Every day, you encounter people with different life

perceptions, capabilities and styles; things that you

cherish always; places you like to explore; and events
that are phenomenal: these have influenced your
whole being a lot positively or negatively in some
ways. You find them interesting, intriguing, and/or
amazing for these have been a big impact to your daily
life. Consequently, you are prompted to gather facts
and draw conclusions about them. This paves your
way to qualitative research because basically you look
for the reasons they exist and how they affect you.
From the word “quality”, you will search for
significant features these people, things,
places and events that make them valuable
to you. Thus, qualitative research helps you
find the reality of their daily existence and
how they influence you and the
community you live in as well.
Gentles et al. (2015 in Techo, 2016) defines
qualitative research as a study that seeks to
understand social life of a targeted population in
their natural setting. In this study, the researcher
can find problems that affect the subject
individually and as a community. Then, he or she
will ask questions to find out why those problems
occur and find solutions the people can lessen
them.
1. How do you describe the image?
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2. What do you feel about it?
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Characteristics of
Qualitative
Research
Characteristics are unique qualities and
traits a person, place, thing or event has
which are different from others (Webster
Dictionary, 2020). They may describe
their faculties, abilities, capabilities,
aptitudes and attitudes externally and
internally or both of the subject.
Qualitative research is generally subjective
because we describe people, things, places and
events through the views, feelings, and actions
certain people toward them through their
experiences about them in their own setting.
Explicitly, Techo (2016), DepEd (2016), Baraceros
(2016) and Roller (2017) describe qualitative
research as the following (SCADPNINHS):
1. Subjective. Assumes each case is special and
unique as it respects and captures the
details of the individual cases being studied.

Example: Experiences of people of Cebu City of

the Covid-19 outbreak is different from other
places as it has the most increasing number of
cases in the Philippines.
2. Contextualized. Data gathered show
subject(s)’ understanding and interpretation of
the world as experienced in their environment.

Example: People in Cebu City experience

strictest measurement of community
quarantine as Covid-19 infection is severely
rampant in their locality.
3. Active/Flexible. The researcher will be able to
discover the appropriate research design with the
right methodologies as it reveals itself according
to the research objectives as he or she goes
through the process and/or situations change. It
avoids getting locked into rigid designs that
eliminate responsiveness and pursues new paths
of discovery as they emerge.
Example: A death of a Covid-19 victim can be
narrative if the researcher would like to describe
the sequential experiences of a Covid- 19 victim
from infection to death. It can be a case study if
the researcher would like to study the experiences
of the victims differently from each other.
4. Dynamic. The researcher gets attention to the system
and its process assuming change is constant whether the
focus is on an individual or an entire culture.

Example: During the data gathering, the families did not

allow the researcher to interview the victims, instead of
focusing them, he or she may focus to the experiences of
the front liners that may change the research problem,
design and instrumentation, and methodologies.
5. Personal (contact and insights). The
researcher has direct contact with and gets
close to the people and their situation under
study; his or her personal experiences and
insights are critical to understanding the
phenomenon.
Example: To give more insights of the Covid-
19 pandemic in Cebu, the researcher may
interview the victims, their families and the
front liners and take videos and photos of the
present situations in the locale to elicit
answers to the questions.
6. Narrative. Detailed, thick description,
inquiry in depth, direct quotations and visual
presentations like pictures, drawings, audio
tapes and video tapes narrates perspectives
and experiences of the subject(s) of the topic
discussed.
Example: To analyze and interpret the Covid-19
pandemic, the researchers may narrate their
observation and interviews of the patients with
their families and the front liners and/or use of
data from the Department of Health through
narratives, pictures, videos, and graphical
presentations.
7. Inductive. It analyzes details and specifics of the data
to discover important categories, dimensions, and
interrelationships begin by exploring genuinely open
questions rather than testing theoretically derived
hypotheses.

Example: Covid-19 infection can be prevented through

wearing a face mask, social distancing and community
quarantine, thus, social interaction in lessened.
8. Neutral/Emphatic Neutrality. The
researcher‘s passion is to understand the
world in all its complexity – not proving
something, not advocating, not advancing
personal agenda, but understanding; the rese
to the data while taking a neutral
nonjudgmental stance toward whatever
content may emerge.
Example: To interpret the data, the researcher
may add his own experiences of the pandemic in
his or her locality for as long as they are
connected to the data and they are valid, which
are backed up with evidences and official
statements
9. Holistic (perspective). The holistic perspective of the
subjects on the event under study is understood in its
complex system more than the sum of its parts. It can
discuss their mental, spiritual, emotional, social, and
physical aspects on it.

Example: The researcher may include the mental,

spiritual, emotional, social, and physical struggles of
the Covid-19 victims in the data collection, analysis and
interpretation.
10. Social constructivist. The results of the
qualitative research can pave way to personal and
societal changes. They give better ideas on how to
lessen the societal conflicts and struggles.

Example: The findings of the Covid-19 pandemic in

Cebu City can be a great learning to other
localities on things people should do and not to do
in this struggle.