QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Regie P. De Jesus, PhDNS

 “Not everything that can be counted
counts,
and not everything that counts can be
counted “
-Albert Einstein-
 INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH

• Scientist more comfortable with quantitative research

• Quantitative methods deal with the collection and
processing numerical data
• Answer questions
• – How often? To what extent?
• – How much? How many ... but cannot answer questions
on – Why? how? In what way?
 INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH

• Qualitative research can provide insight which is not

possible to elucidate with purely quantitative data
• – A means for exploring and understanding the meaning
individuals or groups ascribe to social or human problems
• – Study human behavior and social world
• Help us to understand the world in which we live and
why things are the way they are
 What is Qualitative Research?

• A research type that puts premium or high value on people’s thinking

or point of view conditioned by PERSONAL TRAITS
• Usually takes place in Soft Sciences like social sciences
• SUBJECTIVITY is true
• Reality is conditioned by society and people’s intentions
• Studied in NATURAL SETTING
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
• Qualitative research answer questions on:
• – Why people behave the way they do
• – How opinions and attitudes are formed
• – How people are affected by the events that go on around them
• – How and why cultures have developed
• – The difference between social groups
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

• Not measurements, but WORDS!

• Instead of asking how many times someone purchased an item, you ask
"WHY...?"
• Instead of asking the frequency of smoking, you ask “WHY” people smoke?
• Typically the samples are small, and not "random"
 Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Research
QUALITATIVE QUATITATIVE
Subjective – concern with opinion, Objective
experiences and feelings of individuals
Probing question Simple question
Constructivism Positivism
Inductive – generate theories Deductive – test proposed theories
Verbal Language Numeric
Thematic Codal Statistical
Small sample – direct data collection, Representative sample
interview, observation
Results – generalizability is not an aim Usually generalizability is an important aim
 DATA COLLECTION IN
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Direct interaction with individuals
• – One to one interaction
• – Or interaction with a group
• Interviews
• Focus Group Discussion
• Observation
• Data collection is time consuming
• Benefits of these methods include richness of data and deeper insight
into phenomena under study
 INTERVIEWS

Structured Interviews
• – Same questions in same away
• – Limited range of responses (e.g. questionnaires)
Semi structured interviews or focused interviews
• Series of open ended questions
• Provide opportunities to both researchers and respondents to discuss
certain topics in more details
 INTERVIEWS

Unstructured interviews or in-depth interviews

– Discussing limited number of topics
– Phrase questions in the interviewee’s previous response
• Qualitative interviews are semi structure or unstructured
• Qualitative interviews should be fairly informal
• Require careful consideration and preparation
 FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION

• Collect information from groups of people rather than a series of

individuals
• FGD can be used when
• – Resources are limited
• – To identify a number of individuals who share a common factor
• – It is desirable to collect the views of several people within the population
sub group
• – Group interaction among participants has the potential for greater insights
to be developed
 FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION

• Characteristics of a focus group

• – Group size: usually 6-10 people
• – Several FGD should be run in any research, it would be wrong to rely on the
views of just one group
• – Members of each group should have something in common
• – May use pre formed groups e.g. pressure groups
• – Data collection and analysis is time consuming
• – Requires certain skills
• • Facilitation, moderating, listening, observing and analyzing
 OBSERVATION

• Might be the only method to collect information in certain conditions

• Observation of people VS. observation of environment
• Observation can also serve for verifying or nullifying information
collected through other methods, observing and analyzing
 OBSERVATION

Techniques for collecting data

• – Written descriptions
• Researcher may miss to record
• May focus on one thing and miss equally or even more important things
• – Video recording
• No need to take notes
• Review time after time
• Recording my affect the behavior of the people under observation
• Fixed camera may limits the range of possible observation
 OBSERVATION

Techniques for collecting data

• Photographs
• – Good way of collecting observable data of phenomena which can be
captured in a single shots or series of shots
• – Photographs of buildings, neighborhoods, dress and appearance
• Documentation
• Wide range of written materials
• Policy document, annual reports, minutes of meeting, codes of conduct,
notice boards etc.
 OBSERVATION

Techniques for collecting data

• Photographs
• – Good way of collecting observable data of phenomena which can be
captured in a single shots or series of shots
• – Photographs of buildings, neighborhoods, dress and appearance
• Documentation
• Wide range of written materials
• Policy document, annual reports, minutes of meeting, codes of conduct,
notice boards etc.
 HANDLING QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH DATA
• Recording VS. note taking
• Transcribing qualitative data
• – Procedure for producing written version of interview
• – Time consuming , estimated ratio of time required is 5:1
• – Produce a lot of written text
• Transcribe may not be essential for each interview
• Tape analysis: taking notes from play back of tape recorded interviews
• Who should do transcribing?
 HANDLING QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH DATA
Consideration should be given to tone and inflection
• – By listening and noting the intensity and feeling in the interviewee’s voice it is
possible to detect:
• • Positive/negative continuum
• • Certainty/uncertainty
• • Enthusiasm/reluctance
Constant comparative analysis: data collection and data analysis occur on
ongoing basis
• – Each interview is analyzed before other interview take place
• – Finding of first interview is incorporated in the following one
• – Later interviews might be completely different from the initial ones
 ANALYZING QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH DATA
• Involves summarizing data and presenting the results in a way that
communicate the most important features
• As quantitative research we are interested to discover the big picture
in qualitative research as well, but by using different technics
• We start labeling or coding every item of information to recognize
differences and similarities between all different items
 ANALYZING QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH DATA
• No system for pre-coding
• Needs a method of identifying and coding items of data which appear
in the text of transcript
• All the items of data from one interview should be compared with
other interviews
• Same procedures are used for qualitative data collected through
interviews, FGDs, observation and documentary analysis – since all
are concerned with analyzing text
 Computerized Data Analysis

• Most well known software packages include

• – ATLAS/ti
• – NVivo
• – NUD*IST
 Presenting the Results of Qualitative
Research
• Look at themes and categories and structure the results accordingly
• The structure can be set out at the beginning as a list or diagram
• Themes are the main findings of the study
• To support findings, evidence are presented at direct quotations from
respondents
 Presenting the Results of Qualitative
Research
• A range of quotations should be selected – Strength of opinion or belief
• – Similarities between respondents
• – Differences between respondents
• Link between different categories
• Conclusion
• Some qualitative data can be dealt with in quantitative way
• Using qualitative and quantitative techniques for analysis of data can
strengthen analysis
Presenting the Results of Qualitative
Research
TYPES OF QUALITATIVE
RESERACH
 TYPES OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH

• Case Study
• Ethnography
• Phenomenology
• Historical Analysis
• Grounded Theory
 CASE STUDY

• Emerging from approaches in business, law, and medicine.

• The case study provides an in-depth description of a single unit.
• The “unit” can be an individual, a group, a site, a class, a policy, a
program, a process, an institution, or a community.
• It is a single occurrence of something that the researcher is interested
in examining.
• The question is “what are the characteristics of this particular entity,
phenomenon, person, or setting”
 CASE STUDY

• The greatest advantage of a case study is the possibility of depth; it

seeks to understand the whole case in the totality of the
environment.
• Not only the present actions of an individual but also his or her past,
environment, emotions, and thoughts can be probed.
• The researcher tries to determine why an individual behaves as he or
she does and not merely to record behavior.
 CASE STUDY

• Institutions such as schools, churches, colleges, fraternal

organization, and businesses have been the focus of case
studies.
• Case studies have been made of groups of individuals such as
gays, drug addicts, delinquents, street gangs, migratory
workers, CEOs, medical students, teachers, and many others
 TYPES OF CASE STUDY

• Intrinsic case study - understand a particular case that may be

unusual, unique, or different in some way.
• Instrumental case study, - researcher believes this particular case can
help provide insights or help to understand that issue.
• Multiple or collective case study uses several cases selected to
further understand and investigate a phenomenon, population, or
general condition.
• studying multiple units can provide better illumination
•
 CASE STUDY: DATA
COLLECTION
• Case study may employ multiple methods of data collection and don’t
rely on a single technique.
• Testing
• Interviewing
• Observation
• Review of documents
• Artifacts
• Other methods may be used
 CASE STUDY

E.g.
DYCI as the 2012 Most Transformative School
A case study of a mother who has lost her child to suicide
Apple as the Sole Enterprise that Survived Recession
 CASE STUDY: CONTENT
ANALYSIS
• Content analysis focuses on the characteristics of materials and ask
“What meaning is reflected in these materials?
• Can be quantitative and qualitative
• The materials analyzed can be textbooks, newspapers, web pages,
social network sites twitter feeds, blogs, virtual worlds, speeches,
television programs, advertisements, musical compositions, or any of
a host of other types of documents.
 CASE STUDY: CONTENT
ANALYSIS

• Content analysis involves the following steps:

1. Read the transcript and make brief note of interesting or
relevant information
2. Make a list of the different type of information from the notes
3. Categorization of the listed items
4. Identify the categories that are some how linked to each other
(major categories or themes)
5. Compare and contrast various categories
 CASE STUDY: CONTENT
ANALYSIS
• Content analysis involves the following steps:
6. Repeat the process from stage 1-5 on next transcripts - - -
Identify new categories of information
- Accommodate data in the existing categories
- Color code different categories and review
7. Collect together all the extracts from the transcribed interviews that you
have put into one category
8. Review different categories and move items if required from one category to
another
9. Review and check if two or more categories can fit together
10. Check the initial notes, consider if any previously excluded data is relevant
and should be included in results
 CASE STUDY: CONTENT
ANALYSIS

• its unobtrusiveness. The presence of the observer does

not influence what is being observed. You do not need
to enlist the cooperation of subjects or get permission
to do the study.
• Another advantage of content analyses is that they are
easily replicated. Readers interested in further
information on content analysis should read
Krippendorf’s (2012)and Schreier (2012).
 ETHNOGRAPHIC
RESEARCHES
• Study of a particular cultural group to get a clear understanding of its
organizational set-up, internal operation or lifestyle
• Culture includes a way of life (all the ways a group of people solve
problems, a pattern of living that guides thoughts, actions, sentiments
as reflected in language, dress, food, traditions, customs.
• Descends from the science of anthropology
• “What are the cultural patterns and perspectives of this group in its
natural setting?” is the underlying question addressed in ethnography.
 ETHNOGRAPHIC
RESEARCHES
• Must understand the culture (in order to do that one must spend time
in the group being studied)
• Must immerse one’s self the group/culture being studied
(PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION)
• Interviews, analysis of documents, records, and artifacts, fieldwork
diary entries, ideas, impressions, and insights in regard to those
events
 ETHNOGRAPHIC
RESEARCHES

• Ethnographer refers to the people from whom they gather

information as informants rather than participants, and they
study sites rather than individuals.

•
 ETHNOGRAPHIC
RESEARCHES
• Spindler and Hammond (2000) describe some of the
characteristics of good ethnography:
• (1) extended participant observation;
• (2) long time at the site;
• (3) collection of large volumes of materials such as notes,
artifacts, audio, and videotapes; and
• (4) openness, which means having no specific hypotheses or
even highly specific categories of observation at the start of the
study
 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCHES:
DATA COLLECTION

• Common means of collecting data include

• interviewing,
• document analysis,
• participant observations,
• research diaries, and
• life stories.
• Ethnography is not defined by how data are collected, but by the
lens through which the data are interpreted (Merriam &
Associated, 2002)
 ETHNOGRAPHIC
RESEARCHES
• E.g.
• The Birthing Practices of Badjaos
• One way of uncovering the unmet needs of customers is to "follow
them home" and observe them as they interact with the product.
• The “Pinkie” campaign –Speeding - No One Thinks Big Of You
 TWO APPROACHES IN
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCHES

• Cresswell (2007) describes two approaches to ethnography:

• 1-Realist Ethnography
• 2-Critical Ethnography
 TWO APPROACHES IN
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCHES

• 1-Realist Ethnography
• Realist ethnographer narrates the study in a third-person
dispassionate voice and reports on observations of participants and
their views.
• does not offer personal reflections in the research report and remains
in the background as an omniscient reporter of the facts.
• produces the participants’ view through closely edited quotations
and has the final word on the interpretation and presentation of the
culture.
 TWO APPROACHES IN
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCHES

• 2. Critical Ethnography
• the researcher takes an advocacy perspective and has a value-laden
orientation.
• The researcher is advocating for a marginalized group, challenging the
status quo, or attempting to empower the group by giving it voice.
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGE
OF ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCHES

• The main advantage is its observation of behavior in a real-life

setting, the assumption being than human behavior can fully
understand only by knowing the setting in which it occurs.
• The main limitation is that the findings depend heavily on the
particular researcher’s observations and interpretations of the data
• Ethnographer typically spend a long time observing participants and
collect a large volumes of material(notes, artifacts, audio and video,
etc.).
 TYPES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC
RESEARCHES
• Autoethnography ( a self–examination within a cultural context).
• Ethnographic case studies( a case study within a cultural perspective).
• Critical Ethnography ( a study of marginalized group).
• Feminist ethnography( the study of women and cultural practice).
• Postmodern ethnography( a study of particular challenges or
problems of society).
• Visual ethnography.
• Online ethnography
 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

• Data analysis – “emic” approach: researcher interpret

data from the prospective of the population under
study
• Results are expressed as they are expressed by the
subjects themselves
• These studies might be problematic when researchers
are not familiar with social norms and language
 Phenomenological Researches

• Study of how people find their experiences meaningful

• The central research question aims to determine the essence of the
experience as “perceived by the people who have participated” in it.
• Describes the meaning of the lived experience from the perspective
of the participant
• Phenomena might be:
• – An event, a situation, an experience or a concept – e.g. back pain
• It begins with the acknowledgment that there is a gap in our
understanding
 Phenomenological Researches

• Seeks to achieve a deep understanding of the phenomenon by

rigorous, systematic examination of it

• It has roots in the philosophical perspectives of Husserl, Heidegger,

Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, etc.
 Phenomenology is based on…

• The assumption that there is an essence or essences to shared

experience. These essences are the core meanings mutually
understood through a phenomenon commonly experienced. The
experiences of different people are bracketed, analyzed, and
compared to identify the essences of the phenomenon, for example,
the essence of loneliness, the essence of being a mother, or the
essence of being a participant in a particular program. The
assumption of essence, like the ethnographer’s that culture exists
and is important, becomes the defining characteristic of a purely
phenomenological study. (Patton. 2002.pg 106)
 Phenomenological Researcher’s Task ...

• phenomenologists are “interested in showing how complex meanings

are built out of simple units of direct experience”(Merriam and
associates 2002,p,7).
• Prior to interviewing, those who have had experience with the
phenomenon usually explores his/her own experiences in order to
examine the dimensions of the phenomenon and to be aware of one’s
own personal prejudices, viewpoints and assumptions (in order to set
them aside)
•
 Phenomenological Researches

• E.g.
• Lived Experiences of Diabetic Amputees
• A phenomenological study of preschool teachers’ experiences and
perspectives on inclusion practices
 Phenomenological Researches: DATA
ANALYSIS
• The first principle of analysis of phenomenological data is to use an
emergent strategy, to allow the method of analysis to follow the nature of
the data itself. Steps,
• Explore your own experiences & set aside your opinions/judgments
• Bracket judgments and everyday understandings in order to examine
consciousness itself
• Phenomenological reduction: revisiting the experience to derive the inner
structure/meaning in and of itself
• Horizonalization analysis is conducted by identifying significant statements
or quote and from those quote developing clusters of meaning and themes.
•
 HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

• Examination of primary documents to make you understand the

connection of past events to the present time

• Provides at least tentative answers to questions such as how change

occurs in society, how human intentions matter, and how ends are
influenced by the means of carrying them out.
 HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

E.g
• The Mindanao Conflict in the Philippines: Roots, Costs, and Potential
Peace Dividend

• A Historical and Current Perspective of Philippine Economic Problems

 Grounded Theory Research

• refers to analysis of data leading to the development of a theory.

• Has its roots in sociology
• It goes beyond phenomenology as the explanation are genuinely new
knowledge and are used to develop theories
• Is “grounded” in the real world
• Goal is to develop a theory about the processes (social behaviour or
scene) under investigation in a natural setting
• Useful in areas where little is known or when a new perspective is
needed
 Grounded Theory Research

• Is a cyclical process of building a tentative theory and testing it against

the data
• Various data collection techniques are used
• – Literature review, documentary analysis, interviews , observation
• Grounded theory moves beyond description to generate or discover a
theory that emerges from the data and that provides an explanation
of a process, action, or interaction.
 GROUNDED THEORY
RESEARCH
Grounded theory studies of sociological nature have focused on victims of
Alzheimer’s disease and how families accommodate to the different
stages, drug addiction in women, chronic illness, alcoholism, etc.

Don’t do a literature review in the beginning.

E.g.
• Development of the Theory of the Stages of grieving
• A Journey Towards A Renewed Life Of Post Drug Rehabilitation Patients
 OVER VIEW OF GROUNDED
THEORY PROCESS
• Key feature: constant
comparative analysis–
simultaneous collection
and analysis of data
 Strengths of a Qualitative
Research
• Adopts a naturalistic approach
• Good for examining feelings and motivations
• Allows depth of issues by promoting full understanding of human
behavior
• Instrumental for positive societal changes
• Engenders respect for people’s individuality
• Offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining knowledge
 WEAKNESSES OF A
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Can’t extrapolate to the whole population
• Involves a lot of researcher’s subjectivity in data analysis
• Hard to know the reliability and validity of data
• Volume of data – “data overload”
• Complexity of analysis
• Time-consuming nature of the clerical efforts require
 ASSIGNMENT

• For this assessment, an academic paper will be used as education for

peers on a given topic. A report is divided into headings and
subheadings to present facts about a situation or topic.
• This assignment is a 2500-word report using ARIAL, font size is 12, on
the below topic:
• Topic: The Use of Qualitative Research in Education
• See instruction on the attached file.