Components of the Research Process

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Components of the Research Process

• INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods

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Outline

• The relationship between qualitative and
  quantitative research
• Steps and sequencing in the research process 2
  versions
• Discussion of Beckers The Epistemology of
  Qualitative Research

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Bridging Qualitative and Quantitative

1. Quantification also involves qualification
2. Statistical analysis requires interpretation
3. Interpretation is not the enemy of systematized
   procedures (see grounded theory)
4. Mixed-Method Approaches

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Bridging Qualitative and Quantitative

• Methodological pluralism?
• Time ordering
• Qualitative to define concepts ? Quantitative to
  refine, test
• Quantitative to test ? Qualitative to
  explain/interpret results
• Another process for generating rigor is through
  iteration

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The Linear Model
1) theory/model
2) hypothesis
3) operationalization
4) sampling
5) data collection
6) interpretation
7) validation
Flick
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The Iterative Model
1) research topic/questions
movement back and forth between these phases
2) corpus construction
3) data gathering
4) analysis
5) write-up
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The Iterative Model
1) research topic/questions
movement back and forth between these phases
2) corpus construction
3) data gathering
Field work
4) analysis
4) more analysis
Desk work
5) write-up
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A Double Iteration
1) research topic/questions
2) corpus construction
3) data gathering
Field work
4) analysis
4) more analysis
Desk work
5) write-up
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1) research topic/questions

• academic setting contextualized within the major
  debates in your discipline
• the boy with the hammer (law of instrument)
  there should be a match between research
  questions and methods used to answer those
  questions
• (does not mean that questions always precede
  choice of method, nor does it mean that you will
  not tend to favor certain methods)

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2) corpus construction

• Why not sampling?
• how to start, where to look, when to stop
  meaning saturation
• but more generally, the search for data richness
  and visibility of certain cultural processes

• recruiting people for interviews
• selecting texts or images
• fieldsite selection

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3) data gathering

• interviews (transcripts)
• participant-observation (field notes)
• collecting texts/images (from the field)

• expediency
• technique - how the communicative process between
  researcher and researched influences the data
  produced

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3) Analysis

• Comments in your field notes, emerging themes
• Established forms
• Discourse analysis
• Rhetorical analysis
• Content analysis
• Semiotics
• Grounded theory

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3) Final Report

• Writing is committing (an extension of analysis)
• Coping with heterogeneous data (tip start with
  the most interesting bit)
• Closeness to the data

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A Double Iteration
1) research topic/questions
2) corpus construction
3) data gathering
Field work
4) analysis
4) more analysis
Desk work
5) write-up