1. Words don’t make qualitative data: Conducting qualitative inquiry scientifically
Kakali Bhattacharya

3. Travel around the qualitative world
Look through the representative
samples of qualitative work. Write
any questions you might have on
the associated index cards.

4. Epistemology, Theory, Methodology, Methods
Iterative process of qualitative inquiry
Representation
Methodology
Analysis
Epistemology, Theory, Methodology, Methods

5. Terrain of Qualitative Research
Understand
Emancipate
Deconstruct
Interpretive
Naturalistic
Constructivist
Phenomenological
Hermeneutic
Critical
Feminist
Praxis-oriented
Educative
Freirian participatory action research
Gay & Lesbian Theories
Poststructural
Postmodern
Post- paradigmatic
Diaspora
Postcolonial
Terrain of Qualitative Research
Portions modified from Lather, P. (1991), Getting Smart. Routledge: NY

6. Understanding Various Paradigms
Positivist
Interpretivist
Critical Theory
Deconstructivist
Reality is object and “found”
Truth is one. Discourse is structured and transparent, reflecting reality.
What is true? What can we know? Knowing the world
Communicaton as transmission
Reality is subjective and constructed
Truth is many
Discourse is dialogic and creates reality
What is heuristic? What can we understand?
Understanding the world. Communication as transaction
Reality is subjective and constructed on the basis of issues of power
Truth is many, and constitutes a system of socio-political power
Discourse is embedded in (and controlled by) rhetorical and political purpose
What is just? What can we do? Changing the world. Communication as decision-making
Reality is ultimately unknowable; attempts to understand reality subvert themselves
“Truths” are socially constructed systems of signs which contain the seeds of their contradiction.
Discourse is by nature inseparable from its subject, and is radically contingent and vulnerable
Is there a truth? What constitutes truth? Critiquing the world. Communication as challenging the nature of communication

7. Alignment
How do I view the world? Reality? Truth? Knowledge? Rationality?
What matters to me most? Why does it matter?
The purpose of my research study is
Research questions
Theoretical framework
Research design
Data collection methods
Data analysis
Data representation
EDPR 7/8561
EDPR 8562

8. What do you want to know?
Suppose you want to study disenfranchisement of
millions of African American people during and before
the civil rights movement. Suppose you want to know
the essence of people’s suffering, including what they
had to endure, how they empowered themselves and
organized personal and public resistance forces.

9. What do you want to know?
Suppose you are interested in studying educational
policies. You have a feeling that there are certain levels
of systematic discrimination in the current educational
system that affect curriculum and instructional design,
the quality of education, and the ways students perceive
history, social sciences, culture, from mainstream
dominant perspective. You are primarily interested in
raising questions about issues of social justice and
power in education by exploring the experiences of
minority students to reveal the effects of maintaining
status quo in their everyday lives.

10. What do you want to know?
You are a teacher. You want to employ several
interactive techniques in the classroom and see how
your students learn. You want to go beyond evaluating
students’ learning based on test scores. You want to be
able to explore the students’ experiences are based on
your interactive techniques, what they are taking away
from each of the techniques, and the ways the students
respond to higher level learning tasks based on the
competencies you have designed for the class.

11. Methods of data collection
Interviews
Conversations
Observations
Documents
Artifacts
Elicitations

12. Scientific rigor in qualitative research
Alignment
Trustworthiness
Prolonged engagement
Persistent observation
Triangulation
Peer debriefing
Negative case analysis
Referential accuracy
Member checks
Transferability
Thick description
Adequate information
Confirmability
Reflexive journaling
Audit trail
Triangulation

13. Rocking Activity
Sort these rocks into any way you like. Once done create detailed hierarchical categories of your sorting. Go beyond shapes, color, size, and type of rock. Attach more meaning to the rocks, be creative, and have fun with it. There is no right or wrong answer here. People have seen celebrity figures on the face of these rocks. People attached emotions to the rocks as rocks that are popular, happy rocks, angry rocks etc. Be prepared to share your categorization with the rest of the class when done.

14. Answering Your Questions