QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH
Qualitative Research – research studies that
investigate the quality of relationships,
activities, situations or materials.
A researcher could examine a teacher’s instructional
effectiveness by collecting various indices of
effectiveness: rate of feedback, questioning skills,
eye contact, time on task, etc. The research could
survey students in the class for their opinions on
various aspects of the class (similar to the course
evaluation). This data could be statistically
analyzed and the resulting conclusions might
indicate ways in which the teacher could teach
more effectively. Notice that this approach holds
the classroom as an objective reality that can be
measured (quantified).
A very different approach would be for a researcher
to simply attend class, become friendly with the
teacher and students, and thorough observation
and questioning attempt to understand how each
of them views the learning environment. What
might she learn? Perhaps she would discover that
the teacher’s tendency to attempt humor often
confused the students. Perhaps the teacher’s
explanations about assignments were not clear to
the students. The possibility exists that she
identify several teacher behaviors that appear to
negatively impact upon teaching effectiveness.
Alternatively, the researcher might also discover that the
students are not performing well for many reasons beyond the
teacher’s control. For example,
•perhaps the format of a class is too long for students to be able
to concentrate and absorb the material?
•Perhaps two students in the class have begun dating and are so
immersed in each other that they cannot concentrate?
•Perhaps there is conflict among students in the class that is
impacting on attention?
•Perhaps the class is being held on a time that has a favorite TV
show and students are thinking about rushing home and
catching the last part of the show?
• Perhaps one person has a sick friend and does not have time to
properly study?
•And perhaps three members of the class are on athletic teams
and in missing classes failed to hear an important explanation?
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
• The natural setting is the direct source of data,
and the researcher is the key instrument.
• Qualitative data are collected in form of words or
pictures rather than numbers.
• Qualitative researchers are concerned with
process as well as products.
• Qualitative researchers tend to analyze their data
inductively.
• How people make sense out of their lives is a
major concern of qualitative researchers.
 ETHICS
• The interest of informant comes before all
other considerations.
• Discuss some concerns with the informants
before you commit yourself to a particular
scene.
• Do not misinterpret yourself to the
informants. Never hide your identities or
intentions.
 Ethnography/ Field Ethnography
• – the work of describing a culture
• - a qualitative approach to the social world
which seeks to describe and analyze the
culture of the behavior of humans and their
groups from the point of view of those being
studied(Bryman, 1988).
• - refers to the collection of data of many
variables over an extended period of time in a
natural setting using observation and
interviews.
•  In ethnography, you immerse yourself in the target
participants' environment to understand the goals,
cultures, challenges, motivations, and themes that
emerge. Ethnography has its roots in cultural
anthropology where researchers immerse 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."

For example, one way of uncovering the unmet needs of

customers is to "follow them home" and observe them as
they interact with the product. You don't come armed
with any hypotheses to necessarily test; rather, you're
looking to find out how a product is used. 
• Cultural scene – a geographic or symbolic
place where two or more people repeatedly
share activities that lead to shared
understandings.
– Social
– Repeated activities of the same people
– Serve as incubators which generate cultural
understanding
 Sequence of Field Assignments
• Map of a Block
• Private Language
• Non-verbal Communications
• Ritual
• The Big Ethnography
 Map of a Block
• Observe closely and see familiar as if it were
unfamiliar.
• Procedure
– Find an interesting block
– Without interviewing the people you encounter,
describe the block building by building, lot by lot.
– Don’t neglect the alley
– Draw the map of the block
– Explain why the details you chose are worth noting.
 Map of a Block
• Pitfalls to Avoid
– Do your best to describe without
judging
– Nostalgia
• Sharpen your eyes, not your memory
• Use one sense organ only – your eye
 Private Language
• Focuses on the creative aspect of culture and
on your own part in creating it.
• Procedure
– Record a segment of private language
– Narrative form
– Set down a dialogue or other speech in which the
invented terms are used.
– Describe the setting concretely
 Body Language
• Non symbolic ways of communicating that the species
inherited.
• Provide a brief introduction and to heighten awareness of
the extent to which people communicate with their bodies.
• Body language is an important part of communication
which constitutes around 55% of what we are
communicating.
• Procedure
– Record a communication exchange between two or more people
that does not involve words.
– Facial expressions, body postures, gestures
• Every culture interprets body language, gestures, posture and carriage,
vocal noises (like shrieks and grunts), and degree of eye contact
differently.
• For, the poor traveler might have expected that nodding his or her
head up and down would indicate yes, but in some countries, it means
just the opposite. In the Middle East, nodding the head down indicates
agreement, while nodding it up is a sign of disagreement; in Japan, a
up-and-down nod might just be a signal that someone is listening].
• The thumbs-up signal is vulgar in Iran. The "OK" signal made by
forming a circle with the thumb and forefinger refers to money in
some countries, while in others it's an extremely offensive reference
to a private body part.
• Point with the wrong finger, or with anything less than your entire
hand, and you risk offending somebody, and
• while some cultures value eye contact as a sign of respect, averting
your eyes may be the sign of respect in others.
 Ritual
• A collection of symbol; symbolic expression of
sentiments which are attached to a given
situation.
• Classification
– Rites of Difference –rituals that show difference in
status, ranging from tipping a hat to lady to
prostrating oneself before a throne.
 Ritual
• Classification
– Rites of Passage – rituals associated with the
change of status of an individual or groups of
individuals.
• Closure – rites of passage mark the end of stages of life
or situation
• Stressing responsibility
• Promotion of familiarity
• Aid in readjustment
• Solidarity is enhanced
 Ritual
• Classification
– Rites of Intensification – to reassert social
relations; to intensify social bonds
• Solidarity is enhanced
• Activation of status relationship
• Value reiteration
• Achievement of new adjustments
 Ritual
• Classification
– Rites of Reversal – prohibitions normally enforced
are lifted according to rules of their own – rules
for breaking rules.
– Instrumental Rites
 Ethnographic Analysis
1. Thinking
– Analysis is a test of an ethnographer’s ability to
think.
– To process information in a meaningful manner
– Simple perceptions
2. Triangulation
– Testing one source of information against
another to strip away alternative explanations
and prove hypothesis.
 Primary Sources
• Researchers need to consider the sources on which to base and
confirm their research and findings. They have a choice between
primary data and secondary sources and the use of both, which is
termed triangulation, or dual methodology.
Primary data is the data collected by the researcher themselves, i.e.
• interview
• observation
• action research
• case studies
• life histories
• questionnaires
• ethnographic research
• longitudinal studies
 Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are data that already exists
• Previous research
• Official statistics
• Mass media products
• Diaries
• Letters
• Government reports
• Web information
• Historical data and information
 Ethnographic Analysis
3. Patterns
– Ethnographers look for pattern of thoughts and
behavior in various situations and with various
players
– Ethnographers begin with a means of
undifferentiated ideas and behavior, and collect
the pieces of information, comparing, contrasting
and sorting.
 Ethnographic Analysis
4. Key Events
– Key events provide a focus of analysis; snapshots
or videotapes, concretely convey a wealth of
information.
– Some images and clear representations social
activity, others provide a tremendous amount of
embedded meaning
 Ethnographic Analysis
5. Maps
– Visual representation
– Test an ethnographer’s understanding of the areas
physical lay-out
6. Matrices
– Matrices provide a simple, systematic graphic way to
compare and contrast data
7. Content Analysis
– Analyze written and electronic data in the same way that
they analyze observe behavior.
 Phenomenological
When you want to describe an event, activity, or phenomenon, the
aptly 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. 
Like other qualitative methods, you don't start with a well-formed
hypothesis. In a phenomenological study, you often conduct a lot of
interviews, usually between 5 and 25 for common
themes, to build a sufficient dataset to look for emerging themes
and to use other participants to validate your findings. 
• For example, there's been an explosion in the
last 5 years in online courses and training. But
how do students engage with these courses?
While you can examine time spent and
content accessed using log data and even
assess student achievement vis-a-vis in-person
courses, a phenomenological study would aim
to better understand the students experience
and how that may impact comprehension of
the material. 
 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. You go through a
series of open and axial coding techniques to identify themes
and build the theory. Sample sizes are often also larger—between 20
to 60—with these studies to better establish a theory. Grounded
theory can help inform design decisions by better understanding how
a community of users currently use a product or perform tasks. 

For example, a grounded theory study could involve understanding

how software developers use portals to communicate and
write code or how small retail merchants approve or decline
customers for credit.
• Historical research enables you to explore and explain
the meanings, phases and characteristics of a
phenomenon or process at a particular point of time
in the past. We differentiate historical research as a
research strategy from the research of history, which
refers to research in the discipline of history.
• The variable focus of your research is time. Your
essential aim is to identify appearances of your chosen
phenomenon in a temporally defined situation and
environment. The strategy of historical research is also
suitable in other disciplines as it enables you to focus
on exploring the historical appearances of
phenomena.
 Case Study
• Made famous by the Harvard Business School,
even mainly quantitative researchers can
relate to the value of the case study in
explaining an organization, entity, company, or
event. A case study involves a deep
understanding through multiple types of data
sources. Case studies can be explanatory,
exploratory, or describing an event.