Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba

Senior High School Department

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
Fourth Quarter

LESSON 1
UNDERSTANDING DATA AND WAYS TO SYSTEMATICALLY COLLECT DATA

“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one
has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” ~Arthur Conan
Doyle, “Sherlock Holmes”
________________________________________________________________________________________
Qualitative research is a type of scientific research. In general terms, scientific research consists of an
investigation that:
✓ seeks answers to a question
✓ systematically uses a predefined set of procedures to answer the question
✓ collects evidence
✓ produces findings that were not determined in advance
✓ produces findings that are applicable beyond the immediate boundaries of the study

Additionally, it seeks to understand a given research problem or topic from the perspectives of the local
population it involves. Qualitative research is especially effective in obtaining culturally specific information about
the values, opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of particular populations.

Approaches in Qualitative Research

1. Narrative Research
2. Phenomenology
3. Grounded Theory
4. Ethnography
5. Case Study

If a qualitative researcher is studying the high school dropout phenomenon, for example, the structure that
surfaces might be a model of alienation, one derived from the puzzle pieces that link to achievement,
socioeconomic status, home environment, self-esteem, social status, and bullying. The puzzle pieces might
include sources of data such as conversations, observations, school documents and records, and journals, to
name a few. Good qualitative analysis in this case would generate a rich and accurate description of alienation
as experienced by high school dropouts—their world, why they hold a specific view, and how it came to be.

Almanza l Amparado l Javier l Panday

 Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba
Senior High School Department

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
Fourth Quarter

Foundational Narrative Grounded

Phenomenology Ethnography Case Study
Considerations Research Theory
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of an individual on the data from culture-sharing
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Unit of Analysis an activity, or
more individuals have shared the interaction shares the same
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Type of research Needing to tell Grounding a Providing an in-
describe the interpreting the
problem best stories of theory in the depth
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approach experience participants a case or cases
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Drawing from the
humanities
Drawing from Drawing from
Nature of including Drawing from
philosophy, Drawing from psychology, law,
disciplinary anthropology, anthropology
psychology, and sociology political science,
origins literature, history, and sociology
education and medicine
psychology, and
sociology
Copyright 2018 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

Narrative Research
• People tell stories every day.
o (Your classmate tells you her story of how her crush noticed her in the hall.)
o (Your mother gives an account of her workweek to your father.)
o (Your teacher shares her experience in taking postgraduate studies abroad.)
• Show different stories from different people.
• People’s experiences can be the beginning of qualitative research.
• Narrative research is essentially about telling a story.
• It studies a single person or several individuals.
• It gathers data through collection of stories, anecdotes, reports the person’s or individual’s experiences,
and discusses the meaning of those experiences.
• A good researcher must be able to describe in detail from beginning, middle, and end a person’s
experience on a particular topic of interest.
• In conducting narrative research, you need to interview one or several subjects (participants).

Almanza l Amparado l Javier l Panday

 Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba
Senior High School Department

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
Fourth Quarter

• Most narrative researches are drawn from huge amounts of interview hours such as audio, video or
textual records.
• All recorded data has to be transcribed and converted into textual accounts to be able to analyze the
subject’s story more clearly.

Phenomenology
• Describes the “subjective reality” of an event.
• Phenomenon is any situation, event, concept or fact that is observed but is unusual or difficult to explain.
• In our daily life, there are various phenomena that we may experience such as:
o insomnia,
o being left out,
o anger,
o political rallies,
o bullying,
o poverty or even undergoing surgery and others
• Our lack of understanding of these phenomena may exist because the phenomenon has not been overtly
described and explained. For instance:
o We know that there are people who are stricken with cancer and survive it.
o It is then crucial to find out “what” these patients experience” and “how” they experience it.
• Researchers using the phenomenological approach
o examine and
o describe human experiences
o through data collected from
o a number of individuals who undergone the “same phenomenon”
• The goal of any phenomenological study is to describe “universal essence” of experience shared by
several people in order for the rest to understand.
• Similar to narrative study, the method of collecting data is
o Through in-depth interviews
o Documents reflecting the individual’s experience (journals, diaries)
• However, unlike narrative research, phenomenological studies incorporate data from a number of
subjects that can be classified into a group or a collective.
• Participants are asked two (2) general questions:
o What have you experienced in terms of this phenomenon?
o What context or situations have affected or influenced your experience of this phenomenon?
Almanza l Amparado l Javier l Panday
 Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba
Senior High School Department

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
Fourth Quarter

• When interviewing…
o Practice “bracketing”
o Bracketing is the process where you need to set aside your own feelings and beliefs about the
phenomenon to produce a balanced and free observation, analysis, and interpretation.
• Note: When doing this type of qualitative research, you need to overcome an important challenge as a
researcher. Sometimes, when interviewing, you may be unconsciously putting your feelings, beliefs,
opinions, and biases into practice. In doing so, you can taint the analysis of your study.

Grounded Theory
• The aim of grounded theory is ‘to generate or discover a theory’ (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
• Grounded theory may be defined as ‘the discovery of theory from data systematically obtained from social
research’ (Glaser and Strauss 1967: 2).
• Ideal for exploring integral social relationships and the behavior of groups where there has been little
exploration of the contextual factors that affect individual’s lives. (Crooks 2001)
• ‘get though and beyond conjecture and preconception to exactly the underlying processes of what is
going on, so that professionals can intervene with confidence to help resolve the participant's main
concerns’ (Glaser 1978)

Ethnography
• Ethnography can be briefly defined as the systematic study of people and cultures.
• It is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of
view of the subject of the study.
• It is a means to represent graphically and in writing the culture of a group.
• Ethnography is a qualitative research method where researchers observe and/or interact with a study’s
participants in their real-life environment.
• It was initially popular in the field of anthropology, but is now used across a wide range of social sciences.
• A good researcher is required when observing and/or interacting with target audiences in their real-life
environment. Ethnographic studies are usually conducted through interviews, participant observation and
surveys.
When do we use ethnography?
• Ethnography is primarily used in the following instances:
o While searching for the meanings of cultural norms and views
o In trying to understand the reasons for the use of certain behavior or practices
o For examining social trends and instances like divorce, illness, migration
Almanza l Amparado l Javier l Panday
 Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba
Senior High School Department

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
Fourth Quarter

o For examining social interactions and encounters

o To understand the roles of families and organizations and their behavior
o To identify new patterns and gain new insights into social phenomenon
o To understand the hygiene and sanitation practices of communities
o To observe the types of punishment given to children at school
o To study the behavior of workers in an organization

Examples of Ethnographic Studies

Some of the popular ethnographic studies conducted are:
▪ Paul Willis’s ethnographic study of working-class youth culture: In his famous work “learning To
Labor”, Willis conducts a series of interviews and observations within a school, with the aim of
discovering how and why 'working class kids get working class jobs'. He suggested that working class
children tend to have counter school culture and oppositions to academics and authorities. This would
lead them to workplaces with similar environment and working-class dominance.
▪ Dame Ann Marilyn Strathern’s ethnographic studies of the natives of Papua New Guinea: In her
work titled “women in between” she studied and explained how definitions of gender differ across
countries. In her work she is constantly challenging the definitions and social constructs of gender
"norms".
▪ Kristen R. Ghodsee’s ethnographic study on “post-communist Bulgaria”: In her work Ghodsee
argued that many East European women would actually fare better than men in newly competitive labor
markets because of the cultural capital that they had acquired before 1989. She further examined the
shifting gender relations of Muslim minorities after communism, and the intersections of Islamic beliefs
and practices with the ideological remains of MarxismLeninism.
▪ Napoleon Chagnon’s longterm ethnographic fieldwork among the “Yanomamo” (indigenous
tribal Amazonians): In his study he used an evolutionary approach to understand social behavior in
terms of genetic relatedness. His work has centered on the analysis of violence, among tribal peoples,
and, using socio-biological analyses, he has advanced the argument that among the Yanomami violence
is fueled by an evolutionary process in which successful warriors have more offspring.

Case Study
• Case study explains in detail, information of either a person (e.g. child, adult, teacher or parent) or group
(e.g. gang, tribe, neighborhood, club) regarding a specific phenomenon in real-life contexts (e.g. autism,
fare-hike, puberty, managing funds and others).
Almanza l Amparado l Javier l Panday
 Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba
Senior High School Department

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
Fourth Quarter

• In qualitative research,
o It draws conclusion only about that individual or group and only in that particular context.
o Emphasis is on explanation and description of the real-life context; why it happened; when it
happened.
• Case studies range in complexity.
o SIMPLE: Illustrative description of a single event or occurrence.
o MORE COMPLEX: An analysis of social situation over a period of time.
o MOST COMPLEX: Extended case study that traces events involving the same actors over a
period of time enabling the analysis to reflect on changes and adjustments
• In case study,
o Collecting data is larger than all other types of qualitative research.
o Bulk of information will come from interviews, pictures, documents, audio and video recordings.
• In case study,
o Target participants are also greater in number compared to other approaches or designs, (single
case or multiple cases)
• Case study is a more flexible qualitative research design.
• It is strongly rooted in reality or real-life context.
• The results can be immediately put into use for various purposes such as:
o staff development,
o within-institution feedback,
o formative evaluation or
o educational policy making and others
• Limitations
o Sometimes…
o Case under study is not necessarily representative of similar cases.
o The results cannot be generalized or make a general conclusion for the entire population.
• However, …
o Generalizability is not normally an issue for the researchers who want to know whether the
findings can be applied elsewhere.
o It is the READERS who must decide whether or not the case being described is a representation
of similar local situation.

Almanza l Amparado l Javier l Panday