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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008
Qualitative Research Designs
Chapter 11
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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008
Qualitative Research
Three assumptions that differentiate qualitative and quantitative studies– Epistemology
Qualitative researchers believe there are multiple realities represented by the participants’ perspectives
Quantitative researchers believe a single, objective reality exists
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Qualitative Research
Three assumptions (continued)– Context
Qualitative researchers believe context is critical to understanding the phenomena being studied
Quantitative researchers do not believe context is an important factor
– Researcher bias Qualitative researchers believe the researcher’s biases and
perspectives must be understood to interpret the results Quantitative researchers believe researcher bias is controlled
through the control of internal validity threats
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Qualitative Research
Characteristics of qualitative research– Natural settings - field research
Behavior is studied as it occurs naturally Beliefs related to a natural setting
– Behavior is understood bests as it occurs without external constraints or control
– The situational context is very important to understanding behavior
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Qualitative Research
Characteristics of qualitative research– Data collection
Data is collected directly from the source– Observations– Interviews– Document analysis
– Rich narrative descriptions– Process orientation
How and why behaviors occur
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Qualitative Research
Characteristics of qualitative research– Inductive data analysis– Participant perspectives define what is “real”– Emerging research design
The design plans change as data is collected, analyzed, and understood
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Ethnography
An ethnography is an in-depth description and interpretation of cultural patterns and meanings within a culture or social group– Culture - shared patterns of beliefs, normative
expectations, behaviors, and meanings– Shared, not individualistic
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Ethnography
Problem statements– Foreshadowed problem - a general framework for
beginning a qualitative study– Specific question - a question(s) that emerges
from the interactive relationship between the problem and data
Often found embedded in the data analysis Changing nature of questions often necessitates
changes in the design (i.e., an emergent design)
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Ethnography
Identifying and entering the research site– Access to all parts of the site
Participants Documents Physical location
– Rapport - need to be “integrated” within the site to gain the trust of the participants
– Often site entry takes a long time
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Ethnography
Selecting participants– Use of purposeful sampling strategies to select
“information rich” participants– Purposeful sampling strategies
Maximum variation - selecting individuals or cases to represent extremes
– Very positive or very negative attitudes– Highest and lowest achieving students)
Snowball (i.e., network) - initially selected participants recommend others for involvement
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Ethnography
– Purposeful sampling strategies Sampling by case - selecting individuals or cases for their
unique characteristics– Extreme– Typical– Unique– Reputation
Key informant - selecting an individual(s) particularly knowledgeable about the setting and or topic
Comprehensive - selecting all relevant individuals or cases
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Ethnography
Three primary methods for obtaining data– Observation– Interview– Document analysis
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Ethnography
Observation– Unstructured in nature– Comprehensive - continuous and total over an extended
period of time– Participant-observer role of the researcher
Continuum between complete participant and complete observer
– Passive participant– Moderate participant– Active participant– Complete participant
Rare for an ethnographer to be a complete participant
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Ethnography
Observation (continued)– Use of field notes to record observations
Two types of information– Descriptions of what occurred– Reflections of what the descriptions mean (i.e.,
speculations, emerging themes, patterns, problems) Accuracy Extensive nature of notes
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Ethnography
Interviews– Unstructured in nature– Begins with a general idea of what needs to be asked and
moves to specific questions based on what the respondent says
– Types of interviews Key informant Life history Focus group
– Tape recording and transcribing interviews afford the opportunity to study the data carefully
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Ethnography
Document analysis– Written records
Print (e.g., minutes from meetings, reports, yearbooks, articles, diaries)
Non-print (e.g., recordings, videotapes, pictures)
– Types of sources Primary - original work Secondary - secondhand interpretations of original work
– Commonly used to verify other observations or interview data
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Ethnography
Data analysis and Interpretation– Observations, interviews, and document analyses
result in large quantities of narrative data– Analysis includes critically examining,
summarizing, and synthesizing the data
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Ethnography
Three stages of analysis– Coding
Organizing the data into reasonable, meaningful units that are coded with words or very short phrases that signify a category
– Emic categories - information provided by the participants in their own language and organizational units
– Etic categories - the researcher’s interpretation of emic data
Use of major codes and sub-codes is common
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Ethnography
– Summarizing the coded data Examining all similarly coded data and summarizing it
with a sentence or two that reflects its essence Computerized sorting of data is common and effective
– Pattern seeking and synthesizing Synthesizing identifies the relationships among the
categories and patterns that suggest generalization The researcher interprets findings inductively,
synthesizes the information, and draws inferences
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Ethnography
– Pattern seeking (continued) Developing patterns
– Begins with the researcher’s informed hunches and ideas– Tentative patterns are identified and additional data
collected to determine if they are consistent with those patterns
– Characterized by enlarging, combining, subsuming, and creating new categories that make sense
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Case Study
In-depth analysis of one or more events, settings, programs, groups, or other “bounded systems”– Focus on one entity– Defined by time and place– Concern with the limited generalizability of the
findings
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Case Study
Types of case studies– Historical organizational - focus on the
development of an organization over time– Observational - study of a single entity using
participant observation– Life history (i.e., oral history) - a first-person
narrative completed with one person
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Case Study
Types of case studies (continued)– Situation analysis - a study of a specific event
from multiple perspective– Multi-case - a study of several different
independent entities– Multi-site - a study of many sites and participants
the main purpose of which is to develop theory
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Case Study
Research problem statement– Focus on in-depth description and understanding– Use of a single major question and several sub-
questions– Emerging nature of the problems
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Case Study
Identifying and entering the research site Selecting participants
– Participants are usually identified as a part of the site of the study (e.g., a classroom, teachers in a specific department, etc.)
– Internal sampling - selecting specific participants, times, and documents within a site
Obtaining data
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Case Study
Data analysis– Same procedures as in ethnographic data analysis– Four types of data analysis
Categorical aggregation - researcher codes data and collects instances from which meanings will emerge
Direct interpretation - use of a single example to illustrate meaning
Drawing patterns - examines the correspondence between two or more categories or codes
Naturalistic generalization - suggestions as to what others can take from the research and apply to other situations
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Phenomenological Designs
A phenomenological study describes and interprets the experiences of participants to understand their perspectives
Based on the belief that there are multiple ways of interpreting the same experience and the meaning of that experience is what constitutes reality
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Phenomenological Designs
Research problem– Focused on what is essential for the meaning of
the event, episode, or interaction– Selecting participants
Participants are selected because they have lived or are living the experience being investigated
Participants will share their experiences Participants can articulate their feelings
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Phenomenological Designs
Obtaining data - in-depth, semi-structured, or unstructured interviews
Data analysis– Concerns that the analysis reflects the shared meanings
and consciousness of the participants– Five step process
A initial description of the researchers experience with the phenomena
A statement how the participant’s experience with the phenomena are identified in the interview
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Phenomenological Designs
– Five step process (continued) The creation of meaningful units form the statements
using participant’s verbatim language to illustrate the units
Separation of what was experienced from how it was experienced
The construction on an overall description of the experience
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Grounded Theory Designs
A grounded theory study discovers or generates a theory
– A theory is a set of propositions that pertain to a specific experience, situation, or setting
– The contextual sensitivity of the theory is the basis for suggesting the theory is “grounded” in the field data
Research problems - broad general questions that focus on what happened to people, why they believed it happened, and what it means to them
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Grounded Theory Designs
Selecting participants Obtaining data - in-depth unstructured
interviews Data analysis
– Constant comparison - information from interviews is compared to emerging themes as a part of a more encompassing theory
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Grounded Theory Designs
Data analysis (continued)– Four step process
Form initial categories with subcategories and descriptions of extreme possibilities on a continuum
Create a coding paradigm in which central tenets are described with causal conditions, resultant actions, conceptual conditions and consequences
Write a story that integrates selective codes that have been established and presents conditional propositions and hypotheses
Explicate the theory
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Credibility of Qualitative Research
Credibility is the extent to which the data, data analysis, and conclusions are believable and trustworthy
Four technical issues– Triangulation - the comparison of results obtained from
different data collection methods (i.e., interviews, observations, and document analyses all lead to a similar conclusion)
– Reliability - the extent to which what is recorded as data is what actually occurred in the setting (i.e., the accuracy of observations)
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Credibility of Qualitative Research
Four technical issues (continued)– Internal validity - the match between the researcher’s
categories and interpretations and reality Threats related to observer effects are of paramount concern Other threats include maturation, history, selection, attrition,
and subject effects– External validity – generalizability
Translatability and comparability are terms used to indicate the extent to which the results can be used by other researchers in other settings
Generally weak in qualitative research
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Credibility of Qualitative Research
Techniques to enhance credibility– Triangulation– Prolonged and persistent field work– Copious field notes– Low inference descriptors– Mechanically recorded data– Member checking– Verbatim accounts– Researcher’s role as participant observer
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Evaluating Qualitative Studies
The researcher’s background, interests, and potential bias should be clear
Conceptual and/or theoretical frameworks for the study should be clear
The method for selecting participants should be clear The level of the researcher’s involvement in the
setting should be indicated The researcher should be trained in data collection
procedures
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Evaluating Qualitative Studies
Credibility of the research should be addressed
Descriptive data should be separated from the interpretations of the data
The researcher should use multiple methods of data collection
The duration of the study must be long enough
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