Edgar Allan L.

Bantigue Research Design 4e

DGM 323: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods John W. Creswell
Exercise No.2

Chapter One: The Selection of a Research Approach

The following citations indicate suggested studies to use as examples of the three types of
research designs.

Examine the research designs within the following student proposals available under General
Resources:

1. Qualitative example: Morales, A. (2006). Language brokering in Mexican immigrant

families living in the Midwest: A multiple case study. [Dissertation Proposal]. University of
Nebraska–Lincoln.
2. Quantitative example: Hayes, M. (2007). Design and analysis of the Student Strengths Index
(SSI) for nontraditional graduate students. [Thesis Proposal]. University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
3. Mixed methods example: Ivankova, N. (2002). Students’ persistence in the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln distributed doctoral program in educational administration: A mixed methods
study. [Dissertation Proposal]. University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Discussion of worldviews on pp. 43–44.
Examine the following research articles as examples of the three types of designs:

1. Qualitative example: Auerbach, S. (2007). From moral supporters to struggling

advocates: Reconceptualizing parent roles in education through experience of working-
class families of color. Urban Education, 42(3), 250–283.
Analysis:
The focus of this case study is to provide understanding how marginalized African-American and

Latino parents construct their roles in providing opportunities and inspirations to their children. The

researcher here wanted to have a concrete immersion and provide meaningful and logical perception

of parents’ responsibilities amidst adversities and turn these into positive chances of being able to

succeed in life. The researcher’s flow of thought is on grounded theories of interdisciplinary theoretical

framework as well as Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s (1995, 1997) concept of parent role construction.

Constructivism and interpretivism are also obvious in the way the researcher presents valid and

intervening solutions of parents as support to their children’s education. Critical approach was utilized

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© 2014
Edgar Allan L. Bantigue Research Design 4e
DGM 323: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods John W. Creswell
in order to examining parents’ involvement as socially constructed and politically contested through the

lenses of race, class, culture, and gender.

This paper was a product of a three-year intensive ethnographic data collection just to illustrate

many possible alternative typologies of parents’ roles in the pursuit of educational access of their

children. The researcher utilized varied data collection processes such as Case summaries, data

displays, narrative analysis, field work, survey and interviews and multiple methods of in-depth analysis

in order to get data and created an audit trail for findings.

2. Quantitative example: Niven, D. (2006). A field experiment on the effects of negative

campaign mail on voter turnout in a municipal election. Political Research Quarterly,
59(2), 203–210.
Analysis:
This case study is an example of a qualitative research design as seen in the way the researcher

framed his research questions on the effects of negative campaign in voters’ turn out in a municipal

election. Its focus is to quantify data in field experiments using controlled and uncontrolled group in an

existing theory between Insolabehere and Iyengar (1995) who concluded that negative ads directly result in

lower voter turnout while Green and Gerber (2004) describe the effect of negative campaign advertising as

not relevant to voter turnout during election.

The design of the study centers on the mails sent to respondents which constitute the independent

variable and the voting turn out which is the dependent variable. Since the author is treating the data with

extreme statistical protocol before reaching conclusion, this is basically the nature and characteristics of

qualitative research design.

It is very evident also that the author is using true experimental research to obtain data from the

samples. He used three logistic regression models in order to determine the factors influencing the decision

of the respondents in the election.

SAGE Publications, Inc.

© 2014
Edgar Allan L. Bantigue Research Design 4e
DGM 323: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods John W. Creswell

3. Mixed methods example: Brazier, A., Cooke, K., & Moravan, V. (2008). Using mixed
methods for evaluating an integrative approach to cancer care: A case study. Integrative
Cancer Therapies, 7(1), 5–17.
Analysis:
Research experts say that when you both utilize qualitative and quantitative research designs, the

data become stronger and the study becomes more conclusive. Although there is a big difference in

the way researcher uses either qual and quant depending on the purpose of the study, but merging

them both can create a more holistic approach to the problem under study.

This is where this specific case study falls which entitled “Using mixed methods for evaluating

integrative approach to cancer care-a case study”. The study design of this paper is a combination of

quantitative approach with qualitative employment of some methods which concerns pre and post-test

design. The qualitative approach measures the quality of life, social support, anxiety and depression,

locus of control, and hope of the 46 out of 77 invited participants generated as a baseline data. While

the qualitative data in the form of focus groups and interviews were collected midway through the

follow-up period to further explore program impacts.

I can personally say that with this mixture of design, a good research outcome is already beginning

to be tested and proven with quantitative data statistically treated according to the methodologies of the

experiment and qualitative methods providing more meaning and experience to the underlying process

of the course of the study.

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© 2014