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Qualitative Traditions of Inquiry

A. Narrative Research
Lecture # 2
B. Phenomenology
QUALITATIVE
TRADITIONS OF C.
C Ethnography
INQUIRY D. Grounded Theory
E. Case Study

Narrative Research
 Definition
◦ The description of the lives of individuals, the
collection of individuals’ stories of their
A. experiences, and a discussion of the meaning of
those experiences
NARRATIVE RESEARCH
 Other concepts
◦ One of many modes of transforming knowing
into telling
◦ A paradigmatic mode in which experience is
shared and storied or it has a narrative pattern

Narrative Research 1. Purpose

 Narrative inquiry is first and foremost a  An attempt to increase understanding
way of thinking about experience of central issues related to
 Narrative inquiry as methodology entails “individuals’ life and experiences”
a view
v ew of
o the
t e phenomenon.
p e o e o . through the telling and retelling of
 To use narrative inquiry methodology is
participants’ stories
to adopt a particular view of experience
as phenomenon under study

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2. Process 3. Data Collection

i. Justification  Participants:
◦ Personal, practical, and social ◦ Identification of suitable participants related
ii. Identification of phenomenon to the phenomenon
◦ Thinking narrative
 Context:
◦ Framing
F i research h puzzle
l
◦ Gaining contextual information
iii. Positioning
◦ Epistemological & ontological  Tools:
iv. Living the narrative inquiry ◦ Primary in-depth interviews and documents
◦ From field to text .... To research text
v. Ethical considerations
vi. Research reporting

4. Data Analysis 5. Communicating Findings

 Interpretive analysis
◦ Interpretations of stories
◦ Contextualizing stories
 Analytical procedures
◦ Thematic Analysis
◦ Chronological Analysis
◦ Functional Analysis
◦ Structural Analysis
 Developing a narrative account of
individual’s life / experience based on
certain phenomenon in answering certain
q
questions.
 Contextual information is appended along
with the story in both narration and
analysis

Phenomenology
 Rooted in philosophy
 Central question: what is the meaning,
structure, and essence of the lived
B. experience of this phenomenon for this
PHENOMENOLOGICAL person/group of people?
It focuses on individuals' interpretation of
RESEARCH 
their experience and the ways in which they
express them.
 The researchers task is to describe
phenomena as experienced and expressed by
individuals.

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1. Purpose 2. Process
 Phenomenology seeks to understand a  Once a phenomenon is selected, the
person’s or group of persons’ researcher engages in the process by
perspectives as he, she, or they entering into a field study.
p
experience and understand an event, esea c e tries
 Researcher t es to capture
captu e the
t e ‘en
e liven’
ve
relationship, program, emotion, etc. experience of the respondent through
 The researcher often has a significant question and answer; and their
personal interest in the phenomenon explanations.
under study as well.

3. Data Collection 4. Data Analysis

 Phenomenologists may study one subject,  The researcher(s) must search interview
but typically 6-10, who is or are transcripts to locate “meaningful units”
purposefully selected. which are small bits of text which are
 Thee researchers
esea c e s rely
ey o
on se
semi-structured
st uctu e independently
p y able to conveyy meaning.g
in-depth interviews.  Phenomenologists search for themes and
 The researcher and subject(s) must work patterns, not categories by logically linking
rather closely together to collect data. these “meaningful units.”

5. Communicating Findings
 Phenomenologists communicate findings
through detailed narratives exploring
themes and patterns which emerged from
data analysis
y and reduction.
C.
 These themes and patterns are then
ETHNOGRAPHIC
placed within the context of virtually all RESEARCH STRATEGY
instances of the phenomenon under study.

3

Ethnography
 Rooted in anthropology
 Also called participant observation/ naturalistic enquiry
 Ethno = people
 Graphy = describing something
 Ethnographers are interested in how the behavior of
individuals is influenced or mediated by culture in which
they live.
 Methods: Direct observation, Participant observation,
Unstructured Interview, note taking, photo, drawings,
documents.
1. Purpose
 Goetz and LeCompte (1984, pp. 2-3)
describe ethnography as, “[an] analytical
description of social scenes and groups that
recreate for the reader the shared beliefs,
practices, artifacts, folk knowledge, and
behaviors of those people.”
 Great emphasis is given to the
relationship between culture and behavior.
3. Data Collection
 Ethnographic researchers use multiple data
collection devices so that interpretations maybe
grounded and triangulated. Leedy, (p. 159) outlines
three specific data collection devices:
a) Participant Observation: Here the researcher may
participate in the phenomenon under study to
varying degrees. Observation runs a continuum
from detached observer to complete participant
observer. The researcher must take great care to
be as objective as possible. He or she is the single
greatest source of bias within this strategy. The
researcher will usually record his or her thoughts,
feelings, etc. when developing field notes so as to
guard against bias when interpreting the collected
data.
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Role of the Observer
 Complete observer
◦ Behind one-way mirror, invisible role
 Observer as participant
◦ Known,, overt observer
 Participant as observer
◦ Pseudo-member, researcher’s role is known
 Complete participant
◦ Full membership, research role not know
2. Process
 Ethnographic research is very labor and time
intensive, involving extensive fieldwork in a
natural setting.
 Usually general research question(s) is (are)
identified.
identified
 Once entry is gained and rapport (or trust)
is established, the research questions are
continually refined becoming more focused.
 It is not uncommon for the larger research
question(s) to be segmented into more
numerous, focused ones.
3. Data Collection (cont.)
b) Ethnographic Interviews: These types of
interviews are usually purposeful, employing
open-ended items so that the subject’s reality
and perceptions can be documented,
understood, and interpreted.
c) Artifact Collection: This is a secondary data
collection strategy which typically includes
unofficial documents, official documents,
objects, etc. which provide insight into the
lives, experiences, and perceptions of
subjects.
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4. Data Analysis 5. Communicating Findings

 Data analysis within ethnographic research  Findings are reported in the form of
occurs as data are collected.
research based assertions supported by
 The researcher codes and classifies data
(e.g., events, observations, quotes, etc.) into a analytical vignettes, interview quotes, and
meaningful taxonomy. p
interpretative observations, all intended
 New data are compared and contrasted to to present a holistic, rich description of
old so as to note patterns, etc.
the experiences and perceptions of
 This iterative process continues until the
researcher is able to make “assertions” participants.
which describe the participants’ “reality” and
perspectives.

Grounded Theory
 Rooted in social sciences
 Emphasizes the development of theory

D.  Which is grounded in data systematically

y
collected and analyzed ((constant comparative
p
GROUNDED THEORY analysis to produce substantive theory)
RESEARCH STRATEGY  Theory must be faithful to the evidence
 Looks for generalisable theory - by making
comparisons across situations
 Focus is on patterns of action and interaction

1. Purpose 2. Process
 Using naturalistic iterative data collection  Using the iterative processes of data
and relationship analysis processes, collection and analysis, relationships
researchers derive, from the data, a between concepts are continually
theoryy ((Creswell, 1994, pp. 12).
) identified and refined so as to enable
 The theory is the expected outcome of theory development.
the inquiry.

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3. Data Collection 4. Data Analysis

 Grounded theorists employ the same  Using the iterative process between data
data collection devices as do other collection and analysis within grounded
qualitative researchers. theory, the researcher seeks to identify
e pprocess
ocess iss iterative
te at ve with
w t early
ea y data
ata patterns of interaction between and among
 The
subjects (not necessarily individuals) by
being compared and contrasted with
logically liking two or more data categories
“newer” data to refine, discard, generate,
(i.e., similar topics sharing the same
or extend questions, hypotheses, or meaning). Strauss and Corbin (1990)
conclusions. explained the three major data coding
strategies used in grounded theory research:

 a. Open Coding: As the initial coding effort,

data are deconstructed into the simplest
form possible, examined for commonalities,
and sorted into categories.
 b. Axial Coding: As the intermediate step,
data are reassembled based on logical
connections between categories.
 c. Selective Coding: At this third stage of
coding, the “core” category is determined
and the relationships between it and
secondary categories are posited. Core and
secondary category relationships are later
validated. Categories needing further
refinement or development are completed.
 Two or more related categories (or
concepts) give rise to a theory (McMillan
& Schumacher, 1993), which is referred to
as a p
proposition
p ((Strauss and Corbin,
1990, p. 278).
 Since several conceptual relationships (i.e.,
concepts) are required to define a theory,
such theories are said to be conceptually
dense.

5. Communicating Findings
 Strauss and Corbin (1990) write that to
achieve “integration”, the core category
(or concept) is presented as a story line
which becomes the lens through g which all
E.
other categories are examined. CASE STUDY
 The relationships are compared to the RESEARCH
data for validation, refinement, or discard.

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Case Study Types Of Case Study

 Case studies involve in-depth
examination of a single instance, event
or example: a case.
 A case study is an empirical inquiry that:
investigates a contemporary instance or
event within its real-life context,
boundaries between instance, event or
example and context are not clearly
evident.
 Intrinsic
◦ The case itself is of interest
 Instrumental Case Study
◦ Apparticular case is studied to p g into
provide insight
an issue or to refine a theory
 Collective Case Study
◦ A number of cases are studied jointly in order to
investigate a phenomenon (instrumental study
extended to several cases)

1. Purpose 2. Process
 Case studies are constructed to richly  The “case” is studied onsite within its
describe, explain, or assess and evaluate a natural context. The data gathering
phenomenon [e.g., event, person, program, process is often interactive as the
etc.]] (Gall,
( Borg,
g & Gall, 1996, p.
p 549).
) researcher or researchers associate with
persons involved in the “case” under
study.

3. Data Collection 4. Data Analysis

 Data is collected primarily by fieldwork,
but secondary data collection is usually
employed as well. It is important that the
researcher(s)
( ) understand the
phenomenon from the perspective of the
participants.
 a. Interpretational Analysis: When employing
this strategy, the researcher is looking for
patterns (threads, constructs, commonalities,
etc.) within the data to explain the
phenomenon.
 b Structural
b. S lA
Analysis:
l I
Investigating patterns
which may be found in conversations, text,
activities, etc., with little or no explication as
to pattern meaning.
 c. Reflective Analysis: The description and
evaluation of the studied phenomenon based
on judgment and intuition by a highly
qualified expert.

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5. Communicating Findings
a) The case narrative richly and fully reports
the subject’s perceptions about the
phenomenon being investigated (Leedy,
1997, p. 158).
b) According to Leedy, researchers using the
COMPARISON
reflective
fl analysis
l strategy try to d
draw their
h
readers into the participants’ experiences
by using emotive writings, poems, etc.
c) Leedy goes onto point out that researchers
using the other two analysis approaches
tend to use an objective writing style and
effectively use tables, figures, matrices, etc.

Comparison