PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1

Module 2
Qualitative Research and Its
Importance in Daily Life
(3rd Quarter, Week 2)
 Lesson Philosophical Assumptions and
1 Interpretive Frameworks
I. PHILOSOPHICAL ASSUMPTIONS
What are the philosophical assumptions made by researchers when they
undertake a qualitative study? (Adapted from Creswell, 2013)
1. Ontological - relates to the nature of reality and its characteristics.
Researchers embrace the idea of multiple realities. When studying
individuals, they conduct a study with the intent of reporting these multiple
realities. Evidence of multiple realities includes the use of multiple forms of
evidence in themes using the actual words of different individuals and
presenting different perspectives.
2. Epistemological – relates to what counts as knowledge and how knowledge
claims are justified. Researchers try to get as close as possible to the
participants being studied. Therefore, subjective evidence is assembled
based on individual views. Knowledge is known through the subjective
experiences of people. The longer researchers stay in the “field” or get to know
the participants, the more they “know what they know” from firsthand
information.
3. Axiological - Qualitative researchers make their values known in a study.
They admit the value-laden nature of the study and actively report their
values and biases as well as the value-laden nature of information gathered
from the field. They “position themselves” in a study.
4. Methodological - the procedures are characterized as inductive, emerging,
and shaped by the researcher’s experience in collecting and analyzing the
data. Researchers follows inductive logic, from the ground up, rather than
handed down entirely from a theory or from the perspectives of the inquirer.
Sometimes they change the research questions in the middle of the study to
reflect better the types of questions needed to understand the research
problem. In response, the data collection strategy, planned before the study,
needs to be modified to accompany the new questions. During the data
analysis, they follow a path of analyzing the data to develop an increasingly
detailed knowledge of the topic being studied.

II. LINKING PHILOSOPHY & INTERPRETIVE FRAMEWORKS (Creswell, 2013)

The interpretive frameworks convey different philosophical assumptions, and
qualitative researchers need to be aware of this connection.

Postpositivism
Ontological A single reality exists beyond ourselves, “out there.”
Researcher may not be able to understand it or get to it
because of lack of absolutes.
Epistemological Reality can only be approximated, but it is constructed
through research and statistics. Interaction with research
subjects is kept to a minimum. Validity comes from
peers, not participants.
Axiological Researcher’s biases need to be controlled and not
expressed in a study.

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Methodological Use of scientific method and writing. To create new
knowledge. Method is important. Deductive methods are
important, such as testing of theories, specifying
important variables, making comparisons among groups.

Social Constructivism
Ontological Multiple realities are constructed through our lived
experiences and interactions with others.
Epistemological Reality is co-constructed between the researcher and the
researched and shaped by individual experiences.
Axiological Individual values are honored, and are negotiated among
individuals
Methodological More of a literary style of writing used. Use of an inductive
method of emergent ideas (through consensus) obtained
through methods such as interviewing, observing, and
analysis of texts.

Transformative Framework / Postmodernism

Ontological Participation between researcher and communities/
individuals being studied.
Epistemological Often a subjective-objective reality emerges.
Co-created findings with multiple ways of knowing.
Axiological Respect for indigenous values; values need to be
problematized and interrogated.
Methodological Use of collaborative processes of research; political
participation encouraged; questioning of methods;
highlighting issues and concerns.

Pragmatism
Ontological Reality is what is useful, is practical, and “works.”
Epistemological Reality is known through using many tools of research
that reflect both deductive (objective) evidence and
inductive (subjective) evidence.
Axiological Values are discussed because of the way that knowledge
reflects both the researchers’ and the participants’ views.
Methodological The research process involves both quantitative and
qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis.

Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Theories,

Queer Theory, Disability Theories
Ontological Reality is based on power and identity struggles. Privilege
or oppression based on race or ethnicity, class, gender,
mental abilities, sexual preference.
Epistemological Reality is known through the study of social structures,
freedom and oppression, power, and control. Reality can
be changed through research.
Axiological Diversity of values is emphasized within the standpoint of
various communities.
Methodological Start with assumptions of power and identity struggles,
document them, and call for action and change.

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ACTIVITIES
A. Identify whether the following questions, characteristics, and examples are
ontological (O), epistemological (E), axiological (A), or methodological (M). Use
the letters that correspond the assumptions in writing your answers.
1. Questions in Philosophical Assumptions
1.1. What is the nature of reality?
1.2. What counts as knowledge?
1.3. What is the role of values?
1.4. What is the process of research?
1.5. How are knowledge claims justified?

2. Characteristics of Philosophical Assumptions

2.1. uses inductive logic and emerging design
2.2. research is value-laden and that biases are present
2.3. follows a path of data analysis to develop increasingly detailed knowledge
2.4. attempts to lessen distance between himself and that being researched
2.5. reality is multiple as seen through many views

3. Examples of Philosophical Assumptions in Practice

3.1. Researcher reports different perspectives as themes develop in the findings.
3.2. Researcher openly discusses values that shape the narrative and includes
his own interpretation in conjunction with the interpretations of participants.
3.3. Researcher relies on quotes as evidence from the participant; collaborates,
spends time in field with participants, and becomes an “insider.”
3.4. Researcher conducts studies where the participants live and work; use
contexts for understanding what the participants are saying.
3.5. Researcher works with details before generalizations, describes in detail the
study’s context, and continually revises questions from experiences in the field.

B. Examine a qualitative journal article, such as the qualitative study by:

Brown, J., Sorrell, J. H., McClaren, J., & Creswell, J. W. (2006). Waiting for a
liver transplant. Qualitative Health Research, 16(1), 119–136.

Look closely at the Brown et al. (2006) article and identify specific ways in which
the four philosophical assumptions are evident in the study (Adapted from
Creswell, 201). Give specific examples using examples in Activity A as a guide.
Ontology Epistemology Axiology Methodology

Lesson Characteristics, Strengths,

2 and Weaknesses
Practical Research 1 focuses on qualitative research. The following are
the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of qualitative research.

I. CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH (Creswell, 2013)

1. Natural setting. Qualitative researchers often collect data in the field at
the site where participants experience the issue or problem under study. They

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gather up-close information by talking directly to people and seeing them behave
and act within their context. In the natural setting, the researchers have face-to-
face interaction over time.
2. Researcher as key instrument. They collect data themselves by examining
documents, observing behavior, and interviewing participants. They may use an
instrument, but it is one designed by themselves using open-ended questions,
instead of relying on questionnaires or instruments developed by other researchers.
3. Multiple methods. They typically gather multiple forms of data, such as
interviews, observations, and documents, rather than rely on a single data source.
Then they review the data and make sense of it, organizing it into categories or
themes that cut across all data sources.
4. Complex reasoning through inductive and deductive logic. They use
complex reasoning skills throughout the process of research in which they build
their patterns, categories, and themes from the “bottom up,” by organizing the data
inductively into increasingly more abstract units of information; they work back
and forth between the themes and the database until they establish a
comprehensive set of themes, collaborate with the participants interactively, so
that they have a chance to shape the themes or abstractions that emerge from the
process; and use deductive thinking to build themes that are constantly being
checked against the data.
5. Participants’ meanings. They focus on learning the meaning that the
participants hold about the problem or issue, not the meaning that the researchers
bring to the research or writers from the literature. The participant meanings
further suggest multiple perspectives on a topic and diverse views. The theme
developed should reflect multiple perspectives of the participants in the study.
6. Emergent design. The process is emergent. The initial plan cannot be
tightly prescribed, and that all phases of the process may change or shift after the
researchers enter the field and begin to collect data. For example, the questions
may change, the forms of data collection may be altered, and the individuals
studied, and the sites visited may be modified.
7. Reflexivity. They “position themselves” in the study as they convey (i.e., in
a method section, in an introduction, or in other places in a study) their
background (e.g., work experiences, cultural experiences, history), how it informs
their interpretation of the information, and what they must gain from the study.
8. Holistic account. They develop a complex picture of the problem or issue
under study involving reporting multiple perspectives, identifying the many factors
involved in a situation, and generally sketching the larger picture that emerges.
They are bound not by tight cause-and-effect relationships among factors, but
rather by identifying the complex interactions of factors in any situation.

II. STRENGTHS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

1. Problems and issues are examined thoroughly, specifically, and deeply- a full
and holistic understanding of human experience in specific contexts.
2. It allows understanding of people’s individuality. Different experiences,
struggles, voices, meanings, and events are studied in a qualitative research.
3. It adapts a flexible structure as the design can be restructured. Qualitative
research framework and direction may be revised as new information
emerges. Researchers who conduct an interview are not restricted to specific
questions and can guide and redirect questions in real time.
4. Dynamic and powerful data. In addition, the intricacies of a research topic
are discovered.

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 5. Data usually are collected from a few cases or individuals so findings cannot
be generalized to a larger population. Findings can however be transferable
to another setting.

III. WEAKNESSES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

1. The quality is dependent on the researcher’s skills and is easily influenced
by his or her personal biases and idiosyncrasies. It is not well understood
and accepted within the scientific community. Others give qualitative
research results low credibility.
2. Consistency, and precision all throughout the study are difficult to
maintain, assess, and demonstrate.
3. Since it produces thick description and huge data, analysis and
interpretation take a considerable amount of time.
4. The researcher's presence during the data gathering, which is often
unavoidable in qualitative research, can affect the subjects' responses.
5. Issues of anonymity and confidentiality can bring problems when
presenting findings. Formulating the findings can be more challenging and
time consuming to characterize in a visual way.
6. Small sample size raises an issue on generalizability of the research
results. Data interpretation and analysis may be difficult and complex. It
is hard to know the validity or reliability of the data in a qualitative
research.

ACTIVITIES
After what you have learned on the characteristics
of qualitative research, its strengths, and weaknesses,
you are now ready to do the following tasks:

1. Write the strengths of qualitative research on

the upward arrow and the weaknesses on its opposite
direction. State your answer in your own words.
2. Complete the unfinished sentences below.
a. Qualitative research can be described as .
b. One of the limitations of qualitative research is .
c. One strength of qualitative research is .
3. Look at the weaknesses of qualitative research. As a researcher, what should
you do to address these limitations?

4. Identify three things you have discovered about qualitative research.

5. List three interesting things about qualitative research.

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 Lesson The Kinds and Importance of
3 Qualitative Research Across Fields
FIVE QUALITATIVE APPROACHES TO INQUIRY (Creswell, 2013)
1. NARRATIVE RESEARCH
Narrative is understood as a spoken or written text giving an account of an
event/action or series of events/actions, chronologically connected. This research
begins with the experiences as expressed in lived and told stories of individuals. It
studies one or two individuals, gathers data by collecting stories, reports individual
experiences, and chronologically orders the meaning of the experiences (or using
life course stages).

Features
1. Individuals’ stories are about their lived and told experiences. These may
emerge from a story told to the researcher, co-constructed by researcher and
participant, or intended as a performance to convey some message or point.
2. Narrative stories tell of individual experiences and may shed light on the
individuals’ identities and how they see themselves.
3. …are gathered through many different data forms. Interviews are primary,
but also observations, documents, pictures, and other sources.
4. …often are heard and shaped by researchers into a chronology although they
may not be told that way by participant(s).
5. …are analyzed in varied ways such as about what was said (thematically),
the nature of the telling of the story (structural), or how the story is produced
and performed toward (dialogic/ performance).
6. …often contain turning points or specific tensions or interruptions
highlighted by researchers in the telling of the stories.
7. …occur within specific places or situations.

Some Types of Narratives

• A biographical study is a form of narrative study in which the researcher
writes and records the experiences of another person’s life.
• Autoethnography is written and recorded by individuals who are the
subject of the study. It contains the personal story of the author as well as
the larger cultural meaning for the individual’s story.

Procedures
1. Determine if the research problem or question best fits narrative research. It
is best for capturing the detailed stories or life experiences of a single
individual or the lives of a small number of individuals.
2. Select one or more individuals with stories or life experiences to tell and
spend considerable time with them to gather their stories (called field texts).
After examining multiple sources such as journal or diary, field notes and
observation, letters sent by the individuals, stories from family members,
documents, photographs, memory boxes and other personal-family-social
artifacts, the researcher records the individuals’ life experiences.
3. Data collection and recording can take different shapes. The transcription
can highlight the researcher as listener or questioner, emphasize interaction
between researcher and participant, convey a conversation that moves

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 through time, or include shifting meanings that may emerge through
translated material.
4. Collect information about the context of the stories. Researchers situate
individual stories within participants’ personal experiences, their culture,
and their historical contexts.
5. Analysis. The researchers restory the stories into framework that makes
sense. Restorying is the process of reorganizing the stories into some general
type of framework - gathering stories, analyzing them for key elements of the
story, and then rewriting to place them within chronological sequence.
Beyond it, they might detail themes from the story providing more detailed
discussion of the meaning.
6. Collaborate with participants to negotiate the meaning of the stories, adding
a validation check to the analysis. Within the participant’s story may also be
an interwoven story of the researcher gaining insight into her or his own.
Also, within the story may be epiphanies, turning points, or disruptions in
which the story line changes direction dramatically.

2. PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Whereas a narrative study reports the stories of experiences of a single
individual or several individuals, a phenomenological study describes the common
meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a
phenomenon. This research describes the common meaning for several individuals
of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon. Phenomenologists focus
on describing what all participants have in common as they experience a
phenomenon to reduce individual experiences into a description of the universal
essence (grasp of the very nature of the thing).

Four philosophical perspectives in phenomenology:

1. The return to the traditional tasks of philosophy, the Greek conception of
philosophy as a search for wisdom.
2. A philosophy without presuppositions. To suspend all judgments about what
is real until they are founded on a more certain basis. This suspension is
called epoche.
3. The intentionality of consciousness. Consciousness is always directed toward
an object. Reality of an object, then, is inseparably related to one’s
consciousness of it. Thus, reality is divided into both subjects and objects as
they appear in consciousness.
4. The refusal of the subject-object dichotomy. This theme flows naturally from
the intentionality of consciousness. The reality of an object is only perceived
within the meaning of the experience of an individual.

Features
1. Emphasis on a phenomenon to be explored, phrased in terms of a single
concept or idea, like psychological concept of grief.
2. Exploration of phenomenon with a group of individuals who experienced it.
A heterogeneous group may vary in size from 3 to 4 individuals to 10 to 15.
3. Philosophical discussion about the basic ideas involved in conducting a
phenomenology. This turns on the lived experiences of individuals and how
they have both subjective experiences of the phenomenon and objective
experiences of something in common with other people. Thus, there is a
refusal of the subjective-objective perspective.

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 4. In some forms, the researcher brackets himself out of the study by discussing
personal experiences with the phenomenon, so that they can focus on the
participants’ experiences.
5. Data collection involves interviewing individuals who have experienced the
phenomenon. However, some involve varied sources of data, such as poems,
observations, and documents.
6. Data analysis follows systematic procedures of moving from the narrow units
of analysis, and on to broader units, and on to detailed descriptions that
summarize “what” and “how” elements.
7. Ends with a descriptive passage discussing the essence of the experience for
individuals incorporating “what” they have experienced and “how” they
experienced it. The essence is the culminating aspect.

Types of Phenomenology
• hermeneutical phenomenology: oriented toward lived experience and
interpreting the “texts” of life.
• transcendental phenomenology: focused less on the interpretations of the
researcher and more on a description of the experiences of participants.

Procedures
1. Determine if the research problem is best examined using phenomenology, that
is, understanding individuals’ common experiences of the phenomenon.
2. A phenomenon of interest to study is identified such as the experience of
learning, riding a bike, or the beginning of fatherhood.
3. Recognizes and specifies the broad philosophical assumptions.
4. Data are collected from the individuals who have experienced the phenomenon
often using in-depth and multiple interviews with participants. Polkinghorne
(1989) recommends that researchers interview from 5 to 25 individuals. Other
forms such as observations, journals, poetry, music, and other forms of art.
5. Asking two broad, general questions: What have you experienced in terms of
the phenomenon? What contexts or situations have typically influenced or
affected your experiences of the phenomenon?
6. Data analysts go through the data (e.g., interview transcriptions) and highlight
significant statements, sentences, or quotes that provide an understanding of
how the participants experienced the phenomenon (the process is called
horizonalization). Next, the researcher develops clusters of meaning from these
significant statements into themes.
7. A description of what the participants experienced (textural description) and a
description of the context or setting that influenced how the participants
experienced the phenomenon (imaginative variation or structural description).
8. Write a composite description that presents the “essence” of the phenomenon,
called the essential, invariant structure. It is a descriptive passage, a long
paragraph or two, focusing on the common experiences of the participants, and
the reader should come away with the feeling, “I understand better what it is
like for someone to experience that.”

3. GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH

While narrative research focuses on individual stories told by participants,
and phenomenology emphasizes the common experiences for several individuals,
the intent of this research is to move beyond description and to generate or discover
a theory (unified theoretical explanation) for a process or an action. The theory

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development does not come “off the shelf,” but rather is generated or grounded in
data from participants who have experienced the process. Thus, the inquirer
generates a general explanation (a theory) of a process, an action, or an interaction
shaped by the views of many participants.

Features
1. The focus is on a process or an action that has distinct steps or phases that
occur over time. Thus, it attempts to explain “movement” or some action.
2. To develop a theory. This explanation or understanding is a drawing together
of theoretical categories that are arranged to show how the theory works.
3. Memoing becomes part of developing the theory as the researcher writes
down ideas as data are collected and analyzed. In these memos, the ideas
attempt to formulate the process that is being seen by the researcher and to
sketch out the flow of this process.
4. Interviewing is often the primary form as the data gleaned from participants
is constantly compared with ideas about the emerging theory - going back
and forth between the participants, gathering new interviews, and returning
to the evolving theory to fill in the gaps and to elaborate on how it works.
5. Data analysis proceeds in stages:
Open coding – segment the data into discrete parts and label them with
codes, then develop categories to be put in order.
Axial coding – relating codes (categories and concepts) to each other. Coding
paradigm or logic diagram (i.e., a visual model) identifies a central
phenomenon (i.e., a central category about the phenomenon), explores
causal conditions (i.e., categories of conditions that influence the
phenomenon), specifies strategies (i.e., the actions or interactions that result
from the central phenomenon), identifies the context and intervening
conditions (i.e., the narrow and broad conditions that influence the
strategies), and delineates the consequences (i.e., the outcomes of the
strategies) for this phenomenon.
Selective coding - the researcher may write a “story line” connecting the
categories. Alternatively, propositions or hypotheses may be specified that
state predicted relationships. The result is a theory, a substantive-level
theory.

Types of Grounded Theory Studies

In the more systematic, analytic procedures of Strauss and Corbin (1990,
1998), the investigator systematically develops a theory to explain process, action,
or interaction on a topic. The researcher typically conducts 20 to 30 interviews
based on several visits “to the field” to collect interview data to saturate the
categories (or find information that continues to add to them until no more can be
found). A category represents a unit of information composed of events,
happenings, and instances.

The participants interviewed are theoretically chosen (called theoretical

sampling) to help the researcher best form the theory. The process of taking
information from data collection and comparing it to emerging categories is called
the constant comparative method of data analysis. The theory, developed by the
researcher, is articulated toward the end of study, and can assume several forms,
such as a narrative statement (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), a visual picture (Morrow
& Smith, 1995), or a series of hypotheses or propositions (Creswell & Brown, 1992).

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Procedures
1. Determine if grounded theory is best suited to study a research problem. It
is a good design to use when a theory is not available, available models were
developed and tested on samples and populations other than those of
interest to the researcher. Also, incomplete theories because they do not
address potentially valuable variables or categories of interest to the
researcher. A theory may be needed to explain how people are experiencing
a phenomenon, and theory developed by the researcher will do.
2. Research questions on how individuals experience the process and identify
the steps in the process (What was the process? How did it unfold?). After
initially exploring the issues, the researcher returns to the participants and
asks more detailed questions that help to shape the axial coding phase,
questions such as these: What was central to the process? What influenced
or caused this phenomenon to occur? What strategies were employed during
the process? What effect occurred? The point is to gather enough information
to fully develop (or saturate) the model.
3. Data analysis through open, axial, and selective coding. The theory emerges
with help of memoing, by writing down ideas about the evolving theory during
open, axial, and selective coding. Alternatively, the study may end at this
point with the generation of a theory.

4. ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Although a grounded theory researcher develops a theory from examining
many individuals who share in the same process, action, or interaction, the study
participants are not likely to be in the same place or interacting on so frequent a
basis that they develop shared patterns of behavior, beliefs, and language. An
ethnographer is interested in examining these shared patterns, and the unit of
analysis is typically larger than the 20 or so individuals involved in a grounded
theory study.

This research focuses on an entire culture-sharing group, may be small (a

few social workers), but typically it is large, involving many people who interact
over time (a community social work group). Thus, it describes and interprets the
shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a
culture-sharing group. As a process, ethnography involves extended observations
of the group, most often through participant observation, in which the researcher
is immersed in the day-to-day lives of the people, observes, and interviews the
group participants to study the meaning of their behavior, language, and
interaction with each other.

Features
1. Develop a complex, complete description of the culture of a group, a culture-
sharing group (entire group or a subset of a group).
2. Look for patterns (also described as rituals, customary social behaviors, or
regularities) of the group’s mental activities, such as their ideas and beliefs
expressed through language, or material activities, such as how they behave
within the group as expressed through their actions.
3. The culture-sharing group has been intact and interacting for long enough
to develop discernible working patterns.
4. Theory plays an important role in focusing the researcher’s attention when
conducting an ethnography. For example, ethnographers start with a theory

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 drawn from cognitive science to understand ideas and beliefs, or from
materialist theories to observe how individuals behave and talk.
5. Engage in extensive fieldwork, collecting data primarily through interviews,
observations, symbols, artifacts, and many diverse sources of data.
6. Rely on the participants’ views as an insider emic perspective and reports
them in verbatim quotes, and then synthesizes the data filtering it through
the researchers’ etic scientific perspective to develop an overall cultural
interpretation-a description of the group and themes related to the
theoretical concepts being explored in the study.
7. The result is an understanding of how the group works, the essence of how
it functions, the group’s way of life. Questions that, in the end, must be
answered: “What do people in this setting have to know and do to make this
system work?” and “If culture, sometimes defined simply as shared
knowledge, is mostly caught rather than taught, how do those being inducted
into the group find their ‘way in’ so that an adequate level of sharing is
achieved?”

Types of Ethnographies
• Realist ethnography - an objective account of the situation, typically written
in the third-person point of view and reporting objectively on the information
learned from participants at a site. The ethnographer remains in the
background as an omniscient reporter of the “facts”; reports data
uncontaminated by personal bias and judgment.
• Critical ethnography - the authors advocate for the emancipation of groups
marginalized in society. They typically are politically minded individuals who
seek, through their research, to speak out against inequality and domination.
The major components include a value-laden orientation, empowering people
by giving them more authority, challenging the status quo, and addressing
concerns about power and control.

Procedures
1. Determine if ethnography is the most appropriate design to use to study the
research problem. The needs are to describe how a cultural group works and
to explore the beliefs, language, behaviors, and issues facing the group, such
as power, resistance, and dominance.
2. Identify and locate a culture-sharing group to study. In the group, members
have been together for an extended period, so that their shared language,
patterns of behavior, and attitudes have merged into discernable patterns.
This may also be a group that has been marginalized by society. Because
ethnographers spend time talking with and observing this group, access may
require finding one or more individuals in the group who will allow the
researcher in—a gatekeeper or key informants (or participants).
3. Select cultural themes, issues, or theories to study about the group. The
ethnographer begins the study by examining people in interaction in ordinary
settings and discerns pervasive patterns such as life cycles, events, and
cultural themes.
4. Gather information in the context or setting where the group works or lives.
This is called fieldwork. It involves going to the research site, respecting the
daily lives of individuals at the site, and collecting a wide variety of materials.
5. Analysis of data for a description of the culture-sharing group, themes that
emerge from the group, and an overall interpretation. The researcher begins

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 by compiling a detailed description of the culture-sharing group, focusing on
a single event, on several activities, or on the group over a prolonged period.
The ethnographer moves into a theme analysis of patterns or topics that
signifies how the cultural group works and lives and ends with an “overall
picture of how a system works.”
6. Forge a working set of rules or generalizations as to how the culture-sharing
group works as the final product of this analysis. The final product is a
holistic cultural portrait of the group that incorporates the views of the
participants (emic) as well as the views of the researcher (etic).

5. CASE STUDIES RESEARCH

The entire culture-sharing group in ethnography may be considered a case,
but the intent in ethnography is to determine how the culture works rather than
to either develop an in-depth understanding of a single case or explore an issue or
problem using the case as a specific illustration. Case study research involves the
study of a case within a real-life, contemporary context or setting. The investigator
explores a real-life, contemporary bounded system (a case) or multiple bounded
systems (cases) over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving
multiple sources of information (e.g., observations, interviews, audiovisual
material, and documents and reports), and reports a case description and case
themes. The unit of analysis in the case study might be multiple cases (a multisite
study) or a single case (a within-site study).

Features
1. Identification of a specific case. It may be a concrete entity, such as an
individual, a small group, an organization, or a partnership. At a less
concrete level, it may be a community, a relationship, a decision process, or
a specific project. The cases can be bounded or described within certain
parameters, such as a specific place and time. Current, real-life cases that
are in progress are studied to gather accurate information not lost by time.
A single case can be selected, or multiple cases identified so that they can be
compared.
2. The intent is also important. It can be to illustrate a unique case, a case that
has unusual interest in and of itself and needs to be described and detailed
called an intrinsic case. Alternatively, the intent is to understand a specific
issue, problem, or concern (e.g., teenage pregnancy) and a case or cases
selected to best understand the problem. This is called an instrumental case.
3. It presents an in-depth understanding of the case. It collects many forms of
qualitative data, ranging from interviews, to observations, to documents, to
audiovisual materials. Relying on one source of data is typically not enough
to develop this in-depth understanding.
4. The selection of how to approach the data analysis in a case study will differ.
Some case studies involve the analysis of multiple units within the case while
others report on the entire case. Also, the researcher selects multiple cases
to analyze and compare rather than a single case.
5. It involves a description of the case that applies to both intrinsic and
instrumental case studies. The researcher can identify themes or issues or
specific situations to study in each case. A complete findings section of a case
study would then involve both a description of the case and themes or issues
that the researcher has uncovered in studying the case.

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 6. The themes or issues might be organized into a chronology, analyzed across
cases for similarities and differences among the cases, or presented as a
theoretical model.
7. Often end with conclusions formed by the researcher about the overall
meaning derived from the case(s). These are called “assertions” by Stake
(1995) or building “patterns” or “explanations” by Yin (2009) or general
lessons learned from studying the case(s) by Creswell (2013).

Three variations exist in terms of intent:

• single instrumental case study - focuses on an issue or concern, and then
selects one bounded case to illustrate this issue.
• collective or multiple case study - the one issue or concern is again selected
but selects multiple case studies to illustrate the issue.
• intrinsic case study - focus is on the case itself (e.g., studying a student
having difficulty) because the case presents an unusual or unique situation.

Procedures
1. Determine if a case study approach is appropriate for studying the research
problem. It is a good approach when the inquirer has clearly identifiable
cases with boundaries and seeks to provide an in-depth understanding of
the cases or a comparison of several cases.
2. Identify the case or cases that may involve an individual, several individuals,
a program, an event, or an activity. In conducting case study research, I
recommend that investigators first consider what type of case study is most
promising and useful. The case can be single or collective, multisited or
within-site, and focused on a case or on an issue (intrinsic, instrumental).
3. Extensive data collection that draws on multiple sources of information, such
as documents, archival records, interviews, direct observations, participant
observation, and physical artifacts.
4. Holistic analysis of the entire case or an embedded analysis of a specific
aspect of the case. A detailed description of the case emerges in which the
researcher details such aspects as the history of the case, the chronology of
events, or a day-by-day rendering of the activities of the case. After this
description, the researcher might focus on a few key issues (or analysis of
themes) to understand the case’s complexity. One analytic strategy would be
to identify issues within each case and then look for common themes that
transcend the cases. This analysis is rich in the context of the case or setting
in which the case presents itself. When multiple cases are chosen, a typical
format is to provide first a detailed description of each case and themes
within the case, called a within-case analysis, followed by a thematic analysis
across the cases, called a cross-case analysis, as well as assertions or an
interpretation of the meaning of the case.
5. In the final interpretive phase, the researcher reports the meaning of the
case, whether that meaning comes from learning about the issue of the case
(an instrumental case) or learning about an unusual situation (an intrinsic
case). This phase constitutes the lessons learned from the case.

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 Kinds Focus Unit of Analysis Data Analysis
Narrative Exploring Studying Analyzing data for
Research the life of an one or more stories, “restorying”
-Developing a individual individuals stories, and
narrative about developing themes,
the stories of an often using a
individual’s life chronology
Phenomenology Understanding Studying several Analyzing data
- Describing the the essence of individuals who for significant
“essence” of the the experience have shared the statements,
experience experience meaning units,
textual and structural
description, and
description of the
“essence”
Grounded Developing a Studying Analyzing data
Theory theory grounded process, action, through open coding,
- Generating a in data from or interaction axial coding, and
theory illustrated the field involving many selective coding
in a figure individuals
Ethnography Describing and Studying a group Analyzing data
- Describing how interpreting a that shares the through description
a culture-sharing culture-sharing same culture of the culture-sharing
group works group group and themes
about the group
Case Study Developing Studying an Analyzing data
-Developing a an in-depth event, a program, through the
detailed analysis description and an activity, or description of the
of one or more analysis of a more than one case and themes
cases case or multiple individual of the case as well
cases cross-case themes

ACTIVITIES
After what you have learned on the kinds of qualitative research, you are now
ready to do the following tasks.

1. Complete the unfinished sentences on the kinds of qualitative research.

a. In ethnography, the researcher examines _____________________________________.
b. Case study is challenging because ____________________________________________.
c. Grounded theory focuses on _________________________________________________.
d. In phenomenology, I explore _________________________________________________.
e. Narrative research allows me to ______________________________________________.
2. Considering your track and strand, explain how qualitative research is
beneficial to your specialization?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

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3. Of the 5 kinds of qualitative research, which one do you like to conduct?
Explain your answer.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

4. Illustrate using flow chart the procedures for each of the following: narrative
research, phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, and case study.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

5. As the whole world faced the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic, what are possible
research topics which may be introduced to address the struggles of people?
List at least three (3) research topics and explain your reasons.
Reasons for Conducting
Research Topics
the Research

The lessons and activities of this module are adapted from the following:
• Marlyn D. Tolosa. (2020). Practical Research 1 – Grade 11 Quarter 1 – Module 5: The
Characteristics, Strengths and Weaknesses of Qualitative Research , First Edition
• Marlyn D. Tolosa. (2020). Practical Research 1 – Grade 11 Quarter 1 – Module 6: The
Kinds and Importance of Qualitative Research Across Fields, First Edition
• Creswell. (2018). Qualitative Inquiry and Research D8esign, Third Edition

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