Chapter 3

• Research design


  The process of structuring techniques and strategies that help researchers solve their problems or answer their inquiry
• Qualitative research design


  Defines the qualitative research design you have chosen for your current study
• Approaches to qualitative inquiry

  • Ethnography
  • Grounded Theory
  • Case Study
  • Phenomenology
  • Historical
• Sampling in quantitative research

  The purpose is to generalize its findings in the population
• Sampling in qualitative research

  The sampling focuses on an in-depth understanding
• Sampling


  The process of choosing samples from a population
• Sample


  A group of individuals that represents the characteristics of a population
• Population


  The complete group of persons, animals, or objects that possesses the same characteristics that are of the researcher's interest
• Target population


  Made up of all research elements that the researcher would want his/her findings to be generalized to
• Accessible population


  A group of research elements within the research respondents will be taken from
• Qualitative sampling


  A purposeful sampling technique in which the researcher sets a criteria in selecting individuals and sites. The major criterion used in selecting respondents is the richness of information that can be drawn out from them.
• Extreme case sampling


  • Focuses at highly unusual manifestations of the phenomenon of interest. It tries to select a particular case that would gather the most information about a given research topic.
• Intensity sampling


  • Information-rich cases that manifests the phenomenon intensely. Requires prior information on the variation of the phenomena under the study.
• Homogenous sampling


  • Brings together people of similar backgrounds and experiences, which reduces variation, simplifies analysis, and facilitates group interviews, and most used often when conducting focus groups.
• Snowball or chain sampling


  • Done by asking relevant people if they know someone or somebody fit or is willing to participate in a study.
• Criterion sampling


  • Selects all cases that meets some predetermined criterion. This is typically applied when considering quality assurance issues.
• Purposeful random sampling


  • Looks at random sample and adds credibility to a sample when the potential purposeful sample is larger than one can handle. Uses a small sample but its goal is to increase credibility, not generalizing.
• Stratified purposeful sampling


  • Focuses on characteristics and comparisons of particular subgroups of interest. The main goal of this sampling is to capture major variations.
• Convenience sampling


  • Selects cases based on ease of accessibility and has the weakest rationale and lowest credibility
• Combination or mixed purposeful sampling


  • Combines two or more sampling techniques, and meets multiple interest and needs
• Some researches say the size of the sample should be large enough to leave the researcher with "nothing left to learn".
• The sample size is estimated based on the approach used in the study or the data collection method employed.
• Phenomenology - 1 to 10 subjects (Dukes, 1984)
• Grounded Theory - 20 to 30 subjects (Charmaz, 2006)
• Case Study - four to five
• Ethnography - single culture-sharing groups
• Data


  Set of characteristics representing the research variable
• Primary data


  Includes first-hand information and experiences about an event. It is usually collected from primary sources and those gathered for a particular research problem collected using the best procedure possible for the said problem. A more valid data source.
• Secondary data


  Data consisting of studies objects, and composed of transcripts of audio and video recordings and data that stem from previous research studies. More economical and accessible.
• Characteristics of a good data collection instrument

  • Brief and Effective
  • Must be able to gather information other than what is available
  • Sequenced in increasing difficulty
  • Must be validated and evaluated for its reliability
  • Should be easily tabulated, analyzed, and interpreted
• Documentary analysis / text analysis


  May require the researcher to examine available resources or documents
• Interview


  The researcher personally asks the key informants about things or information he/she needs from the subjects.
• Structured interview


  • Prepared and organized questions
• Unstructured interview


  • Prepares an outline of topics that needs to be personally asked from the interviewee in spontaneous and conversational-like manner.
• Semi-structured interview


  • Prepares a specific set of questions but could ask follow up questions to the respondents for them to elaborate their answers.
• Observation


  The researcher tracks the subjects' behavioral change over a specific period of time.
• Naturalistic observation


  • Natural setting or in their actual environment.
• Participative observation


  • Researcher is involved in their actual environment to gain first-hand experience
• Non-naturalistic observation


  • Subjects are taken away from their actual environment and are subjected to ideal conditions determined by the researcher.
• Questionnaire


  Most commonly used data collection instrument