The document outlines five main types of qualitative research: narrative research, phenomenological research, grounded theory research, ethnographic research, and case study research. It provides details on narrative research and phenomenological research. Narrative research involves collecting individual stories through methods like interviews and analyzing them for themes. It often places stories in chronological order. Phenomenological research describes the meaning of a concept or phenomenon based on the lived experiences of individuals who have experienced it.

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THE FIVE APPROACHES/TYPES OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
THE FIVE MAIN APPROACHES/TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
ARE:
 NARRATIVE RESEARCH
 PHENOMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH/PHENOMENOLOGY
 GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH
 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH/ETHNOGRAPHY
 CASE STUDY RESEARCH/CASE STUDY
NARRATIVE RESEARCH
Narrative research has many forms, uses a variety of analytic practices and is
rooted in different social and humanities disciplines. “Narrative” might be the
phenomenon being studied, such as narrative of illness, or it might be the method
used in a study such as the procedures of analyzing stories being told.
Narrative research is a specific type of qualitative design in which a narrative
is understood as a spoken or written text giving an account of an event/action or
series of events/ actions, chronologically connected.
The procedures for implementing this research consist of focusing on studying
one or two individuals, gathering data through the collection of their stories,
reporting individual experiences, and chronologically ordering the meaning of those
experiences.

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As a method, it begins with the experiences as expressed in lived and told
stories of individuals. Writers have provided ways for analyzing and understanding
the stories lived and told.
DEFINING FEATURES OF NARRATIVE STUDIES:
Reading through a number of narrative articles published in journals and
reviewing major books on narrative inquiry, a specific set of features emerged that
define its boundaries.
 Narrative researchers collect stories from individuals (and documents, and
group conversations) about individual’s lives and experiences of individuals.
Individual’s interactions pave way for the narratives that assist researchers in
designing narrative research reports.
 Narrative stories revolve around individual experiences and they may shed
light on the identities of individuals and how they see themselves.
 Narrative stories are gathered through many different forms of data such as
through interviews that may be the primary form of data collection, but data
can also be also collected through observations, documents, pictures and other
sources of qualitative data.
 Narrative stories often are reshaped by the researchers into a chronological
manner that is not used to report that way by the participants.
 Narrative stories are analyzed in varied ways. An analysis can be made about
what was said (thematically), the nature of the telling of the story (structural)
or who the story is directed toward (dialogic/performance).
 Narrative stories often contain turning points or specific tensions or
interruptions that are highlighted by the researchers in the telling of the stories.

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 Narrative stories occur within specific places or situations. The context
becomes important for the researcher’s telling of the story within a place.
TYPES OF NARRATIVES:
Narrative stories can be differentiated along two different points. One point is
to consider the data analysis strategy used by the narrative researcher.
Several analytic strategies are available for use. In certain narratives the
researcher extracts themes that hold across stories or taxonomies of types of stories,
and a more story narrating mode in which the narrative researcher shapes the stories
based on a plotline or literary approach to analysis.
There are three types of approaches used to analyze narrative stories: a
thematic analysis in which the researcher identifies the themes “told” by a
participant; a structural analysis in which the meanings shift to the telling and the
stories can be cast during a conversation in comic terms, tragedy, satire, romance or
other forms; and a dialogic/performance analysis in which the focus turns to how the
story is produced.
Another point is to consider the types of narratives. A wide variety of
approaches have emerged. Following are some popular approaches/types of
narrative research.
A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY:
A biographical study is a form of narrative study in which the researcher writers and
records the experiences of another person’s life.

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AUTOETHNOGRAPHY:
Auto ethnography is written and recorded by the individuals who are the
subject of the study. Muncey (2010) defines auto ethnography as the idea of multiple
layers of consciousness, the vulnerable self, the coherent self, critiquing the self in
social texts, the subversion of dominant discourses and the evocative potential. They
report an individual’s patterns of behavior as well as the larger cultural meaning for
the individual’s story.
A LIFE HISTORY:
A life history portrays an individual’s entire life, while a personal experience
story is a narrative study of an individual’s personal experience that is found in single
or multiple episodes, private situations and communal folklore.
AN ORAL HISTORY:
An oral history consists of gathering personal reflections of events and their
causes and effects on one individual or several individuals.
Narrative studies may have a specific contextual focus, such as stories told by
teachers or children in classrooms and stories told about organizations. Narratives
may be guided by interpretive frameworks. The frameworks may advocate for
certain issues that are usually overlooked.
PROCEDURE FOR CONDUCTING NARRATIVE RESEARCH:
The methods of conducting a narrative research do not follow a lockstep
approach, but instead it represents an informal collection of topics. While conducting
a narrative research the main strategies for analyzing data should be kept in mind.

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MAIN STRATEGIES FOR ANALYZING DATA:
 Determine if the research problem or question best fits narrative research.
Narrative research is best for capturing the detailed stories or life experiences
of a single individual or the lives of a small number of individuals
 A researcher should select one or more individuals who have stories or life
experiences to tell, and spend considerable time with them gathering their
stories through multiple types of information.
 Research participants may record their stories electronically, or in a journal or
diary, or the researcher might observe the individuals and record field notes.
After examining these sources, the researcher records the individual’s life
experiences.
 Consider how the collection of the data and their recording can take different
shapes. Transcription of interviews can develop different type of stories.
 Collect information about the context of these stories. Narrative researchers
situate individual stories within participant’s personal experiences (their jobs,
their homes) their cultures (racial or ethnic) and their historical background or
context.
 A researcher should analyze the participant’s stories. In order to construct a
potent research, the researcher should take/play an active role and ‘restory’
the stories into a framework that makes sense. ‘Restorying’ is the process of
reorganizing the stories into some general type of framework. This framework
may consist of gathering stories, analyzing them for key elements of the story
(e.g., time, place, plot and scene), and then rewriting the stories to place them
within a chronological sequence. Often when individuals tell their stories they
do not present them in a chronological sequence. During the process of
restoring, the researcher provides a causal link among ideas. Chronological

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order revolves around organizing stories according to a sequence (beginning,
middle and end), connection (between time, place and scene).
 Beyond the chronology, researcher might detail themes that arise from the
story to provide a more detailed discussion of the meaning of the story. Thus,
the qualitative data analysis may be a description of both the story and themes
that emerge from it.
 A postmodern narrative writer such as Czarniawska (2004), adds another
element to the analysis: a deconstruction of the stories, an unmaking of them
by such analytic strategies as exposing dichotomies, examining silences, and
attending to disruptions and contradictions.
 Finally, the analysis process consists of the researcher looking for themes or
categories; the researcher using a micro linguistic approach and probing for
the meaning of words, phrases, and larger units of discourse such as is often
done in conversational analysis. Although within the stories may be
epiphanies, turning points, or disruptions in which the story line changes
direction dramatically.
 In the end, the narrative study tells the story of individuals unfolding in a
chronology of their experiences, set within their personal, social, and
historical context and highlight the important themes that the story introduces.
CHALLENGES:
Given these procedures and the characteristics of narrative research, narrative
research is a challenging approach to use. The researcher needs to have extensive
information about the object of research and needs to have a clear understanding of
the context, philosophy and ideology.

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PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Whereas, a narrative study reports the stories of experiences of a single
individual or several individuals, a phenomenological study describes the common
meaning of a concept or phenomena. The inquirer then collects data from persons
who have experienced the phenomenon and describes or reports it. Development of
such descriptions is called phenomenological research.
There are four philosophical perspectives in phenomenology.
DEFINING FEATURES OF PHENOMENOLOGY:
There are several features that are typically included in all phenomenological
studies. In a phenomenological research there is:
 An emphasis on a phenomenon to be explored, phrased in terms of a single
concept or idea, such as the educational idea of professional growth the
psychological concept of superiority complex and the healthy idea of a caring
relationship.
 A philosophical discussion about the basic idea involved in conducting a
phenomenology. This turns on the lived experiences of individuals and how
they have both subjective experiences of the phenomenon and objective
experiences of some phenomena. However, there can be a refusal of the
subjective, objective perspective and for these reasons phenomenology lies
somewhere on a continuum between qualitative and quantitative research.
 A data collection procedure that involves typically interviewing individuals
who have experienced the phenomenon. This is not a universal trait however
as some phenomenological studies involve varied sources of data, such as
poems, observations and documents.

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 Data Analysis that moves from the narrow units of analysis and on to broader
units and further on to detailed descriptions.
TYPES OF PHENOMENOLOGY:
There are two approaches to phenomenology:
 Hermeneutic phenomenology
 Psychological phenomenology.
HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY:
Hermeneutical phenomenology is a branch of phenomenology that is
restricted towards lived experiences and interpreting the texts of life. Lived
experiences involve reading, running, driving and mothering and interpreting the
texts of life involve reflecting on essential themes, constitution of the nature of those
lived experiences.
Further, a phenomenological researcher writes a description of the
phenomenon, maintaining a strong relation to the topic of inquiry and balancing the
parts of the writing to the whole. Phenomenology is not only a description but it is
also an interpretive process in which the researcher makes an interpretation of
meanings, mediating between different meanings.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENOLOGY:
Psychological phenomenology is focused less on the interpretations of the
researcher and more on a description of the experiences of participants. On the other
hand, transcendental phenomenology allows its users to set aside their experiences
as much as possible to take a fresh perspective toward the phenomenon under
examination. Hence, transcendental means in which everything is perceived freshly.

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PROCEDURES FOR CONDUCTING PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH:
In order to conduct a phenomenological research, the data analysis procedure and
semblance of textual and structural descriptions should be systematic. The major
procedural steps in the process would be as follows:
 First of all, the researcher determines if the research problem is best examined
using a phenomenological approach.
 A phenomenon of interest to study, such as anger, professionalism, experience
of learning and riding a bike is identified.
 Afterwards, the researcher recognizes and specifies the broad philosophical
assumptions of phenomenology. For example, one could write about the
combination of objective reality and individual experiences. To become as
objective as possible researchers must bracket out as much as possible their
own experiences.
 Afterwards data is collected from the individuals who have experienced the
phenomena through in-depth interviewing. Other forms of data may also be
collected such as observations, journals, poetry, music, taped conversations,
formally written responses, and accounts of vicarious experiences of drama,
films, poetry, novels and other forms of art.
 The respondents or participants are asked two broad questions. What have the
respondent experienced in terms of the phenomena? What contexts have
typically influenced experiences of the phenomenon?
PHENOMENOLOGICAL DATA ANALYSIS:
The process of phenomenological data analysis involves the steps of building
on the data from the first and second research questions.

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Usually data analysts go through the data (interviews, transcriptions) and
highlight “significant statements”, sentences, or quotes that provide an
understanding of how the participants experienced the phenomenon. Further, the
researcher develops clusters of meaning from these significant statements into
themes.
These significant and themes are then used to write a description of what the
participant experienced it is also called textural description. Textural description is
followed by structural description that involves the description of the context and
setting that influenced the way participants experienced the phenomenon.
From the structural and textural descriptions, the researcher then writes a
composite description that presents the essence of the phenomenon called the
essential invariant structure. It is a descriptive passage a paragraph or two that
focuses on the underlying structure of phenomenon.
CHALLENGES:
A phenomenology provides a deep understanding of a phenomenon as
experienced by several individuals. Knowing some common experiences can be
valuable for groups such as therapists, teachers, health personnel and policy makers.
On the other hand, phenomenology requires at least some understanding of
the broader philosophical assumptions, and researchers should identify these
assumptions in their studies. These philosophical ideas are abstract concepts and not
easily seen in written phenomenological study.
In order to construct a potent research, it is highly important that the researcher
should be objective because interpretations of data always incorporate the
assumptions that the researcher brings to the topic. Thus, the researcher needs to

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decide how and in what way his or her personal understandings will be introduced
into the study.
GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH
The intent of grounded theory study is to move beyond description and to
generate or discover a theory. Grounded theory research is a unified theoretical
explanation for a process of an action. The development of the theory might help
explain practice or provide a framework for further research.
The idea is that; this theory development does not come off the shelf but is
rather generated or grounded in data from participants who have experienced the
process.
Thus grounded theory is a qualitative research design in which the inquirer
generates a general explanation (a theory) of process, an action, or an interaction
shaped by the views of a large number of participants.
Grounded theory provides for the generation of a theory (complete with
diagrams and hypotheses) of actions, interactions, or processes through interrelating
categories of information based on data collected from individuals. Due to its
grounded theory has gained popularity in fields such as sociology, nursing,
education, and psychology as well as in other social science fields.
Postmodern perspectives to grounded theory revolves around the political
nature of research and interpretation, reflexivity on the part of researchers, a
recognition of problems of representing information, questions of legitimacy and
authority and awarding freedom to researcher.

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DEFINING FEATURES OF GROUNDED THEORY:
There are several major characteristics of grounded theory that might be
incorporated into a research study;
 The researcher focuses on a process or an action that has distinct steps or
phases that occur over time. Thus a grounded theory study has movement or
some action that the researcher is attempting to explain.
 There are many definitions of a theory available in the literature, but in general
a theory is an explanation of something or an understanding that the researcher
develops. This explanation or understanding that the researcher develops is a
drawing together in grounded theory of theoretical categories that are arrayed
to show how the theory works.
 Memoing becomes part of developing the theory as the researcher writes
down ideas as data are collected and analyzed. In these memos the ideas
attempt to formulate the process that is being seen by the researcher and to
sketch out the flow of this process.
 The primary form of data collection is often interviewing in which the
researcher is constantly comparing data gleaned from participants with ideas
about the emerging theory.
 Data analysis can be structured and follow the pattern of developing open
categories, selecting one category to be the focus of the theory, and then
detailing additional categories (axial coding) to theoretical model. The
intersection of the categories becomes the theory (called selective coding).

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TYPES OF GROUNDED THEORY STUDIES:
The two popular approaches to grounded theory are the systematic procedures of
Strauss and Corbin (1990, 1998) and the constructivist approach of Charmaz (2005,
2006).
 In the more systematic, analytic procedures of Strauss and Corbin (1990,
1998) the investigator seeks to systematically develop a theory that explains
process, action or interaction on a topic (e.g. the process of developing a
curriculum, the therapeutic benefits of sharing psychological test results with
clients). The researcher typically conducts 20 to 30 interviews based on
several visits to the target of research to collect interview data to saturate the
categories.
 A category represents a unit of information composed of events, happenings
and instances. The researcher also collects and analyzes observations and
documents. When the researcher collects the data he or she begins analysis.
The participants interviewed are theoretically chosen, and this process is
called theoretical sampling that helps the researcher best form the theory. The
process of taking information from data collection and comparing it to
emerging categories is called the constant comparative method of data
analysis.
 The research begins with open coding that means coding the data for its major
categories of information. From this coding axial coding emerges in which
the researcher identifies one open coding to focus on (called the core
phenomenon) and then goes back to the data and creates categories around
this core phenomenon.
These categories assist in designing the portions of a research report.

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 A second variant of grounded theory is found in the constructivist writings of
Charmaz (2005, 2006). Instead of embracing the study of a single process or
core category, constructivist perspective of theory formation includes
emphasizing diverse local worlds, views and actions.
 Constructivist theory revolves around the interpretive approach to qualitative
research with flexible guidelines and a focus on theory development that
depends on the researcher’s view, researcher’ learning about the experience
within embedded, hidden networks, situations and relationships. It revolves
around making visible hierarchies of power, communication and opportunity.
The views, feelings, assumptions and ideologies, methodologies of research
along with gathering of rich data coding the data, memoing and using
theoretical sampling of individuals play a significant role in the composition
of a research report.
PROCEDURES FOR CONDUCTING GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH:
While conducting a grounded theory research the researcher needs to begin
by determining if grounded theory is best suited to study his or her research problem.
Grounded theory is a good design to use when a theory is not available to explain or
understand a process. Although theories may be present but they are incomplete
because they do not address potentially valuable variables or categories of interest
to the researcher.
The methodology of interviews, observations, documents and audiovisual
materials (the point) is meant to gather enough information to fully develop or
saturate the model.

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CHALLENGES:
A grounded theory study challenges researchers for the following reasons:
 The investigators need to set aside, as much as possible, theoretical ideas or
notions so that the analytic, substantive theory can emerge.
 Despite the evolving, inductive nature of this form of qualitative inquiry the
researcher must recognize that this is a systematic approach to research with
specific steps in data analysis.
 The researcher faces the difficulty of determining when categories are
saturated or when the theory is sufficiently detailed.
 The researcher needs to recognize that the primary outcome of this study is a
theory with specific components, central phenomenon, causal conditions,
strategies, conditions, context and consequences.
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
DEFINITION AND BACKGROUND:
Ethnography focuses on an entire culture sharing group. Sometimes this
cultural group may be small, but typically it is large, involving many people who
interact over time.
Thus ethnography is a qualitative design in which the researcher describes and
interprets the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs and language
of a culture-sharing group.
As both a process and an outcome of research; ethnography is a way of
studying a culture sharing group as well as the final, written product of that research.
As a process ethnography involves extended observations of the study group, most
often through participant observation, in which the researcher is immersed in the day

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to day lives of the people and observes and interviews the group participants.
Ethnographers study the meaning of the behavior, the language and the interaction
among members of the culture sharing group.
DEFINING FEATURES OF ETHNOGRAPHIES:
Recently, ethnography has started dominating sciences as well as social sciences
highlighting different orientations and aims such as structural functionalism,
symbolic interactionism, cultural and cognitive anthropology, feminism, Marxism,
ethnomethodology, critical theory, cultural studies and postmodernism.
From a review of published ethnographies, a brief list of defining characteristics of
good ethnographies can be assembled;
 Ethnographies focus on developing a complex, complete description of a
culture. The ethnography may be of the entire culture or sub cultures.
 In an ethnography, the researcher looks for patterns (regularities, ideas, beliefs
of a group, expressed through language or material activities. In other words,
the researcher looks for patterns of social organization (social network) and
ideational system (worldwide view ideas).
 In addition, theory/theoretical frameworks play an important role in focusing
the researcher’s attention when conducting ethnography. For example,
ethnographies start with a theory-a broad explanation to understand ideas and
beliefs or from materialist theories such as techno environmentalism,
Marxism, acculturation or innovation to observe theoretical growths.
 Using the theoretical frameworks and looking for patterns involves engaging
in extensive fieldwork, collecting data primarily through interviews,
observations, symbols, artifacts and diverse sources of data collection.

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 The collected data aids in conducting a cultural interpretation. This analysis
results in an understanding of the essence of a culture. Wolcott provides two
helpful questions that in the end must be answered in ethnography "What do
people in this setting have to know to make this system work”? “If culture
sometimes defined simply as shared knowledge that is mostly caught rather
than taught what do individuals learn out of it”?
TYPES OF ETHNOGRAPHIES:
Two popular forms of ethnography revolve around the research altogether that is
Realist ethnography and the Critical ethnography.
REALIST ETHNOGRAPHY:
The realist ethnography is a traditional approach used by cultural
ethnographies. Realist ethnography is an objective account of the situation, typically
written in the third-person point of view and reporting objectively on the information
learned from data collection process.
The ethnographer remains in the background as an omniscient reporter of the
facts observed during a research study. The realist also reports objective data in a
measured style uncontaminated by personal bias, political goals and judgment. By
using standard categories for cultural description (family life, communication
networks, work life, social networks, and status systems) the ethnographer decides
the final word on how the culture is to be interpreted and presented.
CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY:
The critical ethnography is a type of ethnographic research in which the
authors advocate for the emancipation of marginalized races in society. A critical

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ethnographer will study themes of power, empowerment, inequality, inequity,
dominance, repression and victimization etc.
PROCEDURES FOR CONDUCTING ETHNOGRAPHY:
As with all qualitative inquiry there is no single way to conduct ethnographic
research. However, while conducting ethnography a researcher should;
 Determine if ethnography is the most appropriate design to use to study the
research problem. Ethnography is appropriate if the needs are to describe how
a cultural group works and to explore the language, behaviors of a race.
 Select cultural themes, issues or theories to study about a culture. These
themes, issues and theories provide an orienting framework for the study of
the dominant culture. The themes may include enculturation, socialization and
learning. Ethnographers describe a holistic perspective of a culture by
immersing into a specific culture.
 Observations, tests, surveys, interviews, content analysis, elicitation methods,
audiovisual methods assist in conducting a thorough research.
CHALLENGES:
Ethnography is challenging to use for the following reasons.
 The researcher needs to have an understanding of cultural anthropology, the
meaning of a socio-cultural system and the concepts typically explored by
those studying culture.
 The time to collect data is extensive, the narratives are written in a literary
almost storytelling approach. Storytelling approach is an approach that may
limit the audience for the work and may be challenging for authors

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accustomed to traditional approaches of scientific writing. To study cultural
concepts, determine which type of ethnography to use.
CASE STUDY RESEARCH
DEFINITION AND BACKGROUND:
Case study research involves the study of a case within a real-life, with any
contemporary context or writing. Case study is a choice of what is to be studied. In
other words, it is a strategy of inquiry, a methodology, a type of design in qualitative
research that may be an object of study as well as a product of the inquiry.
Case study research is a qualitative approach in which the investigator
explores a real-life contemporary bounded system (case) with multiple bound system
(cases) over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple
sources of information (observations, interviews, audiovisual materials, documents
and reports). The unit of analysis may be multiple cases (a multisite study) or single
case.
DEFINING FEATURES OF CASE STUDIES:
 Case study research begins with the identification of a specific case. This case
may be a concrete entity, such as of an organization. At a less concrete level
it may be a specific project. The key here is to define a case that can be
described within certain parameters such as specific place or country.
Typically, case study researchers study current cases that are in progress so
that they can gather accurate information. For this purpose, a single case can
be selected or multiple cases identified so that they can be compared.
 The intent of conducting the case study is also important. A qualitative case
study can be composed to illustrate a case that needs to be described and

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detailed. Alternatively, the intent of the case study may be to understand a
specific issue and a case or cases selected to best understand the problem.
 A hallmark of a good qualitative case study is that it presents an in-depth
understanding of the case. In order to accomplish understanding of cases
researcher collects many forms of data ranging from interviews to
observations to documents to audiovisual materials. Relying on one source of
data is typically not enough to develop this in-depth understanding.
 Description of themes or issues that a researcher has uncovered in the studying
case is highly important. In addition, the themes or issues might be organized
into a chronological order by the researcher, analyzed across cases for
similarities and differences among the cases or presented as a theoretical
model.
 Case studies often end with conclusions formed by the researcher about the
overall meaning derived from the case(s). These can also be referred to
building patterns or explanations.
TYPES OF CASE STUDIES:
Types of qualitative case studies are distinguished by the size of a case
whether the case involves one individual, several individuals, an entire program or
an activity. They may also be distinguished in terms of the intent of the case analysis.
Three variations exist in terms of intent: the single instrumental case study, the
collective case study and the intrinsic case study.
SINGLE INSTRUMENTAL CASE STUDY:
In a single case study, the researcher focuses on an issue or concern, and then selects
one case to illustrate a particular issue.

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COLLECTIVE CASE STUDY:
In a collective case study, the one issue or concern is again selected but the inquirer
selects multiple cases to illustrate the issue.
INTRINSIC CASE STUDY:
The final type of case study design is an intrinsic case study in which the focus is on
the case itself because the case presents a unique situation. This can include
evaluation of a program).
PROCEDURES FOR CONDUCTING A CASE STUDY:
Several procedures are available for conducting case studies.
 First, the researcher should determine if a case study approach is appropriate
for studying the research problem.
 A case study is a good approach when the inquirer has clearly identifiable
cases and seeks to provide an in-depth understanding of the cases or
comparison of several cases.
 Further, researchers need to identify their case and cases. These cases may
involve a program or an activity. A researcher should select such cases that
show different perspectives of the problem, process he or she want to portray.
 The data collection in case study is typically expensive, drawing on multiple
sources of information such as observations, interviews, documents and
audiovisual materials.
 After the collection of data and composition of research report the researcher
should report the meaning of the case, whether that meaning comes from
learning about the issues of the case (an unusual case) or an unusual situation
(an intrinsic case) or both.

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CHALLENGES:
One of the challenges that are inherent in qualitative cases study development
is that the researcher must identify the case. The case selected may be broad in
scope or narrow in scope or a combination of these variations. The researcher
must consider whether to study a single case or multiple cases. However, it is
best to for the researcher to typically choose no more than four or five cases.
Selecting the case requires that the researcher establish a rationale for his or
her purposeful strategy for selecting the case and for gathering information about
the case. Having enough information to present an in-depth picture of the case
should be the priority of a researcher.
THE FIVE APPROACHES COMPARED:
All five approaches have in common the general process of research that
begins with a research problem and proceeds to the questions, the data, the data
analysis and the research report. They also employ similar data collection
processes, including in varying degrees’ interviews, observations, documents and
audiovisual materials. The above mentioned five approaches to research are
contributing a lot in the field of social sciences for young researchers and
professionals.
(The End)