Designing Qualitative Research

Qualitative Data Gathering Finding a focus or a question Determining what data are relevant Collecting data Analyzing data

Relevant Data Start by thinking about … In what places might you collect data? What events occur in these settings? What people are involved? What interactions occur there? What physical evidence is available? (Stay focused on your problem)

Then: In what places might you collect data? – Where is the information you need? Do you have access to these sites? What events occur in these settings? – Are the events data or are they things you will need to work around? What people are involved? – Can you get the best information from them through observation, speaking to them, both or in some other way? What interactions occur there? – Are the interactions data? How can you observe them? What physical evidence is available? – What do you need to take away to analyze later? (Stay focused on your problem)

Research Question What do you need to ask? What do you need to observe?What do you need to collect?

Increasing your confidence that you got it right You are the major interpreter of data in qualitative studies. You are biased. You can reduce bias in study design, during data collection, or in data interpretation. You do this in study design by increasing the number of sources of data.

Triangulation Answering qualitative questions is a process of gathering enough information that you are confident that you are seeing trends. Because qualitative research does not systematically look for all variation in responses it is possible for bias to cloud understanding. Qualitative researchers solve this problem by using as many different kinds of data to help understand trends as is reasonable.

Qualitative Study Types Participant/Observer Historical Case

Qualitative Research Flow Identify a problem. Read about it. Figure out who has the information you need. Figure out how to get that information from them. Gather the data. Identify themes in the data. Say what it all means.

Qualitative Research Flow (Really) Identify a problem. Rethink your problem statement based on what you read. Reread. Figure out who has the information you need. Figure out how to get that information from them. It may not be possible. Time to rethink your problem statement. Gather the data. Find out things you didn’t expect. Add respondents. Maybe rethink problem statement. Identify themes in the data. Add respondents. Rewrite your problem statement to match your data. Rethink lit review. Say what it all means. You are tired and will not go back even though you think you should.

How To Make This Sane When you start thinking about what you want to know think about it in terms of: – Who has the information? – Can you get to it in a reasonable amount of time and effort? – Is your research question reasonable?

Research Question What do you need to ask? What do you need to observe?What do you need to collect? There should be at least 3 things written in here. How can you be more confident you got it right?

Research Question What do you need to ask? Interview protocols? What do you need to observe? Observation strategies? What do you need to collect? Document analysis? Think: How will you analyze each kind of data you collect?