This document discusses qualitative research methods. It outlines that qualitative research involves intense contact within real-life settings to gain a holistic overview from participants' perspectives. It describes various qualitative paradigms and strategies like case studies, ethnography, and grounded theory. It also covers sampling strategies, the researcher's role, data collection methods like interviews and observation, ensuring validity and reliability, and generalizing findings from qualitative studies.

1. Research design: qualitative
methods

2. Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:
• Identify the characteristics of qualitative data
• Formulate qualitative research questions
• Develop a robust qualitative design, including an
appropriate sampling strategy
• Select and apply the criteria that make for a rigorous
qualitative research study

3. Why qualitative? Some criticisms of
quantitative methods
• It can involve little or no contact with people or field
settings
• Statistical correlations may be based upon ‘variables’
that are arbitrarily defined by the researchers
themselves
• After-the-fact analysis about the meaning of
correlations may involve some very common-sense
reasoning or even speculation that science claims to
avoid
• The pursuit of ‘measurable’ phenomena mean that
difficult concepts such as ‘criminality’ or ‘intelligence’
are treated unproblematically

4. Characteristics of qualitative research
• It is conducted through intense contact
within a ‘field’ or real life setting.
• The researcher’s role is to gain a
‘holistic’ or integrated overview of the
study, including the perceptions of
participants.
• Themes that emerge from the data are
often reviewed with informants for
verification.
• The main focus of research is to
understand the ways in which people act
and account for their actions.

5. Qualitative paradigms and perspectives
• Naturalistic
– Postpositivism
– Realism
• Progressive
– Critical theory
Constructivism
Postmodernism
Feminism

6. Qualitative strategies of inquiry (1)
• Case study: studies a specific ‘bounded system’, e.g. a person or
institution
• Ethnography: explores the nature of a specific social phenomenon,
often using a small number of cases
• Ethnomethodology: investigates people’s everyday procedures for
creating, and managing a sense of objective reality
• Phenomenology: explores how people’s taken for granted world is
experienced and how structures of consciousness apprehend the
world
• Grounded theory: uses the interplay between analysis and data
collection to produce theory

7. Qualitative strategies of inquiry (2)
• Participatory action research: implies an effort on the part of
people to understand the role of knowledge as a significant
instrument of power and control
• Narrative analysis: the analysis of a chronologically told story,
exploring how various elements are sequenced.
• Cultural studies: the study of a complex web of social customs,
values and expectations that affect our ways of working
• Gender studies: explores the process of constructing and
differentiating gender and particularly gender inequalities

8. Approaches to qualitative inquiry
Determine the focus of the inquiry
Formulate research questions
Determine the unit of analysis
Determine the types of data to be collected (words
(interviews, diaries, field notes), photos, videos, etc)
Deciding on a sampling strategy
Plan data analysis process

9. Volumes of data for inductive and
deductive approaches

10. Sampling strategies (examples)
Sampling strategy Description
Intensity sampling Information-rich cases
Typical case sampling Focus on what is ‘normal’ or
‘average’ to highlight the whole
population
Snowball sampling First group of participants nominates
other individuals
Theory based sampling Cases are selected on the basis that
they represent a theoretical
construct

11. Role of the researcher
• Maintain physical (emotional?)
proximity to research
participants
• Demonstrate ‘theoretical
sensitivity’
• Be insightful
• Perceive situations holistically
• Be sensitive to personal bias
(reflexivity)

12. The role of the literature
The literature
• theoretical
• empirical
• methodological
Data
gathering
Data
gathering
Analysis
Start?
Role of the literature from a highly inductive approach –
but you could also start with the literature

13. Collecting qualitative data: interviewing
• Structured, semi-
structured or
conversational
• Useful for follow-up,
probing questions
• If unstructured, can
generate large amounts
of data

14. Collecting qualitative data: observation
• Data collected in ‘natural’
field settings
• Can be overt or covert
• Can involve participation
by the researcher in the
setting/event or non-
participation

15. Collecting qualitative data: using visual
sources
• Can include photographs,
film, video etc.
• Good for documenting
peoples’ lifestyles, living and
working conditions
• But the focus of the camera
can be selective
• Subjects’ behaviour may
change in front of the camera

16. Collecting qualitative data: unobtrusive
measures
• Includes documents
(reports, business plans,
contracts etc), websites,
and other ‘non-reactive’
data
• Selective attrition of
documents means there
may be bias in the ones
that survive

17. Collecting qualitative data: research
diaries
The kinds of issues noted in a research
diary could include:
• The processes involved in approaching
the field and making contact
• Experiences (positive and negative) in
getting access to respondents and in
using data gathering instruments
• Details of literature sources read (and
ordered)
• Reflections on the interpretation and
presentation of results, including
important changes in direction

18. Ethical checklist in qualitative research
• Have I honoured my commitments about confidentiality
and privacy?
• Have I acted in the spirit of informed consent?
• Have I used my research effectively and morally?
• Have I generalized appropriately?
• Do I have a responsibility to anticipate how others might
use my research and explanations?

19. Generating validity
Type of technique Technique
Design considerations Developing a self-conscious research design
Sampling decisions (i.e. sampling adequacy)
Employing triangulation
Giving voice
Data generating Demonstrating prolonged engagement in the
field
Demonstrating persistent observation
Providing verbatim transcriptions
Demonstrating sampling and data saturation

20. External validity - generalising
Theory or
set of
questions/
propositions
Collection
Interpretation
CASE
Collection
Interpretation
CASE
Collection
Interpretation
CASE
Accept/
reject theory
or
propositions
Sampling
Comparing
Comparing Comparing
Sampling
Data
saturation
Replication through use of multiple cases (adapted from Flick, 2006)

21. But in generalising, qualitative
researchers need to be….
• Cautious, moderating the range of generalizing
conclusions
• Careful in recognizing the limitations of time periods
• Meticulous in demonstrating clear linkages between
generalizing conclusions and the specific data that
provide its foundation
• Honest and transparent about findings that contradict the
conclusions
• Diligent in reporting alternative explanations or the
constraints on generalizations

22. Designing for reliability
• Data triangulation, where data are gathered using
multiple sampling strategies.
• Investigator triangulation, using more than one observer
in field situations
• Multiple triangulation, in which a combination of multiple
methods, data types, observers and theories are
combined
• Methodological triangulation, of which there are two
kinds: within-method, where the researcher employs
varieties of data gathering techniques within the same
method, and between method, where a variety of
different methods are used

23. But we could abandon conventional
terms and seek instead…
• Transferability with purposive sampling to illustrate
pertinent issues and factors when comparing two contexts
for similarity; and thick descriptions to provide evidence
for making judgements about similarities between cases.
• Dependability through the use of audit trails through the
data.
• Confirmability, with the audit showing the connections
between data and the researcher’s interpretations.
• Credibility, the use of persistent observations;
triangulation (of data, methods, theories and
investigations); member checks (where data and
interpretations are tested with research participants).

24. Summary
• In qualitative research researchers are closer to the fields or settings they
are trying to research – it is highly contextual
• Qualitative research is not built upon a unified theory or methodological
approach – hence its variety and flexibility
• In qualitative research data analysis does not necessarily follow data
gathering – there can be a number of iterations between the two
• Even though there are various schools of qualitative research include
grounded theory, ethnomethodology, narrative analysis and ethnography,
they all have one element in common – generally, an inductive approach
(although deduction or prior questions cannot be ruled out)
• Methods of collecting qualitative data include interview transcripts, field
notes from observations, photographs, video and unobtrusive data
• Decisions on whether to attempt generalization need to be built into the
research design paying particular attention to sampling strategies
• Qualitative approaches to achieving rigour include building trustworthiness,
authenticity, creditability, transferability, dependability and confirmability