Qualitative Research

Design

Presenter: Nicole Huddleston

Spring 2020
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Objectives

 By the end of the presentation, you should be able

to:
 Explain qualitative research process
 Identify five major qualitative research approaches
 Describe the different types of qualitative research
approaches
 List and explain types of data used in qualitative
research designs

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Approaches to Research
 Quantitative  Qualitative
• Pre-determined methods • Emerging methods
• Large samples • Smaller samples
• Closed-ended questions • Open-ended questions
• Performance, attitude, • Interview, observational,
observational, and census document, and audiovisual
data data
• Generalization • In-depth
• Often replicable • Rarely replicable

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Nature of Qualitative Research

 Understanding how people interpret their

experiences, how they construct their worlds, and
what meaning they attribute to their experiences
 Exploratory – useful when not a lot is known about
a subject or phenomenon
 Often getting a snapshot of a phenomenon
 Point is not to generalize, but to understand how
something works in a particular context

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Qualitative Research Process
Identify Topic
Is it practical and useful to undertake this study?

Literature Review
Related Research

Research Question(s)
Open-ended questions: How…? What?

Design Study
Case study Ethnography Grounded Theory Narrative Phenomenology

Collect Data
Audiovisual Documents Focus Groups Interviews Observations

Data Analysis
CAQDAS Manually

Create Theory and/or Report Results

Themes Visualizations Theory 5
Common Methodological
Approaches

 Ethnography
 Grounded Theory
 Case Study
 Narrative Research
 Phenomenology

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 Ethnography
 Studying a culture to
gain a description of a
group of people
 Culture – shared beliefs,
attitudes and values of a
specific group of people
 Usually over a long
period of time
 Goal is to understand
how a culture works
 Holistic Perspective
 Cultural Relativism
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 Ethnography: Data Types
 Interviews, focus groups
 Field Notes
 Expressive arts –
photographs of artwork,
video recordings of
interactions and/or cultural
performance
 Observations – mostly
participant observation

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 Ethnography: Example
 The qualitative study was done on youth living in a rural
community in southern states in the US to understand their
values about music and dance. There were 25 participants in
the study. The researcher attended community youth activities
as well as events organized by the two churches in the area.
Data collection was done for one year. Data included: In-depth
interviews, observations, video and audio recordings and
document reviews (participants’ journals).
• Data analysis was done through consultation with
participants for verification of themes
• Results indicate common themes:
 Access to social media
 Contemporary vs traditional dance
 Music education
 Unemployment
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Ethnography: Limitations

 Researcher needs to have grounding in the meaning of a

social-cultural system as well as the concepts typically
explored by ethnographers
 Time to collect data is extensive, involving prolonged time
in the field
 Ethical issues with going into field
 Grounded Theory
 Goal is to explain a process or action, object is often a life
transition (e.g. dying patients)
 Developing a theory generated from data collected from
research participants and/or social situations
 NO hypothesis prior to conducting research
 Used when a theory does not exist to explain an area of
interest
 Used in anthropology, sociology, nursing, education and
psychology, among other fields
 Data collection is gathered until there is enough information
to develop a theory (saturation)
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 Grounded Theory: Data Types
 Data collected until there
is data saturation

• Interviews – primary
method of data
collection

• Observation,
documents,
audiovisual material

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 Grounded Theory: Example
 The qualitative study was done to understand the lived
experiences of women who survived childhood sexual abuse.
There were 11 participants between 25 and 75 years old. Data
collection included: In-depth interviews, a 10-week focus group
and document reviews (participants’ journals and field notes).
• Data analysis was done in consultation with participants on
verification of analysis, themes and theory
• A theoretical model was developed that focus on coping
and survival:
 Need to examine individual context to normalize
victim’s self-blame
 Societal positioning of woman and children as
powerless explains emotion-focused coping strategies
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Grounded Theory: Limitations
 The investigator needs to set aside
theoretical ideas or notions so that the
analytic, substantive theory can emerge
 Both evolving and inductive, but
systematic with steps, which is difficult
to merge
 It is difficult to determine when
categories are saturated or when theory
is sufficiently detailed
 Outcome (theory) has specific
components: a central phenomenon,
causal conditions, strategies, conditions
and context, and consequences
• These prescribed categories (if using
systematic approach) limit flexibility that
qualitative researchers are used to
 Case Study
 In-depth exploration of a bounded system (a case) or multiple bounded
systems (cases) over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection including
multiple sources of information, and it reports a case description and case-
based themes. A bounded system is the object of study around which there
are boundaries.
• A case/bounded system can include: a person, a program, one
organization, one event, a policy, etc., but it must be intrinsically bounded
(e.g. there is a limit to the number of people involved who could be
interviewed or a finite time for observations).
• A case/bounded system is a noun and seldom a verb (e.g. “training
modules” would be a case of study, while the verb “training” would not be
a case).
(Merriam, 2009)

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 Case Study: Data Types

 Case studies are commonly characterized by drawing upon

multiple sources of information for data collection, which
can include:
• Audiovisual material
• Documents/reports
• Focus Groups
• Interviews
• Observations
• Artifacts

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 Case Study: Example

 A qualitative case study was done on a refugee widow who had recently
moved to Germany with her three children. The aim of the study was to
understand how this single parent who is a refugee adjusts to living in another
country. The researcher observed the mother’s interactions with her children,
the community and social service agencies for three days per week for 10
months. It took the researcher 2 weeks to build rapport with the mother and for
her children to build trust in being observed. Most times, the researcher
actively participated in the mother’s activities with her children. Other data
collected were: in-depth interviews with the mother and family artifacts from her
country of birth, such as letters and photographs.
• Themes from the study:
 Grief of husband’s death
 Language barriers
 Cultural adaptation
 Unemployment
 Traumatic memories of war

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Case Study: Limitations
 Researcher must identify case and
determine cases as “worthy” of
study or not
 Must determine single versus
multiple cases
 Generalizability is hard with small
sample size
 Determining boundaries (times,
events, processes) of case can be
difficult, as well
as when a case begins and ends
 Narrative Research
 Exploring life experiences
 “Experiences are largely structured by narratives” (Gergen, 2014, p. 52)
 Create chronological experiences or restory (Creswell, 2013)
 Focused on one or two persons
 Must have a clear understanding of the context of the participant’s life
 Can be guided through a theory or perspective, such as feminist
perspective.
 Forms of narrative research:
• Autobiography – written and/or records of the research
• Biography – researcher writes and records the experiences of another person’s life
• Life history – written and/or records of a person’s entire life
• Oral history – reflections of events, causes and effects on the participant

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 Narrative Research: Data Types

Extensive data collection is needed about

the participant
 Journals or diaries
 Interviews
 Observation
 Letters and personal communication
 Official correspondence
 Family artifacts
 Photographs
• Has a story-like process: predicament,
conflict, struggle, place, plot, scene,
time, chronology, protagonist,
sequence with implied causality, main
character, etc.

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 Narrative Research: Example
 A qualitative study was done on the life story of a man with
schizophrenia named Ben. The researcher observed Ben’s behavior
at home where he lived with his brother. Interviews were held with
Ben’s immediate family and members of the community. Family
photographs and Ben’s artwork through the years were also
collected.
• Data analysis was done through restorying all data and
researcher’s experiences of observing Ben at home.

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Challenges with Narrative Research
 Since researcher needs to
collect extensive information
about the participant, it takes
attention to detail to capture
and understand story and its
context
 Active collaboration with
participant is necessary
 Researcher bias
 Issues of ownership and
validity, along with stories’
role
 Phenomenology
 Focus on people's lived experiences and interpretations of the world
 Commonalities among a group of participants of an experience
 Sub-types of phenomenological research:
• Hermeneutical – reflecting on lived experiences with
interpretation by the researcher
• Psychological or transcendental – focus less on the researcher’s
interpretation and more on descriptive presentation of
experience(s) of participants
 Phenomenological researchers often use a concept called epoche or
bracketing = the researcher sets aside their own experiences as
much as possible to see the phenomenon from a fresh perspective

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 Phenomenology: Data Types

Data is usually collected at a

single site
• In-depth interviews
(often several with the
same participants)
• Focus groups
• Observations
• Expressive arts
• Journals

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 Phenomenology: Example

 A qualitative study was done on women living with AIDS in the

Caribbean. The researcher was interested in understanding the lived
experiences of Garifuna women in Belize who are living with AIDS. In-
depth Interviews were held with 15 women. Video recordings were
done on community-based support groups for participants.
• Data analysis was done on transcribed interviews and support
groups as well as researchers’ field notes.
• Themes emerged from the data:
 Stigma about diagnosis
 Family secrecy
 Gender expectations of sexual expression
 Spiritual belief “being cursed”

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Phenomenology: Limitations
 Requires at least some
understanding of the broader
philosophical questions and thus
may be hard for novice researchers
 Participants of the study need to be
carefully chosen to be individuals
who have all experienced the
phenomenon in question
 Bracketing may be difficult because
it requires no interpretation and total
suspension of judgment
 The researcher must understand
how their personal understandings
will be introduced into the study
When to Use Which Approach?
 Narrative Research
 Best for capturing the detailed stories or life experiences of a single individual
or the lives of a small number of individuals
 Phenomenology
 Best suited for when it is important to understand several individuals’ common
or shared experiences of a phenomenon (e.g. grief, anger, or what it means to
be homeless)
 Grounded Theory
 Helpful when a theory is not available to explain or understand a process
 Ethnography
 Appropriate when there is a need to describe how a cultural group works and to
explore the beliefs, language, behaviors, and issues facing the group
 Case Study
 Good approach for providing an in-depth understanding of a case or cases

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Justify the Qualitative Method?
 Narrative Research
 Mention how individual stories need to be told to gain personal experiences
about the research problem
 Phenomenology
 Make the case that a need exists to know more about a particular
phenomenon and the common experiences of individuals with the
phenomenon
 Grounded Theory
 State the need of a theory that explains a process because existing theories
are inadequate or nonexistent for the population under study
 Ethnography
 Explain why it is important to describe and to interpret the cultural behavior of a
certain group of people
 Case Study
 Discuss how the study of a case or cases can help inform the issue or
concern of the study

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Qualitative Theories: Similarities and
Differences
 Narrative research, ethnography, and case study
research can be seen as extremely similar; difference is
what data is collected and who it is collected on

 Differ in what they are trying to solve

• Exploring versus theory development
• Come from various academic backgrounds
• Data collection varies in terms of emphasis
• Data analysis stage produces most differences

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What type of Qualitative Design?
Case study? Ethnography? Grounded theory? Narrative? Phenomenology?

 Example 1
 This study described the core values of the straight edge
(sXe) movement that emerged on the East Coast of the US
from the punk subculture of the early 1980s. The
researcher used the following data collection methods:
participating in the movement for 14 years and attending
more than 250 music shows, interviewing 28 men and
women, and gathering newspaper stories and music lyrics.
The researcher provided a detailed description of the
subculture and identified five major themes that emerged
from the data. The researcher concluded with conveying a
broad understanding of the sXers’ values.
(Creswell, 2013)

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What type of Qualitative Design?
Case study? Ethnography? Grounded theory? Narrative? Phenomenology?
 Example 2
 This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of nurse preceptors
working with new nurses. The qualitative research design used was to
explore the experiences of six nurse preceptors working with new
nurses in a tertiary pediatric teaching hospital, who were recruited by
purposive sampling. Data were collected using in-depth semi-
structured individual interviews. Data analysis revealed three themes:
1) preceptorship as a challenging and stressful role; 2) lack of support;
and 3) lack of appreciation. Preceptorship as ‘a challenging and
stressful role’ was the constitutive pattern that unified the themes. The
conclusion was that the preceptorship of new nurses is challenging
and stressful. Preceptors endure several roles concurrently, thus, their
workload should be balanced appropriately in order not to compromise
with one another and evade burnout. The preceptors need to be well
supported and their contribution be appropriately recognized.

(Valizadeh, Borimnejad, Rahmani, Gholizadeh, & Shahbazi, 2016)

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What type of Qualitative Design?
Case study? Ethnography? Grounded theory? Narrative? Phenomenology?

 Example 3
 This study’s objective was to investigate the formal and informal
ways pre-registration students from a range of healthcare
professions (medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and pharmacy)
learn about patient safety in order to become safe practitioners.
 Professional groups were treated as separate units, with
educational provider sites considering different programmes,
practice environments and models of teaching and learning.
 Data sources included: documentary evidence (including
undergraduate curricula, handbooks and module outlines),
complemented with a range of views (from course leads, tutors
and students) and observations in a range of academic settings.
Policy and management views of patient safety and influences on
patient safety education and practice. (Crowe, et al., 2011)
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Questions

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 References
Bell, N., Skalicky, S., & Salsbury, T. (2014). Multicompetence in L2 Language Play: A longitudinal case
study. Language Learning, 64(1), 72-102. doi:10.1111/lang.12030
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Dyce, J. A. & Williams, U. (Producers). (2014). An introduction to qualitative research [Video
file]. Uzma Williams. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from VAST: Academic Video Online.
Gergen, K. J. (2014). Pursuing excellence in qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Psychology, 1(1), 49-60.
doi:10.1037/qup0000002
Gilgun, J. F. (2012). Enduring themes of qualitative family research. Journal of Family Theory &
Review, 4(2), 80-95. doi:10.1111/j.1756-2589.2012.00118.x
Gobbo, F. (2011). Racism, 'race' and ethnographic research in multicultural Italy. Ethnography &
Education, 6(1), 9-27. doi:10.1080/17457823.2011.553077
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (3).
Somerset, US: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com
Richards, L. (2009). Handling qualitative data: A practical guide. London, UK: Sage Publications.
Valizadeh, S., Borimnejad, L., Rahmani, A., Gholizadeh, L. & Shahbazi, S. (2016). Challenges of the
preceptors working with new nurses: A phenomenological research study, Nurse Education
Today, 44, 92-97. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2016.05.021.

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Contact Information

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Address
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P.O. box 425619
Denton, TX 76204

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