Qualitative Research Designs

1. Qualitative Research Designs Traditions Phenomenology Ethnography Grounded theory

2. Objectives: • Define qualitative research • Compare qualitative and quantitative research • Describe 3 types of qualitative research • Identify two of the most common data collection methods used in qualitative research • Discuss analyzing qualitative data • Recognize reliability and validity issues in qualitative research • Critique qualitative research reports

3. Background • Qualitative researchers: • reject the idea that social sciences (such as education and training) can be studied with the same methods as the natural or physical sciences; • feel that human behavior is always bound to the context in which it occurs; therefore, behavior must be studied holistically, in context, rather than being manipulated; • employ an "insider's" perspective; this makes qualitative research an intensely personal and subjective style of research.

4. Background/cont • Quantitative researchers: • argues that both the natural and social sciences strive for testable and confirmable theories that explain phenomena by showing how they are derived from theoretical assumptions; • reduce social reality to variables in the same manner as physical reality; • attempt to tightly control the variable in question to see how other variables are influenced.

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8. Quantitative* Research Qualitative Research

9. Quantitative* Research Qualitative Research

10. Quantitative* ResearchQualitative Research

11. Quantitative* Research Qualitative Research

12. Quantitative* Research Qualitative Research

13. Quantitative* Research Qualitative Research

14. Major research traditions in qualitative research: • Phenomenology • Ethnography • Grounded theory

15. Phenomenology: Examines human experiences through the descriptions that are provided by the people involved “lived experiences”

16. The goal of this type of research is to describe the meaning that experiences hold for each subject. • It includes the qualities of “humanness, such as individualism, self determination, wholeness, uniqueness, and open system”

17. The researcher asks: “What is it like for a mother to live with a teenage child who is dying of cancer?” • The researcher puts aside his/her ideas about the idea under study “bracketing” • Themes and patterns are sought in the data • Data collection and data analysis occur simultaneously

18. Ethnography: Involves the collection and analysis of data about cultural groups, “making sense of other people’s world ”. Leininger (1985) defined ethnography as “ the systematic process of observing, detailing, describing, documenting, and analyzing the lifeways or particular patterns of a culture (or subculture) in order to grasp the lifeways or patterns of the people in their familiar environment”

19. Involves living with the people and becoming part of their culture • Data collected from key informants • Data collection and data analysis occur simultaneously • End purpose is to develop cultural theories

20. Grounded theory: • Developed by two sociologists: Glaser and Strauss (1967) • Studies in which data are collected and analyzed and then a theory is developed that is grounded in the data

21. Grounded theory method uses both an inductive and a deductive approach to theory development

22. Comparison of criteria for judging the quality of quantitative versus qualitative research Conventional terms Naturalistic terms • Internal validity Credibility • External validity Transferability • Reliability Dependability • Objectivity Confirmability