Essentials of Qualitative Research

• Science

  An enterprise or endeavor concerned with understanding the world around us using various methods
• Science

  • Studies a world that is objectively existing (e.g. landforms, weather, cells, diseases, among others) by describing its properties through measurements and predicting the possible relationships (causing and effect in particular) of these properties
• Measuring the world

  The overarching tool and activity of scientists
• Objectivity

  Scientists must be value-neutral to study the world for what it is
• There have been reactions to traditional understandings of science because of some realizations
• Reactions to traditional understandings of science

  • Our world is a product of our interpretations
  • The world is symbolic
  • We interpret the world in different ways (cultural), then we experience it in different ways
  • Asking people to describe their experiences is the best way to understand the world
  • The world is not outside of us but is inside our thoughts and feelings
  • The world is not objectively existing but is a subjective reality
• Science is paradigmatic

  • Some scientists believe that world objectively exists, while other scientists view the world as subjectively existing
  • Some scientists think that only numerical data gathered through objective or impersonal methods as superior valid scientific knowledge, while other scientists claim peoples' thoughts, feelings, and subjective experiences as accurate scientific knowledge
  • Some scientists believe in the rule of objectivity, while others think of this rule's impossibility
• Differences between quantitative and qualitative research paradigms

  • Ontology
  • Epistemology
  • Methodology
  • Methods
  • Axiology
  • Rhetoric
• Ontology (quantitative)

  World is objectively existing
• Ontology (qualitative)

  World is a product of our own interpretation; subjectively existing or socially constructively
• Epistemology (quantitative)

  Believes that only knowledge gathered through the quantitative tools and gathered through the traditional scientific means to understand and explain the world; make conclusions
• Epistemology (qualitative)

  Thinks that our stories and interpretations of our experiences are valid scientific knowledge that we can use to understand the world
• Methodology (quantitative)

  Adheres to the traditional established research designs in the sciences such as survey, descriptive research, popular experimentation or popular secondary data
• Methodology (qualitative)

  Produced their own designs, approaches or traditions that also allow them to do research but still adhering to their ontological disposition; example – phenomenology (interested in capturing people's experiences)
• Methods (quantitative and qualitative)

  • Influenced by ontological and epistemological leaning of the researcher
  • How one does sampling
  • How one does the data collection process
  • How one does data analysis
• Axiology (quantitative)

  Thinks that researcher's values have no place in the research process
• Axiology (qualitative)

  Thinks that the act to do research is already a subjective decision
• Rhetoric (quantitative)

  When we write, the researcher is an impersonal observer
• Rhetoric (qualitative)

  Portray that the researcher is part of the research process; use 1st person pronoun when narrating your findings and interpretations
• Competing orientations in science

  • Positivist scientists
  • Interpretivist scientists
  • Pragmatist scientists
• Qualitative research

  • Does not measure
  • Does not intend to produce a qualified product
  • Does not seek to establish a cause-and-effect relationship
  • Is fitting for topics that are complex, non-measurable, sensitive, and concerned with interaction or process
• Qualitative research designs

  • Phenomenology
  • Ethnography
  • Grounded Theory
  • Case Study
  • Narrative Research
• Phenomenology

  • A study of people's experiences and how people make sense of their experiences
  • Phenomenologists believe that people do not plainly experience realities but also make sense of these realities and capturing these realities is the goal of Phenomenological research
• Ethnography

  • Popular in anthropology
  • Study of cultures and writing about cultures
  • Generating descriptions about a particular culture sharing group
  • Cultures are systems – one element of culture like values or art through participant observation or field work
• Grounded Theory

  • Goal is to gather qualitative data such as narratives about a substantive social process
  • Grounded theorists do thematic analysis and create a theory grounded in that data set rather than using an external data
• Case Study

  • Goal is to understand a case
  • You do case study because the boundary between the case and its context is blurry, and you assumed/suspect that the case that is located in the context is possibly influenced by conditions in a specific context
• Narrative Research

  • Related to Phenomenological research
  • The intention is to gather stories about how things unfold like the birth of an institution towards the death of that institution/organization where you approach story tellers or those who can provide you accounts of the process