The document discusses trends in qualitative research methods. It provides an overview of basic qualitative approaches like phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, case studies, discourse analysis, and narrative analysis. A survey of strategic management research from 2007-2012 found that qualitative methods were used in only 9% of papers, far less frequently than quantitative methods. However, qualitative research is growing in some fields. A 2020 study found education and science research relies heavily on quantitative methods, while qualitative approaches are more common in arts and law. The document examines paradigms and trends in the use and distribution of various qualitative research designs.

1. Trends in Qualitative
Research
Presented To: Dr. Shariqa Nasreen
Submitted By: Hassan Arslan Khalid
Muhammad Wajahat
Zahid Muhammad Shareef
University of Management and Technology, Lahore

2. Content
• Introduction
• Basic Approaches in Qualitative
Research
• Trends in Qualitative Research

3. Introduction
The present study on qualitative research debates about research
philosophy, design, and purposes that have led to clashes of opinion in the
field of educational communications and technology as well as in the larger
sphere of educational research. At the same time, the number of
publications on qualitative methods specific to the field has increased,
expanding the understanding of the potential of such approaches to explore,
describe, and explicate key issues in instructional design and the application
of technology to learning. Also, this study included the trends in the use of
qualitative research design and emerging approaches more generally. Within
this framework, issues of design, methods, and knowledge generation are
reviewed and examined through a sample of recent directions in qualitative
studies and designs. For each method reviewed, examples are provided
along with common issues and potential directions for future use of these.

4. Qualitative
Research
Qualitative researchers are interested in
understanding the meaning people have
constructed, that is, how people make sense of
their world and the experiences they have in
the world. (Merriam, 2009, p. 13)
Qualitative research is the research using methods
such as participant observation or case studies which
result in a narrative, descriptive account of a setting or
practice. Sociologists using these methods typically
reject positivism and adopt a form of interpretive
sociology. (Parkinson & Drislane, 2011)
Qualitative research is collecting, analyzing, and
interpreting data by observing what people do and
speak. It refers to the meaning, concepts, definitions,
characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions
of things.

5. Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths Weaknesses
Good for examining feelings and
motivations.
Can’t extrapolate to the whole
population.
Allows for complexity and depths of
issues.
Volume of data.
Provides insights into the real-life issues. Complexity in analysis.
Time consuming nature of clerical
efforts required.

6. Basic
Approaches
in
Qualitative
Research
Phenomenology
Ethnography
Inductive Thematic Analysis
Grounded Theory
Case study
Discourse/Conversation Analysis
Narrative Analysis

7. Phenomenology
• Phenomenology, the study of conscious experience, can be traced back to early 20th-
century philosophers such as Husserl, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty.
• Later adopted in the behavioral and social sciences by notable scholars such as
psychologist Amedeo Giorgi (1970) and social scientist Alfred Schütz, (1967).
• Phenomenology is a commonly employed approach in clinical psychology, and in this
context, it is associated with a unique set of methods and procedures (Moustakas,
1994).
• Much qualitative research is phenomenological in nature in that it attempts to
understand individuals’ lived experiences and the behavioral, emotive, and social
meanings that these experiences have for them. For instance, the notion of open-ended
questions and conversational inquiry.

8. Ethnography
• Ethnographic research has involved a researcher’s total and prolonged immersion
within a study community, often for a year or longer.
• Literally it means “to write about a group of people.” Its roots are grounded in the field
of anthropology and the practice of in situ research, where a researcher is immersed
within the community, he/she is studying for extended periods of time.
• Early 20th-century anthropologists such as Bronislaw Malinowksi and Franz Boas
pioneered traditional ethnography.
• Many disciplines outside of anthropology now utilize an ethnographic approach, and its
adoption in applied research has grown as well.
• In such a research context, the entire research process—design, data collection,
analysis, and write-up—has embodied within one individual.

9. Inductive Thematic Analysis and Grounded Theory
• ITA is probably the most common qualitative data analysis method employed in the
social, behavioral, and health sciences. The process consists of reading through textual
data, identifying themes in the data, coding those themes, and then interpreting the
structure and content of the themes (Guest, MacQueen, & Namey, 2012).
• Grounded theory is a type of inductive thematic analysis. Developed by Glaser and
Strauss (1967), grounded theory is a set of iterative techniques designed to identify
categories and concepts within text that are then linked into formal theoretical models
(Corbin & Strauss, 2008).
• The process entails systematically reviewing units of text (often line-by-line, but units
can be words, paragraphs, or larger units of text) as they are collected, creating
emergent codes for those units, and writing memos that expand on created codes and
the relationships between codes. This process is repeated until data collection is
completed.

10. Case Study Approaches
• A qualitative case study examines a phenomenon within its real-life context. Data
are collected on or about a single individual, group, or event.
• The primary purpose of a case study is to understand something that is unique to
the case(s). Knowledge from the study is then used to apply to other cases and
contexts.
• Qualitative case study methods often involve several in-depth interviews over a
period of time with each case.
• Sample sizes are generally small due to unique attributes of case.
• The overall idea is to tease out what makes them so different and why. Often,
knowledge gained from case studies is applied to a larger population.

11. Discourse and Conversation Analysis
• Both discourse and conversation analysis approaches stem from the ethnomethodological tradition (e.g.,
Garfinkel 1967, 2002), which is the study of the ways in which people produce recognizable social orders
and processes.
• Both approaches tend to examine text as an “object of analysis.” Analysis can be quite detailed, looking at
the specific structure of discourse and interaction between two or more speakers to understand how
shared meanings are socially constructed.
• Discourse analysis (DA) is generally broader in what it studies, utilizing pretty much any naturally
occurring text, including (existing) written texts, lectures, documents, and so forth. Conversation analysis
(CA) is a subset of discourse analysis. Its scope is narrower and confined to natural conversations between
two or more people.
• In-depth interviews and focus groups are not ideal data collection methods for these types of analyses.
While the recording of meetings, public events, and public discourses are the ideal ways to collect data.

12. Narrative Analysis
• Narrative analysis is based on the study of discourse and the textual
representation of discourse. It is the narrations of data which
distinguish it from CA or DA.
• They can be generated during the data collection process, such as
through in-depth interviews or focus groups; they can be
incidentally captured during participant observation; or, they can be
embedded in written forms, including diaries, letters, the Internet,
or literary works.
• Some of the more common data analysis methods include formative
research for a subsequent study, comparative analysis between
groups, understanding social or historical phenomena, or diagnosing
psychological or medical conditions.

16. Trends in Qualitative Research

17. Survey of Qualitative Research Methodology in Strategy
Research and Implication for Indian Researchers
• The purpose of this article is to review the acceptance and popularity of
qualitative research designs in contrast to quantitative research designs in
strategic management domain.
• The researchers also make a case for accommodating more qualitative
research methods in strategic management research and identify the
areas where qualitative research methods would be highly useful.
• In terms of research design for this survey, all peer-reviewed academic
papers published in top three journals of strategic and general
management (Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management
Journal and Administrative Science Quarterly) and published between
2007 and 2012 were covered for this survey.

18. Findings
The finding suggests that, in terms of actual number of
published articles, the qualitative methodology is far behind
dominant quantitative methodology. Out of 847 empirical
research articles published in the above three journals, only
9 percent used qualitative research design, while 7 percent
used mixed method, but overwhelming 84 percent uses
quantitative research designs. There is variation among the
three journals surveyed on their approach towards
qualitative articles, while Administrative Science Quarterly
and Academy of Management Journal provided more
coverage for qualitative research articles; 14 percent of total
empirical research articles are qualitative. Strategic
Management Journal has published least in terms of
percentage; only 4 percent of total empirical research
articles are qualitative. Within qualitative methodology, case
study is found to be most popular method among the
researchers across all the three journals. In terms of
paradigm, though interpretive paradigm is used for 75
percent of the research design, positivist paradigm is used
for half of the case study-based research design.

23. Paradigm
Trends

25. Trends in
Distribution of
Research
Method

27. Qualitative Research
Trends Since 2014

28. Researching
Educational
Issues: An
Analysis of
Methods Used in
Conducting
Doctoral
Research (2020)
This study analyzed the predominant
methods adopted in conducting inquiry into
educational issues and compared them with
other disciplines using the abstracts of 428
PhD students’ dissertations spanning a
period of 10 years.
Findings show that quantitative method
dominated research in education and the
sciences, while qualitative method was
popular in the arts/law.

29. Findings

32. Thanks