Qualitative research

1. The definitin of qualitative research

Qualitative research is the collection, analysis, and interpretation of comprehensive
narrative and visual (i.e., nonnumerical).

Qualitative
research methods are based on different beliefs
and designed for different purposes than quantitative research methods.

qualitative researchers do not enter a research setting without any idea of what they
intend to study. Rather, they commence their research with “foreshadowed problems.

Characteristic of the qualitative research

1. The type of data is nonnumerical narrative and visual data

2. Research problems and methods envolve as understanding of topic deepens
3. No manipulation context
4. Small sample size
5. Research prodecures relies on categorizing and organizing data into patterns to
procedure a descriptive and narrative syntesis
6. Extensive participant interaction.
7. Underlying belief : meaning is situated in a particular perspective or context that is
different for people and groups, therefore , the word has many meanings
 CLASSIFICATION OF RESEARCH BY METHOD
1. Qualitative approaches
Qualitative research seeks to probe deeply into the research setting to obtain in-depth
understandings about the way things are, why they are that way, and how the participants
in the context perceive them.

The Five Qualitative approach is a method to framing Qualitative Research, focusing on

the methodologies of five of the major traditions in qualitative research: biography,
ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, and case study

1. Bioghraphy
Biographical research is a qualitative research approach aligned to the social
interpretive paradigm of research. The biographical research is concerned with the
reconstruction of life histories and the constitution of meaning based on
biographical narratives and documents.
2. Ethnography is a type of qualitative research that gathers observations, interviews
and documentary data to produce detailed and comprehensive accounts of
different social phenomena. It is also aimed at those interested in considering the
use of ethnographic methods in their own research work.
3. Phenomenology is a form of qualitative research that focuses on the study of an
individual's lived experiences within the world.Understanding the ontological and
epistemological assumptions underpinning these approaches is essential for
successfully conducting phenomenological research
4. "Grounded theory refers to a set of systematic inductive methods for conducting
qualitative research aimed toward theory development.These analyses provide
focused, abstract, conceptual theories that explain the studied empirical phenomena.
5. Qualitative case study is a research methodology that helps in exploration of a
phenomenon within some particular context through various data sources, and it
undertakes the exploration through variety of lenses in order to reveal multiple facets
of the phenomenon (Baxter & Jack, 2008).
Qualitative research methods

 Observations: recording
what you have seen, heard, or encountered in detailed field notes.
 Interviews: personally
asking people questions in one-on-one conversations.
 Focus groups: asking
questions and generating discussion among a group of people.

Example of the qualiative research

1. Semi-structured interviews
Semi-structured interviews are qualitative data collection tools which allow researchers
to ask informants questions around a series of predetermined themes but allowing for
open-ended responses.

2. Open-ended survey
Surveys are useful tools for measuring how preferences or perceptions change over
time, or to gather information on key experiences of informants. Surveys may make use
of ranked scales such as ‘always, sometimes, never’, or a ranked scale of from strongly
agree to strongly disagree.

Research case example

To research the culture of a large tech company, you decide to take an ethnographic approach.
You work at the company for several months and use various methods to gather data:

 You take field notes with observations and reflect on your own experiences of the
company culture.
 You distribute open-ended surveys to employees across all the company’s offices by
email to find out if the culture varies across locations.
 You conduct in-depth interviews with employees in your office to learn about their
experiences and perspectives in greater detail.