations” by Yin (2009).
Creswell (2008) thinks about these as general lessons
learned from studying the case(s).
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Types of Case Study
 Intrinsic Case Study - the study of a case (e.g., person,
specific group, occupation, department, organization)
where the case itself is of primary interest in the
exploration.
 Instrumental Case Study - researcher focuses on an
issue or concern, and then selects one bounded case to
illustrate this issue
 Collective Case Study (multiple case study) - the
inquirer selects multiple case studies to illustrate the
issue.