Chapter 4 discusses qualitative and quantitative research approaches, highlighting their differences, similarities, and methodologies. It details the characteristics, types, and when to use each method, including options for mixed methods research. Various qualitative research designs such as narrative research, grounded theory, and ethnography are also outlined to illustrate effective data collection and analysis strategies.

1. Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Research approach: Qualitative and Quantitative
(Dr. Hirut and Dr. Yeshitla)
John W. Creswell (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating
Quantitative and Qualitative Research, 4th ed: Pearson Education Inc.
The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber (2009) QUALITATIVE
DATAANALYSIS

2. Content
• 4.1.The concept of Qualitative and Quantitative approach
• 4.2. Similarities and differences between Qualitative and Quantitative
approach
• 4.3 Types of Qualitative research designs
• 4.4 Data collection and analysis in Qualitative approach
• 4.5 Types of Quantitative research designs
• 4.6 Data collection and analysis in Quantitative approach

3. ‘Explain phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically
based methods (in particular statistics). Core issues :
Explaining phenomena- e.g. Why do teachers leave teaching? What factors influence pupil
achievement?
 Collect numerical data- How many males get a first-class degree at university compared to
females? What percentage of teachers and school leaders belong to ethnic minority
groups?
Analyze using mathematically based methods- Statistics e.g. descriptive statistics,
regression analysis
Note.. There are many phenomena we might want to look at, but which don’t seem to
produce any quantitative data. Examples- attitudes and beliefs.
We might want to collect data on pupils’ attitudes to their school and their teachers.
 ‘I think school is boring’ in the form of– strongly agree, agree, indifferent, disagree,
strongly disagree
4.1. What is Quantitative method
?

4. What is qualitative research?
• Emphasis on seeing the world from the eyes of the
participants
• Strive to make sense of phenomena in terms of the meanings
people bring to them
• Holistic emphasis – studying the person, group, culture in the
natural setting

5. The Major Characteristics of Quantitative Research
 Describing a research problem through a description of trends or a need for explanation of the
relationships among variables, e.g. explain why something occurs
 Providing a major role for the literature review through suggesting the research questions to be
asked and justifying the research problem and creating a need for the direction (purpose
statements, research questions or hypotheses) of the study
 Collect numeric data from a large number of people using instruments (survey questionnaire,
standardized tests) – generalizing the results
 Analyze data for trends, group comparisons, and relationships among variables using
mathematical procedures - statistics
 Write the research report using standard, fixed structures and an objective, unbiased approach-
standard reporting format- introduction, review of the literature, methods, results and discussion.

6. Major Characteristics of Qualitative Research
 Exploring a problem through developing a detailed understanding of a central phenomenon
 Literature review plays a minor role but justify the problem
 The purpose statement and research questions are stated so that you can best learn from
participants -in a general, open-ended way
 Collecting data to learn from the participants in the study and develop forms or protocols (e.g.
interview protocols) for recording data as the study proceed- pose general questions, from a
small number of participants- text data base
 Analyzing the data using text analysis to obtain detailed descriptions and themes,
 Writing the research report using flexible and emerging structures and incorporating the
researchers’ subjective reflexivity and bias.

7. 4.2 Similarities and Differences Between Quantitative and
Qualitative Research
Similarities
 Both forms of research follow the six steps in the process of research
 Both forms of research have introductions that establish the importance of the research
problem
 Both forms of research use interviews and observations
Differences
 Quantitative data collection is more closed-ended; qualitative data collection is more open-
ended.
 Quantitative data analysis is based on statistics; qualitative data analysis is based on text or
image analysis.
 Quantitative reporting has a set structure; qualitative data reporting is more flexible.

8. Qualitative and Quantitative Research Contrasted
QUALITATIVE QUANTITATIVE
 Multiple realities  Single reality
 Reality is socially constructed  Reality is objective
 Reality is context interrelated  Reality is context free
 Strong philosophical perspective  Strong theoretical base
 Discovery of meaning is the basis
of knowledge
 Cause-and-effect relationships are
the bases of knowledge
 Develops theory  Tests theory

9. 4.2 Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Contrasted (continued)
QUALITATIVE QUANTITATIVE
 Theory developed during study  Theory developed a priori
 Meaning of concepts  Measurement of variables
 Process oriented  Outcome oriented
 Control unimportant  Control important
 Rich descriptions  Precise measurement of variables
 Basic element of analysis is words  Basic element of analysis is numbers
 Uniqueness  Generalization
 Trustworthiness of findings  Control of error

10. Factors in Deciding to Use Quantitative or Qualitative
Research
• Match type of research to your research problem research
question that will be asked to address the problem ( and
accompanying literature review that establish the importance
of the problem)
• Fit type of research to your audiences
• Relate type of research to your experiences and training

11. When to use Quantitative research method
If we take a pragmatic approach to research methods, first of all we need to find out what
kinds of questions are best answered using quantitative as opposed to qualitative methods.
Four main types of research question that quantitative research suited.
When we want a quantitative answer. eg. how many students choose to study physics?
To describe numerical changes. eg. Are the no. of women in HU rising or falling?
To understand state of something or explain phenomena.. predict e.g. what factors
predict household income? What factors are related to changes in student achievement
over time?
To testing of hypothesis - to explain something e.g. whether there is a relationship
between a pupil’s achievement and their self-esteem and social background.

12. When to use Qualitative methods
• Explore a problem or concept in-depth - get under the skin of a
phenomenon, we will need to go for ethnographic methods,
interviews, in-depth case studies and other qualitative techniques.
• Develop theory using exploratory qualitative research (grounded
theory)
• To study complex issues (e.g. case study). In qualitative research
unexpected variables may emerge.
• To looking at the meaning of particular events or circumstances.

13. Mixed method- both quantitative and
qualitative
• What then do we do if we want to look at both breadth and
depth, or at both causality and meaning? In these situations, it is
best to use a so-called mixed methods design in which we use
both quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (in-depth
interviews, FGDs methods.
• Mixed methods research is a flexible approach where the
research design is determined by what we want to find out
rather than by any predetermined epistemological position.
• In mixed methods research, qualitative or quantitative
components can predominate or both can have equal status.

14. 4.3 Types of Qualitative research designs
• Narrative
• Ethnography
• Grounded theory

15. Narrative Research?
What is narrative research?
•the term narratives from the verb to narrate or to tell in detail
•a distinct form of qualitative research, a narrative typically focuses on studying a single person,
gathering data through the collection of stories, reporting individual experiences, and discussing the
meaning of those experiences for the individual (Creswell, 2012)
• illuminate the meaning of a person’s work or life experiences in ways that help us understand the
complexities embedded.
• outcome of narrative research is a researcher-generated story (a retelling) that answers “How” and
“What” questions about the life story & meaningful experiences that have implications for others
• in anthropology - a life story
• psychology –therapeutic conversation

16. Examples of Types of Narrative Research Forms
• Autobiographies • Biographies • Life writing • Personal
accounts • Personal narratives • Narrative interviews
• •Personal documents • Documents of life • Life stories and life
histories • Oral histories • Ethnohistories • Ethnobiographies
• • Autoethnographies • Ethnopsychologies • Person-centered
ethnographies • Popular memories • Latin American
testimonies, polish memoirs

17. Key Characteristics of Narrative Designs
• Individual experiences- social and personal interaction
• Chronology of the experiences- past, present and future experiences
• Collecting individual stories- first person
• Restorying (or retelling )
• Coding for themes or categories
• Incorporating the Context or setting into the story or themes
• Collaboration with participants- negotiating field texts

18. Steps in Narrative Research
Identify a phenomenon
that addresses an
educational problem
Purposefully select an
individual to learn
about the phenomenon
Collaborate with
participant storyteller in
all phases of research
Restory or retell
the individual’s
story
Collect stories from
the individual that
reflect personal experience
Have them
tell story
Collect other
field texts
Build in past,
present, future
Build in place
or setting
Validate the accuracy of
the report
Write a story about the
participant’s personal
and social experiences
Describe their
story
Analyze story
for
themes

19. What is Grounded Theory research?
• A methodology emerged from the discipline of sociology, an area of enquiry that is focused on
society and individuals
• A systematic, qualitative procedure used to generate a theory that explains, at a broad
conceptual level, a process, an action, or an interaction about a substantive topic.
• Refers to simultaneous method of qualitative inquiry and the products of that inquiry
• An approach to qualitative data analysis using emergent methodologies, such as constant
comparison, that permits a theory to develop from the data (from the ground up) without
preconceived or inflexible ideas.
• Method consists of a set of systematic, but flexible, guidelines for conducting inductive
qualitative inquiry aimed toward theory construction
- theory (general explanation) that is grounded in the words and actions of those individuals
under study

20. When do use Grounded Theory?
• To generate a theory when the existing theories do not address the problem- e.g. in the study
of certain education population (e.g. children with attention disorder), existing theories may not
applicable to explain special population.
• A theory grounded in the data may provides a better explanation than a theory borrowed
or one “off the shelf”
• When you wish to study a process (e.g. how students develop as writers); when you want to
study action (e.g. the process of participation in adult education); or interaction (e.g. the
support the department head provides for faculty researchers)
• For beginning researchers GT provides a step-by-step, systematic procedure for analyzing
data- helpful when defending their works

21. Key Characteristics of …cont’d
• Constant comparative data analysis: An inductive (from specific to broad) data analysis
procedure in grounded theory research of generating and connecting categories by
comparing incidents in the data to other incidents, incidents to categories, and categories
to other categories
• A core category: A category that can become the theme that describes or becomes the
main theme of the process
• After identifying several categories (say, 8 to 10 depending on the size of the database),
the researcher selects a core category as the basis for writing the theory.
• The researcher makes this selection based on several factors, such as its relationship to
other categories, its frequency of occurrence, its quick and easy saturation, and its
clear implications for development of theory.

22. Key characteristics…
• Theory generation: An abstract explanation or understanding of a
process about a substantive topic grounded in the data
• Memos: Notes the researcher writes throughout the research process to
elaborate on ideas about the data and the coded categories.
• Grounded theory method although uniquely suited to fieldwork and
qualitative data, can be easily used as a general method of analysis with
any form of data collection: survey, experiment, case study. Further, it
can combine and integrate them. It transcends specific data collection
methods.

23. What are Ethnographic Designs?
• Ethnographic design is qualitative research procedure for
describing, analyzing, and interpreting a culture-sharing group’s
shared patterns of behavior, beliefs, and language that develops
over time.
• A non-intervention descriptive research design that is usually
participatory and extends over a period of time in a natural
setting.

24. When to Conduct Ethnographic Research
• When the study of a group helps you understand a
larger issue
• When you have a culture-sharing group to study
• When you want a day-to-day picture of the events and
activities of a group
• When you have long-term access to a culture-sharing
group

25. Key Characteristics of an
Ethnographic Design
• Cultural themes (from cultural anthropology)
• A culture-sharing group
• Examination of shared patterns of behavior, belief, and language
• Data collection through fieldwork,
• Description, themes, interpretation
• Group context or setting
• Researcher reflexivity