CHAPTER 2: LESSON 1

KINDS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH,

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
PREPARED BY:
MRS. JULIE ANNE P. ODASCO
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• According to Creswell (1994), it is an inquiry
process of understanding a social or human problem
based on building a complex holistic picture formed
with words, reporting detailed views of informants
and conducted in a natural setting.
 KINDS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
MARSHALL & ROSSMAN (1995)
1. Participant Observation 1. Content Analysis
2. Observation 2. Narratology
3. In-depth Interviewing 3. Films, Videos &
4. Focus Group Interviewing Photographs
 PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
• Demands immersion in the natural setting of the
research participants which enables the researcher
participant to hear, see and experience reality
 OBSERVATION
• Entails the systematic
noting or recording of
events, behaviors and
artifacts (objects) in the
social setting chosen for
study.
 IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWING

• Resembles conversations but with pre-

determined response categories
• Large amount of data are gathered quickly
and immediate follow up and
clarifications are possible
FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING
• Involves 7 to 10, at time 6 -8
people who are unfamiliar with
one another and have been
selected because they share certain
characteristics that are relevant to
the research inquiry or problem.
CONTENT ANALYSIS
• Calls for systematic examination
of forms of communication to
document patterns objectively- as
shown in letters, emails, minutes
of meetings, and a lot more.
 NARRATOLOGY
• Story telling, retelling and reliving of personal experiences
• Researcher must be an active listener and an adept reader (for
written stories), attentive to recurring patterns, as well as the
narrator’s feelings, views and values as reflected in both oral
and written stories.
 FILMS, VIDEOS & PHOTOGRAPHS

• Provides visual records of events, especially the

films and videos which capture the perspective of
the filmmaker or videographer. Pictures, on the
other hand, manifest the intent, interests and
values of the photographer.
 STRENGTHS OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
• Qualitative research can offer the best light on or best answers to
certain phenomena- social, economic, political or even psychological
• Research results are exhaustive
• It offers several avenues to understand phenomena, behavior, human
conditions and the like.
• It can build on, or even develop theories through consistent themes,
categories, relationships, interrelationships that are crystallized
during the data gathering and data analysis processes.
 WEAKNESSES OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
• Total immersion in the natural setting of the research
can be time-consuming and tedious, and resource-
draining as well
• There comes a point when the personal-self and the
researcher-self are inseparable , so, subjectivity, on the
part of the researcher, can happen.
 IMPORTANCE OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
ACROSS DIFFERENT
FIELDS
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

• Ethnographer of education
A sociologist or anthropologist
Seeks to understand what counts as education members of a particular group

- Ethnographer of education
An education “insider” ( a teacher)
Concerned with the social and cultural dynamics of a school or classroom
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

Ethnographic studies of learning and knowledge in

education ask the question what counts as knowledge
and learning in classrooms to teachers and students.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATION

• Focus groups are used to probe deeper research results

in order to describe current practices in Technical
Communication which can take the forms of E-mail,
fax messaging, video and voice conferencing, intranet
and extranet, jargons and graphics
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY

• Psychology has been strongly shaped by the

behavioral and cognitive traditions, within which
psychology should seek to understand and
determine an observable, objective psychological
reality.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN ADVERTISING

• Great advertising comes along from an

understanding of consumer’s wants and needs. In
order to understand those wants and needs, the
consumer needs to be consulted and integrated at
virtually every step of the research process.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN SOCIAL WORK ESP.
CALLS FOR THE FOLLOWING:

Immersions in the situations of everyday life –

typically normal ones, reflective of the everyday
life of individuals, groups, societies and
organizations