UNIT II.

QU A L IT A T I VE
RESEARCH
ADRIA N D . ST O. D O M ING O

S EAR C H A D V IS E R , M S C
PRACTICAL RE
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
The learner should be able to:
• analyze the use of unfamiliar terms and its meaning;
• obtain a thorough or in-depth knowledge of qualitative
research;
• clarify understanding of qualitative research;
• explain the elements or characteristics of qualitative
research;
• justify the usefulness of qualitative research;
• compare and contrast the types of qualitative research;
and
• match a given research topic with the right research
type.
BRAINSTORMING SESSION
Directions:

How knowledgeable are you about your

surroundings? How can you know more about
people, places, and things in this world? Share
with your classmates some ways and techniques
you know about becoming knowledgeable about
a lot things in this world such as those within your
own world, among your friends, schoolmates,
loved ones.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• an effort to understand situations in their uniqueness
as part of a particular context and the interactions
there (Patton, 1985)
• focuses on measuring worldviews not through
numbers
• puts premium or high value on people’s thinking
or point of view conditioned by their personal
traits
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• subjectivity is allowed
• looks at or listens to the subject or object in
a natural setting (Coghan, 2014)
• reality is conditioned by society and
people’s intentions are involved in
explaining cause-effect relationships
• things are studied in their natural setting
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• usually involves fieldwork so the researcher must go
to the people, setting, site, institution, in order to
observe behavior in its natural setting
• uses an inductive research strategy and builds
abstractions, concepts, hypothesis, or theories rather
than tests existing theory
• are in the form of themes, categories, concepts or
tentative hypotheses or theories
• the product is richly descriptive
CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
1. Human understanding and interpretation -
shows an individual’s mental, social, and spiritual
understanding of the world
2. Active, powerful, and forceful - not fixated to a
certain plan
3. Contextualization - involves all variables,
factors, or conditions affecting the study to
understand human behavior
CHARACTERISTICS OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
4. Diversified data in real-life situations - prefers collecting
data in a natural setting like observing people as they live
and work, analyzing photographs or videos as they genuinely
appear to people’s intentional observations
5. Abounds with words and visuals - words come in big
quantity in this kind of research; resorts to quoting some
respondent’s answers; presenting people’s world views
through visual presentation (i.e., pictures, videos, drawing,
and graphs)
6. Internal analysis - examines the data yielded by the
internal traits of the subject individuals (i.e., emotional,
mental, spiritual characteristics)
TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
1. Case Study - in-depth examinations of
people or groups of people or institution;
seeks to find answers to why such thing
occurs to the subject

2. Ethnography - involves the collection and

analysis of data about cultural groups;
making sense of the world to identify
lifeways or patterns
TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
 3. Phenomenology - examines human experiences through
the description of people involved; describes the meaning that
experiences hold for each subject

4. Content and Discourse Analysis – thematic analysis of the

content of the mode of communication (letters, books,
journals, photos, video recordings, SMS, online messages,
emails, audio visual materials, etc.) used by a person, group,
organization, or any institution in communicating; study of
language structures used in the medium of communication
TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
 5. Historical
Analysis - concern the identification, location,
evaluation, and synthesis of data from the past; examination
of primary documents to understand the connection of the
past events to the present time

6. Grounded Theory - data are collected and analyzed and

then a theory is developed
STRENGTHS OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
1. adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject
matter
2. promotes full understanding of human behavior
or personality traits in their natural setting
3. instrumental for positive societal changes
4. engenders respect for people’s individuality as
it demands the researcher’s careful and
attentive stand toward people’s world views
STRENGTHS OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
5. a way of understanding and interpreting social
interactions
6. increases the researcher’s interest in the study
as it includes the researcher’s experience or
background knowledge in interpreting verbal and
visual data
7. offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining
knowledge about something
WEAKNESSES OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
1. involves a lot of researcher’s subjectivity in
data analysis

2. hard to know the validity or reliability of the

data

3. open ended questions yield “data overload”

that requires long time analysis
WEAKNESSES OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH

4. time-consuming

5. involves several processes, which

results greatly depend on the researcher’s
views or interpretations
ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS
Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.

1. What comes to your mind the moment you hear qualitative research?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
___

2. If you want to conduct a research study about the tradition in your

town, what method of qualitative research is appropriate for your study?
Explain your choice.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
___
ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS
Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.

3. Differentiate subjectivity from objectivity.

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
___

4. Explain the connection between subjectivity/ objectivity and your

research work/
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
___
ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS
Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.

5. How is grounded theory different from other qualitative research

methods?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
___

6. Is the researcher himself the data gathering instrument? Why? Why

not?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
___
ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS
Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.

7. Can all research methods be used in one research study? Give

reasons for your answer.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
___

8. Pretend you are the subject of a phenomenological study, how will

the researcher obtain data through you?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
___
ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS
Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.

9. Given the chance to research, would you right away choose

qualitative research? Give reasons for your answers.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
__

10. If you will do a qualitative research about the area in which your
house is situated, what could be your problem or topic?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
__
ACTIVITY 4. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS
Directions: Name the type of qualitative research best situated
for the following topics.

1. The Mangyan’s Burial Practices _________________________

2. Relatives of Typhoon Victims ___________________________
3. The effectiveness of K-12 Curriculum_____________________
4. Spiderman: The Very First Film in the 21st Century_________
5. Philippine’s Political Party System: Then and Now ___________
6. Filipino Caregivers in Japan _____________________________
7. Travails of Senior Citizens at LRT/MRT Stations _____________
8. The Lone Grade VI Speed Reader of UST High School _______
9. Grade 11 Science Textbook ____________________________
10. Student Activism Since the Marcos Era____________________