1. Qualitative Research March 16, 2010 G. Andrew Page, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, UAA/COE A Short Overview of
2. Quotes There are no facts, only interpretations. ~ Nietzsche Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. ~Albert Einstein "A major strength of the qualitative approach is the depth to which explorations are conducted and descriptions are written, usually resulting in sufficient details for the reader to grasp the idiosyncracies of the situation." ~Myers
-- Chicago school of sociology, founded 1892, included such luminaries as George Herbert Mead and produced people like Herbert Blumer. The school of pragmatism (philosophy), founded by Dewey in 1894, included Dewey, Mead, James Tufts and Jane Addams Naturalistic inquiry studies people and things in their natural settings. This is opposed to experimental research that tries to control the environment (thus the image of the sterile lab setting)
Analytic induction is a method of data analysis described by Florian Znaniecki (1934) [of the Chicago School of sociology] who named the method and systematized many of the associated ideas; has been used repeatedly throughout history (pp. 236-237. That essence involves " . . . inducing laws from a deep analysis of experimentally isolated instances" (p. 237). Analytic induction can be contrasted with defining and using terms in advance of research (p. 240). Instead, definitions of terms are considered hypotheses that are to be tested (p. 241). Inductive, rather than deductive, reasoning is involved, allowing for modification of concepts and relationships between concepts occurs throughout the process of doing research, with the goal of most accurately representing the reality of the situation. Theoretical sampling - process of choosing new research sites or research cases to compare with one that has already been studied Purposeful sampling - clear rationale or criteria for selecting the participants (find Journal of Advanced Nursing Vol. 26 Issue 3 Page 623 September 1997 - Sampling in qualitative research. Purposeful and theoretical sampling; merging or clear boundaries? Coyne IT)