Chapter 11: Qualitative and Mixed-Method Research Design

1. Chapter 11: Qualitative and Mixed-Method Research Design EDUC 502 November 14, 2005

2. 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

3. Characteristics of qualitative research • Data collection - data is collected directly from the source • Observations • Interviews • Document analysis

4. Characteristics of qualitative research • Rich narrative descriptions • Process orientation - how and why behaviors occur • Inductive data analysis • Participant perspectives define what is "real" • Emerging research design - the design plans change as data is collected, analyzed, and understood

5. Characteristics of qualitative research • Four type of qualitative designs • Ethnography • Case study • Phenomenology • Grounded theory

6. 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

7. Assumptions that differentiate qualitative and quantitative studies • Context • Qualitative researchers believe context is critical to understanding the phenomena being studied • Quantitative researchers do not believe context is an important fact • 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

8. 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 • Examples of ethnography: Peshkin and Boaler studies.

9. Ethnography • Problem statements • Foreshadowed problem - a general framework for beginning a qualitative study • Specific question - a question(s) that emerge from the interactive relationship between the problem and data • Identifying and entering the research site • Access to all parts of the site (e.g., the participants, documents, physical locations, etc.) • Rapport - need to be "integrated" within the site to gain the trust of the participants • Often site entry takes a long time

10. 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 (e.g., very positive or very negative attitudes, highest and lowest achieving students) • Snowball (i.e., network) - initially selected participants recommend others for involvement • Sampling by case - selecting individuals or cases for their unique characteristics • Key informant - selecting an individual(s) particularly knowledgeable about the setting and or topic

11. Ethnography • Observation • Unstructured in nature • Comprehensive - continuous and total over an extended period of time • Participant-observer role of the researcher • Use of field notes to record observations - Descriptions of what occurred • Reflections of what the descriptions mean (i.e., speculations, emerging themes, patterns, problems)

12. 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 • Tape recording and transcribing interviews afford the opportunity to study the data carefully

13. 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

14. Ethnography • Data analysis • Observations, interviews, and document analyses result in large quantities of narrative data • Analysis includes critically examining, summarizing, and synthesizing the data

15. 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. • Summarizing the coded data: Examining all similarly coded data and summarizing it with a sentence or two that reflects its essence • 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

16. Case Studies • An in-depth analysis of one or more events, settings, programs, groups, or other "bounded systems" • Focus on one entity • Defined by time and place • Examples of case studies: Benny and IPI mathematics, Study of teachers’ online discourse.

17. Case Studies • Types of case studies • Historical organizational - focus on the development of an organization over time • Observational - study of a single entity using participant observation • 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

18. Case Studies • 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 • 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

19. Credibility in Qualitative Research • Triangulation • Prolonged and persistent field work • Copious field notes • Mechanically recorded data • Member checking • Verbatim accounts • Abundant use of detail

20. Mixed Method Designs • Mixed methods designs combine quantitative and qualitative approaches to collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting data. • Example 1: Use of a questionnaire to provide an overview of students' attitudes toward drug testing programs followed by several in-depth interviews of specific students with positive and negative attitudes (i.e., maximum variation sampling) to understand how those attitudes were shaped.

21. Mixed Methods Designs • Example 2: A few interviews with students and a content analysis of several surveys allowed a researcher to determine the important factors around which an attitudinal scale on drug testing programs was developed. Administration of this survey gave an overall view of students' attitudes to a specific program being used at a local school.

22. Mixed Methods Designs • Example 3: The use of a scale addressing attitudes toward drug testing programs could be administered to the students in a school. Information from focus groups and interviews could be used to confirm the conclusions drawn from the survey.

23. Homework Exercises • Page 291 (3, 8, 10)