QUALITATIVE ORIENTATION TOWARD RESEARCH

1. QUALITATIVE ORIENTATION TOWARD RESEARCH Course 1 Lect.dr. Adriana Ştefănel Adriana.stefanel@fjsc.ro

2. After this course students must be able to: • Distinguish between quantitative and qualitative methods of research • Distinguish between inductive and deductive methods • Explain the different perspectives taken by positivism and interpretivism

3. QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ORIENTATIONS TOWARD RESEARCH Research: Collect empirical data systematically Examine data pattern

4. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH • OBJECTIVISM VERSUS CONSTRUCTIVISM • Quantitative research: reality exists independently of the researches • Qualitative research: truth and meaning are constructed and interpreted by individuals Dacă există o știință a societăților, ar fi de așteptat ca acesta să nu fie o simplă parafrază a prejudecăților tradiționale, ci să ne facă să vedem lucrurile altfel decât cum le apar ele oamenilor obișnuiți; căci obiectul oricărei științe este să facă descoperiri și orice descoperire zdruncină mai mult sau mai puțin opiniile primite de-a gata. Émile Durkheim Regulilemetodeisociologice1895/2002 EPISTEMOLOGICAL POSITIONS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCHER AND SUBJECT RESEARCH FOCUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORY/CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH SCOPE OF FINDINGS THE NATURE OF DATA Realitatea este o construcţie umană, care nu există în lipsa societăţii care o modelează și a înţelesurilor pe care aceasta i le atribuie (Berger, P., Luckmann, Th., 2008)

5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH • DISTANT/OUTSIDER VERSUS CLOSE/INSIDER • Quantitative research: researchers keep themselves at a distance from those they are researching • Qualitative research: usually involves direct contact between researcher and those they are researching EPISTEMOLOGICAL POSITIONS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCHER AND SUBJECT RESEARCH FOCUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORY/CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH SCOPE OF FINDINGS THE NATURE OF DATA

6. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH • FACTS VERSUS MEANING • Quantitative research: concentrates on gathering of facts in orderthattruthclaimscanbeestablished • Qualitative research:seektheconstruction of thetruth EPISTEMOLOGICAL POSITIONS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCHER AND SUBJECT RESEARCH FOCUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORY/CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH SCOPE OF FINDINGS THE NATURE OF DATA

7. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH • DEDUCTION/CONFIRMATION VERSUS INDUCTION/EMERGENT • Quantitative research: commence deductively with a theory which will subsequently be tested through the process of the research • Qualitative research:inductively build the theory EPISTEMOLOGICAL POSITIONS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCHER AND SUBJECT RESEARCH FOCUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORY/CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH SCOPE OF FINDINGS THE NATURE OF DATA

8. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH • NOMOTHETICVERSUS IDEOGRAPHIC • Quantitative research: low-like findings that hold irrespective of time or place • Qualitative research: locates its findings in specific time periods and localities EPISTEMOLOGICAL POSITIONS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCHER AND SUBJECT RESEARCH FOCUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORY/CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH SCOPE OF FINDINGS THE NATURE OF DATA

9. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH • NUMBERSVERSUS TEXT • Quantitative research: generate data in form of numbers • Qualitative research: generate rich or deep data, usually in form of text but sometimes in photographs, maps or visual media EPISTEMOLOGICAL POSITIONS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCHER AND SUBJECT RESEARCH FOCUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORY/CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH SCOPE OF FINDINGS THE NATURE OF DATA

10. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

11. INTERPRETIVIST APPROACH • SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM • PHENOMENOLOGY • REALISM • HERMENEUTICS • NATURALISTIC INQUIRY Columb, descoperitorulAmericii, a ignorant superb propriasadescoperire, pentru că acesta nu corespundea imaginii acceptate a lumii. O anumită geografie imaginară transmisă din Antichitate s-a dovedit mai puternică decât faptele geografice reale. Boia, L. 1998, p.25

12. INTERPRETATIVIST APPROACH • People interpret the meaning of objects and action in the world and then act upon those interpretations • Meanings arise from the process of social interaction • Meanings are handled in, and are modified by, an interactive process used by people in dealing with the phenomena that are encountered SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM PHENOMENOLOGY REALISM HERMENEUTICS NATURALISTIC INQUIRY

13. INTERPRETATIVIST APPROACH • The world is socially constructed and subjective • The observer is a party to what is being observed • The researcher must try to understand what is happening • Focus on meaning • Construct theories and models from data SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM PHENOMENOLOGY REALISM HERMENEUTICS NATURALISTIC INQUIRY

14. HISTORY AS SOCIAL CONSTRUCTThe case of Republic Moldova’s Wikipedia history page Încontinuu prezentul creează trecutul. Într-adevăr, masa, nesfârșită cât nisipul oceanului, pe care o reprezintă faptele trecute, miriada de trăiri ale oamenilor de când a apărut homosapiensnu e, cum își închipuie conștiința naivă, o masă inertă de viață latentă, fiecare atom de trăire trecută lăsând dâre, urmări , fibre din care, desigur, cele mai multe pier cu vremea, dizolvate într-un fel de uriașă magmă, dar unele s-au prelungit până în prezent, iar consecințele lor pot apărea pe neprevăzute în viața noastră, oriunde pe planetă. Djuvara, N. 2011, p.7 Wikipedia: collective construction of reality (history) collective intelligence as the amount of individual contributions of the users, self-organizationof masses of ordinary people on the Internet. These crowdsemerge, define the collective problem or task by themselves, solve it, and vanish as entities (Hintikka, K.A., 2008, abstract).

16. APPROACHES TO QUALITATIVE DESIGN • Research design sits between a set of research questions and the data • It is strongly influenced by the epistemological stance adopted by the researcher • An important feature of qualitative design is that it is emergent

17. Bibliography • Babbie, Earl (2007/2010) Practicacercetariisociale [The Practice of Social Research].Iaşi: Polirom. • Neuman, Lawrence (2011) Social ResearchMethods. QualitativeandQuantitativeApproaches. Boston: Pearson.