5. Qualitative research design Flashcards
Name strengths in qualitative research
”A source of well-grounded, rich descriptions and explanations of human processes” - Miles, Huberman, Saldana
1) Depth and richness of data – commitment to close scrutiny and detail
2) The participant perspective - understanding the meaning for participants in the study of events,
situations, experiences they are involved with or engaged in
3) The role of context - understanding the particular contexts within which participants act and the
influence these contexts have on their actions
4) Grasping processes - understanding the process by which events and actions take place ––
understanding chronological flow
5) Identifying unanticipated phenomena and influences – openness and flexibility in the design
When to do qualitative research?
Little knowledge of a phenomenon, context, group of people etc.
Theory building
Small sample size
Phenomena studied in context/natural setting
* Adjust methods to context/phenomenon
Weaknesses in qualitative research
Labour intensiveness and extensiveness
Time demanding
Frequent data overload
Too subjective?
* Researcher (self)reflexivity and integrity
Access and adequacy of sampling
Generalizability of findings
Credibility and quality of conclusions and their utility in the world
Name general things for qualitative research design
Can be open, emergent and flexible
Designing is not a discrete stage concluded early in the project, but an ongoing process
Calls for constant review of decisions and approaches
Continuous reflexivity and awareness
No excuse for rigorous planning
What is in the model for qualitative research design?
Goals –Why are you doing this study?
Conceptual Framework –What do you think is going on?
Research questions –What do you want to understand?
Methods - What will you actually do?
Validity – How might you be wrong?
- Maxwell
Ontology
What is the nature of existence?
* Do the phenomenawe study exist independent of our knowing or perceiving it? (Realism)
* Is what we take to be social reality a creation or projection of our senses? (Relativism)
Epistemology
What is the nature of knowledge?
* Is it possible to objectively or neutrally observe and describe the world? (Objectivism)
* The researcher plays an active part in the knowledge construction (Subjectivism)
Methodology
How to investigate?
* How do we use methods to eliminate researcher bias and create neutrality?
* How do we give voice to different research participants?
The conceptual framework
- A map of what you are investigating
- Explains the main things to be studied.
- Display of yourmain conceptual ideas, key factors
and constructs - How you think they are related
- Whenmultiple researchers are involved it helps focus
and agreement on terms, subject and object of study - Sensitizing concepts rather than definitive
- Central both as an outset for study and as an outcome
of the study. The map may change
Miles, Huberman & Saldana
Name approaches to qualitative research
Phenomenology
Narrative research
Ethography
Grounded theory
Case study
Action research
What is a case study?
- A research strategy that involves using one of more cases to create theoretical
constructs, propositions and or midr ange theory from case-based empirical
evidence (Eisenhardt & Graebner 2007: 25) - Rich empirical descriptions of particular instances of a phenomenon that are
typically based on a variety of data sources
What is a case?
A case is a ”specific One” – not a general topic (Stake 1995)
”Concretemanifestation of the abstraction” (Yin 2014)
A phenomenon of some sort occurring in a bounded context (Miles, Huberman, Saldaña 2014)
(person/group, organization, environment, community, episodes, event, period, process, culture,
nation)
What does a case study do?
Describe
* New phenomena
Explore
* New phenomena, new perspectives
Explain
* ”Operational links over time”
Test a theory?
* Falsify, refine
Tell compelling stories
* Puts you in the situation, have characters and relationships, stays with you
Why do a case study?
Accuracy (Context)
* Faithful to everyday realities – what is actually going on
Comprehensiveness
* Allows the researcher to maintain holistic and meaningful characteristics
Richness and Depth
* Relationships, Complexity (beyond monocausality)
Dynamics/Process
* Follow developments over time
When to do a case study?
- At the beginning of an inquiry into a phenomenon
- Requires little delimitation, flexible
- When new perspectives are needed
- Openness
- To understand processes
- Tracing events over time
- When context is important
- Flexible, many types of data can be used
