How do I get involved?

1
An Introduction to Qualitative ResearchPeter
Harper
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The Moments of Qualitative Research

• Denzin NK Lincoln YS (1999) The Handbook of
  Qualitative Research. Sage Publications Thousand
  Oaks

3
The Traditional Periodthe first moment - early
1900s until second world war

• objective colonizing accounts of field
  experiences that were reflective of the
  positivist scientist paradigm
• The other who was studied was alien, foreign
  and strange
• This period is dominated by the concept of
  ethnography
• Ethnography the process and product of
  describing and interpreting cultural behaviour.
  (Schwandt 2001)
• Ethnography is often used synonymously with
  fieldwork

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The Traditional Periodthe first moment - early
1900s until second world war
Bronislaw Malinowski in the Trobriand Islands 1918
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The Traditional Periodthe first moment - early
1900s until second world war
Margaret Mead in Samoa 1926
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The Traditional Periodthe first moment - early
1900s until second world war
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The Traditional Periodthe first moment - early
1900s until second world war
In the field one has to face a chaos of facts.
In this crude form they are not scientific facts
at all they are absolutely elusive, and can only
be fixed by interpretation. Only laws and
generalizations are scientific facts, and
fieldwork consists only and exclusively in the
interpretation of the chaotic social reality, in
subordinating it to general rules. (Malinowski,
1916/1948, p.328 quoted in Geertz 1988, p.81)
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The Traditional Periodthe first moment - early
1900s until second world war
The emergence of sociology featured a positivist
belief in a "science of society" that, by
explaining the causes of social phenomena, could
improve social conditions. American
sociologists extracted from the European
intellectual inheritance a particular nuance of
positivism, the idea that quantification tied to
the formulation of sociological problems in terms
of the hypothetico-deductive model enabled causal
explanations of empirical phenomena. This
approach has stood in tension with interpretivist
approaches ever since. The field came to be
marked by a bipolar opposition, with quantitative
methods associated with causal explanation of
macro-social phenomena and qualitative methods
with interpretivist understandings of
micro-social phenomena. Fielding, Nigel (2005).
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The Traditional Periodthe first moment - early
1900s until second world war
The Chicago School is usually seen as the
champion of qualitative method during sociology's
childhood. In 1927 William OGBURN was appointed
to bring in a "scientific" sociology based on
statistics and by the 1940s, with PARSONS' rise
at Harvard and Columbia's growing dominance in
survey research and opinion polling, US sociology
had shifted to a quantitative paradigm. In the
1950s a group of quantitative sociologists came
to Chicago from Columbia and Everett HUGHES stood
virtually alone as representative of the earlier
tradition. Fielding, Nigel (2005).
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The Traditional Periodthe first moment - early
1900s until second world war
Everrett HUGHES was at Chicago from 1938 to 1961.
His course in field observation methods was
compulsory for students of sociology,
anthropology and social science. HUGHES was the
driving force in developing participant
observation as a distinct methodology because he
and his students had to justify their procedures
against constant criticism from statisticians.
The other key Chicago figure in qualitative
methodology was Herbert BLUMER, whose symbolic
interactionism was developed as an explicit
insurgency against positivist sociology.
Fielding, Nigel (2005, May). The Resurgence,
Legitimation and Institutionalization of
Qualitative Methods 23 paragraphs. Forum
Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum Qualitative
Social Research On-line Journal, 6(2), Art. 32.
Available at http//www.qualitative-research.net/
fqs-texte/2-05/05-2-32-e.htm Date of Access
Month Day, Year.
11
The Modernist Phasethe second moment post war
years to 1970s

• Traditional approaches continue and are still
  valued.
• During this period many writers attempt to
  formalise qualitative research e.g. Grounded
  Theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967).
• The post-positivist movement is a powerful
  influence with researchers attempting to apply
  the principles of reliability and validity to
  constructivist and interactionist approaches.

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The Modernist Phasethe second moment post war
years to 1970s

• Modernist ethnographers and sociological
  participant observers attempt rigorous study of
  important social processes such as deviance and
  social control
• A seminal, much quoted study, from this period is
  Boys in White (Becker et al 1961)
• This study attempted to make qualitative research
  as rigorous as quantitative and used standard
  statistics to analyse the data (later described
  as quasi statistics).

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The Modernist Phasethe second moment post war
years to 1970s
The Modernist phase or, Golden Age, is bounded
by
and
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Blurred Genresthe third moment 1970 to 1986
Blurred Genresthe third moment 1970 to 1986
By this stage qualitative research encompasses a
wide range of paradigms, strategies and methods
Paradigms
Symbolic Interactionism
Naturalistic Inquiry
Positivism
Structuralism
Post-Positivism
Semiotics
Ethno-methodology
Feminism
Critical Theory (Marxist)
Constructivism
Phenomenology
Various ethnic paradigms
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Blurred Genresthe third moment 1970 to 1986
Strategies
Grounded Theory
Case Study
Historical
Biographical
Ethnographical
Action research
Clinical Research
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Blurred Genresthe third moment 1970 to 1986
Methods
Interviewing
Observation
Visual
Personal Experience
Documentary
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Blurred Genresthe third moment 1970 to 1986

• The naturalist, post positivist and
  constructionist paradigms gained power in this
  period.
• By the end of the 1970s several qualitative
  journals were in place.

Urban Life (Now the Journal of Contemporary
Ethnography)
Qualitative Sociology
Symbolic Interaction
Studies in Symbolic Interaction
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Blurred Genresthe third moment 1970 to 1986
The beginning and end of the Blurred Genres phase
is defined by two books by Geertz
Local Knowledge In 1983
and
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Blurred Genresthe third moment 1970 to 1986
Geertz argued that
were giving way to
20
Crisis of Representationthe fourth moment the
mid 1980s to the present
A profound rupture occurred in the mid -1980s
with publication of
Anthropology as Cultural Critique (Marcus
Fischer 1986)
The Anthropology of Experience (Turner Bruner
1986)
Writing Culture (Clifford and Marcus 1986)
Works and Lives (Geertz 1988)
These works made research and writing more
reflexive, and called into question the issues of
gender, class and race. They articulated the
consequences of Geertzs blurred genres
interpretation of the field in the early 1980s.
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Crisis of Representationthe fourth moment the
mid 1980s to the present

• Issues of reliability, once thought of as
  settled, now become problematic again.
• Interpretive theories are now more common than
  grounded theories.
• Reflections the relationship between field work
  and writing emerge

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A Triple Crisisthe fifth moment the present
Three crises emerge from the discourses of
poststructuralism and postmodernism
The Representational Crisis
The Legitimization Crisis
Praxis
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A Triple Crisisthe fifth moment the present
The Representational Crisis

• This crisis addresses the degree to which
  qualitative researchers can capture lived
  experience.
• It is argued now that such experience is created
  in the social text written by the researcher.

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A Triple Crisisthe fifth moment the present
The Legitimization Crisis

• This crisis centres on the traditional issues of
  reliability, validity and generalisability.
• The central questions arising from this crisis is
  how can qualitative research be evaluated.

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A Triple Crisisthe fifth moment the present
The Praxis Crisis
The crisis of representation and the crisis of
legitimisation are interrelated and produce the
third - how are the outcomes of qualitative
research to be used especially if society is
only a text.
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The Research ProcessAn Analytical Framework
Ontology
The ontological orientation of the researcher, in
terms of his or her beliefs about reality,
determine their epistemological perspective on
knowledge.
Epistemology
The epistemological orientation of the researcher
is determined by his or her beliefs about reality
and influences their choices of research
methodology.
Methodology
The methods used by the researcher are determined
by his or her ontological and epistemological
orientation
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Inductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning is based on meticulous
observation, e.g., we can observe that metal
expands when it is heated.
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Non-Probability Sampling
Samples are taken from conveniently available
people or things.
Convenience
Sample units are deliberately chosen because they
have specific attributes.
Purposive
Volunteer
A self selected convenience sample.
Used in populations of people where one
participant identifies subsequent ones.
Snowball
Similar to stratified random sampling but without
randomisation.
Quota
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Qualitative Data Collection
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Interviewing
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Traditional Types of Interview
The Structured or Closed Interview
The Semi structured Interview
The Unstructured or Open Interview
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Traditional Types of Interview
The Structured or Closed Interview

• The structured interview uses closed questions,
  i.e., questions that require either a yes or know
  answer or require a choice of answer to be made.
• This approach is commonly used in survey research
  and hardly ever in qualitative research. It is
  useful for deductive exploration of a clearly
  defined research question.
• The interviewer controls the process in
  structured interviewing as well as the direction
  of the interview.

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Traditional Types of Interview
The Semi-structured Interview

• The semi-structured interview may use both open
  and closed questions
• This approach is commonly used in qualitative
  research and sometimes in quantitative research.
  It is useful for deductively exploring research
  questions but allows for inductively derived new
  perspectives.
• The interviewer controls the process in
  semi-structured interviewing and the overall
  direction of the interview but allows the
  interviewee some control over the direction of
  the interview.

34
Traditional Types of Interview
The Unstructured or Open Interview

• The unstructured interview uses open questions,
  i.e., questions that encourage the interviewee to
  offer in depth information.
• This approach is commonly used in qualitative
  research and hardly ever in quantitative
  research. It is useful for inductive exploration
  of loosely defined research questions or even as
  a means to develop research questions.
• The interviewer controls the process in
  unstructured interviewing but has little control
  over the direction of the interview.

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Issues in Qualitative Interviewing

• There is an issue of who is in control of the
  process, i.e.,
• whether there is a traditional hierarchical
  researcher participant relationship or,
• whether there is a equal relationship in which
  both interviewer and interviewee are both
  participants.

QUESTION can there ever be a truly equal
relationship between researcher and participant?
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Issues in Qualitative Interviewing

• There is a representation issue, i.e.,
• to what extent does the interviewer change or
  influence the data being collected / generated
  through the interview,
• and therefore to what extent is interview data a
  true representation of the interviewees
  experience.

QUESTION can the interviewer ever experience the
interviewees experience?
QUESTION what are the consequences for any
conclusions derived from the interview?
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Active Interviewing(Holstein and Gubrium)
The active interview is interactional. From a
traditional interviewing standpoint this approach
is open to bias or contamination but in
Holstein and Gubriums words This criticism
only holds, however, if one takes a narrow view
of interpretive practice and meaning
construction. Bias is a meaningful concept only
if the subject is a preformed, purely
informational commodity that the interview might
somehow taint. (Holstein and Gubrium 1997,
p.126)
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Observation
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Types of ObservationGold (1958)
The Complete Observer
covert
The Observer as Participant
neutrality
The Participant as Observer
The Complete Participant
covert
Gold, R.L. (1958) Roles in sociological field
observations. Social Forces, 36, 217-223.
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Practicalities of Observation
Observation is a highly skilled activity and
attention needs to be paid to
Determining the focus of the observation
Gaining access to the setting
What to observe
How to observe
How to record observations
The ethics of observation.
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Issues in Qualitative Observation

• The two predominant issues are
• The validity of observation
• The reliability of observation

These issues stem from a post-positivist /
modernist stance. From a post-modernist stance,
traditional reliability and validity are not an
issue. Observation is considered particularly
strong when used in combination with other
methods.
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The Principles of Qualitative Interpretation
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Qualitative Analysis
Qualitative data usually consists of the words or
actions of research participants, gained through
interviews, observation, documents or
diaries. Qualitative analysis involves bringing
order, structure and meaning to this mass of
information so that conclusions can be made and
communicated.
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Qualitative Analysis
There are as many different approaches to
qualitative analysis as there are qualitative
researchers (Tesch 1990) Tesch described three
main types depending on their focus.

• Characteristics of language e.g. content analysis
• Discovery of regularities e.g. grounded theory
• Comprehension of meaning e.g. phenomenology

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Qualitative Analysis
Crabtree and Miller (1999) describe the
interpretation of qualitative data as a complex
and dynamic craft and compare it to a dance
Interpretation is like a night at the big dance.
The dance begins with an invitation to attend.
These invitations state the intent, establish the
context, determine the guests, suggest what to
bring and wear, and propose boundaries for what
to expect. Its a senior high school prom or a
community contra dance. This is the initial
describing phase of interpretation...
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Qualitative Analysis
..Once at the dance and with the fun under way,
however, the dance often changes. New partners
appear, the music shifts, the unexpected happens,
you and some of your closest friends change, and
new relationships form. You must keep
re-describing and adjusting, gathering new
information this is the iteration between data
collection and interpretation. There is an
opening dance that sets the tone for the evening,
much as the initial organizing style frames the
interpretive possibilities. The big dance event
ends with a closing dance that, one hopes,
resolves the evenings tensions.
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Qualitative Analysis
The process of qualitative interpretation is
described by Crabtree and Miller as having five
phases through which one iteratively spirals and
shifts. The five phases are
Describing
Organizing
Connecting
Corroborating and Legitimating
Representing the Account
These five phases should not be seen as linear or
sequential but rather as parallel, overlapping
and interweaving processes.
48
Qualitative Analysis
Describing
The describing phase is characterised by self
examination an examination of the context in
which the interpretation is occurring in terms of
both the past and the future. During the
describing phase researchers reflect on their
preconceptions and what part these preconceptions
play in the interpretive process on what they
have learned form collecting new data and on the
direction the research should take from this
point.
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Qualitative Analysis
Describing
A common error in clinical qualitative research
is switching from a critical or constructivist
paradigm back to a materialistic, positivist
paradigm part of the way through the research
process, most often at the interpretive moment.
The cultural forces pushing and pulling towards
universal, reliable, and valid truths with
generalizable, predictable, and controllable
outcomes is subtle, persistent, and powerful.
(Crabtree and Miller 1999)
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Qualitative Analysis
Describing
On a more pragmatic level, the describing phase
is a time for asking questions about the nature,
appropriateness, and quality of the data
collected in terms of the research questions
being explored. What are the boundaries of the
research? What additional data needs to be
collected to legitimise, or test, emerging
conclusions?
51
Qualitative Analysis
Organizing and Connecting
Crabtree and Miller use the term organizing to
describe how one enters the data and reorganizes
it in a way that helps answer the research
question. The process of connecting, Crabtree
and Millers third stage, is closely related to
organizing and mutually interdependent.
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Qualitative Analysis
Organizing and Connecting
Crabtree and Miller describe 3 organizing styles
The Editing Style
The Template Style
The Immersion and Crystallization Style
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Qualitative Analysis
The Editing Style
The editing style describes the interpreter
entering the text much like an editor searching
for meaningful segments, cutting, pasting and
rearranging until the reduced summary reveals a
helpful interpretation. The interpreter does
not use a template but searches for meaningful
units or segments in the text which are coded
and categorised and, during the connecting phase,
organised into explanatory patterns or themes.
Grounded theory is an example of an editing
organizational style
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The Editing Style
analysis begins at the same time as data
collection
reflecting
recording
interpreting
writing
verifying
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CODING
Suspension
Cheeking Teacher
Absenteeism
Telling Parents
Essay
Smoking
Messing about
Caning
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CATEGORISING
CRIMES
PUNISHMENTS
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CLUSTERING
TEACHERS
HOUSES
Southwark
Clifton
Lancaster
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
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THEORISING
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
Is there a hierarchy of punishment?
Is there a hierarchy of crimes?
Is there a relationship between these hierarchies?
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Qualitative Analysis
The Template Style
The template style uses a template derived from
theory, research tradition, pre-existing
knowledge, and/or a summary reading of the text
templates can be predetermined or created after
data collection. Units are often behavioural and
are refined iteratively during the connecting
phase into an explanatory framework.
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The Template Style
analysis begins at the same time as data
collection
reflecting
recording
coding using a pre-determined template
interpreting
writing
verifying
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CODING Template
Predetermined Codes Related Quotations
Misdemeanors
Good Behaviour
Punishments
Rewards
Relationships with Teachers
Relationships with other Pupils
Compliance with rules
Organisational Structure
New Codes


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Qualitative Analysis
The Immersion and Crystallization Style
The immersion / crystallization style makes the
most demands of the three styles on the
interpreter and is difficult to describe
precisely. In broad terms Crabtree and Miller
define it as prolonged immersion into and
experience of the text and then emergence, after
concerned reflection, with an intuitive
crystallization of the data. Borkan (1999)
acknowledges the difficulty in providing a
cookbook step by step description of the
immersion / crystallization style suggesting that
its successful execution may be more akin to
artistic expression
63
Immersion and Crystallization Style
analysis begins at the same time as data
collection
reflecting
recording
interpreting
writing
verifying
64
Qualitative Analysis
Corroborating and Legitimating
The corroborating and legitimating phase is
concerned with the validity of the interpretation
in the sense of its trustworthiness and
credibility. Crabtree and Miller propose that
together, the organizing, connecting and
corroborating and legitimating phases comprise
the core of the interpretive process.
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Qualitative Analysis
Corroborating and Legitimating
There are numerous approaches to corroborating
and legitimating qualitative interpretation. Two
strategies frequently used are

• verification of the interpretation by
  participants who have provided the original data
  and
• the utilisation of multiple perspectives, i.e.,
  having two or more people (often members of a
  research team) independently interpret data and
  comparing the similarities and differences in the
  interpretation.

66
Qualitative Analysis
Representing the Account
The final of Crabtree and Millers five phases,
representation of the account, refers to the way
in which the research will be reported, the story
told, how it will be written up.
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Qualitative Analysis
Representing the Account Writing as Research
Although we usually think of writing as a mode
of telling about the social world, writing is
not just a mopping-up activity at the end of a
research project. Writing is also a way of
knowing a method of discovery and analysis.
By writing in different ways, we discover new
aspects of our topic and our relationship to it.
Form and content are inseparable. (Richardson
1998, p345)
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Qualitative Analysis
Representing the Account The Reader as Participant
The relationship between writers and their
readers is a complex phenomena and a recurring
theme in relativist research paradigms. Case
study researchers have speculated on the role of
the reader in generalizing research findings
(Gomm 2000). Winter (1989) describes the
outcome of research activity as a dialogue
between reader and writer.
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Thank you Any Questions