Qualitative research

Question 1

What is ethnography?

Answer 1

Describes cultural practices and traditions
Interprets social interaction within a culture

Question 2

What is phenomenology?

Answer 2

Describes the essence of specific types of personal experience –> deeper understanding of a personal experience and why they are experiencing it in a certain way
Understands things through the ‘eyes’ of someone else

Can be interpretive, descriptive, interpretive phenomenological analysis

Question 3

What is grounded theory?

Answer 3

Clarifies concepts or produces new theories –> taking data and moving towards creating a new theory
Explores a new topic and provides new insights

Question 4

What is action research?

Answer 4

Solves a practical problem
Produces guidelines for best practice

Question 5

What is mixed methods?

Answer 5

Evaluates a new policy and gauges its impact –> different approach on a topic area
Compares alternative perspectives on a phenomenon

Question 6

What are different types of interviews?

Answer 6

Structured
Semi-structured
Unstructured - Might open up more (prompt and probe) - conversation may waver
Face to face or virtual
In-depth

Probe - tell me more about
Prompt - pre-determined, what do you do in the morning?

Question 7

What is a focus group?

Answer 7

When you get a group of people together to talk around a particular topic
Maximum around 8-10, anything larger and the conversation can be difficult to control
Minimum 3

Question 8

How do observations work?

Answer 8

Observing a group and gathering data
Must have field notes
Ethics must be considered

Participant:
- Involved
- Doing things with the people
- Participants know about the research

Non-participant:
- More removed
- Observing from a distance, two-way window
- Not physically as present

Can be structured and non-structured
Recording - using observational protocols

Question 9

What is qualitative research?

Answer 9

Developing a theory
Starts with a research question
Multiple realities. - interpreting, naturalistic - people experience things differently
Strives for patterns and understanding
Samples size usually small – looking more in-depth
Basic elements of analysis is words/ ideas

Methods:
- Focus groups
- Interviews

Trustworthiness and credibility

Question 10

What do you need to consider when thinking of research methods?

Answer 10

Strengths
Limitations
Ethical aspects

Question 11

What are the strengths and limitations of interviews?
How long should they be?
What type?

Answer 11

Strengths:
- Can capture a lot of in-depth detail on peoples experiences

Limitations:
- Some people may not want to open up

Type depends upon how much depth you want to, equally the length of time varies due to that too.
For more in-depth semi-structured and unstructured interviews ideally they should be around 40mins to 1 hour.
Length doesn’t alway determine the quality

Question 12

What needs to be considered when making a focus group?

Answer 12

Duration - ~ at least 40 minutes
Size of group
Homogenous or heterogeneous –> do you want a group of people with the same experience of different experiences
Group dynamics - how will it be managed
Number of facilitators - ~ 2, quality check, credibility, have they both seen and heard the same things, more practical
Use of props
Age range
How will data be recorded?

Question 13

What is a facilitator?
What are the different roles?

Answer 13

Partner
- Create working partnership with client
- Design and customise program to meet client needs
- Manage multi session efforts effectively

Planner
- Select clear methods and processes
- Prepare time and space to support group processes

Enabler
- Create and sustain participatory environment
- Honour and recognise diversity ensuring inclusiveness

Motivator
- Trust group potential and model neutrality
- Acknowledge input and ideas

Taskmaster
- Manage time
- Keep group focused and on task
- Manage group conflict

Guide
- Guide group with clear models and processes
- Facilitate group self-awareness about its task
- Guide the group to consensus and desired outcomes

Question 14

What should be considered when undertaking observations?

Answer 14

How will it be recorded? Field notes
Consider influence of presence being involved in research - Hawthorne effect, when people change their behaviour due to awareness
Which type of observation is suitable?
Why do observational research?

Question 15

What ethical points need to be considered in qualitative research?

Answer 15

• Consent
• Confidentiality
• Anonymity - privacy
• Access to participants
• Power imbalance
• Dual role
• The right to say no

Question 16

What are some common sampling strategies?

Answer 16

Purposive sampling - purposefully picked participants, looking for a characteristic
Convenience sampling - sampling people because they are conveniently close/ accessible
Snowball sampling - Informing people of research who then tell other people, snowball effect, forwarding on information
Theoretical sampling -
Flexible sampling -

Question 17

How would you judge the quality of qualitative research?

Answer 17

Credibility
- Fit between participants views and how the researcher represents them
Transferability
- Adequacy of the description to enable identification of similar situations (e.g. can it be used in practice or looked into in further research?)
Dependability
- Transparency of research process and decision trial
- Clear presentation
Confirmability
- Data, finding and interpretation clearly linked
- Findings link to the discussion

Question 18

What is reflexibility?

Answer 18

Acknowledging the influence of the researcher on findings and results
Critical self-reflection
Explore and highlight own values, particular biases and preferences related to research or topic area
Conscious consideration