It's a qualitative research introduction . Guide for new researcher

1. QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
ROBERT T. ORIAS, DALL
SEPS, Planning and Research
Northern Samar Division

2. Activity
1.Look for a subject (anyone
from the participants)
2.Describe the subject in 5
minutes in a piece of paper
3.Submit your work

3. Objectives
1.Define qualitative research;
2.Spell out some myths of QR;
3.Differentiate Qualitative Research from
Quantitative Research;
4.Discuss the Qualitative Research Designs and
Methods; and
5.Appreciate the beauty of qualitative research.

4. DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
o Is a type of research that focuses on “how
people interpret their experiences, how they
construct their experiences, how they
construct their worlds, and what meaning they
attribute to their experience” (Merriam, 2009,p.5).

5. DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE
OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
o It allows the
researcher to bring
“his/her eyes and
ears and filters”
(Lichtman,2013,p.4)
to the study.
o Is sometimes called
qualitative inquiry or
interpretive inquiry
(Creswell, 2013).

6. It provides “opportunities to examine issues
in depth that may yield a clearer
understanding of what is happening in certain
circumstances and how changes can be
made to meet the needs ”(Lichtman,
2013,p.xv).
DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

7. SOME MYTHS OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
1. QR is criticized for being too subjective (Bogdan & Biklen,
2007)
 Reality is experienced subjectively by different people (Lichtman, 2013)
 The complex problems of human beings sometimes requires subjective solutions
depending on the situations and the context of the problem (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007)
 Exhaustive approaches of credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability to
achieve trustworthiness of results that add rigor and strength to data gathering, analysis,
and description (Creswell, 2014)
 Member checking (Creswell, 2014) building an agreement between the researcher and
the informants regarding the meanings and subsequent themes being formulated.

8. SOME MYTHS OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
2. QR is not considered generalizable ( Bogdan & Biklen, 2007
 Theoretical generalization – generalization is over the
concept, the theory, or the phenomenon under exploration
 Setting generalization – the readers are given the power to
generalize over his or her own setting (Lincoln & Guba,
1985)

9. QUANTITATIVE VS QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
General
Framework
Seek to confirm hypotheses about
phenomena
Seek to explore phenomena
Instruments use are more rigid
style of eliciting and categorizing
responses to questions
Instruments use are more
flexible, iterative style of eliciting
and categorizing responses to
questions
Use highly structured methods
such as questionnaires, surveys,
and structured observations
Use semi-structured methods
such as in-depth interview, FGD,
and participant observations

10. QUANTITATIVE VS QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
Analytical
objectives
To quantify variation To describe variation
To predict causal
relationships
To describe and explain
relationships
To describe
characteristics of a
population
To describe individual
experience and group
norms

11. QUANTITATIVE VS QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
Question
format
Closed - ended Open - ended
Data
Format
• Numerical ( obtained by
assigning numerical values to
responses)
• Everything is basically reduced
to number (Creswell, 2012)
• Textual (obtained from
audiotapes, videotapes, field
notes
• Examine issues in depth that
may yield a clearer
understanding

12. QUANTITATIVE VS QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
Flexibility in
study design
Stable design from beginning to
end
Some aspects of the study are
flexible
Participant’s responses do not
influence or determine how and
which questions researchers ask
next
Participant’s responses affect how
and which questions researchers
ask next
Study design is subject to
statistical assumptions and
conditions
It is iterative, data collection and
research questions are adjusted
according to what is learned from
the field

13. QUANTITATIVE VS QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
Flexibility in
study design
Human participants are
treated almost like
inanimate objects
Researcher understands that
he/she is dealing with human
beings with feelings,
emotions, life, experiences,
and minds to interpret their
personal experiences within
their context

14. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS
(Creswell, 2012)
1. NARRATIVE RESEARCH
 Studies the lives of individuals and asks one or more
individuals to provide stories about their lives
 Story is then retold or restored by the researcher into a
narrative chronology
 In the end, the narrative combines views from the
participant’s life in a collaborative narrative

15. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS
2. PHENOMENOLOGY
 Researcher identifies the essence of human experience about a
phenomenon as described by the participants
 Understanding the lived experience and the procedure involves studying
a small number of subjects through extensive and prolonged engagement
to develop patterns and relationships of meaning (Moustakas, J 994)
 The researcher brackets or sets aside his/her own experience in order to
understand those of the participants in the study (Nieswiadomy, 1993)

16. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS
3. ETHNOGRAPHY
Researchers study an intact cultural group in a natural
setting over a prolonged period of time by collecting,
primarily, observational data (Creswell, 2007)
Flexible and typically evolves contextually in response
to the lived realities encountered in the filed setting
(LeCompte & Schensul, 1999)

17. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS
4. CASE STUDIES
 Researcher explores in depth a program, event,
activity, process, or one or more individuals
 Cases are bounded by time and activity and
researchers collect detailed information using a variety
of data collection procedures over a sustained period
of time (Slake, 1995)

18. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS
5. GROUNDED THEORY
 Research derives a general, abstract theory of a process, action, or
interaction grounded in the views of participants
 Involves using multiple stages of data collection and the refinement and
interrelationships or categories of information (Strauss and Corbin, 1990)
 Two primary characteristics: constant comparison of data with emerging
categorizing and theoretical sampling of different groups to maximize the
similarities and the differences of information.

19. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS
6. ACTION RESEARCH
 Intended to uncover or produce information and knowledge
that will be directly useful to a group of people (through
research, education, and socio political action)
 Meant to enlighten and empower the average person in the
group, motivating them to take up and use the information
gathered in the research (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991;
Reason, 1994)

20. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS
6. ACTION RESEARCH
 A three-step process of
1)planning which involves
reconnaissance; 2) taking
actions; and 3) fact-finding
about the results of the
action (Kurt Lewin, 1947)

21. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
1. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
Generally speaking, the researcher engaged in
participant observation tries to learn what life is
like for an “insider” while remaining, inevitably, an
“outsider.”

22. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
2. IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW
 Elicit vivid picture of the participants perspective
 Interviewee – expert
 Researcher poses questions in a neutral manner,
listens attentively, asks follow up questions
 Face-to-face; one interviewer, one participant

23. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
3. FOCUS GROUP
Illuminates group opinion
Good for resolving differences of opinion
between and among respondents

24. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
4. USE OF SECONDARY DATA (Documents)
Public docs such as minutes of meetings,
and newspapers
Private documents such as journals, diaries,
and letters
E-mail discussion

25. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
5. AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS
Photographs
Videotapes
Art Objects
Computer Software
Film

26. Research is to see what everybody
else has seen, and to think what
nobody else has thought.
– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

27. Everything that can be counted does
not necessarily be counted.
-Albert Einstein