2 Different research approaches

Question 1

Narrative research

Answer 1

Research focus: exploring the life of an individual

Unit of analysis: studying one or more individuals

Type of research problem: needing to tell stories of individual experiences

Question 2

Phenomenology

Answer 2

Research focus: understanding the essence of experience

Unit of analysis: studying several individuals who have shared the experience

Type of research problem: needing to describe the essence of a lived phenomenon

Question 3

Grounded theory

Answer 3

Research focus: developing a theory grounded in data from the field

Unit of analysis: studying a process, an action or an interaction involving many individuals

Type of research problem: grounding a theory in views of participants

Question 4

Ethnography

Answer 4

Research focus: describing and interpreting a culture-sharing group

Unit of analysis: studying a group that shares the same culture

Type of research problem: describing and interpreting the shared patterns of culture of a group

Question 5

(Critical) discourse analysis

Answer 5

Research focus: describe the discursive practice of a society

Unit of analysis: studying discursive utterances in their context

Type of research problem: describe how discourse and social practice mutually determine each other and identify the role of power in the interaction

Question 6

(Objective) hermeneutics

Answer 6

Research focus: describe and interpret deeper meaning in text and other utterances

Unit of analysis: studying (objective) meaning structures behind intentions of actions

Type of research problem: discover and description of general and single case-specific structures and rules which drive actions.

Question 7

Case study

Answer 7

Research focus: developing an in-depth description and analysis of a case or multiple cases

Unit of analysis: studying an event, a program, an activity, or more than one individual.

Type of research problem: providing an in-depth understanding of a case or cases