practical research

• Choosing carefully an appropriate qualitative research design aligned with the problem inquiry or research questions can never be overemphasized
• What do I want to know?

  The key question to ask when choosing a research design
• Why do I want to know it?

  Another key question to ask when choosing a research design
• What assumptions am I making about research and knowledge?

  The theoretical and methodological positions to consider when choosing a research design
• What types of data would best answer these questions?

  An important consideration when choosing a research design
• What type of data will I use to tell me what I want to know?


  The answer to this and the previous question may not always be the same
• How much data will I need?

  A key question to consider when choosing a research design
• How will I collect my data?

  An important aspect of the research design
• If my research involves participants:

  • Who will I need to collect data from?
  • How will I access and recruit these participants?
• How will I analyze my data in order to answer my questions?

  A crucial part of the research design
• What particular ethical issues do I need to consider?


  An important factor when choosing a research design
• Are there any practical factors that I need to take into account?

  Another important consideration for the research design
• Research Design


  The plan, path, blueprint and overall strategy utilized to carry out research through the collection, interpretation, analysis, and discussion of the data
• How do researchers maintain the needed flexibility of research design, so that the research can "unfold, cascade, roll and emerge" and yet present a plan that is logical, concise thorough, and meets the criterion of do-ability?

  Researchers build flexibility into the design by demonstrating the appropriateness and logic of qualitative methods or the particular research questions, and devising a research plan that includes many elements of traditional plans but reserves the right to modify and change the initial plan during data collection
• Qualitative research designs recommended by experts


  • Case Studies
  • Grounded Theory
  • Ethnography
  • Content Analysis
  • Phenomenological Studies
• Case studies and Grounded theory


  Explore processes, activities and events
• Ethnographic research


  Analyses broad culture-sharing behaviors of individuals or groups
• Case studies and phenomenology


  Can be used to study individuals
• Descriptive research


  Aims to accurately and systematically describe a population, situation or phenomenon. Can answer what, where, when, how and why
• Phenomenological research


  A form of qualitative research that focuses on the study of an individual's lived experiences within the world
• Phenomenological research


  Seeks to understand the central underlying meaning of the research participant's experience from their point of view
• Phenomenological research examples


  • Comfort women during WWII
  • Rehabilitated drug dependents
  • Rescued trafficked women
  • College graduates who opt for community outreach
• Historical research


  Studies the meaning of past events in an attempt to interpret the facts and explain the cause of events, and theory effects in the present events
• Historical research data


  Relies heavily on primary historical data (direct account or event, archival data – official documents, personal records, and records of eyewitnesses) and less frequently on secondary historical data (information from persons who didn't witness the event)
• Case study research


  An in-depth study of one person, group, or event, analyzing nearly every aspect of the subject's life and history to seek patterns and causes of behavior
• Grounded theory research


  A research method concerned with the generation of theory, which is 'grounded' in data that has been systematically collected and analyzed, used to uncover social relationships and behaviors of groups
• Grounded theory research


  The theory or general pattern of understanding will emerge as it begins with initial codes, develops into broad themes or domains and redounds into a grounded theory or broad interpretation
• Grounded theory research


  An attempt to extract a general abstract theory of a process, or interaction grounded in views of research participants
• Grounded theory research


  Uses multiple stages of data collection and the refinement and interrelationship of categories of information, constantly comparing data with emerging categories and theoretical sampling
• Grounded theory research


  Seeks to build a theory that is faithful to the evidence, seeing micro-level events as the foundation for a more macro-level explanation
• Grounded theory research


  The researcher builds theory by making comparisons and asking theoretical questions that suggest future observations
• Ethnographic research


  A study through direct observation of users in their natural environment rather in a lab, to gain insights into how users interact with things in their natural environment
• Ethnographic research methods


  • Direct observation
  • Diary studies
  • Video recordings
  • Photography
  • Artifact analysis
• Ethnographic research


  Can range from a couple of hours of observation to studies that last several months
• Ethnographic research


  Requires relatively extensive time in a site to systematically observe, interview and record processes as they occur naturally at the selected location
• Ethnographic research


  Studies a group of people that share a common culture
• Narrative research


  A literary form of qualitative research that collects and tells a story or stories chronologically and in detail, focused on studying an individual person
• Content analysis research


  A detailed and systematic examination of the contents of a particular body of materials for the purpose of identifying patterns, themes or biases
• Content analysis research


  1. The researcher analyzes the materials and puts them in a frequency table as each characteristic or quality is mentioned

  2. The researcher conducts a statistical analysis so that the results are reported in a quantitative format
• Choosing the best research design

  Depends on the form of the research question (exploratory, descriptive, explanatory), whether it requires control over behavior or seeks to describe naturally occurring events, and whether the phenomenon is contemporary or historical