1. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer Woolfolk / Perry Child and Adolescent Development © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Sixth Edition

2. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Qualitative Research Designs, Data Collection, and Analysis Chapter 10

3. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 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

4. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4 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

5. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 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

6. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 6 Qualitative Research Characteristics of qualitative research Direct Data collection Data is collected directly from the source – Observations – Interviews – Document analysis Rich narrative descriptions Process orientation How and why behaviors occur

7. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 Qualitative Research Characteristics of qualitative research Inductive data analysis Participant perspectives define what is “real” Socially constructed meaning Emerging research design The design plans change as data is collected, analyzed, and understood

8. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 8 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

9. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 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)

10. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 10 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

11. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 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

12. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 12 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 Instrumental - study of an entity, theme, or issue

13. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 13 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

14. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 14 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

15. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 15 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

16. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 16 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

17. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 17 Critical Studies Researcher’s role is as an advocate to respond to issues of marginalized individual. Studies are focused of power and control and inequality based on race, gender, or class. The central issue is typically the struggle of a targeted group to enhance their influence.

18. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 18 Data Collection 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

19. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 19 Data Collection 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

20. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 20 Data Collection 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

21. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 21 Data Collection Three primary methods for obtaining data Observation Interview Document analysis

22. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 22 Data Collection 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

23. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 23 Data Collection 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

24. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 24 Data Collection 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

25. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 25 Data Collection 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

26. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 26 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

27. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 27 Data Analysis and Interpretation Three stages of analysis Data Organization 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

28. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 28 Data Analysis and Interpretation Data Summary 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 Data Interpretation Synthesizing identifies the relationships among the categories and patterns that suggest generalization The researcher interprets findings inductively, synthesizes the information, and draws inferences

29. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 29 Data Analysis and Interpretation Data Interpretation (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

30. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 30 Credibility of Qualitative Research Credibility is the extent to which the data, data analysis, and conclusions are believable and trustworthy Eight procedures to enhance credibility Prolonged Engagement Member Checking Participants review interpretations Triangulation Compares the findings from different techniques

31. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 31 Credibility of Qualitative Research Enhancing credibility (continued) Negative Case Analysis Peer Debriefing External Audit Researcher Reflection Thick Descriptions

32. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 32 Generalizability Transferability is the appropriateness of applying the findings to other settings. It is enhanced by thick, rich descriptions that make it easier for someone wanting to aplly the results to his or her setting.

33. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 33 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 Field notes should contain detailed objective descriptions of just about everything The researcher should be trained in data collection procedures

34. McMillan Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, 6e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 34 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