1. Components of the Research Process
INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods
Components of the Research Process

2. Outline The relationship between qualitative and quantitative research
Steps and sequencing in the research process – 2 versions
Discussion of Becker’s ‘The Epistemology of Qualitative Research’

3. Bridging Qualitative and Quantitative
Quantification also involves qualification
Statistical analysis requires interpretation
Interpretation is not the enemy of systematized procedures (see grounded theory)
Mixed-Method Approaches
Results don’t interpret themselves

4. Bridging Qualitative and Quantitative
Methodological pluralism?
Time ordering:
Qualitative to define concepts  Quantitative to refine, test
Quantitative to test  Qualitative to explain/interpret results
The question of rigor

5. The Linear Model 1) theory/model 2) hypothesis 3) operationalization
4) sampling
[see Flick, An Introduction to Qualitative Research, chapter 4]
5) data collection
6) interpretation
7) validation
[Flick]

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

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

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

9. 1) research topic/questions
academic setting: contextualized within the major debates in your discipline
‘the boy with the hammer’ (law of instrument) = 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)

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

11. interviews (transcripts) participant-observation (field notes)
3) data gathering
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

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

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

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