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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Qualitative Research Three assumptions that differentiate qualitative and quantitative studies – Epistemology Qualitative researchers believe there are multiple realities represented by the participants’ perspectives Quantitative researchers believe a single, objective reality exists

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Qualitative Research Three assumptions (continued) – Context Qualitative researchers believe context is critical to understanding the phenomena being studied Quantitative researchers do not believe context is an important factor – Researcher bias Qualitative researchers believe the researcher’s biases and perspectives must be understood to interpret the results Quantitative researchers believe researcher bias is controlled through the control of internal validity threats

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Qualitative Research Characteristics of qualitative research – Natural settings - field research Behavior is studied as it occurs naturally Beliefs related to a natural setting – Behavior is understood bests as it occurs without external constraints or control – The situational context is very important to understanding behavior

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Qualitative Research Characteristics of qualitative research – Data collection Data is collected directly from the source – Observations – Interviews – Document analysis – Rich narrative descriptions – Process orientation How and why behaviors occur

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Qualitative Research Characteristics of qualitative research – Inductive data analysis – Participant perspectives define what is “real” – Emerging research design The design plans change as data is collected, analyzed, and understood

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography An ethnography is an in-depth description and interpretation of cultural patterns and meanings within a culture or social group – Culture - shared patterns of beliefs, normative expectations, behaviors, and meanings – Shared, not individualistic

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Problem statements – Foreshadowed problem - a general framework for beginning a qualitative study – Specific question - a question(s) that emerges from the interactive relationship between the problem and data Often found embedded in the data analysis Changing nature of questions often necessitates changes in the design (i.e., an emergent design)

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Identifying and entering the research site – Access to all parts of the site Participants Documents Physical location – Rapport - need to be “integrated” within the site to gain the trust of the participants – Often site entry takes a long time

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Selecting participants – Use of purposeful sampling strategies to select “information rich” participants – Purposeful sampling strategies Maximum variation - selecting individuals or cases to represent extremes – Very positive or very negative attitudes – Highest and lowest achieving students) Snowball (i.e., network) - initially selected participants recommend others for involvement

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography – Purposeful sampling strategies Sampling by case - selecting individuals or cases for their unique characteristics – Extreme – Typical – Unique – Reputation Key informant - selecting an individual(s) particularly knowledgeable about the setting and or topic Comprehensive - selecting all relevant individuals or cases

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Three primary methods for obtaining data – Observation – Interview – Document analysis

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Observation – Unstructured in nature – Comprehensive - continuous and total over an extended period of time – Participant-observer role of the researcher Continuum between complete participant and complete observer – Passive participant – Moderate participant – Active participant – Complete participant Rare for an ethnographer to be a complete participant

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Observation (continued) – Use of field notes to record observations Two types of information – Descriptions of what occurred – Reflections of what the descriptions mean (i.e., speculations, emerging themes, patterns, problems) Accuracy Extensive nature of notes

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Interviews – Unstructured in nature – Begins with a general idea of what needs to be asked and moves to specific questions based on what the respondent says – Types of interviews Key informant Life history Focus group – Tape recording and transcribing interviews afford the opportunity to study the data carefully

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Document analysis – Written records Print (e.g., minutes from meetings, reports, yearbooks, articles, diaries) Non-print (e.g., recordings, videotapes, pictures) – Types of sources Primary - original work Secondary - secondhand interpretations of original work – Commonly used to verify other observations or interview data

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Data analysis and Interpretation – Observations, interviews, and document analyses result in large quantities of narrative data – Analysis includes critically examining, summarizing, and synthesizing the data

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography Three stages of analysis – Coding Organizing the data into reasonable, meaningful units that are coded with words or very short phrases that signify a category – Emic categories - information provided by the participants in their own language and organizational units – Etic categories - the researcher’s interpretation of emic data Use of major codes and sub-codes is common

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography – Summarizing the coded data Examining all similarly coded data and summarizing it with a sentence or two that reflects its essence Computerized sorting of data is common and effective – Pattern seeking and synthesizing Synthesizing identifies the relationships among the categories and patterns that suggest generalization The researcher interprets findings inductively, synthesizes the information, and draws inferences

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Ethnography – Pattern seeking (continued) Developing patterns – Begins with the researcher’s informed hunches and ideas – Tentative patterns are identified and additional data collected to determine if they are consistent with those patterns – Characterized by enlarging, combining, subsuming, and creating new categories that make sense

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Case Study In-depth analysis of one or more events, settings, programs, groups, or other “bounded systems” – Focus on one entity – Defined by time and place – Concern with the limited generalizability of the findings

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Case Study Types of case studies – Historical organizational - focus on the development of an organization over time – Observational - study of a single entity using participant observation – Life history (i.e., oral history) - a first-person narrative completed with one person

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Case Study Types of case studies (continued) – Situation analysis - a study of a specific event from multiple perspective – Multi-case - a study of several different independent entities – Multi-site - a study of many sites and participants the main purpose of which is to develop theory

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Case Study Research problem statement – Focus on in-depth description and understanding – Use of a single major question and several sub- questions – Emerging nature of the problems

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Case Study Identifying and entering the research site Selecting participants – Participants are usually identified as a part of the site of the study (e.g., a classroom, teachers in a specific department, etc.) – Internal sampling - selecting specific participants, times, and documents within a site Obtaining data

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Case Study Data analysis – Same procedures as in ethnographic data analysisethnographic data analysis – Four types of data analysis Categorical aggregation - researcher codes data and collects instances from which meanings will emerge Direct interpretation - use of a single example to illustrate meaning Drawing patterns - examines the correspondence between two or more categories or codes Naturalistic generalization - suggestions as to what others can take from the research and apply to other situations

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Phenomenological Designs A phenomenological study describes and interprets the experiences of participants to understand their perspectives Based on the belief that there are multiple ways of interpreting the same experience and the meaning of that experience is what constitutes reality

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Phenomenological Designs Research problem – Focused on what is essential for the meaning of the event, episode, or interaction – Selecting participants Participants are selected because they have lived or are living the experience being investigated Participants will share their experiences Participants can articulate their feelings

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Phenomenological Designs Obtaining data - in-depth, semi-structured, or unstructured interviews Data analysis – Concerns that the analysis reflects the shared meanings and consciousness of the participants – Five step process A initial description of the researchers experience with the phenomena A statement how the participant’s experience with the phenomena are identified in the interview

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Phenomenological Designs – Five step process (continued) The creation of meaningful units form the statements using participant’s verbatim language to illustrate the units Separation of what was experienced from how it was experienced The construction on an overall description of the experience

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Grounded Theory Designs A grounded theory study discovers or generates a theory – A theory is a set of propositions that pertain to a specific experience, situation, or setting – The contextual sensitivity of the theory is the basis for suggesting the theory is “grounded” in the field data Research problems - broad general questions that focus on what happened to people, why they believed it happened, and what it means to them

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Grounded Theory Designs Selecting participants Obtaining data - in-depth unstructured interviews Data analysis – Constant comparison - information from interviews is compared to emerging themes as a part of a more encompassing theory

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Grounded Theory Designs Data analysis (continued) – Four step process Form initial categories with subcategories and descriptions of extreme possibilities on a continuum Create a coding paradigm in which central tenets are described with causal conditions, resultant actions, conceptual conditions and consequences Write a story that integrates selective codes that have been established and presents conditional propositions and hypotheses Explicate the theory

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Credibility of Qualitative Research Credibility is the extent to which the data, data analysis, and conclusions are believable and trustworthy Four technical issues – Triangulation - the comparison of results obtained from different data collection methods (i.e., interviews, observations, and document analyses all lead to a similar conclusion) – Reliability - the extent to which what is recorded as data is what actually occurred in the setting (i.e., the accuracy of observations)

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Credibility of Qualitative Research Four technical issues (continued) – Internal validity - the match between the researcher’s categories and interpretations and reality Threats related to observer effects are of paramount concern Other threats include maturation, history, selection, attrition, and subject effects – External validity – generalizability Translatability and comparability are terms used to indicate the extent to which the results can be used by other researchers in other settings Generally weak in qualitative research

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Credibility of Qualitative Research Techniques to enhance credibility – Triangulation – Prolonged and persistent field work – Copious field notes – Low inference descriptors – Mechanically recorded data – Member checking – Verbatim accounts – Researcher’s role as participant observer

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Evaluating Qualitative Studies The researcher’s background, interests, and potential bias should be clear Conceptual and/or theoretical frameworks for the study should be clear The method for selecting participants should be clear The level of the researcher’s involvement in the setting should be indicated The researcher should be trained in data collection procedures

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Evaluating Qualitative Studies Credibility of the research should be addressed Descriptive data should be separated from the interpretations of the data The researcher should use multiple methods of data collection The duration of the study must be long enough