This module developed for International MSc in Rehabilitation Science students, BHPI, CRP, Bangladesh

1. Qualitative
Research Design
Developed by:
Md. Yeasir Arafat Alve, MDM (BRACU); BScOT(DU);
PhD Fellow, Graduate School of Human Health Sciences,
Tokyo Metropolitan University,
7-2-10 Higashiogu, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo 116-8551, Japan
E: alve-md-yeasir-Arafat@ed.tmu.ac.jp
Leave from,
Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP)
Savar, Dhaka-1343, Bangladesh
Visit us: http://www.crp-bangladesh.org/

2. • Epistemology & ontology are both
important elements of the philosophy
of knowledge. If they often overlap,
they have clear distinction :
Epistemology is about the way we
know things.
• Ontology is about what things are.
Epistemology & Ontology

3. Why epistemology?
• How reality can be known,
• Relationship between the knower and
what is known,
• The characteristics, the principles, the
assumptions that guide the process of
knowing and the achievement of findings,
• Reliability of findings.

4. Epistemology & Ontology
• Objectivism
• Subjectivism
• Constructivism
A Relativist
A Subjectivist

5. Paradigm
• Positivist Paradigm:
– Activity Card Sort
– MOHOST
– PARTS/M
– Occupational Performance History Interview II (for
occupational identity and competence)
– Occupational Circumstances Assessment Interview
and Rating Scale Version 4.0 (volition; recurrent
patterns, roles and habits, capacity in occupational
performance areas; and, (d) physical and social
environments.
Objective Knowledge Theory Testing Approach

6. Paradigm
Interpretivist Constructivist
Subjective
meaning
Cultural
interpretation
Social
processes
Contextual
factors
Theory-building
Inductive
Researcher as Detective

7. Theoretical Perspectives
Interpretivism
Symbolic
interactionism
John Dewey (1930)
Phenomenology
Tesch (1994)
Hermeneutics
Freud theory &
Social reality
Naturalistic
inquiry
Lincoln and Guba
(1994)
 Human interaction
with the world
 Meaning
 Conceptualizing
human behavior
 Lived realities
 To understand this
process
 Subjective
experience of the
phenomena
 To understand
social reality
Realism
Chia (2002)
 For developing
theoretical
explanations
about
phenomena
 Observer
 Seen as socially
constructed
 Observation
 Deeper levels of
knowledge
 Self-
understanding
Multiple
constructed
realities
An ideographic
body of knowledge

8. Theoretical Perspectives
Critical inquiry
Feminism
(Huisman, 2008)
Postmodernism
(Delanty, 1997)
Pragmatism
John Dewey (1859–1952)
Charles Pierce (1839–1914)
William James (1842–1910)
A meta-process of investigation
Not only interpret the world but
also seeks to change.
social position
Social class, dominances
Basis of communism
Opportunity for choice
Focuses on themes
Promoting
equity, freedom and justice
Mixed methods
Generates practical
consequences

9. Theoretical Perspectives
 Meleis’s Theory of Transitions (Meleis, 2010):
Transition
ExperienceEngagement
Awareness
Change and
difference
Time Span
Critical
events
Transition
Perception of
Transition
Personal
characteristic
 Schlossberg, 1981
Adaptation
Social
environment

10. Person Problematic
situation
Deweyan Pragmatism: Transaction Theory
Theoretical Perspectives
Non-dualistic character = Holistic (Individually focused)
Human
Action
Environment
Restructuring
the context
Personally
adapted How People
coordinate?
Physical
Social
Cultural
Who?
What?
How?
“person-in-the-environment-as-a-whole”
Descriptive
Thought

11. Ethnography
• A theoretical orientation and a philosophical parasigm
(Fetterman, 2011).
• It reliance on direct observation emic perspective sets a
high standard for commitment that stands to contrast to
the etic perspective.
• Implies and attitude or stance.
• Adopts a holistic perspective.
• Embraces cultural relativism.
• Focuses cultural systems.

12. Grounded Theory
• Includes wide range of discipline.
• Authentic or groundedness.
• Develops theory.
• Constant comparative analysis.
• Saturation.
(Charmaz, 2014)

13. Case study
• Draws extract depth and meaning in
context.
• Specific location and specific case is major
concern.
• Contextually rich information.
• Intrinsic case study
• Instrumental case study
• Collective case study
(Gerring, 2007)

14. Phenomenological
• Understanding the human condition depthly (eg. treatment
for cancer, grief or loss).
• Focus on deeper meaning (capturing live experiences).
• Finding essence or common themes in experiences.
• Not only participants’ experiences but also the situations and
conditions surrounding those experiences.
• Hermeneutic phenomenology – involved the analysis of texts
describing the phenomenon or experience.
• Transcendental/ descriptive phenomenology – foregrounds
the need for “bracketing” or sidelining preconceptions about
what is real.
• Interpretive – meaning making by individuals, participants
trying to make sense of their experience. (Colaizzi, 1978)

15. Action Research
• Participatory Action Research (PAR)
• Community-based participatory research (CBPR)
• Conceptualize boarder categories related to
empowerments and egalitarian partnerships.
• Community involvement
• The engagement is respectful to local norms and
sensitive.
• Active participation, perspective and partnerships.
(Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995).

16. Narrative approach
• Emphasis on the power of spoken word.
• Narrative into therapeutic and self-help domains.
• “re-story” of lives.
• Forms of meaning making.
• One or few participants are enough.
• Creating roles, personal identity, and creating self.
• Dialogue interaction produces narratives.
• Conversation analysis or discourse analysis.
(Reissman, 1993)

17. Example
• Purpose of the current study was to explore the social and
occupational participation of three individuals with spinal cord injuries.
(Ward et al. 2007)

18. Reference List
• Maxwell, Joseph A. (1996). Qualitative research design. An interactive approach.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Morse, Janice M. (2002). Intuitive inquiry. Qualitative Health Research, 12(7), 875.
• Morse, Janice M. (2005). What is qualitative research? Qualitative Health
Research, 15(7), 859-860.
• Quinn Patton, Michael (2002). Two decades of developments in qualitative inquiry.
Qualitative Social Work, 1(3), 261-283.
• Schwandt, Thomas A. (1999). On understanding understanding. Qualitative
Inquiry, 5(4), 451-464.
• Reissman CK. Narrative analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.;
1993.
• Krefting L. Rigor in qualitative research: The assessment of trustworthiness. Am J
Occup Ther. 1991; 45(3): 219-34.
• Schlossberg, N. K. (1981). A Model for Analyzing Human Adaptation to Transition.
The Counseling Psychologies, 9(2), 1-18.
• Meleis A. Transitions theory: Middle-range and situation-specific theories in
nursing research and practice. New York: Springer Pub. Co. 2010.

19. Reference List
• Dickie, VA. Cutchin, MP. Transactional Perspectives on Occupation, Springer,
New York, USA. 2013.
• Pendleton, H. M., & Schultz-Krohn, W. (2006). Pedretti's Occupational Therapy:
Practice Skills for Physical Dysfunction, 7th Ed. Mosbey Elsevier, USA.
• Fetterman, D. M. (2010). Ethnography: Step by step (3rd ed.) Thousand Oaks,
Ca: Sage.
• Charmaz, C. (2014). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through
qualitative analysis (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Gerring, J. (2007). Case study research: Principles and practices. London, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
• Colaizzi, P. F. (1978). Psychological research as the phenomenologist views it. In
R. Valle & M. King (Eds.) Existential-phenomenological alternatives for
psychology (pp. 48 – 71). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Cornwall, A. & Jewkes, R. (1995). What is participator research? Social science &
medicine, 41(12), 1667-1676.
• Ward K, Mitchell J, Price P. Occupation-based practice and its relationship to
social and occupational participation in adults with spinal cord injury. OTJR
Occup Particip Heal. 2007;27(4):149-156.