INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods

Administrative  My Office Hours Tuesdays 1:30 to 2:30

Outline  The relationship between qualitative and quantitative research  Research processes (differences in sequencing that derive from the inductive approach)  Discussion of Becker’s ‘Epistemology of Qualitative Research’

Myths of the Qual/Quant Divide  Renewed relevance for qualitative (inductive) approaches?

Myths of the Qual/Quant Divide  No quantification without qualification

Myths of the Qual/Quant Divide  No statistical analysis without interpretation

Myths of the Qual/Quant Divide  Methodological pluralism?  The timeline approach as a solution?  Another process of refinement, through iteration…

The Linear Model 1) theory/model 2) hypothesis 3) operationalization 4) sampling 5) data collection 6) interpretation 7) validation [Flick]

The Iterative Model movement back and forth between these phases 1) research topic/questions 2) ‘corpus construction’ 3) data gathering 4) analysis 5) write-up

The Iterative Model movement back and forth between these phases 1) research topic/questions 2) ‘corpus construction’ 3) data gathering 4) analysis 5) write-up 4) more analysis Field work

A Double Iteration 1) research topic/questions 2) ‘corpus construction’ 3) data gathering 4) analysis 5) write-up 4) more analysis Field work

 academic setting: contextualized within the major debates in your discipline  ‘the boy with the hammer’ (law of instrument) = there should be a match between research questions and methods used to answer those questions  (does not mean that questions always precede choice of method, nor does it mean that you will not tend to favor certain methods) 1) research topic/questions

 recruiting people for interviews  selecting texts or images  fieldsite selection Why not ‘sampling?’ how to start, where to look, when to stop – meaning saturation but more generally, the search for data richness and visibility of certain cultural processes 2) ‘corpus construction’

 interviews (transcripts)  participant- observation (field notes)  collecting texts/images (from the field) expediency technique - how the communicative process between researcher and researched influences the data produced 3) data gathering

 Comments in your field notes, emerging themes  Established forms: Discourse analysis Rhetorical analysis Content analysis Semiotics  Grounded theory 3) Analysis

 Writing is committing (an extension of analysis)  Coping with heterogeneous data (tip: start with the most interesting bit)  Closeness to the data 3) Final Report

A Double Iteration 1) research topic/questions 2) ‘corpus construction’ 3) data gathering 4) analysis 5) write-up 4) more analysis Field work

Qual/Quant Differences, in Summary QualitativeQuantitative IterativeLinear Produces Vast Quantities of Heterogeneous Data Produces Specific, Focused data (no surplus) Close ObservationRemote Indicators InductiveDeductive

 Rigor and Refinement through Iteration  Timeline Approach from Qual to Quant (broad to narrow) is not a simple fix  Genuine and generalized curiosity (open- minded approach) means distributing attention evenly, logging data on everything concievable (see Becker) Conclusions (from the map)