In this presentation, we go over the most common qualitative research designs. We go over the main components of Chapter 3, including methodology and rationale, the role of the researcher, the selection of participants, instrumentation, procedure, data analysis plan, and issues of trustworthiness.

1. MasteringYour
Qualitative
Methodology
For more information, please email info@statisticssolutions.com
To schedule a free consult, please use this link:
https://app.hubspot.com/meetings/jeanine/dissertation-
consultation

2. Overview of
Qualitative
Methodology
Chapter
 Introduction
 Research Design, including rationale for this
 Role of the Researcher
 Methodology
 Issues ofTrustworthiness
 Summary
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

3. Introduction
 Restate the Purpose of the Study
 Verbatim
 Preview each of the sections of the chapter
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

4. Research
Design
 Restate the research questions
 Identify and define the
phenomenon/case/concept to be studied
 Identify tradition (qualitative or quantitative)
and design (case study, phenomenology, etc.)
 Must demonstrate familiarity and understanding of
other options
 Must justify why this approach and design is most
appropriate
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

5. Why should
you use a
qualitative
design?
 Good for use with textual data
 Good for helping to understand
perspectives/experiences
 Data collection
 Interviews/focus groups
 Documents
 Observations
 Goal is not necessarily to generalize
 No hypothesis testing
 No need to quantify results
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

6. Qualitative
Research
Designs
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290
Case study
Phenomenology
Generic
GroundedTheory
Ethnography

7. CaseStudy
 What is it good for?
 Studying a specific example over time for an in-depth
analysis
 Atypical case
 Exemplary case
 Counter-point
 New direction
 When studying one more cases bounded by a uniting
factor
 How is it done?
 Multiple data collection methods
 What does it do?
 Generates a rich description of the case(s) of a study
 Examine themes emerging from study of each case
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

8. Phenomenology
 What is it good for?
 Exploring the lived experiences of participants
 Describing the meaning that individuals assign to
experience
 How is it done?
 In-depth interviews
 What does it do?
 Illuminates commonalities of experience between
individuals
 Distills descriptions to find the essence of the
phenomenon of study
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

9. Generic
Qualitative
Design
 What is it good for?
 When RQ does not fit squarely into another
design or has elements or different designs
 When the focus is outward (the experience),
not inward (how people make sense of the
experience)
 Mixed methods
 How is it done?
 Interviews, questionnaires, written/oral surveys
 What does it do?
 Yields understanding of “outer-world content”
of a research question (Percy et al., 2015)
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

10. Grounded
Theory
 What is it good for?
 Generating theory from collective perspectives
of a vast number of participants
 When little is known about a topic
 Not for novice researchers
 How is it done?
 Interviews, fieldwork, text/document,
memoing, theoretical saturation
 What does it do?
 Derives theory grounded in data (based in)
 Produces a broad explanation of a process,
action, or interaction
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

11. Ethnography
 What is it good for?
 Understanding a problem in cultural/societal
context
 Holistic inquiry – networks of people,
institutions, social groupings
 How is it done?
 Interviews, extended fieldwork and participant
observation, conversations
 What does it do?
 Produces in-depth account (ethnography) of
research problem from perspective of
participants and in cultural context
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

12. Role of the
Researcher
What is your role in the research?Are you an
observer? A participant? Both?
Identify and describe any potential conflicts of
interest or power dynamics between you and
participants.
Identify potential areas of bias and how you
will mitigate these.
Identify any other applicable ethical issues
(e.g., do you work at the study site?)
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

13. Methodology:
Participants
 Population
 What group of people will the sample be drawn from?
 Sampling strategy
 Non-random sampling, purposive most common
 Inclusion and exclusion criteria
 What are the characteristics people must meet to
participate in your study?
 How will you verify this?
 Number of participants (and cases if applicable)
 Steps to identify, contact, and recruit participants
 Size of sample and data saturation
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

14. Methodology:
Instrumentation
All data collection instruments
 Observation sheet, interview protocol, etc.
Source for each instrument
 Will you create your own? Use something
already published?
 Document review
 Identify source and how verified for
accuracy
 Demonstrate how data sources are sufficient to
address research questions
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

15. Methodology:
Procedures for
Recruitment,
Participation,
and Data
Collection
 For each instrument (refer to your Instrumentation
section), provide the following details:
 Where data will be collected
 Who will collect data
 Frequency of data collection events
 Duration of data collection events
 How data will be recorded
 Contingency plans in case of attrition
 Debriefing procedures
 Follow-up procedures (member checking, transcript
verification)
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

16. Methodology:
DataAnalysis
Plan
For each data type, describe:
How data are connected to research
(that is, how will those data address
the RQ)
Coding procedures for data
Software used in analysis
How you will handle discrepant cases
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

17. Trustworthiness
Credibility - confidence in accuracy of findings
establish through triangulation
Transferability - applicability of findings to other contexts
rich description
Dependability – consistency of findings in replication
sufficient information/description, audit trail
Confirmability – findings based on participants, not researcher
member checking
This is where you describe how you will establish
trustworthiness

18. Ethical
Procedures
 Agreements to gain access to participants/data
 IRB, site permissions
 Treatment of human participants
 Permissions
 Ethical considerations of recruitment
 Ethical considerations of data collection
 Treatment of data
 Anonymity vs. confidentiality
 Plans to secure data and its destruction after
period of time
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

19. Summary
 Summary of the main points
 Recap and pull the reader along
 Problem -> purpose -> RQ -> methods and
methodology
 Transition to next chapter
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

20. Some tips
 This chapter can be daunting, and that’s okay!
 Start with your problem, purpose, and research
questions and ask yourself:
 What data do I need to answer these?
 Who do I need to talk to to find the answers?
 What documents will give me the answers?
 What observations will give me the answers?
 Write this as a recipe, which has two parts:
 Ingredients
 Instructions
 Methods and methodology change all the time.This chapter
is the expectation but probably will not be the reality. In your
results chapter, you can talk about what changed and why.
Need help with your dissertation? Call 727-442-4290

21. Additional
Support
Statistics Solutions is a full-service dissertation consulting
company providing graduate students timely, editorial
support for their dissertations and scholarly projects
For information about our services, receive a
complementary 30-min consultation available Mon-Fri 9-5
ET
Contact Jeanine Glase at info@StatisticsSolutions.com
Phone: 877-437-8622