The research process can be vague, like knitting fog and looking up into the clouds and seeing shapes. And, two people see different things in the same cloud formations!

1. Qualitative Research Part 1
Dr Ryan Thomas Williams

2. Qualitative research
• The research process can be vague, like knitting fog and
looking up into the clouds and seeing shapes. And, two
people see different things in the same cloud
formations!

4. Qualitative research
• Any type of research that produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or
other means of quantification
• A way of studying social reality with certain methodologies.
• Emphasis on seeing the world from the eyes of the participants
“the study of the nature of phenomena”, including “their quality, different manifestations,
the context in which they appear or the perspectives from which they can be perceived”,
but excluding “their range, frequency and place in an objectively determined chain of
cause and effect”
(Philipsen et al. 2007)

5. Qualitative research and crystallization
• Crystallization is an attempt to bring subjective and artistic processes into academic
research.
• As opposed to being objective, an emphasis is placed on the importance of the social
construction of meaning.
• Creative analytical practices are recommended that enable creative forms of
representation.
• As opposed to presenting research as a ‘neat fit’ the voices of the research participants
are represented in an authentic way.
• Crystallization is associated with the sociologist Laurel Richardson.

6. Challenging the conventions of research
• Whereas traditional qualitative research is characterised by a ‘research report genre’,
crystallization embraces artistic genres- films, poetry, images.
• The value of a genre is perceived as being based on the degree of illumination that is
provided in discourse.
• The aim of crystallization is to break up the boundaries of genres.
• This enables creativity and subjectivity to be a central part of the research process.

7. Key qualitative methods
• Interviews (for example, structured; loosely structured; unstructured).
• Focus Groups.
• Observation.
• Ethnography.
• Participant Observation.
• Participatory Action Research.
• Visual Methods (for example photo elicitation).

8. Qualitative research
Can refer to the research of the following:
• People’s lives
• Lived experiences
• Behaviors
• Emotions
• Feelings
• Organisational functioning
• Social movements
• Cultural phenomena
• Interactions between nations

9. Qualitative data
Qualitative data does not include numbers but any form of human communication – written, audio or visual – behaviour, symbolism
or cultural artefacts
Gibbs (2007) list the following:
• individual and focus group interviews and their transcripts
• ethnographic participant observation
• e-mail
• web pages advertisements: printed, film or TV
• videos of interviews and focus groups
• various documents such as books and magazines
• diaries
• online chat group conversations
• online news libraries
• still photos
• film

10. Reasons for doing qualitative research
• Preference
• Experience
• Chosen discipline will traditionally use qualitative
• Valid reason - What is the nature of the research problem?
• Typically used to understand the meaning or nature of the experience of persons.
• Explore substantive areas about which little is known.
• Explore feelings, thought processes or emotions that would be difficult to extract
through other conventional methods.

11. Characteristics of a qualitative researcher
• The ability to step back and critically analyze situations.
• The ability to recognize the tendency towards bias.
• The ability to think abstractly.
• The ability to be flexible and open to criticism.
• Sensitivity to the words of respondents.
• A sense of absorption and devotion to the work process.
(Strauss & Corbin 1998)