Qualitative Research in Practice

Examples for Discussion and Analysis

Sharan B. Merriam, Robin S. Grenier, Sharan B. Merriam, Robin S. Grenier

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119452638
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Evaluierung & Bewertung im Bildungswesen

A practical introduction to qualitative research across fields and disciplines

Qualitative Research in Practice offers a hands-on introduction to qualitative research design, methods, data, and analysis. Designed as a companion text for any course involving qualitative research, this book explores the different types of qualitative studies with relevant examples and analysis by the researchers themselves. The workbook format makes it easy to use in the classroom or the field, and the depth of information makes it a valuable resource for students of social work, psychology, counseling, management, education, health care, or any field in which qualitative research is conducted.

While quantitative research is primarily concerned with numerical data, qualitative research methods are more flexible, responsive, and open to contextual information. To a qualitative researcher, a situation is defined by the participants' perspectives, making it the primary method of inquiry for understanding social phenomena through the lens of experience. This book introduces the essentials of qualitative research, bolstered by expert analysis and discussion that provides deeper insight than a traditional textbook format would allow.

• Understand the fundamental nature of qualitative research
• Learn how to accurately assess and evaluate qualitative research
• Explore qualitative research's many forms and applications
• Gain insight on qualitative research in a variety of fields and disciplines

How does one codify an experience? Is it possible to measure emotion in units? Qualitative research fills the void where numbers cannot reach. It is the best tool we have for studying the unquantifiable aspects of the human experience, and it is an essential tool in a wide variety of fields. Qualitative Research in Practice provides translatable skills in a practical format to quicken your transition from "learning" to "using."

PART ONE
THE NATURE OF QUALITATIVE INQUIRY

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Drawing from a long tradition in anthropology and sociology, qualitative research has achieved a status and visibility in the social sciences and applied fields of practice equal to quantitative designs such as surveys and experiments. Reports of qualitative research studies can be found in journals in social work, nursing, counseling, family relations, administration, health, community services, management, all subfields of education, and even medicine. Some disciplines have their own qualitative research journal, as do education (International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education), social work (Qualitative Social Work), health (Qualitative Health Research), and management (Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal). In addition, there are journals devoted to qualitative research itself such as Qualitative Inquiry, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, The Qualitative Report, and Qualitative Research. There is also an endless selection of methodological texts on qualitative research generally, specific types of qualitative research, or some aspect of qualitative data collection or analysis.

What is the nature of qualitative inquiry that has captured the attention of so many? The purpose of this chapter is to explain what qualitative research is, how it differs from positivist or quantitative research, what variations exist within the qualitative paradigm, and how one goes about conducting a qualitative study. This chapter and the following chapter on evaluating and assessing qualitative research offer the backdrop for exploring the collection of qualitative studies and author commentaries that follows.

THE NATURE OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

The key to understanding qualitative research lies with the idea that meaning is socially constructed by individuals interacting with their world. The world, or reality, is not the fixed, single, agreed upon, or measurable phenomenon that it is assumed to be in positivist, quantitative research. For example, a qualitative researcher might be interested in identifying reasons adults drop out of a community-based adult literacy program before achieving their goals. Any number of factors might emerge in interviews with participants, including some that hadn't been identified in previous studies or that hadn't occurred to the researcher. This qualitative approach contrasts with a quantitative approach wherein the researcher identifies the factors ahead of time and then seeks to measure the prevalence and strength of each factor. Qualitative researchers are interested in knowing how people understand and experience their world at a particular point in time and in a particular context. Exploring how individuals experience and interact with their social world, and the meaning it has for them, is based on an interpretive (or constructivist) perspective embedded in qualitative approach.

There are two other philosophical perspectives that largely inform the design of qualitative research. Drawing from critical social theory, you might investigate how the social and political aspects of the context shape how people see or understand the situation; that is, how larger contextual factors affect the ways in which individuals construct reality. This would be a critical qualitative approach. Using the same example of dropouts from an adult literacy program from a critical qualitative perspective, you would be interested in how the literacy program is structured such that the interests of some members and classes of society are served and perpetuated at the expense of others. Perhaps the program is offered at a location that is difficult to get to via public transportation, or at hours incompatible with parents' childcare responsibilities, or the program is offered at a site that low-literate adults find intimidating such as a college campus. Whose interests does this program serve? How do power, privilege, and oppression play out?

Critical social science research has its own variations. Much of feminist research draws from critical theory, as does participatory or participatory action research, a form of research that involves participants in the design and implementation of a study. Some critical research incorporates a strong emancipatory agenda along with critique; that is, in the process of conducting the investigation the overall objective is to empower participants to not only question, but also to change their situation. Cranton (2015) summarizes this perspective as follows:

Emancipatory knowledge is gained through a process of critically questioning ourselves and the social systems within which we live… . If we do not question current scientific and social theories and accepted truths, we may never realize how we are constrained by their inevitable distortions and errors. (p. 315)

The third, and somewhat less common than an interpretive/constructivist or critical perspective in designing a qualitative study, is a philosophy called postmodern. Here researchers question all aspects of the construction of reality, what it is and what it is not, how it is organized, and so on. “Postmodern researchers view reality and knowledge as fragmented, multiple situated, and multi-faced. On these premises, reality is thought to be nearly impossible to know or represent” (Tracy, 2013, p. 44). Tracy goes on to write that “in stark contrast to positivists, who view good research as mirroring reality, postmodernists would note that mirrors are warped, fractured, and reflect back onto the scene (and therefore affect it)… . The best a postmodern researcher can do, then, is to choose a shard of a shattered mirror and realize that it only reflects one sliver of the world” (p. 45). A postmodern inquiry would question and “disrupt” the dichotomies inherent in the literacy program above; for example, the dichotomies of “completers versus non-completers,” or “successful versus unsuccessful,” or “graduates versus dropouts” might be challenged. Lather (2006) lays out these three overarching theoretical perspectives in terms of understanding (interpretive), emancipation (critical and feminist are included here), and deconstruction (postmodern).

As a qualitative researcher, you can approach an investigation from any of these perspectives. Your particular perspective will determine the specific research design that you employ for actually carrying out your study. If your primary interest is in understanding a phenomenon, you have many design options, the most common being interpretive, phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, and narrative. Critical, feminist, postmodern, and participatory studies all have goals that include understanding, but go further in the purpose or inquiry.

Several key characteristics cut across the various qualitative research designs (also called forms, types, methodologies, or genres by various authors). The first characteristic is that researchers strive to understand the meaning people have constructed about their world and their experiences; that is, how do people make sense of their experience? As Patton (2015) explains: “What makes us different from other animals is our capacity to assign meaning to things. The essence of being human is integrating and making sense of experience (Loevinger, 1976). Qualitative research inquires into, documents, and interprets the meaning-making process” (p. 3). As qualitative researchers, we want to understand how people make sense of their lives and how they understand the world around them. We find out how people make meaning of their experiences by asking them in interviews, and/or observing the phenomenon of interest, and/or analyzing relevant documents/artifacts.

A second characteristic of all forms of qualitative research designs is that the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and data analysis. In contrast to a survey or an experiment, the human instrument can immediately respond and adapt. Questions that don't “work” in an interview can be changed, as can sites for observations and fieldwork. Other advantages are that the researchers can expand their understanding through nonverbal as well as verbal communication, process information (data) immediately, clarify and summarize material, check with respondents for accuracy of interpretation, and explore unusual or unanticipated responses. Further, because the human instrument can simultaneously analyze data as the data are being collected, adjustments in data collection can be made that may yield a more robust analysis and understanding of the phenomenon.

When the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis, it is wise to be aware of one's shortcomings and biases that might impact the study. Rather than trying to eliminate these biases or “subjectivities,” it is important to identify them and monitor them as to how they may be shaping the collection and interpretation of data. Peshkin (1988) goes so far as to make the case that one's subjectivities “can be seen as virtuous, for it is the basis of researchers making a distinctive contribution, one that results from the unique configuration of their personal qualities joined to the data they have collected” (p. 18).

Qualitative researchers are interested in how people understand and make meaning of their world. Often there is no convincing explanation, or an existing theory fails to adequately illuminate the phenomenon of interest. Therefore, another important characteristic of qualitative research is that the process is inductive; rather than deductively deriving hypotheses to be tested (as in positivist research), researchers gather data to build concepts, hypotheses, or theory. In attempting to understand the meaning a phenomenon has for those involved, qualitative researchers build toward theory from observations and intuitive understandings gleaned from being in the field. Typically, findings inductively derived from the data in a qualitative study are in the form of themes, categories, typologies, concepts, tentative hypotheses, or even a substantive theory, that is, one that addresses a specific real-world situation.

Finally, because qualitative research is designed to understand a phenomenon from the participants' perspectives, the product of a qualitative inquiry is richly descriptive. Rather than relying on numbers, words and sometimes pictures are used to convey what the researcher has learned about the topic of the study. In order to convey this understanding, the write-up of a qualitative study usually includes descriptions of the context, the participants involved, and the activities of interest. The “findings” of a qualitative study are supported by quotations from participant interviews, selections from documents or the researcher's field notes, descriptions of artifacts, excerpts from videotapes, photos, and so on. A reader can think of these data as “evidence” for the findings of the study.

In summary, qualitative research attempts to understand and make sense of phenomena from the participant's viewpoint. The researcher can approach the phenomena from an interpretive, critical, or postmodern perspective. All qualitative research is characterized by the search for meaning and understanding, the researcher as the primary instrument of data collection and analysis, an inductive investig...