METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN FOR
in identifying, for example, discrepancies
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Gathering and Generating Data
Having established what previous researchers have
discovered, documented, and published on the topic of
interest, the nest step in conducting a study is gathering
and generating new data.
This step requires the researchers to answer the
following questions:
• What are the gaps in existing knowledge that the
study seeks to fill?
• What kind of information is needed to fill those
gaps?
• How will the study collect that information?
• How does one ensure that the information
collected in the research is the kind needed to fill
the gaps and answer the initial inquiry?
Before proceeding, it is necessary to define the terms
that will be used in this chapter; and to differentiate them
from one another.
• A method is a technique which the researcher
uses to gather and generate data about the
subjects of their study.
• A methodology is the section of the research
paper which explains why the researcher chose
to use particular methods. The methodology also
includes descriptions of any and all theoretical
and/or ideological concepts informing and
influencing the course of the study, and the
researcher’s rationale behind adhering to these
concepts.
• A research design is a plan which structures a
study to ensure that the data collected and
generated will contain the information needed to
answer the initial inquiry as fully and clearly as
possible.
Main Methods Used in Qualitative Research
The methods used to collect and generate data
for qualitative research should be designed to be
descriptive, observational, conceptual, and analytical.
Some of the most commonly used data collection
methods in qualitative research are individual interviews,
group interviews, observations, and surveys.
1. Individual interviews are like conversations
which are designed to elicit the information that
the researcher need. However, unlike casual,
everyday conversations, interviews must be
conducted as rigorously, systematically, and
transparently as possible to ensure the reliability
and validity of the information obtained.
2. Group interviews are conducted with several
participants simultaneously, and may be more
appropriate in some cases, such as when the
study concerns a community issue or shared
experience.
3. Observations are conducted to document and
analyze behavior and social phenomena as they
occur in their natural context, and may be useful
between what people say (such as in interviews)
and what they do.
4. Survey and questionnaires are more often used
in quantitative research, they may also be
designed to be applicable to qualitative studies.
Doing so requires that the questions be
structured to be open-ended, with few to no
restrictions on the respondent’s answer –
resembling an interview but in written form.
Common Research Designs
Phenomenological Design
This design focuses on obtaining descriptions of the
subjects’ or respondents’ lived experiences either in
writing or through interviews. The goal of this is to
analyze the meaning behind these experiences for
each subject, rather than generalizing to a greater
population.
To fully understand the subjects’ experiences,
the researcher must set their own feelings and
expectations towards the study. Those feelings and
expectations may hinder the researcher from seeing
the experience through the subjects’ perspectives.
This process is called bracketing.
Example: What are the experiences of a student who
failed in his or her subject?
The following are characteristics of a
phenomenological design:
1. The researcher applies bracketing by
focusing on the meaning of the perceived
experience or on the interpretation of the
said data.
2. It uses unstructured or semi-structured data
collection. When conducting an interview,
the researcher starts with an open-ended
question followed by general probes.
3. It uses appropriate and systematic data
analysis methods or adapts established and
credible processes to suit the study’s
purposes.
4. The research process is transparent.
5. It uses the first-person perspective. For
example, the participant may say, “I am
experiencing sleepless nights…”
6. The researcher identifies the phenomenon
not just in themes or categories.
7. It collects data in groups, such as in a focus-
group interview.
Historical Design
This design focuses on the identification,
location, evaluation, and synthesis of data or evidence
from the past to confirm or reject a hypothesis.
A historical study must be unobstructive,
meaning that the process of research must not involve
any interventions which will affect the results of the
study. This means that there is no way to manipulate the
factors of the study for different variables or contexts.
 This non-invasive approach is well-suited for
archival purposes, such that sources of historical data
may be stored accurately and consistently, and be
accessed and used over and over to study various
research problems.
Case Study Design
It is a comprehensive, in-depth examination of a
specific individual, group of people, or institution. A case
study may be considered quantitative or qualitative
research, depending on the purpose of the study and the
approach chosen by the researcher. This is also true to
other types of qualitative studies, for a case study to be
considered qualitative, the researcher must be interested
in abstract ideas and concepts, such as meaning of an
experience to a subject, rather than in generalizing
results to other groups of people.
Case study are not used to test hypotheses, but
hypotheses may be generated from case studies.
The data from case studies is evaluated through
content analysis. It involves the examination of
communication messages. Care must be exercised in
selecting subjects for case studies. The researcher should
avoid choosing those participants who are expected to
respond favorably or unfavorably to the instrument.
The following are characteristics of a case study:
1. Case studies are time-consuming and may be
quite costly.
2. It needs in-depth analysis of single or multiple
case/s.
3. It uses multiple sources of data such as
documentation, interviews, observation, and
environmental detail.
4. It may result in descriptions of themes and
assertions.
5. It clarifies cases and contexts.
6. It can select and develop issues.
Grounded Theory Design
Grounded theory design is a systematic research
approach by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm
Strauss, in which rigorous procedures (such as open
coding – identifying, naming, categorizing, and
describing phenomena encountered in the study, as well
as their characteristics) are used to collect data, analyze
that data, and formulate a theory on the matter at hand.
This theory can then be used to explain, provide a
perspective on, or even predict behavior in and of the
particular context of the study’s subject.
This method uses both an inductive and a
deductive approach to theory development. According to
Field and Morse (1985), “ constructs and concepts that
are grounded in the data and hypotheses are tested ad
they arise from the research”.
In a deductive grounded theory, a theory is
formulated, then the collection of the data follows. In an
inductive approach, collection of data is conducted first,
and then through the analysis of these data, the
synthesized form is the theory itself.
The following are characteristics of a grounded
theory design:
1. Purposeful sampling is used. The researcher
looks for certain subjects who will be able to
shed new light on the phenomenon being
studied. Diversity rather than similarity is sought
in the people that are sampled.
2. Data is gathered in naturalistic settings (field
settings). Data collection primarily consists of
participant observation and interviews, and data
are recorded through handwritten notes and
tape recordings.
3. Data collection and data analysis occur
simultaneously. A process called constant
comparison is used, in which data gathered in
the course of the study is constantly compared to
other data that had been gathered in previous
studies.
4. It presumes that it is possible to discover
fundamental patterns in all social life. These
patterns are called basic social processes.
5. It is more concerned with the generation rather
than the testing of hypotheses.
6. Theoretical sampling used is a part of analysis.
7. A core category grounded in the data is identified
(a study may not be able to fully develop an
explanatory theory but may usefully inform by
description and exploration).
Action Research Design
It is a design which involves a cycle of identifying
a problem regarding a situation or process, developing a
strategy for intervention (the “action”) with the purpose
of improving the said situation or process, implementing
said intervention, and observing and analyzing the results
until a sufficient level of understanding of (a valid
solution to) the problem is achieved.
In action research, the implementation of
solutions occurs as an actual part of the research process.
Participatory action research is a special kind of
community-based action research in which there is a
collaboration between the respondents or participants
and the researcher in all the steps of the study including
the determination of the problem, identification of the
research methods to use, analysis of data, and deciding
how the study results will be used.
Meta-Analysis Design
This design is a systematic evaluation of multiple
individual studies on a topic in order to not only
summarize the results, but also develop a new
understanding of the research problem. This design may
also be used to analyze discrepancies in the results of
individual studies, and its own results have a bigger
potential for generalization to a greater population.
However, due to complexity, studies following such a
design may prove difficult, expensive, and time-
consuming.
A good meta-analysis study is characterized by:
1. Precisely defined objectives, variables, and
outcomes;
2. Well-developed reasoning for its selection of
studies, including an assessment and
 acknowledgement of any bias that may
influenced the said selection;
3. A detailed description and analysis of the degree
of heterogeneity in the sample; and
4. Justification for the techniques used in the
analysis of the sample.
Planning the Research Design
1. Establishing the purpose – why do you want to
address this research?
2. Methodological location – what methods and
strategies do you intend to use?
3. Scoping – revisit the scope and delimitation,
what will the study cover?
4. Nature of data – what kind of data is needed to
answer the inquiry?
5. Thinking ahead – how big will the data be, what
is the intended result of the study?
Stages of the Project
Planning your research design will also be entail
delineating the stages of the study and setting a pace for
completion. A good rule of thumb is to schedule the
different tasks well ahead of time, in order to avoid
unnecessary time constraints.
1. Conceptualizing stage
2. Setting up a data management system
3. Samling and theoretical sampling
4. Collecting and generating data
5. Analysis
 SAMPLING TECHNIQUES IN QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
To obtain reliable results, it is not appropriate to
gather data from everybody within a group. In qualitative
studies, for every given analysis, only one sample (that is, a
subset) of a population is chosen. The research goals of the
project and the survey population features (such as size and
diversity) determine whether and how many people to
select from.
Sampling – is the method or process of selecting units (e.g.
individuals, organizations) from a population of interest so
that we can generalize our findings equally back to the
population from which they were chosen by analyzing the
sample (Trachoma, 2006). Therefore, sampling techniques
may be used to select a sample or question from the
population that will objectively represent the whole
population. Sampling is often required because researchers
generally do not have the time, energy, money, or resources
to study the entire population.
Population – is a group of persons of objects that possess
some common characteristics that are of interest to the
researcher and about which the researcher seeks to learn
more. There are two groups of population:
1. Target population – is composed of the entire
group of people or objects to which the researcher
whishes to generalize the findings of the study
2. Accessible population – is a portion of the
population to which the researcher has reasonable
access.
Example:
A study about the common difficulties encountered by
senior high school students in their first semester of school
year 2022-2023, the target population may be all the senior
high students in Nueva Ecija, However, the researcher may
have access only to the students of a specific school – these
students comprise the accessible population.
Sample – is a subset of the entire population and serves as
respondents of the study.
Sampling Methods
There are two classifications of sampling methods:
probability and non-probability.
A. Probability sampling
In this kind of sampling method, each member of the
population has an equal chance of being chosen to be
within the sample. It is a sampling technique in which
sample from a larger population are chosen using a method
based on the theory of probability. For instance, a
population of 1000 members, each of these members will
have 1/1000 chances of being selected to be a part of a
sample.
Types of Probability Sampling
1. Simple Random Sampling – it is a method of
choosing samples in which all the members of the
population are given an equal chance of being
selected. It is an unbiased way of selection, as
samples are drawn by chance. These include the
roulette wheel, fishbowl method, and the use of a
table of random numbers. This is also called as
scientific sampling.
2. Stratified Random Sampling – in this type of
sampling, the population is first divided into
different strata and then the sampling follows.
Age, gender, and educational qualifications are
some possible criteria used to divide a population
into strata.
Example:
A researcher will study the common effect of smoking on
high school students. The researcher decides to select equal
numbers of students from the freshman, sophomore, junior,
and senior levels.
3. Cluster Sampling – is used in large-scale studies,
where the population is geographically spread out.
Sampling procedure may be difficult and time-
consuming.
Example:
A researcher wants to interview 100 teachers across the
country. It will be difficult and expensive on their part to
have respondents in 100 different cities or provinces. Cluster
sampling is helpful for the researcher who randomly selects
the regions (first cluster), then select schools (second
cluster), and then the number of teachers.
4. Systematic Sampling – is a method of selecting
every nth element of a population. Example: every
5th, 8th, or 11th element until the desired sample
size is reached.
B. Non-probability sampling
It is a process of selecting respondents in which not all
members of the entire population are given a chance of
being selected as samples. There are cases that certain
portion of a population are given priority over others.
This is also called non-scientific sampling and is
commonly used in qualitative research.
Types of Non-probability Sampling
1. Convenience Sampling – it is also called accidental
or incidental sampling.
Example:
A researcher intends to study the elementary students of a
particular school, and has determined the desired sample
size. Due to the study’s constraints, the elementary pupils
who are present at the time of the researcher’s visit to the
school was chosen as respondents.
2. Quota Sampling – it is somewhat similar to
stratified sampling, in that the population is divided
into strata, and the researcher deliberately sets
specific proportions in the sample, whether or not
the resulting proportions is reflective of the total
population. This is commonly done to ensure the
inclusion of a particular portion od the population.
Example:
A researcher wants to survey the employees of a company
regarding their thoughts on the company’s new policies. The
researcher intends to have representatives from all
departments in his sample, but one department is so small
that doing random sampling might result in that
department not being represented. The researcher then sets
a quota of respondents from that department to ensure
their inclusion in the sample.
3. Purposive sampling – involves handpicking
subjects, usually to suit very specific intentions.
This is also called judgmental sampling.
Example:
In a study about honor students, the researcher uses a list of
honor students and chooses the necessary number of
respondents, to the exclusion of all other students.
4. Snowball sampling – is a method where new
respondents are “referred” by the other
respondents to be part of the sample. This can be a
useful way to conduct research about people with
specific traits who might be difficult to identify
(e.g., people with a rare disease).