What is Qualitative Research?
What is Qualitative Research? What is Qualitative Research? What are you curious about? What questions do you have about your area of study? What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms Research: the notion of inquiring into, or investigating something in a systematic manner What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms 2 Categories of Research: 1. Basic: motivated by intellectual interest in a phenomenon and has as its goal the extension of knowledge - to know more about the topic What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms 2 Categories of Research: 2. Applied: undertaken to improve the quality of practice of a particular discipline - improve the way things are done What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms Models: overall framework for how we look at reality - what reality is like & its basic elements - nature and status of knowledge What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms Concept: clearly defined set of ideas deriving from a particular model - ways of looking at the world to help define the research problem - filing cabinet What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms Theories: arranged set of concepts to define and explain some phenomenon - contain plausible relationships - provides a footing for considering the world - basis for considering how the unknown may be organized What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms Hypothesis: a proposition(s) set forth as an explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena - directly tested What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms Methodology: specific means of studying a topic, gathering data, and analysis of that data - contain: 1. preference for certain methods 2. theory of scientific knowledge 3. range of solutions 4. systematic sequence of procedural steps What is Qualitative Research? Key Terms 2 Types of Research: Qualitative and Quantitative What is Qualitative Research? Defining Quantitative Research: the systematic empirical investigation of quantitative properties and phenomena and their relationships. a. Objective is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/or hypothesis pertaining to the topic being examined What is Qualitative Research? Defining Quantitative Research: b. Measurement process is crucial - provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships What is Qualitative Research? Defining Qualitative Research: To seize upon the interpretations people place on existence and to synthesize them so they are more readily available to us. This is a process of making large claims from small matters: studying particular rituals, poems, plays, conversations, songs, dances, theories, and myths and gingerly reaching out to the full relations within a culture or a total way of life. James Carey (1975) What is Qualitative Research? Defining Qualitative Research: Generic term for investigative methodologies described as ethnographic, naturalistic, anthropological, field, or participant observer research. - Emphasizes the importance of looking at variables in the natural setting in which they are found. Interaction between variables is important. What is Qualitative Research? Defining Qualitative Research: - Detailed data is gathered through open ended questions that provide direct quotations. - The interviewer is an integral part of the investigation (Jacob, 1988) What is Qualitative Research? Defining Qualitative Research: Umbrella term covering an array of interpretive techniques which seek to describe, decode, translate, and otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain more or less naturally occurring phenomenon in the social world What is Qualitative Research? Defining Qualitative Research: - an attempt to understand the meaning people of constructed /how people make sense of their world (Van Maanen, 1979, p. 520) What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Characteristics: 1. Purpose: Understanding - Seeks to understand people’s interpretations. 2. Reality: Dynamic - Reality changes with changes in people’s perceptions. mutual simultaneous shaping: multiple events occur to shape events/meaning What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Characteristics: 3. Viewpoint: Insider - Reality is what people perceive it to be. 4. Values: Value bound - Values will have an impact and should be understood and taken into account when conducting and reporting research. What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Characteristics: 5. Focus: Holistic - A total or complete picture is sought. - cylinder 6. Orientation: Discovery - Theories and hypotheses are evolved from data as collected. What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Characteristics: 7. Data: Subjective - Data are perceptions of the people in the environment. 8. Instrumentation: Human - The human person is the primary collection instrument. What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Characteristics: 9. Conditions: Naturalistic - Investigations are conducted under natural conditions. 10. Results: Valid - The focus is on design and procedures to gain "real," "rich," and "deep" data. What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Competencies: 1. A questioning stance with regard to your work and life context - Why are things the way they are? 2. High tolerance for ambiguity and flexibility What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Competencies: 3. Being a careful observer 4. Asking good questions 5. Thinking inductively - moving from raw data to categories and concepts 6. Strong writing capabilities What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Characteristics: Advantages: 1. Produces more in-depth, comprehensive information. 2. Uses subjective information and participant observation to describe the context, or natural setting, of the variables under consideration, as well as the interactions of the different variables in the context. It seeks a wide understanding of the entire situation. What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Characteristics: Disadvantages 1. The very subjectivity of the inquiry leads to difficulties in establishing the reliability and validity of the approaches and information. 2. It is very difficult to prevent or detect researcher induced bias. 3. Its scope is limited due to the in-depth, comprehensive data gathering approaches required. What is Qualitative Research? Qualitative Research Characteristics Qualitative research is all about exploring issues, understanding phenomena, and answering questions. - Happens in nearly every workplace and study environment, nearly every day. What is Qualitative Research? Multiple Focus Points What people say Mean, Need Culture or Desire What people do What is Qualitative Research? Difference b/t Qualitative & Quantitative Where quantitative research which attempts to gather data by objective methods to provide information about relations, comparisons, and predictions and attempts to remove the investigator from the investigation, the researcher is an integral part of qualitative research. (Smith, 1983) What is Qualitative Research? Difference b/t Qualitative & Quantitative Where quantitative research which attempts to gather data by objective methods to provide information about relations, comparisons, and predictions and attempts to remove the investigator from the investigation, the researcher is an integral part of qualitative research. (Smith, 1983) What is Qualitative Research? Philosophical Perspectives Paradigm: a framework for observation and understanding that shapes what we see and how we understand it - accepted assumptions What is Qualitative Research? Philosophical Perspectives & Paradigms Paradigms 1. Can not be true or false 2. Cyclical in nature 3. Theories and methods What is Qualitative Research? Philosophical Perspectives & Paradigms Positivist: 1. Objective reality knowable only through empirical observations 2. Generalizable laws 3. Study of variables - Cause & effect relationships What is Qualitative Research? Philosophical Perspectives & Paradigms Positivist: 4. Hypothesis (predictions) 5. Quantifiable data What is Qualitative Research? Philosophical Perspectives & Paradigms Interpretive: 1. Understanding human behavior and meanings the meanings in which they are embedded 2. No single reality – many factors - Purposive meaning-making activities What is Qualitative Research? Philosophical Perspectives & Paradigms Interpretive: 3. Humans are individuals and behavior can not be “pigeon-holed” or generalized 4. Unique explanations 5. Qualitative data What is Qualitative Research? Philosophical Perspectives & Paradigms Critical: 1. Goal is to challenge, transform, and empower 2. Reads interactions in terms of conflict and oppression 3. Frame research questions in terms of power What is Qualitative Research? Philosophical Perspectives & Paradigms Postmodern: 1. Sees explanations of the way things are in the world as myths or grand narratives 2. There is no single reality, but rather multiple truths 3. Celebrates diversity among people, ideas, and institutions What is Qualitative Research? Languages of Qualitative Research 1. Naturalism: seeks to minimize presuppositions in order to witness subjects’ worlds in their own terms - focuses on the factual characteristics of the object under study What is Qualitative Research? Languages of Qualitative Research 2. Emotionalism: the primary issue is to generate data that gives an authentic insight into people’s experiences - tend to favor open-ended interviews - locates the “real” in real life - concerned with authenticity What is Qualitative Research? Languages of Qualitative Research 2. Ethnomethodology: the study of folks’ methods. Seeks to describe methods persons use in constructing reality in everyday life - creates meaningful categories - may lose sight of the topic due to focusing too much on the process of creation What is Qualitative Research? Languages of Qualitative Research 2. Postmodernism: interdisciplinary movement based on the critique of all concepts and paradigms - analyzes and questions modern achievements - examines how we come to acknowledge and accept “truths” as being true What is Qualitative Research? Should I use qualitative methods? See questions on page 11
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