1. TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Chapter 16

2. Qualitative Taxonomies Marshall & Rossman Genres
Individual and lived experience genres (phenomenological, life histories, testimonia, etc.)
Society and culture genres (ethnography, action research, etc.)
Language and communication genres (narrative inquiry, content analysis, etc.)

3. Eight Common Qualitative Approaches
Basic qualitative/interpretive
Case study
Content analysis
Ethnography
Grounded theory
Historical
Narrative inquiry
Phenomenology

4. Basic Qualitative/Interpretive Studies

5. Basic Qualitative/Interpretive
How are events, processes, activities perceived by participants?
Roots in social sciences
Describes and interprets
Understand participant views
Identify patterns
Uses multiple disciplinary lenses
Variety of data collection techniques

6. Basic Qualitative More simplistic than other approaches
Most common type of qualitative study
May draw from diverse theoretical orientations
Typically involves categorization and development of themes
Often shorter in duration and researcher less intensely involved
Often choice of beginning qualitative researchers

7. Case Studies

8. Case Study
What are the characteristics of this particular entity, phenomenon, person, or setting?
Roots in business, law, medicine
Single unit (case)
In-depth description
Anchored in real life
Multiple data collection techniques
Holistic description
Time intensive

9. Case Study, Continued
Unit is a single occurrence of something (a person, a group, a site, a process, a policy, a program, an institution, a community, etc.)
Particularistic (focused on one thing)
Descriptive (thick, rich description)
Heuristic (provide insights)
Unit may be unique or typical or selected for a variety of reasons

10. Case Study is Bounded Unit is defined within specific boundaries
Known as a “bounded system”
Phenomenon must be identifiable within a specific context (able to be bounded)

11. Case Study vs. Single-Subject Research
Describe subjects’ entire range of behaviors and relationship of behavior to history and environment
Single-Subject
Focus on single behavior or limited range of behaviors

12. Types of Case Studies
Intrinsic – understand particular case that may be unique, may not represent other cases
Instrumental – selected because it represents some other issue and is illustrative of the thing under investigation
Collective – uses several cases as case is not idiosyncratic and multiple units provide better illumination

13. Case Study Analysis Holistic analysis – analyzing the whole case
Embedded analysis – focusing on specific aspects of the case
Multi-case analysis – analyzing across site
Holistic ana

14. Perspectives in Case Studies
Emic perspective – the “insider” perspectives of those who are part of the case
Etic perspective – the “outsider” interpretations of the researcher

15. Content Analysis Studies

16. Content Analysis What meaning is reflected in these materials?
Roots in communication studies
Uses written or visual materials or artifacts
Describes the characteristics of the materials
Can be qualitative or quantitative

17. Examples of Purposes of Content Analysis
To identify bias, prejudice or propaganda in content
To analyze types of errors
To describe prevailing practices
To discover levels of difficulty
To study relative importance of or interest in

18. Steps in Content Analysis
Specify what is to be investigated
Select the media to observe
Formulate initial categories
Decide on a sampling plan
Train coders if using coders
Analyze materials

19. Advantages of Content Analysis
Unobtrusive
Generally do not need individual consent, permissions
Easy to replicate

20. Ethnographic Studies

21. Ethnography
What are the cultural patterns and perspectives of this group in this setting?
Roots in anthropology
Studies naturally occurring behavior of a group
Focus on culture and societal behavior
Describes beliefs, values and attitudes
Data collection primarily observation
Immersion in site important
Holistic description of context and cultural themes

22. Ethnography, Continued
Report is a cultural portrait
Incorporates emic and etic perspectives
Extended observation primary data
Some interviewing and document review may be used
No a priori hypotheses
Participants called informants
Sites are studied, not individuals
Sociocultural interpretation

23. Creswell’s Two Approaches
Realist ethnography
More traditional approach
Researcher tries to provide objective account
Often written in third person
Factual information and quotes presented
Critical ethnography
Study of marginalized groups
Researcher takes advocacy perspective
Value-laden orientation
Attempts to challenge status quo, empower

24. Other Identified Ethnographic Approaches
Autoethnography – self-examination in a cultural context
Ethnographic case study – examination of a case within a cultural perspective
Feminist ethnography – study of women and cultural practices
Postmodern ethnography – study of particular challenges or problems of society
Confessional ethnography – incorporates reflection on the role of the researcher in the culture
Visual ethnography – uses audio-visual media to document and represent
Online ethnography – study of cultures created through computer-mediated social interaction

25. Grounded Theory Studies

26. Grounded Theory
How is an inductively derived theory about a phenomenon grounded in the data in a particular setting?
Roots in sociology
Inductively build theory about a practice or phenomenon
“Grounded” in real world
Cyclical process
Data from interviews and observation
Generally multiple participants or settings
Coding process ends in description and presentation of theory and propositions

27. Grounded Theory Studies
Personal, open-ended interview; primary data collection method
Ask what happened, why, and what it means
Choose individuals with same experience who can contribute to theory development
Interview until reach data saturation – no new information is forthcoming
Confirm or refute theory by interviewing those with different experience

28. Grounded Theory Studies, Continued
Documentary materials and literature may be used
Extant materials – not shaped by the researcher (e.g. diaries, letters)
Elicited materials – researcher involved in participant writing (e.g. requesting internet survey)

29. Grounded Theory Analysis
Cyclical constant comparative method
Process of induction and verification
Compare units of data with each other to develop tentative categories
Examine relationships among categories to develop themes
Results in conditional propositions and tentative theoretical propositions
Additional data collected and compared
Cycle continues until comparative analysis no longer provides new insights (theoretical saturation)

30. Grounded Theory Analysis, Continued
Systematic approach (Corbin & Strauss)
Constant comparative
Open coding – develop major or core categories
Axial coding – develop categories around core and create visual model (subcategories)
Selective coding – develop hypotheses and propositions by bringing categories together in a theory

31. Grounded Theory Analysis, Continued
Constructivist approach (Charmaz)
Begins with sensitizing concepts (general ideas)
From data develop in vivo codes using terms of participants
Initial coding – sort data and attach labels to segments
Initial memos – preliminary analytic notes
Focused coding – significant codes used as basis for further coding with additional data
Advanced memos – refining categories
Theoretical coding – posit category relationships
Theoretical concepts – adopt based on certain categories
Diagramming – sort memos and integrate concepts
Literature review after the fact

32. Historical Research Studies

33. Historical Research
How can historical events and reports be interpreted?
Roots in history
Focus on the past
Data from written documents, materials and artifacts
Authenticate sources and determine consistency with other sources

34. Historical Research Limitations
No choice over what materials survive over time
Limited control over questions asked and measures applied
Measure only those things witnesses remember or records contain
No assumptions can be made because no records found

35. Historical Research Sources
Primary sources – original documents, relics, remains, or artifacts or eyewitnesses (only mind of the observer comes between event and the user of the record)
Secondary sources – the mind of a nonobserver comes between the event and the user of the record

36. Evaluating Historical Sources
External criticism – is the information authentic?
Internal criticism – what is the worth of the information?

37. Advantages of Historical Research
No other way to investigate some questions
Unobtrusive – researcher not directly involved
Generally no need for permission
Can be used to examine emotionally charged situations

38. Narrative Research

39. Narrative Research
What is the story and its meaning as told through this person’s experience?
Roots in humanities
Focus on life stories
Spoken or written stories
Emphasizes sequence and chronology
Collaborative re-storying
Understand lived experience of individual or group

40. Narrative Research, Continued
Can be any text or discourse
Attempt to understand the perspective of the storyteller in the context of his/her life

41. Types of Narrative Research
Autobiography – written by the researcher
Biography – researcher writes about another
Personal narrative – focuses on a single or multiple episodes
Life story/history – portrays an entire life
Oral history – recounts personal reflections of events and their causes and effects
Testimonia – form of testimonial narrative with roots in Latin American perspectives

42. Challenges
Recollections change over time and may not accurately represent facts
No clear rules for analysis
Stories may be adapted to audience or shaped by listener

43. Narrative Research Reporting
Stories situated within personal experiences, culture and history
Uses chronological sequence
Basic novel elements – beginning, middle, end; conflict, protagonist, plot, resolution

44. Narrative Research Steps
Identify phenomenon
Identify individual to learn from
Collect stories and records
Transcribe and retranscribe
Analyze
Build in past, present, and future
Look for themes
Re-story or retell the story
Write a coherent story
Validate its accuracy with the individual

45. Phenomenological Studies

46. Phenomenology
What is the experience of an activity or concept from the perspectives of these particular participants?
Roots in philosophy
Concerned with essence of phenomenon
Interprets meaning
Includes investigator’s firsthand experience
Interview data, typically multiple subjects
Rich description of invariant structures

47. Phenomenological Analysis
Horizontalization – identify significant statements
Textual description – illuminate clusters of meaning and themes
Structural description – illuminate the context that influences the experience
Composite description – incorporates other descriptions and researcher’s own experience to convey overall essence

48. Phenomenology Data
Participants chosen because they have been through a particular experience
Primary collection through personal unstructured interviews
Questions focus on meaning
Researcher must examine own biases and assumptions
Bracketing (also referred to as epoche) – intentionally setting aside own experiences and suspending own beliefs
Reduction – using reflection to derive an overall description of the meaning

49. Other Qualitative Approaches

50. Portraiture Seeks to join science and art
A ‘portrait’ shaped by interaction between researcher and subject
Vivid portrayal reflects meaning from both perspectives
Data from in-depth interviews and observations

51. Critical Research
Purpose to empower change by examining and critiquing assumptions
Questions focus on power relationships and issues of race, class and gender
Challenges the status quo
May analyze texts, artifacts, communication forms

52. Semiotics and Discourse Analysis
Study of linguistic units to look at relationship between words and their meaning
Assumes no neutral text
Views language as a social construction
Focuses on verbal interaction

53. Arts-based Research
Fiction-based research, poetry, ethnodrama, musical portraiture, dance narratives, visual arts
Use of stories, images, sounds and sensory approaches to present data
Contends that representation in non-text forms more effective than words to convey emotional aspects

54. Indigenous Research
Driven by tribal knowledge and grounded in different ways of knowing
Understanding of role of language in shaping thought and culture
More reciprocal process
Importance of cultural protocols
Concept of relational knowledge, community ownership of knowledge