Qualitative Research Design Dr Hilary Engward

Qualitative ResearchDesign Dr Hilary Engward

Grounded Theory

Paradigms in research Kuhn,1962: a relatively stable and widely accepted set of theories and practices that he termed a paradigm. Two basicparadigms Positivism Interpretivism Important word to use for LO1 Qualitative Kuhn, 1962. ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ H Engward research Studies lecture 2

Epistemology • Epistemology is “the study of the nature of knowledge and justification” (Schwandt, 2001, p. 71*) • As shorthand, epistemology can be thought of as justification of knowledge. • For red refs, see hand-out.

methodology • “a theory and analysis of how research should proceed” (Harding, 1987, p. 2) • “analysis of the assumptions, principles, and procedures in a particular approach to inquiry” (Schwandt, 2001, p. 161) • methodology provides justification for the methods of a research project.

Methods • “techniques for gathering evidence” (Harding, 1987, p. 2) • “procedures, tools and techniques” of research (Schwandt, 2001, p. 158). • Methods can be thought of as research action.

What is qualitative research • By exploring experiences of individuals/groups • By analysing interactions and communications in the making • By analysing documents (texts. Images, film) • To inquire into: • How people construct their world • What they are doing • What is meaningful to them • Gain insight/ways of understanding

Social context is crucial: it is through our social interactions with others (e.g. health professionals, patients) that our understandings and preconceptions about the nature of reality are formed. This is not a one way process – it is through interaction with others that social realities are created.

Relationship between paradigms, methodology and data collection:

Phenomenology: • The nature of the world cannot be fully known. • All that can be known are people’s perceptions and interpretations of that world. • In its strongest sense, phenomenology asserts that reality is only found in people’s minds, rather than external objects. • Phenomenological inquiry probes and draws from different sources of meaning • One of the consequences of this is that reality is not a fixed entity, rather it changes and develops according to experiences and the social context within which they find themselves. • Phenomenological inquiry draws on different types and sources of meaning. • For example, in the study of “Childhood Secrets” van Manen & Levering used a variety of sources of meaning, such as everyday experience, language sources (metaphors, sayings, boundary meanings, linguistic differentiations), social science, historical, cultural, literary sources.

Husserl to explain how individuals give meanings to social phenomena in their everyday lives. The role of phenomenology was therefore to explore “the essence of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view.” Smith D. Husserl. London: Routledge, 2007. • Concentrate on exploring how individuals make sense of the world in terms of the meanings and classifications they employ. • As such, phenomenology aims to provide accounts that offer an insight into the subjective “lived” experience of individuals. Schutz A. The phenomenology of the social world. New York: Northwestern University Press, 1967. Given the emphasis, phenomenological studies do not attempt to generate wider explanations; rather their focus is on providing research accounts for individuals in a specific setting.

Phenomenology ‘Descriptive phenomenology’ Husserl (1859 – 1938) ‘What do we know as persons?’ ‘Interpretive phenomenology’ Martin Heidegger (1889 – 1976) ‘What is being?’ Bracketing, Intuiting, Analyzing, Describing

Transcendental phenomenology Husserl, Eugen Fink, Tymieniecka, and Van Breda. Existential phenomenology is associated with Heidegger, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Marcel Hermeneutical phenomenology Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur. Linguistical phenomenology Blanchot, Derrida and Foucault, (even though the latter denied that he was a phenomenologist.) Ethical phenomenology Levinas, under whom Derrida studied the works of Husserl and Heidegger. Phenomenology of practice the employment of phenomenological method in applied or professional contexts such as clinical psychology, medicine, education or pedagogy, nursing, counselling, and also to the use of phenomenological method in contexts of practical concerns of everyday living. Early protagonists of phenomenology of practice are medical practitioners such as the psychiatrists Binswanger and Van den Berg, clinical psychologists such Buytendijk and Linschoten, and educators or pedagogues such as Langeveld and Bollnow. Examples of contemporary scholars who work within contexts of phenomenology of practice are Amadeo Giorgi (psychology), Patricia Benner (nursing), and Max van Manen (education and pedagogy). http://www.phenomenologyonline.com/

A phenomenological approach gather data in the form of in-depth semi structured or unstructured interviews and personal documents such as diaries. For example, Porter et. al used in-depth individual interviews to understand the meanings people living in residential homes held about their caregivers, Porter E, Ganong H, Drew N, Lanes T. A new typology of home-care helpers. Gerontologist2004;44:750-9. Mitchell gathered the meanings of being a senior from narrative stories written by older people about their personal experiences in later life. Mitchell G. The meaning of being a senior. Nurs Sci Q1994;7:70-9.

Phenomenology example • A researcher using phenomenology would approach the study of doctor-nurse interprofessional interactions by exploring how individual doctors and nurses made sense of their ward-based interprofessional experiences. • Such a study would aim to elicit, through interviews, the meanings each individual attached to their interactions and the classifications they employed to make sense of their working lives within this context. • Data would be analysed inductively, focusing on allowing meanings to emerge from the interviews. • Specifically, this process would entail examining statements from the interviews and clustering them to form common themes linked to understanding the meanings that doctors and nurses each individually attached to their interactions.

Interviews • Semi-structured – focussed questions, outline sequence but may vary • Unstructured – open questions, conversational approach

Interview data in Qualitative designs • Semi-structured or unstructured interviews are most common in qualitative research • Provide large amounts of relatively unconstrained data • Structure varies according to research methodology and amount of focus required to address research questions

An ethnographic study of professional relationships • This ethnographic study took place in a large general hospital in the United Kingdom. It aimed to understand, in depth, the nature of hospital based nurse-doctor relationships in the wake of changes to health policy and to the delivery of professional education. The author, a nurse, undertook participant observations for 10 months, during which she worked as a nurse (on an unpaid basis) with doctors, nurses, managers, and auxiliary staff on both a surgical and a medical ward. To gain a candid insight into these professionals’ views, she undertook informal interviews with staff while they worked together. She also collected 57 tape recorded interviews, each lasting 60 to 90 minutes, with nurses, doctors, auxiliaries, and managers. These explored in more depth participants’ views of their interprofessional relationships. Documentary data were also generated through analysis of organisational documents and through attendance at professional and managerial meetings. • The author undertook an inductive approach to data analysis, in which meanings emerged from the data through exploration of all data sets. In addition, she used data from different sources (observations, interviews, documentary data) to generate a more comprehensive understanding in the emerging analysis. The author drew upon negotiated order perspective—a sociological theory developed by Strauss to frame and illuminate the findings from her analysis. She also discussed her reflexive role in the study, and as a nurse, how that helped her secure access into this clinical setting, and how it helped her attain richer insights into the nature of nurse-doctor relationships in relation to how they negotiate professional boundaries in their clinical work. • Allen D. The nursing-medical boundary: a negotiated order? Sociol Health Illn1997;19:498-520.

ETHNOGRAPHY To learn from a cultural group The process of describing a culture/way of life from peoples' point of view. Each person is a reflection of their culture: gestures, symbols, sayings has implicit, tacit meaning for others in that culture. Aim – to attain ‘insiders’ view of the group under study People don’t always do what they say they are doing Is mostly done covertly, See work of: Clifford Geertz; James Clifford; Howard Becker; Larry Levine;

Observation • “My method has been ethnographic, describing the customs and habits and assumptions of medicines teachers and learners as I have observed them” (Montgomery Hunter (1939) • During their observations, ethnographers routinely use informal or conversational interviews, which allow them to discuss, probe emerging issues, or ask questions about unusual events in a naturalistic manner. • Because of the “casual” nature of this type of interview technique it can be useful in eliciting highly candid accounts from individuals. Ethnographers also gather formal in-depth interviews and documentary data such as minutes of meetings, diaries, and photographs.

This method is used where there is a need to go ‘beyond what people say’. • Researcher may observe as • An outsider – unacknowledged by observees • An insider – acknowledged by observees* • A participant (participant observation) • * ? affects the nature of the observation • This also raised ethical considerations see http://www.theasa.org/ethics/guidelines.shtml • There is some evidence that observation alone may change how people behave • Hawthorne effect

Lots of note taking: Involves observation and note taking. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz ‘thick description’. For about every half hour of observation, an ethnographic researcher would write notes for about two hours. These notes would contain rich, detailed descriptions of everything that went on. The notes would capture as factual a description of the drama as possible to permit multiple interpretations, and most of all, to later infer cultural meaning. A coding procedure (much like content analysis) would be used later for this. Ethnography therefore is a written representation of a culture (or selected aspects of) ? Authorial signature – to convince the reader the accuracy od their accounts (Geertz)

Nine observational dimensions and their descriptions Space—Physical layout of the place(s) Actor—Range of people involved Activity—A set of related activities that occur Object—The physical things that are present Act—Single actions people undertake Event—Activities that people carry out Time—The sequencing of events that occur Goal—Things that people are trying to accomplish Feeling—Emotions felt and expressed Spradley J. Participant observation. New York: Holt, 1980

Observations • Observations may be: • Highly Structured • fixed categories, often ‘tick-box’, produces numerical counts • Semi-structured • focussed observations, broad categories, data recorded in field notes • Unstructured • general observations, many aspects recorded, data recorded in field notes May be collected by; • Detailed written notes- during and after event • Audio recording (of thoughts, description, of setting) • Video recording (of setting, of behaviour)

CASE STUDY One person you want to generalise to others of that type. Social Work and Clinical Psychology have embraced the value of a single-subject (sample size N=1) or case study approach. Almost all case studies involve unstructured interview The idea is to find a subject so typical that he/she seems to reflect others.

Focus groups • Data from small numbers of people is collected simultaneously • Large amounts of data quickly • Interaction generates lively debate • Group management and recording data accurately can be a problem.

Let’s Play  90 mins. Half group will be: Ethnographers Half will be phenomenologists. Task: • To explore how students use their study time.

To explore how students use their study time. Ethnogrophers Phenomenologists: Split into 2 groups: Construct an interview schedule to inquire into how students use their study time (unstructured or semi). (30 mins) Go interview people. Make notes about the interview. (30 mins) Split into 2 groups: Construct 2 observation schedules (semi and open) (30 mins) Pen and paper, go be a (participant?)observer in the library. Make lots of notes about what you observe. (30 mins) Be patient and concise.

What have you found? Ask: • In your methodology groups: • Make notes on your findings: • compare your data - what have you found out? • Summarise your findings to each other • Was there a difference between the experience of using open/semi structured? • As a whole group: • What type of data did you collect? • Did you look/ask for the ‘right’ things? • Where you able to record everything? • How do you, as the researcher, know that what you have recorded is really what happened/was said? • What would you do differently next time? 30 mins

Overall thinking about qualitative methodology

Be clear, qualitative research • good at surfacing deep issues and making voices heard • Provides a picture of a social reality at a time for a sample (don’t underestimate the power of sample) • But it is not an exact process -all you can do is present a snapshot • Aim to make this as credible/intelligible as possible to yourself, to other researchers and to the participants (tell the story) • There will always be limitations, irrespective of paradigm/methodology/method of data collection…………

Reflexivity • The relationship a researcher shares with the world they are investigating In its most limited sense, reflexivity is presented in the form of a description of the ethnographer’s ideas and experiences, which can be used by readers to judge the possible impact of these influences on a study. For a more robust account of, see Alveson & Skoldberg

QualitativeTerms Question formation: Explore Perceptions Credibility of findings: Trustworthiness Applicability

Terms to avoid Inappropriate/debateable terms Prove Hypothesis Bias Validity Reliability Generalizability

References and further reading Crotty M. Foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process. London: Sage, 1998. Denzin NK, Lincoln YS, eds. Handbook of qualitative research. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000. Layder D. Understanding social theory. London: Sage, 1994. Ritzer G, Smart B, eds. Handbook of social theory. London: Sage, 2003. Roberts B. Micro social theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006. Scamber G, ed. Sociological theory and medical sociology. London: Tavistock, 1987. Stones R, ed. Key sociological thinkers. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998. Cicourel, A (1967) Method and Measurement in Sociology New York, Free Press. Glaser, B & Strauss, A (1967) The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research Chicago, Aldine Gorden, R L (1969) Interviewing: Strategy, Techniques and Tactics Homewood Ill, Dorsey Press Husserl, E (1970) trans D Carr Logical investigations New York, Humanities Press Hycner, R H (1985) "Some guidelines for the phenomenological analysis of interview data," Human Studies 8, 279-303 Measor, L (1985) "Interviewing: a Strategy in Qualitative Research" in R Burgess (ed) Strategies of Educational Research: Qualitative Methods. Lewes, Falmer Press. Moustakas, C (1994) Phenomenological research methods London, Sage Oakley, A (1981) "Interviewing women: a contradiction in terms" in H Roberts (ed) Doing Feminist Research London, Routledge & Kegan Paul Plummer, K (1983) Documents of Life: an introduction to the problems and literature of a humanistic method London, Unwin Hyman Schutz, A (1970) ed H R Wagner On phenomenology and social relations Chicago, Chicago University Press Spradley, J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview New York, Holt Rhinehart & Watson

Books Atkinson P, Coffey A, Delamont S, Lofland J, Lofland L, eds. Handbook of ethnography. London: Sage, 2001. Fetterman D. Ethnography: step by step. 2nd ed. London: Sage, 1988. Fielding N. Ethnography. In: Researching social life. London: Sage, 1993:155-71. Hammersley M, Atkinson P. Ethnography: principles in practice. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 1995. Spradley J. The ethnographic interview. New York: Holt, 1979. Spradley J. Participant observation. New York: Holt, 1980 Geertz C. The interpretation of cultures: selected essays. New York: Basic Books, 1973. Journal articles Atkinson P, Pugsley L. Making sense of ethnographic research in medical education. Med Educ 2005;39:228-34. Charmaz K, Oleson V. Ethnographic research in medical sociology: its foci and distinctive contributions. Sociol Methods Res 1997;25:452-94. Fine G. Ten lies of ethnography. J Contemp Ethnogr 1993;22:267-94. Jeffrey B, Troman G. Time for ethnography. Br Educ Res J 30:535-48 Savage J. Ethnography and health care. BMJ 2000;321:1400-2.

Fine, G.A., (1993) Ten lies of ethnography: Moral dilemmas of field research. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 22(3), 267. Neyland, D (2008) Organizational Ethnography. London: Sage Punch, M. (1986) The Politics and Ethics of Fieldwork London: Sage

Qualitative Research Design Dr Hilary Engward