2nd Semester Practical Research 1

Lesson 3
Qualitative Research

I. Preliminaries

I. Objectives
Content Standard:
The learner demonstrates understanding of:
The value of qualitative research; its kinds, characteristic s, used,
strengths, and weaknesses.
The importance of qualitative research across fields of inquiry.

Culminating Performance Standard

The learner is able to:
Decide on suitable qualitative research in different areas of interest

Power Standard
Use appropriate kinds of research in making decisions.

Learning Competencies
analyze the use of an unfamiliar term in a sentence to know its meaning;
obtain a thorough or in-depth knowledge of qualitative research;
clarify your understanding of qualitative research;
explain the elements or characteristics of qualitative research;
justify the usefulness of qualitative research;
compare and contrast the types of qualitative research; and
match a given research topic with the right research type.

II. Content:

UNIT II Qualitative Research and Its Importance in Daily Life

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
 2nd Semester Practical Research 1
Lesson 3
Qualitative Research

Concept Notes
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Definition of Qualitative Research

As a curious student, you want to know so many things about your surroundings as well
as the people, places, and things you find interesting, intriguing, mysterious, or unique. Try
looking at the people around you. Perhaps, you are interested in knowing these people's
ideas, views, feelings, attitudes, or lifestyle. The information these people give you reflect
their mental, spiritual, emotional, or social upbringing, which in turn, show how they view the
world.
Resulting from internal aspects, people cannot measure worldviews but can know
them through numbers. Obtaining world knowledge in this manner directs you to do a
research called Qualitative Research. This is a research type that puts premium or high value
on people's thinking or point of view conditioned by their personal traits. As such, it usually
takes place in soft sciences like social sciences, politics, economics, humanities, education,
psychology, nursing, and all business-related subjects.
Subjectivity in qualitative research is true, not only for an individual or a group under
study, but also for you, the researcher, because of your personal involvement in every stage
of your research. For instance, during interviews, you tend to admire or appreciate people's
ideas based on their answers or your observations and analysis of certain objects. By carefully
looking at or listening to the subject or object in a natural setting, you become affected by
their expressions of what they think and feel about a topic. (Coghan 2014).
In a qualitative research, the reality is conditioned by society and people's intentions
are involved in explaining cause-effect relationships. Things are studied in their natural
setting, enough for you to conclude that qualitative research is an act of inquiry or
investigation of real-life events. Giving you more concepts about a qualitative research are
the following paragraphs that comprehensively present the elements or characteristics,
types, and advantages of this kind of research (Silverman 2013; Litchman 2013; Walliman
2014; Suter 2012):

Characteristics of a Qualitative Research

1. Human understanding and interpretation

Data analysis results show an individual's mental, social, and spiritual
understanding of the world. Hence, through their worldviews, you come to know what
 kind of human being he or she is, including his or her values, beliefs, likes, and
dislikes.
2. Active, powerful, and forceful
A lot of changes occur continuously in every stage of a qualitative research. As
you go through the research process, you find the need to amend or rephrase
interview questions and consider varied ways of getting answers, like shifting from
mere speculating to traveling to places for data gathering. You are not fixated to a
certain plan. Rather, you are inclined to discover your qualitative research design as
your study gradually unfolds or reveals itself in accordance with your research
objectives.
3. Multiple research approaches and methods
Qualitative research allows you to approach or plan your study in varied ways.
You are free to combine this with quantitative research and use all gathered data and
analysis techniques. Being a multi-method research, a qualitative study applies to all
research types: descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, case study, etc.
4. Specificity to generalization
Specific ideas in a qualitative research are directed to a general understanding
of something. It follows an inductive or scientific method of thinking, where you start
thinking of particular or specific concept that will eventually lead you to more complex
ideas such as generalizations or conclusions.
5. Contextualization
A quantitative research involves all variables, factors, or conditions affecting
the study. Your goal here is to understand human behavior. Thus, it is crucial for you
to examine the context or situation of an individual's life—the who, what, why, how,
and other circumstances—affecting his or her way of life.
6. Diversified data in real-life situations
A qualitative researcher prefers collecting data in a natural setting like
observing people as they live and work, analyzing photographs or videos as they
genuinely appear to people, and looking at classrooms unchanged or adjusted to
people's intentional observations.
7. Abounds with words and visuals
Words, words, and more words come in big quantity in this kind of research.
Data gathering through interviews or library reading, as well as the presentation of
data analysis results, is done verbally. In some cases, it resorts to quoting some
respondents' answers. Likewise, presenting people's world views through visual
presentation (i.e., pictures, videos, drawings, and graphs) are significantly used in a
qualitative research.
8. Internal analysis
Here, you examine the data yielded by the internal traits of the subject
individuals (i.e., emotional, mental, spiritual characteristics). You study people's
perception or views about your topic, not the effects of their physical existence on your
study. In case of objects (e.g., books and artworks) that are subjected to a qualitative
research, the investigation centers on underlying theories or principles that govern
these materials and their usefulness to people.
Types of Qualitative Research

1. Case Study
This type of qualitative research usually takes place in the field of social care,
nursing, psychology, rehabilitation centers, education, etc. This involves a long-time
study of a person, group, organization, or situation. It seeks to find answers to why such
thing occurs to the subject. Finding the reason/s behind such occurrence drives you
to also delve into relationships of people related to the case under study. Varieties of
data collection methods such as interviews, questionnaires, observations, and
documentary analysis are used in a case study.
2. Ethnography
Falling in the field of anthropology, ethnography is the study of a particular
cultural group to get a clear understanding of its organizational set-up, internal
operation, and lifestyle. A particular group reveals the nature or characteristics of their
own culture through the world perceptions of the cultural group's members.
3. Phenomenology
Coming from the word "phenomenon," which means something known through
sensory experience, phenomenology refers to the study of how people find their
experiences meaningful. Its primary goal is to make people understand their
experiences about death of loved ones, care for handicapped persons, friendliness of
people, etc. In doing so, other people will likewise understand the meanings attached
to their experiences. Those engaged in assisting people to manage their own lives
properly often do this qualitative kind of research.
4. Content and Discourse Analysis
Content analysis is a method of quantitative research that requires an analysis
or examination of the substance or content of the mode of communication (letters,
books, journals, photos, video recordings, SMS, online messages, emails, audio-visual
materials, etc.) used by a person, group, organization, or any institution in
communicating. A study of language structures used in the medium of communication
to discover the effects of sociological, cultural, institutional, and ideological factors on
the content makes it a discourse analysis. In studying the content or structures of the
material, you need a question or a set of questions to guide you in your analysis.
5. Historical Analysis
Central to this qualitative research method is the examination of primary
documents to make you understand the connection of past events to the present time.
The results of your content analysis will help you specify phenomenological changes
in unchanged aspects of society through the years.
6. Grounded Theory
Grounded theory takes place when you discover a new theory to underlie your
study at the time of data collection and analysis. Through your observation on your
subjects, you will happen to find a theory that applies to your current study. Interview,
observation, and documentary analysis are the data gathering techniques for this type
of qualitative research.
Advantages or Strengths of Qualitative Research
1. It adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject matter, which means that those involve
in the research understand things based on what they find meaningful.
2. It promotes a full understanding of human behavior or personality traits in their natural
setting.
3. It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
4. It engenders respect for people's individuality as it demands the researcher's careful
and attentive stand toward people's world views.
5. It is a way of understanding and interpreting social interactions.
6. It increases the researcher's interest in the study as it includes the researcher's
experience or background knowledge in interpreting verbal and visual data.
7. It offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining knowledge about something.

Disadvantages or Weaknesses of Qualitative Research

1. It involves a lot of researcher's subjectivity in data analysis.
2. It is hard to know the validity or reliability of the data.
3. Its open-ended questions yield "data overload" that requires long-time analysis.
4. It is time-consuming.
5. It involves several processes, which results greatly depend on the researcher's views
or interpretations.
 2nd Semester Practical Research 1
Lesson 3
Qualitative Research

Seatwork No. 1

Directions: Name the type of qualitative research best suited for the following topics.

1. The Mangyans' Burial Practices

______________________________________________________________________________________
2. Relatives of Typhoon Victims
______________________________________________________________________________________
3. The Effectiveness of the K-12 Curriculum
______________________________________________________________________________________
4. Spiderman: The Very First: Film in the 21st Century
______________________________________________________________________________________
5. Philippines' Political Party System: Then and Now
______________________________________________________________________________________
6. Filipino Caregivers in Japan
______________________________________________________________________________________
7. Travails of Senior Citizens at the LRT/MRT Stations
______________________________________________________________________________________
8. The Lone Grade VI Speed Reader of UST High School
______________________________________________________________________________________
9. Grade 11 Science Textbook
______________________________________________________________________________________
10. Student Activism Since the Marcos Era
______________________________________________________________________________________
ACTIVITY NO. 1
Directions: Enter in the right column the topic that corresponds to the right headword
indicating how much you have learned.
Topic Poor Good Better Best

1. Definition of Qualitative
Research
2. Types of Qualitative
Research
3. Characteristics of
Qualitative Research
4. Advantages of Qualitative
Research