Below are some key concepts that are useful in understanding the basics of qualitative research.
Source: Fraenkel, J.R. and Wallen, N.E. How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education (Sixth Edition).
Overview:
- Qualitative research refers to studies that investigate the quality of relationships, activities, situations, or materials.
- The natural setting is a direct source of data, and the researcher is a key part of the instrumentation process in qualitative research.
- Qualitative data are collected mainly in the form of words or pictures and seldom involve numbers. Content analysis is a primary method of data analysis.
- Qualitative researchers do not, usually, formulate a hypothesis beforehand and then seek to test it. Rather, they allow hypotheses to emerge as a study develops.
Steps Involved:
- The steps involved in conducting a qualitative study are not as distinct as they are in quantitative studies. They often overlap and sometimes are even conducted concurrently.
- All qualitative studies begin with a foreshadowed problem, the particular problem the researcher is interested in investigating.
- Researchers who engage in a qualitative study of some type usually select a purposive sample. Several types of purposive samples exist.
- There is no treatment in a qualitative study, nor is there any manipulation of variables.
- The collection of data in a qualitative study is ongoing.
- Conclusions are drawn continuously throughout the course of the qualitative study.
Approaches to Qualitative Research:
Biography Case Studies
Phenomenology Ethnographic and Historical Research
Grounded Theory Sampling
Other Key Points:
- Generalizing is possible in qualitative research, but it is of a different type than that found in quantitative studies. Most likely it will be done by interested practitioners.
- The identities of all participants in a qualitative study should be protected, and they should be treated with respect.
Key Terms:
Biographical Study, Case Study, Confirming Sample, Context Sensitivity, Critical Sample, Explanatory Design, Exploratory Design, Foreshadowed Problems, Generalization, Grounded Theory Study, Homogeneous Sample, Instrumental Case Study, Intrinsic Case Study, Maximal Variation Sample, Mixed-Methods Designs, Multiple Case Study, Opportunistic Sample, Phenomenological Case Study, Portraiture, Positivism, Postmodernism, Purposive Sampling, Qualitative Research, Replication, Snowball Sample, Theoretical Sample, Triangulation Design, Typical Sample
- Qualitative research refers to studies that investigate the quality of relationships, activities, situations, or materials.
- The natural setting is a direct source of data, and the researcher is a key part of the instrumentation process in qualitative research.
- Qualitative data are collected mainly in the form of words or pictures and seldom involve numbers. Content analysis is a primary method of data analysis.
- Qualitative researchers do not, usually, formulate a hypothesis beforehand and then seek to test it. Rather, they allow hypotheses to emerge as a study develops.
Steps Involved:
- The steps involved in conducting a qualitative study are not as distinct as they are in quantitative studies. They often overlap and sometimes are even conducted concurrently.
- All qualitative studies begin with a foreshadowed problem, the particular problem the researcher is interested in investigating.
- Researchers who engage in a qualitative study of some type usually select a purposive sample. Several types of purposive samples exist.
- There is no treatment in a qualitative study, nor is there any manipulation of variables.
- The collection of data in a qualitative study is ongoing.
- Conclusions are drawn continuously throughout the course of the qualitative study.
Approaches to Qualitative Research:
Biography Case Studies
Phenomenology Ethnographic and Historical Research
Grounded Theory Sampling
Other Key Points:
- Generalizing is possible in qualitative research, but it is of a different type than that found in quantitative studies. Most likely it will be done by interested practitioners.
- The identities of all participants in a qualitative study should be protected, and they should be treated with respect.
Key Terms:
Biographical Study, Case Study, Confirming Sample, Context Sensitivity, Critical Sample, Explanatory Design, Exploratory Design, Foreshadowed Problems, Generalization, Grounded Theory Study, Homogeneous Sample, Instrumental Case Study, Intrinsic Case Study, Maximal Variation Sample, Mixed-Methods Designs, Multiple Case Study, Opportunistic Sample, Phenomenological Case Study, Portraiture, Positivism, Postmodernism, Purposive Sampling, Qualitative Research, Replication, Snowball Sample, Theoretical Sample, Triangulation Design, Typical Sample
Observation and Interviewing:
- There are four roles that an observer can play in a qualitative research study, ranging from complete participant, to participant-as-observer, to observer-as-participant, to complete observer. The degree of involvement of the observer in the observed situation diminishes accordingly for each of these roles.
- A leading observation technique is to create a coding scheme - a set of categories an observer uses to record a person's or group's behaviors.
- Even with a fixed coding scheme in mind, an observer must still choose what to observe.
- The term observer effect refers to either the effects the presence of an observer can have on the behavior of the subjects or observer bias in the data reported.
- Observer bias refers to the possibility that certain characteristics or ideas of observers may affect what they observe.
- Researchers who engage in observation usually must choose a purposive sample.
- A major technique used by qualitative researchers is in-depth interviewing.
- Interviews may be structured, semistructured, informal, or retrospective.
- The six types of questions asked by interviewers are background (or demographic) questions, knowledge questions, experience (or behavior) questions, opinion (or values) questions, feelings questions, and sensory questions.
- An important check on the validity and reliability of the researcher's interpretations in qualitative research is to compare one informant's description of something with another informant's description of the same thing.
- Another, although more difficult, check on reliability/validity is to compare information on the same topic with different information - triangulation.
Key Terms:
Background Question, Coding Scheme, Dichotomous Question, Experience Question, External Audit, Feelings Question, Focus Group Interview, Informal Interview, Interview, Key Actor (Informant), Knowledge Question, Member Checking, Naturalistic Observation, Nonparticipant Observation, Observational Data, Observer Bias, Observer Effect, Observer Expectations, Open-Ended Question, Opinion Question, Participant Observation, Reliability in Qualitative Research, Retrospective Interview, Semistructured Interview, Sensory Question, Simulation, Structured Interview, Triangulation, Validity in Qualitative Research.
- There are four roles that an observer can play in a qualitative research study, ranging from complete participant, to participant-as-observer, to observer-as-participant, to complete observer. The degree of involvement of the observer in the observed situation diminishes accordingly for each of these roles.
- A leading observation technique is to create a coding scheme - a set of categories an observer uses to record a person's or group's behaviors.
- Even with a fixed coding scheme in mind, an observer must still choose what to observe.
- The term observer effect refers to either the effects the presence of an observer can have on the behavior of the subjects or observer bias in the data reported.
- Observer bias refers to the possibility that certain characteristics or ideas of observers may affect what they observe.
- Researchers who engage in observation usually must choose a purposive sample.
- A major technique used by qualitative researchers is in-depth interviewing.
- Interviews may be structured, semistructured, informal, or retrospective.
- The six types of questions asked by interviewers are background (or demographic) questions, knowledge questions, experience (or behavior) questions, opinion (or values) questions, feelings questions, and sensory questions.
- An important check on the validity and reliability of the researcher's interpretations in qualitative research is to compare one informant's description of something with another informant's description of the same thing.
- Another, although more difficult, check on reliability/validity is to compare information on the same topic with different information - triangulation.
Key Terms:
Background Question, Coding Scheme, Dichotomous Question, Experience Question, External Audit, Feelings Question, Focus Group Interview, Informal Interview, Interview, Key Actor (Informant), Knowledge Question, Member Checking, Naturalistic Observation, Nonparticipant Observation, Observational Data, Observer Bias, Observer Effect, Observer Expectations, Open-Ended Question, Opinion Question, Participant Observation, Reliability in Qualitative Research, Retrospective Interview, Semistructured Interview, Sensory Question, Simulation, Structured Interview, Triangulation, Validity in Qualitative Research.
Content Analysis:
- Content analysis is an analysis of the contents of a communication.
- Content analysis is a technique that enables researchers to study human behavior in an indirect way by analyzing communication.
- There are several reasons to do content analysis: to obtain descriptive information of one kind or another; to analyze observational and interview data; to test hypotheses; to check other research findings; and/or to obtain information useful in dealing with educational problems.
- Predetermined categories are sometimes used to code data.
- Sometimes coding is done by using categories that emerge as data is reviewed.
- In doing a content analysis, researchers should always develop a rationale (a conceptual link) to explain how the data to be collected are related to their objectives.
- After precisely defining what aspects of the content are to be analyzed, the researcher needs to formulate coding categories.
- Developing emergent coding categories requires a high level of familiarity with the content of a communication.
- In doing a content analysis, the researcher can code either the manifest (specific, clear, surface contents) or the latent (underlying meaning) content of a communication, and sometimes both.
- Reliability in content analysis is commonly checked by comparing the results of two independent scorers (categorizers).
- Validity can be checked by comparing data collected from manifest content to that obtained from latent content.
- A common way to interpret content analysis is by using frequencies (i.e. the number of specific incidents found in the data) and proportion of particular occurrences to total occurrences.
- Another method is to use coding to develop themes to facilitate synthesis.
- Two major advantages of content analysis are that it is unobtrusive and it is comparatively easy to do.
- The major disadvantages of content analysis are that it is limited to the analysis of communications and it is difficult to establish validity.
Key Terms:
Cluster Sampling, Coding, Content Analysis, Latent Content, Manifest Content, Random Sample, Reliability, Stratified Sampling, Theme, Validity
- Content analysis is an analysis of the contents of a communication.
- Content analysis is a technique that enables researchers to study human behavior in an indirect way by analyzing communication.
- There are several reasons to do content analysis: to obtain descriptive information of one kind or another; to analyze observational and interview data; to test hypotheses; to check other research findings; and/or to obtain information useful in dealing with educational problems.
- Predetermined categories are sometimes used to code data.
- Sometimes coding is done by using categories that emerge as data is reviewed.
- In doing a content analysis, researchers should always develop a rationale (a conceptual link) to explain how the data to be collected are related to their objectives.
- After precisely defining what aspects of the content are to be analyzed, the researcher needs to formulate coding categories.
- Developing emergent coding categories requires a high level of familiarity with the content of a communication.
- In doing a content analysis, the researcher can code either the manifest (specific, clear, surface contents) or the latent (underlying meaning) content of a communication, and sometimes both.
- Reliability in content analysis is commonly checked by comparing the results of two independent scorers (categorizers).
- Validity can be checked by comparing data collected from manifest content to that obtained from latent content.
- A common way to interpret content analysis is by using frequencies (i.e. the number of specific incidents found in the data) and proportion of particular occurrences to total occurrences.
- Another method is to use coding to develop themes to facilitate synthesis.
- Two major advantages of content analysis are that it is unobtrusive and it is comparatively easy to do.
- The major disadvantages of content analysis are that it is limited to the analysis of communications and it is difficult to establish validity.
Key Terms:
Cluster Sampling, Coding, Content Analysis, Latent Content, Manifest Content, Random Sample, Reliability, Stratified Sampling, Theme, Validity
Ethnographic Research:
- Ethnographic research is particularly appropriate for behaviors that are best understood by observing them within their natural settings.
- The key techniques in all ethnographic studies are in-depth interviewing and highly detailed, almost continual, ongoing participant observation of a situation.
- Important concepts of ethnographic research include culture, holistic perspective, thick description, contextualization, a nonjudgemental orientation, emic perspective, etic perspective, member checking, and multiple realities.
- Topics that lend themselves well to ethnographic research include topics that defy simple quantification and those that can be best understood in a natural setting, as well as those that involve studying individual or group subjects over a length of time.
- The sample in ethnographic studies is almost always purposive.
- The data obtained from ethnographic research samples rarely, if ever, permit generalization to a population.
- Ethnographic researchers seldom formulate precise hypotheses ahead of time. Rather, they develop them as their study emerges.
- The two major means of data collection in ethnographic research are participant observation and detailed interviewing.
- Researchers use a variety of instruments in ethnographic studies to collect data and check validity. This is frequently referred to as triangulation.
- Analysis consists of continual reworking of data with emphasis on patterns, key events, and use of visual representation in addition to interviews and observation.
- Resources utilized to complete field work include field notes (descriptive and reflective), field jottings, field diaries, and field logs.
- A key strength of ethnographic research is that it provides a much more comprehensive perspective than other forms of educational research. It lends itself well to topics that are not easily quantified.
- Disadvantages include its dependence on the particular researcher's observations. Further, observer bias is nearly impossible to eliminate while generalization is nearly nonexistent.
Key Terms:
Contextualization, Crystallization, Culture, Descriptive Field Notes, Emic Perspective, Ethnographic Research, Etic Perspective, Field Diary, Field Jottings, Field Log, Field Notes, Holistic Perspective, Interviewing, Key Events, Member Checking, Multiple Realities/Perspectives, Participant Observation, Reflective Field Notes, Thick Description, Triangulation.
- Ethnographic research is particularly appropriate for behaviors that are best understood by observing them within their natural settings.
- The key techniques in all ethnographic studies are in-depth interviewing and highly detailed, almost continual, ongoing participant observation of a situation.
- Important concepts of ethnographic research include culture, holistic perspective, thick description, contextualization, a nonjudgemental orientation, emic perspective, etic perspective, member checking, and multiple realities.
- Topics that lend themselves well to ethnographic research include topics that defy simple quantification and those that can be best understood in a natural setting, as well as those that involve studying individual or group subjects over a length of time.
- The sample in ethnographic studies is almost always purposive.
- The data obtained from ethnographic research samples rarely, if ever, permit generalization to a population.
- Ethnographic researchers seldom formulate precise hypotheses ahead of time. Rather, they develop them as their study emerges.
- The two major means of data collection in ethnographic research are participant observation and detailed interviewing.
- Researchers use a variety of instruments in ethnographic studies to collect data and check validity. This is frequently referred to as triangulation.
- Analysis consists of continual reworking of data with emphasis on patterns, key events, and use of visual representation in addition to interviews and observation.
- Resources utilized to complete field work include field notes (descriptive and reflective), field jottings, field diaries, and field logs.
- A key strength of ethnographic research is that it provides a much more comprehensive perspective than other forms of educational research. It lends itself well to topics that are not easily quantified.
- Disadvantages include its dependence on the particular researcher's observations. Further, observer bias is nearly impossible to eliminate while generalization is nearly nonexistent.
Key Terms:
Contextualization, Crystallization, Culture, Descriptive Field Notes, Emic Perspective, Ethnographic Research, Etic Perspective, Field Diary, Field Jottings, Field Log, Field Notes, Holistic Perspective, Interviewing, Key Events, Member Checking, Multiple Realities/Perspectives, Participant Observation, Reflective Field Notes, Thick Description, Triangulation.
Historical Research:
- The unique characteristic of historical research is that it focuses exclusively on the past. It allows people to learn from past failures and successes.
- There are four essential steps involved in a historical study: defining the problem or hypothesis to be investigated; searching for relevant source material; summarizing and evaluating the sources the researcher is able to locate; and interpreting the evidence obtained and then drawing conclusions about the problem or hypothesis.
- Most historical source material can be grouped into four basic categories: documents, numerical records, oral statements, and relics.
- Content analysis is a primary method of data analysis in historical research.
- External criticism refers to the genuineness of the documents a researcher uses in a historical study.
- Internal criticism refers to the accuracy of the contents of a document. Whereas external criticism has to do with the authenticity of a document, internal criticism has to do with what the document says.
- As in all research, researchers who conduct historical studies should exercise caution in generalizing from small or nonrepresentative samples.
- The main advantage of historical research is that it permits the investigation of topics that could be studied in no other way. It is the only research method that can study evidence from the past.
- A disadvantage is that controlling for many of the threats to internal validity is not possible in historical research.
Key Terms:
Documents, External Criticism, Historical Research, Internal Criticism, Primary Source, Relic, Secondary Source
- The unique characteristic of historical research is that it focuses exclusively on the past. It allows people to learn from past failures and successes.
- There are four essential steps involved in a historical study: defining the problem or hypothesis to be investigated; searching for relevant source material; summarizing and evaluating the sources the researcher is able to locate; and interpreting the evidence obtained and then drawing conclusions about the problem or hypothesis.
- Most historical source material can be grouped into four basic categories: documents, numerical records, oral statements, and relics.
- Content analysis is a primary method of data analysis in historical research.
- External criticism refers to the genuineness of the documents a researcher uses in a historical study.
- Internal criticism refers to the accuracy of the contents of a document. Whereas external criticism has to do with the authenticity of a document, internal criticism has to do with what the document says.
- As in all research, researchers who conduct historical studies should exercise caution in generalizing from small or nonrepresentative samples.
- The main advantage of historical research is that it permits the investigation of topics that could be studied in no other way. It is the only research method that can study evidence from the past.
- A disadvantage is that controlling for many of the threats to internal validity is not possible in historical research.
Key Terms:
Documents, External Criticism, Historical Research, Internal Criticism, Primary Source, Relic, Secondary Source
