Qualitative Research Methods in Education: Choosing among the Five Traditions

Dimension Biography Phenomenology Grounded Theory Ethnography Case Study

Focus  Exploring the life  Understanding the  Developing a theory  Describing and  Developing an in-depth
of an individual essence of grounded in data interpreting a cultural and analysis of a single case or
experiences about from the field social group multiple cases
a phenomenon
Discipline  Anthropology  Philosophy  Sociology  Cultural Anthropology  Political Science
Origin  Literature  Sociology  Sociology  Sociology
 History  Psychology  Evaluation
 Psychology  Urban Studies
 Sociology  Other Social Sciences
Data  Primarily  Long interviews  Interviews with 20-  Primarily observations and  Multiple sources: documents,
Collection interviews and with up to 10 30 individuals to interviews with additional archival records, interviews,
documents people “saturate” categories artifacts during extended observations, physical artifacts
and detail a theory time in the field (e.g., 6
months to a year)
Data  Stories  Statements  Open coding  Description  Description
Analysis  Historical content  Meanings  Axial coding  Analysis  Themes
 Meaning themes  Selective coding  Interpretation  Assertions
 General  Conditional matrix
description of the
experience
Narrative  Detailed picture of  Description of the  Theory or theoretical  Description of the cultural  In-depth study of a “case” or
Form an individual’s life “essence” of the model behavior of a group or an “cases. A case study is a
experience individual problem to be studied, which
will reveal an in-depth
understanding of a “case” or
bounded system, which
involves understanding an
event, program, policy,
activity, process, or one or
more individuals.
Proponents  Denzin, 1989,  Edmund Husserl  Strauss & Corbin,  Sprindler & Spindler,  Stake, 1995
 Creswell, 1997, (1859-1938) 1990, 1970  Merriam, 1998,
2007,  Polkinghorne,  Morrow & Smith,  Spradley, 1979  Asmussen & Creswell, 1995,
 Merriam, 1998, 1989, 1995  Wolcott, 1994  Robert K.Yin, 1989, 2003
 Patton, 1990,  Borgatta &  Barney Glaser &  Harris, 1968  Lincoln & Guba, 1985
 Smith, 1994, Borgatta, 1992 Anselm Strauss,  Agar, 1980  Creswell, 1997, 2007,
 Plummer, 1983,  Swingewood, 1967  Atkinson & Hammersley,  Patton, 1990,
 Angrosino’s 1991  Creswell, 1997, 1994 
(1994, 1989) study  Giorgi, 1985 2007,  Fetterman, 1989
of a recovering  Tesch, 1988  Merriam, 1998,  Creswell, 1997, 2007,
alcoholic;  Moustakas, 1994,  Patton, 1990,  Merriam, 1998,
 Bertaux and  Riemen, 1986  Patton, 1990,
Bertaux-Wiame’s
(1981) study of
bakers’ trade
 Geiger’s (1986)
women’s life
histories
 Johnson and
Ferraro’s (1984)
The victimized self
 Karen’s (1990)
women’s life
histories