An Introduction to Qualitative Research Day 1

1
An Introduction to Qualitative ResearchDay 1

• Radhika Viruru, Ph.D.
• Dept. of Psychological Sciences
• Qatar University

2
My experiences with qualitative research
3

• Viruru, R. (2009) A postcolonial analysis of the
  discourse of childrens rights A case study of a
  family literacy program in rural Texas. Paper to
  be presented at the Seminar on Childrens Living
  Rights, Sion, Switzerland, January 19-20.
• Viruru, R. (2006) Postcolonial Technologies of
  Power Standardized Testing and Representing
  Diverse Young Children. The International Journal
  of Educational Policy, Research, and Practice, 7,
  pp 49-70.
• Viruru, R. Cannella, G.S. (2006). A
  Postcolonial Critique of the Ethnographic
  Interview Research analyses Research. In N.K.
  Denzin M. Giardina (eds). Qualitative  Inquiry
  and the Conservative Challenge Walnut Creek, CA
  Left Coast
• Viruru, R. (2001) Postcolonial Ethnography an
  Indian Perspective on Voice and Young Children.
  In G.S. Cannella, K. Anijar J.L. Kincheloe
  (Eds.). Kidworld Global Perspectives, Cultural
  Studies and Education. New York Peter Lang
• Viruru, R Cannella, G.S. (1997). An Indian
  Voice in the Education of Young Children.
  International Journal of Education Reform, 6(3),
  308-315.

4
Qualitative research

• The basis of qualitative research the observer
  went to a foreign setting to study the customs
  and habits of another society and culture.born
  out of concern to understand the other.
• Research is firmly grounded in Western traditions
  (the investigative mentality)

5
Definitions

• Qualitative research is a situated activity that
  locates the observer in the world. It consists of
  a set of interpretive, material practices that
  make the world visible. These practices transform
  the world. They turn the world into a series of
  representations, including field notes,
  interviews, conversations, photographs, memos and
  recordings to the self
• (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005, p.3)

6
Definitions

• Qualitative research begins with assumptions, a
  worldview, the possible use of a theoretical
  lens, and the study of research problems
  inquiring into the meaning individuals or groups
  ascribe to a social or human problem. To study
  this problem, qualitative researchers use an
  emerging qualitative approach to inquiry, the
  collection of data in a natural setting,
  sensitive to the people and places under study,
  and data analysis that is inductive and
  establishes patterns or themes. The final report
  or presentation includes the voices of the
  participants, the reflexivity of the researcher
  and a complex description and interpretation of
  the problem, and it extends the literature or
  signals a call for action Creswell, p. 36, 2007.

7
Qualitative questions

• Qualitative research is concerned with developing
  explanations of social phenomena. That is to say,
  it aims to help us to understand the world in
  which we live and why things are the way they
  are. It is concerned with the social aspects of
  our world and seeks to answer questions about
• Why people behave the way they do
• How opinions and attitudes are formed
• How people are affected by the events that go on
  around them
• How and why cultures have developed in the way
  they have
• The differences between social groups
• Qualitative research is concerned with finding
  the answers to questions which begin with why?
  how? in what way? Quantitative research, on the
  other hand, is more concerned with questions
  about how much? how many? how often? to what
  extent?
• http//www.trentrdsu.org.uk/cms/uploads/Qualitativ
  e20Research.pdf

8
Fundamental assumptions about research

• Social and natural sciences have identical aims,
  the discovery of natural laws that serve for
  explanation and prediction
• Social and natural sciences are methodologically
  identical
• Uniformity of nature in time and space
• Large samples suppress idiosyncrasies and reveal
  general causes.
• All phenomena have a reason.
• Observers observe, and not disturb.
• The language of science is exact, formalizable
  and literal meanings are univocal.

9
Limits of traditional approaches to research

• Problematic assumptions
• Ontology (reality out there)
• Epistemology (knower and known)
• Generalizability
• Linear causality
• Value freedom
• Rhetorical (the language of research)
• Methodological (the process of research)

10
Constructed realities

• Kinds of realities
• Social, Logico-mathematical, Physical.
• If reality is what we construct it to be, what
  kinds of truths can we discover about human
  beings?
• The connection between reality and discourse and
  the institutions that reflect those discourses.
• Multiple intelligences as reality.

11
What do you see?
12
Implications for practice

• Researcher is not looking for points of
  convergence.
• Unstructured nature of data collection.
• Researcher uses quotes and themes from
  participants and provides evidence of different
  perspectives.

13
Epistemology

• The relationship of knower to known mutual and
  transactional
• The disturbing and disturbed observer
• Reactivity awareness of being tested, role
  selection, measurement as change agent.
• Indeterminacy the act of measurement renders
  some things indeterminate

14
Capitalizing on interaction

• If theories and facts are not independent,
  continuing and intensive interaction between the
  investigator and the object is essential to
  forming sound judgments (p. 102).
• More representative sampling and design
  procedures are achieved through interaction.
• Continually working towards more sophisticated
  levels of understanding
• Human research is impossible without cooperation
  from respondents
• The natural advantages of the human instrument.

15
Who is Hannah?

• Hannah exercise

16
Implications for practice

• What you know as researcher
• Reflexivity
• Prolonged engagement
• Persistent observation
• Documenting the emic perspective

17
Generalizations

• Generalizations are assertions of enduring value
  that are context free.
• Generalizations tied to the idea of prediction
  and control.
• Based on idea of determinism
• Do not exist in nature, active creations of mind,
  represent inductive logic.
• Free from time and space contexts.
• Reductionist
• Naturalistic generalizations
• More intuitive, based on personal and vicarious
  experiences.
• Working hypothesis transferability and
  fittingness

18

• Bill "You know, those feminists all hate men."
  Joe "Really?" Bill "Yeah. I was in my
  philosophy class the other day and that Rachel
  chick gave a presentation." Joe "Which Rachel?"
  Bill "You know her. She's the one that runs
  that feminist group over at the Women's Center.
  She said that men are all sexist pigs. I asked
  her why she believed this and she said that her
  last few boyfriends were real sexist pigs. "
  Joe "That doesn't sound like a good reason to
  believe that all of us are pigs." Bill "That
  was what I said." Joe "What did she say?"
  Bill "She said that she had seen enough of men
  to know we are all pigs. She obviously hates all
  men." Joe "So you think all feminists are like
  her?" Bill "Sure. They all hate men."

19
Implications for practice

• Avoidance of broad conclusions
• Letting the reader create their own
  generalizations
• Providing thick description

20
Causality

• Understanding causes is key to prediction and
  control
• Knowledge of causes is power.
• Is looking for causes instinctive?
• Multiple definitions of causation
• Temporal precedence (time itself is social
  construction)

21
Causality

• Human behavior is more complex than cause effect
  relationships
• Is it a useful concept to have?
• Why replace it? The need for explanation and
  management.

22
Mutual simultaneous shaping

• Everything influences everything else, in the
  here and now. Mutual shaping is circumstances
  relative

23
Example research study 1

• The University of Georgia studied the effects of
  dormitory hours on the GPA of 787 resident
  freshmen women. Of that group 371 women were
  required to observe dormitory hours, while the
  remaining (n 416) were given permission by
  their parents to ignore closing hours. At the end
  of the academic term there was no significant
  difference in GPA between the two groups. Would
  you be willing to conclude from this study that
  dorm hours have no effect on GPA?

24
Example research study 2

• In 1953, Dr. J. N. Morris of London Hospital's
  Medical Research Council conducted what turned
  out to be a classic study of exercise and heart
  disease. His participants were drivers and
  conductors of London's double-decker busses, and
  he found that the drivers had 1.5 times the
  incidence of heart disease as the conductors and
  2 times the coronary death rate. (Was this an
  ethical study?). Since the drivers simply sat in
  their seats all day while the conductors ran up
  and down the stairs to collect the fares, Dr.
  Morris asserted that exercise was the causal
  variable that brought about the observed health
  differences.

25
Implications for practice

• Providing complex details in report.
• Provides opportunities to see connections.

26
Values

• Traditional perspectives on research have been
  that the values of the inquirer do not influence
  the outcomes of the study.
• Objectivity is possible.
• In qualitative research, the values of the
  researcher are always a part of the study, and
  must be acknowledged.
• An acknowledgement of values opens the door to
  different definitions of what research can and
  ought to be.

27
Are these studies value-free?

• There are growing concerns among social studies
  professionals that social studies instruction is
  disappearing from elementary schools. These
  concerns have become more pressing as educational
  policies emphasize core curricula of reading,
  writing, mathematics, and science. Questions
  arise as to how social studies can resume its
  traditional role as one of these core curricula.
  One possibility is to have social studies
  included in the accountability movement through
  testing. This article contemplates the role of
  testing in impacting social studies instruction
  in the elementary curriculum through a
  comparative analysis of data collected from a
  study of practicing elementary teachers in two
  states one in which social studies instruction
  is tested and the other in which social studies
  instruction is not tested.
• Heafner et al. (2006) To Test or Not to Test?
  The Role of Testing in Elementary Social Studies
  A Collaborative Study Conducted by NCPSSE and
  SCPSSE Social Studies Research and Practice
  www.socstrp.org Volume 1, Number 2, Summer 2006

28
Value-free inquiry?

• This qualitative case study of two Arab American
  preservice teachers living, studying, and
  learning to teach in post-9/11 New York City
  explores how arts-informed inquiry opens up a
  different space for conceptualizing the human
  condition. Poetry and collage allowed the
  researcher and participants to co-theorize in a
  way that rendered a portrait that reflects the
  tones, intensities, and various hues of their
  experiences during this historical time period.
  Poetry provided a space to talk with each other
  about the (re)presentation and (co)understandings
  of the experiences, whereas collage provided an
  alternative dimension to discuss the emotions and
  feelings involved with shifting selves and power
  struggles. This article argues that arts-informed
  inquiry provides the possibilities to paint an
  authentic portrait through engaging in evocative
  experiences that reveal the multidimensionality
  of our lived realities.
• Learning to Teach in the Shadows of 9/11 A
  Portrait of Two Arab American Preservice Teachers
• Roberta M. Newton, Teachers College Qualitative
  Inquiry, Volume 11 Number 1, 2005 81-94

29
Implications for practice

• Researcher openly discusses the values that shape
  the narrative and includes them in written
  reports.
• Implications for authenticity

30
Naturalistic axioms

• The nature of reality multiple, constructed and
  holistic
• The relationship of knower to known interactive,
  inseparable.
• Generalization a working hypothesis that
  describes a single case
• Causal linkages mutual simultaneous shaping.
• Inquiry is value bound.

31
Characteristics of naturalistic inquiry

• Natural setting realities cannot be understood
  outside their contexts.
• The human instrument no other instrument can
  adjust to/appreciate multiple realities.
• Uses tacit knowledge.
• Qualitative methods (though not exclusively)
• Purposive sampling try to choose a sample that
  gives you the widest range.
• Inductive data analysis.
• Grounded theory.
• Emergent design

32
Characteristics of naturalistic inquiry

• Negotiated outcomes
• Case study reporting
• Idiographic (particular) rather than
  generalizable interpretations.
• Tentative application.
• Special criteria for trustworthiness.

33
When to use qualitative research

• Quality versus quantity.
• For problems that need exploration
• For problems that need a complex detailed
  understanding.
• To empower individual and collective voices.
• To write in styles that push the limits of formal
  academic narratives
• To understand contexts
• The question of fit

34
Five Approaches to Qualitative Research

• Based on Creswell, J. (2007). Qualitative
  Inquiry and Research Design Choosing Among Five
  Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage.

35
Narrative Research

• Narrative research begins with the experiences
  as expressed in lived and told stories of
  individuals
• Can take the form of biographical studies, life
  histories or oral histories.
• Collecting stories and restorying them

36
Example abstract

• In my research, which has involved collecting
  womens accounts of becoming mothers, I am
  seeking to understand how women make sense of
  events throughout the process of child bearing,
  constructing these events into episodes, and
  thereby (apparently) maintaining unity within
  their lives
• Miller, T. (2000). Losing the plot narrative
  construction and longitudinal childbirth
  research. Qualitative Health Research, 10,
  309-323.

37
Phenomonological research

• Describes the meaning for several individuals of
  their lived experience of a certain phenomena.
• Can center around basic broad questions what
  have you experienced in terms of the phenomena
  and what contexts have influenced your
  experience of the phenomena

38
Example abstract

• Given the intricacies of power and gender in the
  academy, what are doctoral advisement
  relationships between women advisors and women
  advisees really like?
• Heinrich, K. T. (1995). Doctoral advisement
  relationships between women. Journal of Higher
  Education. 66, pp. 447-469.

39
Grounded theory research

• Employed in situations where it is perceived as
  necessary to go beyond description and generate
  theory.
• Use of the constant comparative method
• Can lead to follow up quantitative research

40
Example abstract

• The primary purpose of this article is to present
  a grounded theory of academic change that is
  based on research based by two major research
  questions What are the major sources of academic
  change? What are the major processes through
  which academic change occurs?
• Conrad, C.F. (1978). A grounded theory of
  academic change. Sociology of Education, 51,
  101-112.

41
Ethnographic research

• This kind of research focuses on an entire
  cultural group describes their shared patterns
  of values, behavior, language and culture
• Field work as method of data collection.

42
Example abstract

• This article examines how the work and the talk
  of stadium employees reinforce certain meanings
  of baseball in society, and it reveals how this
  work and talk create and maintain ballpark
  culture
• Trujillo, N. (1992). Interpreting (the work and
  talk of) baseball. Western Journal of
  Communication, 56, 350-371.

43
Case study research

• This kind of research involves the study of an
  issue explored through one or two cases within a
  setting or context.

44
Example abstract

• The purpose of this study was to take a look into
  education through the eyes of three teachers who
  are facing their final year as professional
  educators. The overarching goal was to determine
  how they have seen children, teachers,
  administration, policy, and testing change across
  the thirty year span of their work as teachers in
  Texas public schools. Through their comments
  they give a considerable amount of insight into
  the transformation education has experienced in
  the last three decades. But unexpectedly, they
  reveal as much about our changing society than
  they do education itself.
• Project submitted in EDCI 690, Summer 2005, Texas
  AM University.