Muhammad Ibrahim

Types of Qualitative
Research
Data collection Instruments

• Observation
• Interview
• Questionnaire
• Documents review
 Types of Research

• Ethnography
• Narrative
• Phenomenological
• Grounded Theory
• Case Study
 Ethnography
Ethnographic research is probably the most popular and
applicable type of qualitative research. In ethnography,
you engage yourself in the target participants'
environment to understand the Behavior, cultures,
challenges, motivations, and themes that occur.
Ethnography has its roots in cultural anthropology
where researchers engage themselves within a culture,
often for years! Rather than relying on interviews or
surveys, you experience the environment first hand, and
sometimes as a "participant observer.“
Marriage institution of any culture.
Purpose : to describe a culture's characteristics

Outcome: description of culture

 Narrative/Historical
The narrative approach weaves together a sequence of
events, usually from just one or two individuals to form a
cohesive story. You conduct in-depth interviews, read
documents, and look for themes; in other words, how
does an individual story illustrate the larger life influences
that created it. Often interviews are conducted over
weeks, months, or even years, but the final narrative
doesn't need to be in chronological order. Rather it can be
presented as a story (or narrative) with themes, and can
reconcile conflicting stories and highlight tensions and
challenges which can be opportunities for innovation.
Purpose : describe and examine events of
the past to understand the present and
anticipate potential future effects

Outcomes : select means of presentation -

biography, chronology, issue paper
 Phenomenological
When you want to describe an event, activity, or
phenomenon, the properly named phenomenological
study is an appropriate qualitative method. In a
phenomenological study, you use a combination of
methods, such as conducting interviews, reading
documents, watching videos, or visiting places and
events, to understand the meaning participants place
on whatever's being examined. You rely on the
participants' own perspectives to provide insight into
their motivations.
Purpose : to describe experiences as people are
lived e.g examines uniqueness of individual's
lived situations
Outcomes:
• Findings described from subject's point-of-
view
• Researcher identifies themes
• Structural explanation of findings is
developed
 Grounded Theory
Whereas a phenomenological study looks to
describe the essence of an activity or event,
grounded theory looks to provide an
explanation or theory behind the events. You
use primarily interviews and existing
documents to build a theory based on the
data.
Purpose: theory development

Outcome: theory supported by examples from

data
 Case Study
Case study involves an in-depth examination of a single person
or single individual or single institution / organization. The goal
of case study is to provide an accurate and complete description
of the case, the principal benefit of case-study is that it-can
expand our knowledge about the human behavior or attitude. It
is also useful when the case is too-complex and need special
attention. Case study often include in-depth interviews with
participant, review of his/her previous record, observation. It
provides an opportunity for the intensive analysis of many
specific details, which are often over looked by other methods.
A case study involves a deep understanding through multiple
types of data sources. Case studies can be explanatory,
exploratory, or describing an event.
Purpose : describe in-depth the experience of
one person, family, group, community, or
institution

Outcomes : in-depth description of the

experience
Method Focus Sample size Data collection
Ethnography Context or culture   Observation & interviews

Narrative Individual 1 to 2 Stories from individuals &

experience & documents
sequence

Phenomenological People who have 5 to 25 Interviews

experienced a
phenomenon

Grounded Theory Develop a theory 20 to 60 Interviews, then open and axial

from grounded in coding
field data

Case Study Organization,   Interviews, documents, reports,

entity, individual, or observations
event