TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

1. TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH Chapter 16

2. Qualitative TaxonomiesMarshall & Rossman Genres • Individual and lived experience genres (phenomenological, life histories, testimonia, etc.) • Society and culture genres (ethnography, action research, etc.) • Language and communication genres (narrative inquiry, content analysis, etc.)

3. Eight Common Qualitative Approaches • Basic qualitative/interpretive • Case study • Content analysis • Ethnography • Grounded theory • Historical • Narrative inquiry • Phenomenology

4. Basic Qualitative/Interpretive Studies

5. Basic Qualitative/Interpretive • How are events, processes, activities perceived by participants? • Roots in social sciences • Describes and interprets • Understand participant views • Identify patterns • Uses multiple disciplinary lenses • Variety of data collection techniques

6. Basic Qualitative • More simplistic than other approaches • Most common type of qualitative study • May draw from diverse theoretical orientations • Typically involves categorization and development of themes • Often shorter in duration and researcher less intensely involved • Often choice of beginning qualitative researchers

7. Case Studies

8. Case Study • What are the characteristics of this particular entity, phenomenon, person, or setting? • Roots in business, law, medicine • Single unit (case) • In-depth description • Anchored in real life • Multiple data collection techniques • Holistic description • Time intensive

9. Case Study, Continued • Unit is a single occurrence of something (a person, a group, a site, a process, a policy, a program, an institution, a community, etc.) • Particularistic (focused on one thing) • Descriptive (thick, rich description) • Heuristic (provide insights) • Unit may be unique or typical or selected for a variety of reasons

10. Case Study is Bounded • Unit is defined within specific boundaries • Known as a “bounded system” • Phenomenon must be identifiable within a specific context (able to be bounded)

11. Case Study Describe subjects’ entire range of behaviors and relationship of behavior to history and environment Single-Subject Focus on single behavior or limited range of behaviors Case Study vs. Single-Subject Research

12. Types of Case Studies • Intrinsic – understand particular case that may be unique, may not represent other cases • Instrumental – selected because it represents some other issue and is illustrative of the thing under investigation • Collective – uses several cases as case is not idiosyncratic and multiple units provide better illumination

13. Case Study Analysis • Holistic analysis – analyzing the whole case • Embedded analysis – focusing on specific aspects of the case • Multi-case analysis – analyzing across site

14. Perspectives in Case Studies • Emic perspective – the “insider” perspectives of those who are part of the case • Etic perspective – the “outsider” interpretations of the researcher

15. Content Analysis Studies

16. Content Analysis • What meaning is reflected in these materials? • Roots in communication studies • Uses written or visual materials or artifacts • Describes the characteristics of the materials • Can be qualitative or quantitative

17. Examples of Purposes of Content Analysis • To identify bias, prejudice or propaganda in content • To analyze types of errors • To describe prevailing practices • To discover levels of difficulty • To study relative importance of or interest in

18. Steps in Content Analysis • Specify what is to be investigated • Select the media to observe • Formulate initial categories • Decide on a sampling plan • Train coders if using coders • Analyze materials

19. Advantages of Content Analysis • Unobtrusive • Generally do not need individual consent, permissions • Easy to replicate

20. Ethnographic Studies

21. Ethnography • What are the cultural patterns and perspectives of this group in this setting? • Roots in anthropology • Studies naturally occurring behavior of a group • Focus on culture and societal behavior • Describes beliefs, values and attitudes • Data collection primarily observation • Immersion in site important • Holistic description of context and cultural themes

22. Ethnography, Continued • Report is a cultural portrait • Incorporates emic and etic perspectives • Extended observation primary data • Some interviewing and document review may be used • No a priori hypotheses • Participants called informants • Sites are studied, not individuals • Sociocultural interpretation

23. Creswell’s Two Approaches • Realist ethnography • More traditional approach • Researcher tries to provide objective account • Often written in third person • Factual information and quotes presented • Critical ethnography • Study of marginalized groups • Researcher takes advocacy perspective • Value-laden orientation • Attempts to challenge status quo, empower

24. Other Identified Ethnographic Approaches • Autoethnography – self-examination in a cultural context • Ethnographic case study – examination of a case within a cultural perspective • Feminist ethnography – study of women and cultural practices • Postmodern ethnography – study of particular challenges or problems of society • Confessional ethnography – incorporates reflection on the role of the researcher in the culture • Visual ethnography – uses audio-visual media to document and represent • Online ethnography – study of cultures created through computer-mediated social interaction

25. Grounded Theory Studies

26. Grounded Theory • How is an inductively derived theory about a phenomenon grounded in the data in a particular setting? • Roots in sociology • Inductively build theory about a practice or phenomenon • “Grounded” in real world • Cyclical process • Data from interviews and observation • Generally multiple participants or settings • Coding process ends in description and presentation of theory and propositions

27. Grounded Theory Studies • Personal, open-ended interview; primary data collection method • Ask what happened, why, and what it means • Choose individuals with same experience who can contribute to theory development • Interview until reach data saturation – no new information is forthcoming • Confirm or refute theory by interviewing those with different experience

28. Grounded Theory Studies, Continued • Documentary materials and literature may be used • Extant materials – not shaped by the researcher (e.g. diaries, letters) • Elicited materials – researcher involved in participant writing (e.g. requesting internet survey)

29. Grounded Theory Analysis • Cyclical constant comparative method • Process of induction and verification • Compare units of data with each other to develop tentative categories • Examine relationships among categories to develop themes • Results in conditional propositions and tentative theoretical propositions • Additional data collected and compared • Cycle continues until comparative analysis no longer provides new insights (theoretical saturation)

30. Grounded Theory Analysis, Continued • Systematic approach (Corbin & Strauss) • Constant comparative • Open coding – develop major or core categories • Axial coding – develop categories around core and create visual model (subcategories) • Selective coding – develop hypotheses and propositions by bringing categories together in a theory

31. Grounded Theory Analysis, Continued • Constructivist approach (Charmaz) • Begins with sensitizing concepts (general ideas) • From data develop in vivo codes using terms of participants • Initial coding – sort data and attach labels to segments • Initial memos – preliminary analytic notes • Focused coding – significant codes used as basis for further coding with additional data • Advanced memos – refining categories • Theoretical coding – posit category relationships • Theoretical concepts – adopt based on certain categories • Diagramming – sort memos and integrate concepts • Literature review after the fact

32. Historical Research Studies

33. Historical Research • How can historical events and reports be interpreted? • Roots in history • Focus on the past • Data from written documents, materials and artifacts • Authenticate sources and determine consistency with other sources

34. Historical Research Limitations • No choice over what materials survive over time • Limited control over questions asked and measures applied • Measure only those things witnesses remember or records contain • No assumptions can be made because no records found

35. Historical Research Sources • Primary sources – original documents, relics, remains, or artifacts or eyewitnesses (only mind of the observer comes between event and the user of the record) • Secondary sources – the mind of a nonobserver comes between the event and the user of the record

36. Evaluating Historical Sources • External criticism – is the information authentic? • Internal criticism – what is the worth of the information?

37. Advantages of Historical Research • No other way to investigate some questions • Unobtrusive – researcher not directly involved • Generally no need for permission • Can be used to examine emotionally charged situations

38. Narrative Research

39. Narrative Research • What is the story and its meaning as told through this person’s experience? • Roots in humanities • Focus on life stories • Spoken or written stories • Emphasizes sequence and chronology • Collaborative re-storying • Understand lived experience of individual or group

40. Narrative Research, Continued • Can be any text or discourse • Attempt to understand the perspective of the storyteller in the context of his/her life

41. Types of Narrative Research • Autobiography – written by the researcher • Biography – researcher writes about another • Personal narrative – focuses on a single or multiple episodes • Life story/history – portrays an entire life • Oral history – recounts personal reflections of events and their causes and effects • Testimonia – form of testimonial narrative with roots in Latin American perspectives

42. Challenges • Recollections change over time and may not accurately represent facts • No clear rules for analysis • Stories may be adapted to audience or shaped by listener

43. Narrative Research Reporting • Stories situated within personal experiences, culture and history • Uses chronological sequence • Basic novel elements – beginning, middle, end; conflict, protagonist, plot, resolution

44. Identify phenomenon Identify individual to learn from Collect stories and records Transcribe and retranscribe Analyze Build in past, present, and future Look for themes Re-story or retell the story Write a coherent story Validate its accuracy with the individual Narrative Research Steps

45. Phenomenological Studies

46. Phenomenology • What is the experience of an activity or concept from the perspectives of these particular participants? • Roots in philosophy • Concerned with essence of phenomenon • Interprets meaning • Includes investigator’s firsthand experience • Interview data, typically multiple subjects • Rich description of invariant structures

47. Phenomenological Analysis • Horizontalization – identify significant statements • Textual description – illuminate clusters of meaning and themes • Structural description – illuminate the context that influences the experience • Composite description – incorporates other descriptions and researcher’s own experience to convey overall essence

48. Phenomenology Data • Participants chosen because they have been through a particular experience • Primary collection through personal unstructured interviews • Questions focus on meaning • Researcher must examine own biases and assumptions • Bracketing (also referred to as epoche) – intentionally setting aside own experiences and suspending own beliefs • Reduction – using reflection to derive an overall description of the meaning

49. Other Qualitative Approaches

50. Portraiture • Seeks to join science and art • A ‘portrait’ shaped by interaction between researcher and subject • Vivid portrayal reflects meaning from both perspectives • Data from in-depth interviews and observations