HMEF5103 Qualitative Research Methodology

HMEF5103
QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
Prof Dr Kuldip Kaur Karam Singh
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Project Directors: Prof Dato’ Dr Mansor Fadzil
Prof Dr Widad Othman
Open University Malaysia
Module Writer: Prof Dr Kuldip Kaur Karam Singh
Moderator: Assoc Prof Dr Lim Peck Choo

Universiti Teknologi MARA
Reviewed by: Assoc Prof Dr Chung Han Tek

Assoc Prof Dr Woo Tai Kwan
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First Edition, April 2015
Copyright  Open University Malaysia (OUM), April 2015, HMEF5103

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Table of Contents
Course Guide ix - xiv
Topic 1 Qualitative Research in Education 1

1.1 Research in Education 3
1.2 Qualitative and Quantitative Research 7
1.2.1 Research Stance 8
1.2.2 Measurability 10
1.2.3 Explaining Phenomena 11
1.2.4 The Setting 11
Summary 14
Key Terms 14
References 15
Topic 2 Characteristics of Qualitative Research 16

2.1 The Notion of Approach 17
2.2 Data Collection 21
2.3 Form of Data 23
2.4 Analysis of Data 26
Summary 31
Key Terms 31
References 32
Topic 3 Types of Qualitative Studies ă Part 1 33

3.1 Overview of Qualitative Studies in Education 34
3.2 Basic Qualitative Study 38
3.2.1 Key Characteristics 39
3.3 The Ethnography 42
3.3.1 Key Characteristics 44
Summary 49
Key Terms 50
References 50
Topic 4 Types of Qualitative Studies ă Part 2 52

4.1 The Case Study 53
4.1.1 Examining a Case Study 54
4.2 Action Research 56
4.2.1 An Action Research Study 57
4.3 Ethics in Qualitative Research 63

iv  TABLE OF CONTENTS
Summary 65
Key Terms 66
References 66
Topic 5 Designing a Qualitative Study ă Part 1 68

5.1 Beginning Your Research 69
5.1.1 Properties of Research Design 69
5.1.2 Getting a Holistic View 72
5.2 Qualitative Research Design 73
5.2.1 Goals 74
5.2.2 Conceptual Framework 77
5.2.3 Research Questions 79
Summary 83
Key Terms 84
References 84
Topic 6 Designing a Qualitative Study ă Part 2 86

6.1 Methods 87
6.1.1 Examining Methods 88
6.2 Validity 90
6.2.1 Validity in Qualitative Data 92
6.2.2 Establishing Validity 93
6.2.3 Threats to Validity 94
6.3 Designing Your Own Study 98
Summary 101
Key Terms 102
References 102
Topic 7 Data Collection ă Part 1 104

7.1 Fieldwork 105
7.1.1 Key Features of Fieldwork 106
7.2 Participants 109
7.2.1 Selecting Participants 109
7.2.2 Maintaining Objectivity 111
7.3 Field Notes 112
7.3.1 Writing Field Notes 113
7.3.2 ResearcherÊs Role 118
Summary 118
Key Terms 119
References 120

TABLE OF CONTENTS  v
Topic 8 Data Collection ă Part 2 121

8.1 Observation 122
8.1.1 Being an Observer 125
8.2 Interviews 131
8.2.1 Conducting Interviews 131
8.2.2 Types of Interviews 134
Summary 137
Key Terms 138
References 138
Topic 9 Data Analysis and Interpretation 140

9.1 Preparing and Organising Data 142
9.1.1 Transcription 143
9.1.2 Organisation 145
9.1.3 Familiarisation 146
9.2 Developing Theory 147
9.2.1 Codes, Categories, Themes and Theory 147
9.2.2 Grounded Theory Method 150
9.2.3 Constant Comparative Method 151
9.2.4 Triangulation 152
9.3 Interpreting and Representing Data and Reporting 153
Findings
Summary 154
Key Terms 155
References 155
Appendix 159

vi  TABLE OF CONTENTS

COURSE GUIDE

COURSE GUIDE  ix
COURSE GUIDE DESCRIPTION

You must read this Course Guide carefully from the beginning to the end. It tells
you briefly what the course is about and how you can work your way through
the course material. It also suggests the amount of time you are likely to spend in
order to complete the course successfully. Please keep on referring to the Course
Guide as you go through the course material as it will help you to clarify
important study components or points that you might miss or overlook.
INTRODUCTION
HMEF5103 Qualitative Research Methodology is a key course offered by the
Faculty of Education and Languages at Open University Malaysia (OUM). This
course is worth three credit hours and should be covered in 8 to 15 weeks. This
course introduces concepts of qualitative research methodology as applied to
educational settings. Upon completing this course you will be more
knowledgeable on the main concepts, theories and their application in
educational settings.
COURSE AUDIENCE
This is a core course offered to all students taking the Master of Education
programme. The course is designed primarily to provide graduate students with
a background in the uses of qualitative research in education. The course begins
with discussion on what qualitative research is and how it relates to education. It
also examines the theoretical and historical underpinnings of qualitative research
so that you may better understand the traditions behind this genre of research.
As an open and distance learner, you should be acquainted with autonomous

learning study skills and able to optimise the content in this module within your
home and work environment. Before you begin this course, ensure that you have
the right course material, and understand the course requirements as well as how
the course is conducted.
STUDY SCHEDULE
It is a standard OUM practice that learners accumulate 40 study hours for every
credit hour As such, for a three-credit hour course, you are expected to spend 120
study hours. Table 1 gives an estimation of how the 120 study hours could be
accumulated.

x  COURSE GUIDE
Table 1: Estimation of Time Accumulation of Study Hours
Study
Study Activities
Hours
Briefly go through the course content and participate in initial discussion 3
Study the module 60
Attend 3 to 5 tutorial sessions 10
Online participation 12
Revision 15
Assignment(s), Test(s) and Examination(s) 20
Total Study Hours Accumulated 120
COURSE OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1 Explain the uses of qualitative research in educational settings;
2 Discuss theoretical and historical underpinnings of qualitative research;
3 Use tools appropriate for collecting and analysing qualitative data; and
4 Integrate participantsÊ ideas, perspectives, understandings and ways of
thinking in reporting the outcomes of qualitative research.
COURSE SYNOPSIS
This course is divided into 9 topics. The synopsis for each topic is presented below:
Topic 1 explores research in education in light of the key concepts, theories and
perspectives in understanding educational research. It also looks at the
differences in qualitative and quantitative methods to help you make important
decisions about your own research. Finally this topic gives you details on
educational research perspectives, measurability, explaining phenomena and the
research setting.
Topic 2 discusses a number of critical characteristics of qualitative research. It

focuses on the notion of approach in research, and how it applies to learning and
teaching. Contemporary perspectives on data collection as well as types and
forms of data are also explored. A variety of data analysis techniques derived
from various research perspectives are also put forth for consideration.

COURSE GUIDE  xi
Topic 3 provides you an overview of various types of qualitative studies in

education, especially in terms of the salient features differentiating types of
qualitative studies. It also focuses on two main types of qualitative research
studies, the basic qualitative study as well as ethnography.
Topic 4 takes a close look at two other types of qualitative studies in educational
research. The discussion centres on the principles of the case study and action
research, with a view to help you choose a research method for your own
research. This topic ends with a discussion on ethics to be observed whilst
conducting qualitative research.
Topic 5 introduces the concept of research design with a view to help you select
key design features as you begin your own research. It highlights the importance
of setting goals for your study and how you begin with this end in mind. The
topic also describes informing concepts and emerging concepts in developing a
conceptual framework and research questions for your own study.
Topic 6 continues the discussion on design features by focusing on two other

core features of research design. These are the selection of data collection and
data analysis methods in qualitative research as well as issues involved in
establishing validity in qualitative research. The topic ends with a description of
key aspects involved in designing a study of your own.
Topic 7 focuses on qualitative data collection, particularly on the selection of

participants for your study and on how you may gather data in the form of field
notes. In relation to these, the topic describes some critical considerations for
recruiting and maintaining respondents in your study as well as for effectively
writing field notes.
Topic 8 continues the discussion on data collection by giving due consideration

to two other techniques for gathering qualitative data, which are observation and
interviews. Several important considerations for observation and for conducting
interviews are described to help you apply these techniques in your own work.
Topic 9 covers the process of data analysis as it applies to qualitative research

designs. It begins with a description of how qualitative data can be prepared and
organised for analysis. The topic includes features of coding and categorisation,
and how these may be colligated to derive themes related to your findings. It also
gives details of grounded theory, the constant comparative method and
triangulation. Finally, features of data interpretation and data representation are
described in terms of how you may employ them in your own work.

xii  COURSE GUIDE
TEXT ARRANGEMENT GUIDE

Before you go through this module, it is important that you note the text
arrangement. Understanding the text arrangement will help you to organise your
study of this course in a more objective and effective way. Generally, the text
arrangement for each topic is as follows:
Learning Outcomes: This section refers to what you should achieve after you
have completely covered a topic. As you go through each topic, you should
frequently refer to these learning outcomes. By doing this, you can continuously
gauge your understanding of the topic.
Self-Check: This component of the module is inserted at strategic locations

throughout the module. It may be inserted after one sub-section or a few sub-
sections. It usually comes in the form of a question. When you come across this
component, try to reflect on what you have already learnt thus far. By attempting
to answer the question, you should be able to gauge how well you have
understood the sub-section(s). Most of the time, the answers to the questions can
be found directly from the module itself.
Activity: Like Self-Check, the Activity component is also placed at various

locations or junctures throughout the module. This component may require you to
solve questions, explore short case studies, or conduct an observation or research.
It may even require you to evaluate a given scenario. When you come across an
Activity, you should try to reflect on what you have gathered from the module and
apply it to real situations. You should, at the same time, engage yourself in higher
order thinking where you might be required to analyse, synthesise and evaluate
instead of only having to recall and define.
Summary: You will find this component at the end of each topic. This component
helps you to recap the whole topic. By going through the summary, you should
be able to gauge your knowledge retention level. Should you find points in the
summary that you do not fully understand, it would be a good idea for you to
revisit the details in the module.
Key Terms: This component can be found at the end of each topic. You should go
through this component to remind yourself of important terms or jargon used
throughout the module. Should you find terms here that you are not able to
explain, you should look for the terms in the module.
References: The References section is where a list of relevant and useful

textbooks, journals, articles, electronic contents or sources can be found. The list
can appear in a few locations such as in the Course Guide (at the References

COURSE GUIDE  xiii
section), at the end of every topic or at the back of the module. You are
encouraged to read or refer to the suggested sources to obtain the additional
information needed and to enhance your overall understanding of the course.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
For this course prior knowledge of inquiry, observation and writing would be
useful.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Please refer to myVLE
REFERENCES
Anderson, G. L. (1989). Critical Ethnography in Education: Origins, Current Status,
and New Directions. Review of educational research; 59(3) 249 - 270.
Bogdan, R. C. & Biklen, S. K. (2003).Qualitative research for education: An

introduction to theories and methods (4th ed.). New York: Pearson.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative Quantitative and Mixed

Approaches. Sage.
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among

five approaches. Sage.
Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in

education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
TAN SRI DR ABDULLAH SANUSI (TSDAS)

DIGITAL LIBRARY
The TSDAS Digital Library has a wide range of print and online resources for the
use of its learners. This comprehensive digital library, which is accessible
through the OUM portal, provides access to more than 30 online databases
comprising e-journals, e-theses, e-books and more. Examples of databases
available are EBSCO host, Pro Quest, Springer Link, Books24x7, Info Sci Books,
xiv  COURSE GUIDE
Emerald Management Plus and Ebrary Electronic Books. As an OUM learner,

you are encouraged to make full use of the resources available through this
library.

Topic  Qualitative
1 Research in
Education
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Compare definitions of qualitative research;
2. Describe salient features of positivist and phenomenological
paradigms;
3. Differentiate among key aspects of qualitative and quantitative
research in education; and
4. Discuss positivist and phenomenological perspectives as they apply
to research in education.
 INTRODUCTION
What is qualitative research? For most students, academics and investigators in
education, research is defined by one or more paradigms of inquiry. We often
begin by asking ourselves important questions about how we should approach a
research area or how we should determine a topic, collect data and analyse the
data that we have collected, as illustrated in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1: A situation of asking yourself research related questions to begin a study
Source: http://enotesfree.blogspot.com/

2  TOPIC 1 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION
The selection of techniques or the choice of an approach to a study is often

determined by an objective of the study. Researchers often articulate an intention
or a goal for their research before making choices about how to go about it, who
to involve or when and where to locate their study. In this topic, we will closely
examine how these ideas are applied to qualitative research in education.
To begin, let us examine some definitions of qualitative research.
Qualitative inquiry is described by Creswell (1998:15) as a "process of

understanding‰ a social or human problem by building „a complex, holistic
picture‰. The study is conducted in a natural setting with minimum or no
interference by the researcher(s.)
In Bogdan and Biklen (2003:2) qualitative research is described as an

„umbrella term‰ covering research strategies that share a number of salient
characteristics. Among others, these characteristics are: data that are „rich in
description of people, places, and conversations and not easily handled by
statistical procedures‰ and research questions „formulated to investigate
topics in all their complexity (and) in context‰.
Patton (2002) goes further by noting that qualitative research aims to

understand the unique interactions in a particular context. Thus, the purpose
of the investigation is to understand the unique characteristics of a context
and what these interactions mean to the people in that situation.
For Merriam (2002:5) qualitative researchers focus their efforts on interpreting

how events, interactions, texts, ideas, artefacts, etc., affect the people who
experience them. For this reason, Merriam considers the researcher to be „the
primary instrument for data collection and data analysis.‰
You will note from these definitions that qualitative researchers aim to present
findings from the perspective of the people who experience a phenomenon.
While the researcher is the principal instrument for data collection and analysis,
the meaning understood by people who are being researched becomes the focus
of the findings. The phenomenon a researcher is investigating is seen from a
natural setting and interpreted using participantsÊ personal experiences and life
stories, as well as interactions and events that are significant to them. Qualitative

TOPIC 1 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION  3
researchers collect data in the form of words rather than numbers so that they
can answer research questions using in-depth verbal descriptions. Thus,
restricting an investigation to a small time frame or to only one set of data will
not support the quest for answers in a complex environment.
ACTIVITY 1.1
Consider the definitions of qualitative research given. How are they

different or similar to the way you previously thought about educational
research?
In qualitative research, we begin the research process by looking at the totality of

the situation. At the initial stage of our research we raise broad questions like
„What is going on here? Why do they do this? What are their lives like? What
beliefs do they hold about the world?‰ Such questions are generative in nature;
they guide the study without narrowing the research focus. We believe that there
are many different ways of making sense of the world, that every community is a
product of the various historical, cultural and social events that shape their
everyday experiences. For these reasons, qualitative researchers do not
administer treatments on their subjects. Nor do they manipulate the research
environment so that they can predict what may happen in the future. Instead,
qualitative researchers consciously set out to understand how individuals,
groups, communities and societies interact with each other and with their
environment. The research is taken from a „bottom-up‰ perspective, not „top-
down‰.
In sum, qualitative research is concerned with uncovering the multi-layered

social and interactive dimensions of our world. It seeks to find answers „over
time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of
information in a rich context‰ (Creswell, 1998:61). Most importantly, the setting
that is being investigated, and the answers one seeks, ought to be those best
informed by in-depth questioning and detailed information-gathering.
1.1 RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

For a long time, research in education was dominated by an approach known as
positivism. In this perspective, educationists and other professionals believed
that humans and society in general, operated under general laws of behaviour. It
was believed that humans were governed by a set of rules or laws, much like the
physical world we live in. For example, we know that orbiting planets are
governed by the gravity of the sun, and that that is a physical law. In the same
way, positivism gave rise to the behaviouristic perspective in educational
research. Researchers used what they called scientific methods in studying
behaviour. Often, findings based on the study of animal behaviour were
generalised to humans. Research of this nature came to be described as positivist
in nature, and data were gathered using a quantitative approach. Researchers
collected data in the form of numbers, as in scores, percentages and frequencies.
Things began to change in the 1960s and 1970s, propelled mainly by the
publication of „The Structure of Scientific Revolutions‰ by Thomas Kuhn in 1962.
In his book, Kuhn introduced the concept of „paradigms,‰ that is, scientific
achievements and discoveries which provided solutions and explanations of
phenomena that humans experienced at a particular point in time. As his ideas
influenced thinking in the 1960s and 1970s, researchers began to consider the use
of introspection and intuition in educational research. Kuhn suggested that when
the paradigm at a point of time is unable to explain satisfactorily phenomena, a
paradigm shift should occur within the existing paradigm. A paradigm shift
(Figure 1.2) will lead to the introduction of new research methods and tools and
how the researcher sees the world. Thus, when positivist or behavioural ways of
uncovering meaning were unable to explain what was happening, humans
would develop new ways of thinking about the world around us.
Figure 1.2: Paradigm shift

Source: http://www.successwithkirk.net/
The 1960s was also a period of immense turmoil in the United States and Europe.
Radical changes in society led people to think about issues such as racial
integration, poverty, womenÊs rights and the impact of the Vietnam war. Young
people, like university students, contributed to cultural change by articulating
their thoughts on politics and social issues. As debates surfaced, a number of
philosophers such as Imre Lakatos, Karl Popper, Stephen Toulmin and Paul Karl
Feyerabend, led the way in rethinking the ways in which humans live, work and
interact. It became apparent to educationists that behaviouristic and quantitative
methods (such as experiments and surveys) were unable to explain complex
social phenomena. There were many social and educational issues such as

segregation in schools, juvenile delinquency, drug addiction and teaching

ineffectiveness that could not be explained using established theories or rules. In
due course, interest shifted towards understanding how humans think and
interact, and researchers began to give greater significance to topics such as the
process of thinking, teacher-student interactions or culture within educational
settings.
Increasingly, educationists realised that understanding motivations behind

human behaviour as well as the nature of human learning and interaction
needed deeper introspection than what quantitative methods could offer. This
quest to understand events and individuals in the classroom soon gave rise to the
use of qualitative research strategies in education. More importantly, they
wanted to build a perspective that was reflective of what the participants or
„actors‰ went through, how they felt, or why they did what they did. They felt
that the real significance of an event or setting was seen through the eyes, ears
and minds of the actors, something you could not do from a positivist, rule-
governed stance. Educationists often refer to this paradigm as phenomenology,
that is, the study of phenomena as we experience them. This is in sharp contrast
to positivism which is the study of how rules, laws or theories govern human
behaviour. The perspectives of positivism and phenomenology can be
summarised as shown in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1: The Differences between Positivism and Phenomenological Perspectives
Positivism Phenomenology
 It is believed that humans and society  It is based on the quest to understand
operate under general laws of behaviour. motivations behind human behaviour.
 It is the basis of behaviouristic  The purpose is to build a reflective
perspective in educational research – perspective of participants – how do
researchers use scientific approach to they feel, what they do, why they do.
observe behaviours.
 Data are collected in form of numbers  Data are collected as the participants
(quantitative approach). experience the phenomena.

ACTIVITY 1.2
Which of these perspectives in Table 1.2 (a) to (f) would you associate
with positivism and which would you associate with phenomenology?
Table 1.2: Perspectives to Associate with Positivism and Phenomenology
(a) Basic beliefs: (b) Basic beliefs:

 The world is external and  The world is socially
objective; constructed and subjective;
 The observer is  The observer is party to what is
independent; and being observed; and
 Science is value-free.  Science is driven by human
interests.
(c) The researcher should: (d) The researcher should:
 Focus on meaning;  Focus on facts;
 Try to understand what is  Locate causality between
happening; and variables; and
 Construct theories and  Formulate and test hypotheses
models from the data (deductive approach).
(inductive approach).
(e) Methods include: (f) Methods include:
 Operationalising concepts so  Using multiple methods to
that they can be measured; establish;
and  Different views of a phenomena;
 Using large samples from and
which to generalise to the  Using small samples researched
population. in depth or over time.
Source: Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Lowe, A. (1991)
Today, studies based on both positivist and phenomenological perspectives are

carried out in education. While quantitative studies tend to be one of three
categories – experimental, survey or descriptive, qualitative studies can be one of
many different categories, each dependent on the questions raised by the
researcher. For example, a qualitative study can be called a basic interpretative
study, phenomenological study, grounded theory study, case study,
ethnographical study or narrative analysis. As you learn more about each of
these types of studies, consider the link between research objective(s) and
research techniques: objectives determine the choice of techniques, strategies or

methodology. We will learn more about the different types of qualitative studies
in Topic 2.
ACTIVITY 1.3
Here is an extract of a study conducted by a researcher named Anita

Long. Read the extract and discuss reasons she adopted a qualitative
approach to the study. In this particular case, how was a qualitative
approach more informative than a quantitative approach?
The purpose of this study was to learn about the underlying

factors that might help to explain differences in performance and
engagement among middle school girls in Mathematics. The study
employed a qualitative approach to observe and listen directly to
the voices of middle school girls and their parents and Math
teacher as they reflected on their experiences and thoughts about
the girls’ performance in long-term goals related to Mathematics.
My goal was to hear what forces were working in and around the
girls that might lead them to engagement or disengagement with
Mathematics.
Source: Long (2011)
SELF-CHECK 1.1
What is the historical significance of positivist and phenomenological

perspectives in educational research?
1.2 QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE

RESEARCH
In this subtopic, we will learn more about the differences between the two research
paradigms mentioned in the previous section: positivism and phenomenology. An
important question that often rises regarding research in education is whether one
should adopt a qualitative or a quantitative approach in a study. The salient
differences between the two approaches have become fodder for discussion,
presumably to extract greater understanding of best ways to uncover truth and to
construct knowledge in our field. Let us turn our attention to the ways in which these
two approaches differ in the context of research in education.

1.2.1 Research Stance

A key difference between qualitative and quantitative research lies in the
perspective that researchers bring to the research context, from data collection to
the interpretation of findings. In order to express meaning as participants
experience it, qualitative studies concentrate on an „insider‰ perspective during
the analysis and the presentation of findings. They use the voices of participants
to narrate events, retell stories or interpret actions.
Quantitative studies represent findings from an „other‰ or „outsider‰

perspective, specifically from the perspective of the researcher or his instrument.
The linguist Kenneth Pike wrote about these perspectives in 1954, referring to the
insider perspective as emic and the outsider perspective as etic. PikeÊs idea of
making the emic-etic distinction stemmed from two linguistic concepts:
phonemics (perceived alphabet in oneÊs mind) and phonetics (the sounds we
make when we speak.)
In terms of educational research, we can see that the emic-etic dichotomy

(Table 1.3) presents two very different spheres of investigation. In qualitative
research, the researcher is the main instrument of data collection, analysis and
interpretation of findings. His or her primary data collection techniques are
participant observation and interviews, which allow one to be flexible to
changing conditions, or to be context-responsive. In conducting fieldwork, the
researcher has to go directly to the setting to make a judgement call about what
the next step(s) would be, and how he or she should adapt data gathering
techniques to a natural setting. In short, the interaction between the researcher
and the setting calls for an insider or emic perspective in the research.
On the other hand, quantitative techniques make use of pre-developed data

collection techniques such as tests and surveys. These require a lot of input and
research prior to data collection, and data must be processed according to the
constructs that have been so determined. Often conditions have to be
manipulated, as in the case of an experiment, so that there is little room for
„error‰. The results of the experiment are then interpreted according to
constructs, hypotheses or questions raised before data collection. Thus, the
outsider perspective, or etic, leads the researcher to interpret results according to
a pre-determined set of conditions that the participant is not party to.

Table 1.3: The Emic-etic Dichotomy
Emic Etic
(a) An insiderÊs perspective. (a) An outsiderÊs perspective.

(b) In linguistics they are the sounds I think (b) In linguistics they are the sounds I
I should say (a „t‰ in top, pot, actually say (an aspirated „t‰ in top; an
and butter) based on phonemics or the unreleased „t‰ in pot, and a medial
correct alphabetical spelling. flapped „r‰ in butter) based on
(c) Therefore, an emic unit is constant in articulatory phonetics.
the tacit mind of the insider in spite of (c) Therefore, etic units are variables as per
its etic variability. the outside observer in spite of their
(d) Related to research methods, the emic constancy.
primary data collection techniques are (d) Related to research methods, the
participant observation and in-depth primary data collection techniques are
interviewing in the local vernacular. direct and indirect observations (often
(e) In linguistics, etic is used to discover ethnographers will transition from emic
emic. to etic).
(f) The research approach tends to be (e) In culture, emic is used to discover etic.
qualitative. (f) The research approach tends to be
(g) Categories of meaning are described quantitative.
based upon phenomenological (g) Categories of meaning are described
definitions derived from the host based upon scientific definitions from
society that are culturally and universal patterns of culture that are
historically bound. empirically documented across space
(h) Therefore, helpful descriptions are or time history.
culture-specific, related to particular (h) Therefore, helpful descriptions are
domains in the locale. culture-general, related to broader
(i) Constructs are grounded in self- comparisons across cultures.
understanding either consciously or (i) Constructs are predetermined from
unconsciously. insights that apply equally well to all
(j) Consequently, emic systems are not cultures.
necessarily transparent to the insider (j) Consequently, etic systems in a local
without exposure to others or training. cultural context are transparent to a
(k) An example of emic variation is trained outside observer.
changing sports from football to (k) An example of etic variation is playing
baseball. an extra inning in a tied baseball game.
(l) Idealism (core worldview assumptions) is (l) Impersonal, non-ideational factors,
assumed to be the ultimate cause of especially material conditions are
observable behaviour. assumed to be the causes of observable
behaviour.
Source:http://www.gpccolorado.com/emic-etic-approaches-culture-investigation-
methodologies/

1.2.2 Measurability
The second difference lies in the notion of measurability: within a quantitative
paradigm, knowledge is perceived to be „objective‰ and „measurable‰. From a
positivist view, „reality‰ is viewed as something that can be captured through
scientific research and is quantifiable. On the other hand, research carried out
within a qualitative paradigm or using the phenomenological perspective is less
focused on measurement. This latter perspective is focused on educational
processes and how we experience events around us, or how we ascribe meaning
to what we see and do. For these reasons, quantitative methods are concerned
with instrumentation, such as tests or questionnaires as used in surveys and
experiments, while qualitative methods are concerned with in-depth interviews
and introspection. Thus quantitative data would be in the form of scores,
percentages, number of occurrences and so on, while qualitative data would take
the form of description, notes, oral response or written protocols, to name a few.
As you can see in Table 1.4, both forms of data and their analyses require a
certain amount of rigour. You may find ways to quantify qualitative data, and
search for presentation of meaning in results emanating from quantitative
processing. Similarly you can turn words into numbers and then analyse
qualitative data quantitatively.
Table 1.4: Rigour in Research in Education
Data
Analysis
Qualitative Quantitative
Qualitative  Interpretive text studies.  Search for and
For example, presentation of meaning
Hermeneutics, Grounded in results of quantitative
Theory, Phenomenology. processing.
Quantitative  Turning words into  Statistical and

numbers. mathematical analysis of
For example, Classic numeric data.
Content Analysis, Word
Counts, Free Lists, Pile
Sorts and others.
Source: Russell (1996).

1.2.3 Explaining Phenomena

We can get a deeper understanding of the two research paradigms by closely
examining how each of them explains the phenomena that are being studied.
Qualitative researchers source their explanations from data gathered from the
field, not from hypotheses or theories sourced from past research. Their research
is guided by their observations and interactions with people in the field. They are
convinced of their findings as they find patterns in their data, in the form of
emergent themes, categories, concepts and typologies. As meaning is articulated
and findings revealed, new or additional information is collected to explain a
phenomenon or situation. On the other hand, quantitative research begins with
theories and hypothesis, and a lot of thought is given to defining a problem that
is to be investigated. Research is guided by a well-thought out plan for data
collection and analysis, and measures are defined methodically. The researcher is
aware of the form of data that is to be collected, and goes about collecting it and
analysing it according to the techniques. Therefore phenomena are explained
using theory and results are interpreted within this framework.
1.2.4 The Setting

In qualitative research, the source of data is a natural setting. This means that
information is collected while people interact naturally, or while events take
shape as they normally do. The researcher observes, describes and interprets
events as they occur in an everyday context. For instance, if you wanted to find
out how School Based Assessment (SBA) workshops supported science teachersÊ
decisions about instruction and assessment in the classroom, you would collect
data from both the workshops and the classroom, without altering a schedule,
content of a workshop or the way in which teachers teach. You could first
become a participant-observer in such a workshop and later observe teachersÊ
classroom practices. You could also interview teachers and ask questions about
how the various aspects of the workshop helped or hindered them as they made
decisions about SBA. This would be an interpretive stance where you describe a
dynamic reality, concentrating on how decisions are made and if these reflect
teachersÊ experiences with the workshops. However, if your goal were to find out
whether science teachers who attended SBA workshops made effective decisions
in comparison to those teachers who did not attend the workshops, you might
want to carry out an experiment. The setting of an experiment, which often
requires some degree of manipulation or control, would be very different from
that of an observation of a natural classroom.
In sum, the two paradigms differ in several respects, each using its own
terminology and techniques to understand various educational concepts, events

or phenomena. Sometimes educationists use what is known as a mixed-method

approach whereby selected features of qualitative and quantitative research
techniques are employed in the same study. The matrix in Figure 1.3 illustrates
this clearly, particularly those aspects related to terminology and technique.
Figure 1.3: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches to research

Source: http://www.southalabama.edu/

ACTIVITY 1.4
Consider a key instructional issue or concern that is often raised at your

school or college. What are some objectives or questions that you can
raise regarding this issue? What do you think is the best research
approach for a study on this topic?
Examples:
Issue or Concerns Objectives Questions Approach
 Lack of  To improve How does
motivation for studentsÊ publishing
writing in motivation studentsÊ short
English towards stories increase
writing in their motivation
English to learn English?
 Negative  To create a
attitude more positive
towards attitude
writing in towards
English, such writing in
as writing English
essays,
narratives
SELF-CHECK 1.2
What are the main differences between qualitative and quantitative

research in education?

 From the definitions by various researches, it can be extracted that qualitative

researchers present findings from the perspective of the people who
experience a phenomenon, in which the meaning understood by the
participants becomes the focus of the findings.
 Qualitative researchers begin the research process by looking at the totality of

a situation.
 Data are often collected in a natural setting and are often in the form of words
and in-depth verbal description
 Findings are commonly based on inductive analysis and presented from the
perspective of actors.
 There are salient differences between positivist and phenomenological

paradigms.
 Positivism is the study of how rules, laws or theories govern human

behaviour whereas phenomenology is to understand motivations behind
human behaviour. Another difference between positivism and
phenomenological is in terms of data collection, in which positivist
researchers collected data in the form of numbers while phenomenology
researchers collected data as the participants experience the phenomena.
 Qualitative and quantitative researches are different in terms of research

stance, measurability, how a phenomenon is explained and the setting of the
data collected.
Emic and etic Perspective

Form of data Phenomenology
In-depth verbal descriptions Positivism
Interpretation Researcher is the primary instrument
Measurability Research stance
Natural setting

Bogdan, R. C. & Biklen, S. K. (2003). Qualitative research for education: An

introduction to theories and methods (4th Ed.). New York: Pearson.
Creswell, J.W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among
five traditions. London: Sage.
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. & Lowe, A. (1991) Management research: An

introduction. London: Sage.
Kuhn, Thomas (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press.
Long, A.M. (2011). Engaging and disengaging: A qualitative study of middle

school girls and mathematics. PhD Dissertation, University of Vermont.
Merriam, S. B., and Associates (2002). Qualitative research in practice: Examples

for discussion and analysis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd Ed.).

Pike, K. L. (1954). Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of

human behaviour (Vol. 1). Glendale, CA: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Russell, B.H. (1996). Qualitative data, quantitative analysis. Cultural

anthropology methods journal, 8(1):9-11

Topic  Characteristics
2 of Qualitative
Research
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Describe the theoretical underpinnings of qualitative inquiry;
2. Differentiate between theory and observation as a basis for research;
3. Discuss the features of inductive and deductive approaches to
research; and
4. Explain how data are gathered and analysed in qualitative research.
 INTRODUCTION
In order to further understand qualitative research expressed as methodology for
research in education, let us examine more closely some characteristics and
theoretical underpinnings of this line of inquiry. In this section, you will read
about and do several exercises related to:
(a) The approach adopted by qualitative researchers;
(b) The type of data qualitative researchers collect;
(c) The ways in which qualitative researchers collect data; and
(d) The ways in which qualitative researchers analyse and present the data
they have collected.

TOPIC 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH  17
2.1 THE NOTION OF APPROACH

A defining feature of qualitative research that differentiates it from other forms of
research, such as experimental, laboratory or industrial research, is its approach
to the research context, as well as to data gathering and analysis. In qualitative
research, we are concerned about the depth and the breadth of a problem, issue
or situation. Thus the ways in which we collect, store or record data, and
subsequently, how we present the analysis of the data and information we have
gathered are peculiar to this line of inquiry.
Examine, for instance, the approach articulated by each of the researchers in the
following vignettes.
Suria:
I am first going to spend some time getting to
know the school staff and children in Sekolah
Rendah Keningau. I will begin by observing
how children interact with staff during the
school assembly as well as with each other in
the canteen during recess. I will talk to the
children when they appear to be at ease with
me, but the interviews (Figure 2.1) will begin
only after a week or two. I will also talk to the
teachers when they are on break, taking notes
Figure 2.1: An observer is
as I go along. After this I will develop a
interviewing a participant
tentative list of questions to understand the Source: http://turklishtefl.com/
ways in which children interact with each
other in this school.

18  TOPIC 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Ben:
For my study I have done a literature review
and have developed three research questions
about how children interact in school. I am
sure that I will find an answer to these
questions after I have given the children the
questionnaire. They will answer a list of
demographic questions and 40 questions
against a five-point scale as shown in Figure
2.2. For a start, I am going to pilot test this
Figure 2.2: The children are
answering the questionnaire
questionnaire, and use the scoring criteria I
Source: http://www.toledoblade. have developed to determine its reliability.
com/ After that I will revise the questionnaire and
distribute it to groups of children whom I
have selected.
ACTIVITY 2.1
Discuss the research approach articulated by Suria and Ben in the

previous vignettes. What are the differences in the approach they have
chosen to undertake in their research? Are they looking for the same
thing?
It is clear from SuriaÊs statements that she is going to take her time to uncover
various dimensions of interaction in a school setting. She will first focus on
getting to know her research context, which is the school she has chosen, and she
will choose her participants from the pool of teachers and children in the school.
She will then take notes, talk to the people in the school and observe how they
interact with one another. On the other hand, Ben will learn about interaction by
implementing a plan of action based on a review of literature on the subject. Part
of this plan is to find out what has been done in the field, while another part is
finding answers to research questions through a process of pilot testing,
determining reliability and giving out the survey.
It is important to note that neither Suria nor Ben is „right‰ or „wrong‰ in the way
they have approached their research. They both wish to learn more about how
children interact in a school but they are approaching their inquiry from different
angles. Suria is going to gather data before she prepares research questions; she is
using an exploratory approach whereby her questions will emerge from an initial
exploration of what qualitative researchers call the field. However, this does not

mean that Suria will not seek evidence from past research to inform her study.
Her approach to the study is to first find out what the school has to offer before
she makes finite decisions about research questions and data collection.
On the other hand, Ben has based his research procedures on an approach
consistent with survey methodology. He has approached the study from a
positivist angle whereby past research on the topic informs his decisions on
which research questions to raise, or the constructs to include in his survey.
While Suria has to first explore the research context to determine her line of
inquiry, Ben has to first outline specific procedures to be followed throughout the
study. Using a quantitative approach, Ben has prepared questions that will yield
responses which he can count, score and analyse quantitatively. However, like
most qualitative researchers, Suria will rely on a number of contextual factors
that help her make decisions about data collection and analysis as she interacts
with participants in the field.
Now, let us look at a different context. Ponder upon Figure 2.3. Have you
encountered a situation in which you and your spouse have disagreed before
making a decision?
Figure 2.3: Disagreement situation

Source: http://becuo.com/
Imagine that you are planning for a holiday on Langkawi Island with your
family. One member of your family, such as your wife, may be very methodical
in her planning. She begins by making a list of things-to-do at the holiday
destination and by establishing a budget that would guide the choice of hotel and
entertainment. She also makes a few telephone calls to get recommendations
from her friends on what to do during the holiday. After this, your wife wants to
go online to a website to make reservations for the hotel and for taking a cable
car ride on the island.

On the other hand, you may be the type of traveller who prefers to make key
decisions by visiting the location. You tell your wife that you would prefer to
reserve hotel rooms for your family after visiting the hotel in Langkawi. You say
that you will make plans for boat rides and other forms of entertainment when
you get there, as situational factors such as weather and number of
holidaymakers may determine your choices.
Qualitative research is very different from planning for a holiday, but we can
draw some parallels to understand the terminology used in this paradigm of
inquiry. In terms of preparation for the holiday, you and your wife are
approaching the task very differently. While you are focussed on exploring the
site before embarking on the specific kinds of activity, your wife is outlining
specific procedures that holidaymakers often follow. While you wish to allow the
context or situation to determine your activities, your wife is relying on her sense
of method and her friendsÊ experiences to make choices about activities for the
family. Neither is right or wrong here; what is important is that they each follow
a set of criteria that they understand to be useful to planning and executing an
event.
The other point that must be made here is that either of these approaches may
prove favourable or disadvantageous. The fact that there is a list of what you can
do on the island means that there is a guideline to follow. Gathering evidence
from friends who have visited Langkawi means that there is an element of
reliability in the plan that your wife draws up. However, these plans will not
account for situational factors such as the weather or long queues at ticket
counters. While your wife gathers data from her friends and from websites
before the trip, you prefer to go to the site and collect sufficient data to make
decisions.
Thus, a useful way of thinking about these two approaches to educational

research is that one is based on theory, and the other on observation. In the
qualitative paradigm we set out to develop theory out of the patterns we observe;
in the quantitative paradigm, we start with a theory which we confirm through
observation. Educationists refer to these two approaches as inductive and
deductive: in the former, understanding or theory emanates from examples,
observations and data, while in the latter we begin with theories or assumptions
which are then proven or disproven. An illustration to summarise inductive and
deductive methods of analysis is given in Figure 2.4.

Figure 2.4: Inductive and deductive methods of analysis

Source: bhaugolikgyan.wordpress.com
2.2 DATA COLLECTION

To begin this section, take a look at a conversation between the famous fictional
detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend, John Watson in Figure 2.5. How can
you relate the situation to data collection process in a research?
Figure 2.5: A conversation between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson

Source: http://freshspectrum.com/causation/

Based on Figure 2.5, Watson suggested to Holmes to collect more evidence to

prove the cause of a death, although Holmes had done a few interviews before
jumping to a conclusion. This situation shows there are many ways to collect
information in order to obtain certainty and reliability of the findings.
Looking at the qualitative research context, another important characteristic is

the ongoing, multi-pronged and detailed nature of data collection. To illustrate
this, let us read about a study that has used the qualitative approach in collecting
data in an educational context. In 2011, Maryam Farooqui and her colleagues
conducted a study with a number of cancer patients. The aim of the study was to
examine cancer patientsÊ knowledge of cancer and their experiences with its
treatment. In the extract in Figure 2.6, you will read about some of the techniques
they used to gather data from participants.
Figure 2.6: The extract of the article by Maryam Farooqui

Source: Maryam Farooqui, et. al. (2011).
ACTIVITY 2.2
Read again the extract of the article by Maryam Farooqui and her
colleagues in Figure 2.6 and underline the various procedures the
researchers used in this study. Which of these procedures were carried
out before data collection and which were carried out after data
collection?

You will notice that the researchers were very thorough about the data collection
process. As with most research in education, Maryam Farooqui and her
colleagues began by examining past research in the field. This gave them a basis
for developing a list of questions which they put together in the form of an
interview guide. They also enlisted interviewers who could speak the language
of the participants; this is an important consideration in qualitative research
methodology as the focus is on the meaning brought to the setting by the
participants themselves. If the participants have to use a language other than the
one they are familiar with, meaning may be lost or misinterpreted.
Further, you will have observed that the principal investigator, or the lead
researcher, also wrote field-notes of ongoing events. This is an essential part of all
qualitative research, as Merriam (2002:5) tells us that the researcher is the
„primary instrument‰ in the data collection process. Note too that the researchers
wrote out interview responses in verbatim; this is necessary to get the full flavour
of a perspective articulated by those you interview. Checking against the audio
recording is important so that you do not misrepresent some of the information
as you transcribe responses. Additionally, there is the question of „probing
questions‰, which most interviewers use to get further information from
respondents.
The description of the data-gathering process reveals the detailed manner in

which qualitative research is carried out. It is not a simple matter of meeting
participants and asking them questions. Rather, it is a procedure characterised by
asking well thought-out questions by personnel qualified to do the questioning.
Additionally, there is a great deal of emphasis on gathering information that is
accurate and representative of participantsÊ views. For these reasons, the data
collection procedure is usually not done on a singular trip to a site, nor in a
rushed manner. Often qualitative researchers visit a site more than once to gather
data, or they talk to their respondents several times using probing questions for
answers that need elaboration. This is what Bogdan and Biklen (1992:2) refer to
when they say qualitative researchers collect data that are „rich in description of
people, places, and conversations,‰ and that „research questions [are] formulated
to investigate topics in all their complexity (and) in context.‰
2.3 FORM OF DATA

A third and equally important feature of educational research lies in the form of
data that researchers collect. The type of data you collect often depends on the
data collection tool you use, or the way in which you decide to collect data. In the
previous example of SuriaÊs research in subtopic 2.1, she is conducting a
qualitative study, for which she will likely gather data in the form of observation

notes, verbal or written responses to interview questions and perhaps anecdotes

from teachers and children. On the other hand, Ben (refer to subtopic 2.1) will
gather quantitative data through the questionnaire. His data will be in the form
of scores which he can analyse using a variety of statistical tools. The strength of
SuriaÊs approach to the study is that the context or field will inform her decisions
about what is relevant for further inquiry. In BenÊs case, he will follow a tried and
tested set of procedures – based on past research efforts – that will guide him
throughout his research. While the first study is open-ended and based on
contextual evidence, the second is close-ended and based on evidence from past
research. In Topics 3 and 4 we will discuss more about the various types of data
that qualitative researchers often collect.
To understand this a little better, let us turn our attention to the following two
forms of qualitative data in Figure 2.7 and Figure 2.8. How do you think each of
these data was collected? What are the characteristics of each data extract?
Figure 2.7 is from a researcher who was capturing teachersÊ reflections in schools
in India.
Figure 2.7: Capturing teachersÊ reflections in schools in India

Source: http://oerresearchhub.org/
You will notice that the first extract (Figure 2.7) is handwritten, apparently to
capture the spur-of-the-moment actions and words of the participants. The
extract, which is written by a researcher, shows us that the researcher has taken
short notes as she observed an event. Note that in the top right-hand corner the
researcher has highlighted a personal note. This is to remind herself that she
should „Explore in focus groups‰ the notion of „teaching is my passion.‰ This
form of data is called field notes – notes that researchers take down as they visit a

research site. The field can be a classroom or a space outside a building where an
event is happening.
Meanwhile, Figure 2.8 is from a study on how Singaporean teachers deal with
the teaching of science.
Figure 2.8: How Singaporean teachers deal with the teaching of science
Source: Lim and Pyvis (2012).
The second form of data (Figure 2.8) is a transcript of an interview. The letter „I‰
refers to the interviewer and the letter „P‰ refers to the interviewee, which in this
case is a Physics teacher. In the left hand column is a series of numbers. Each line
is numbered for easier reference and for the researcher to record all the different
forms of data he/she collects. It is important to note that an interview is always
written in verbatim. That is to say, the words that are spoken are not edited or
changed when the transcript is prepared. This preserves the quality of thought of
each participant in the research and is a record of the natural conversational flow
of the interaction.

ACTIVITY 2.3
Here is a list of research questions. What is the nature of the data that
you will collect for each question? Would these be likely to be in the
form of scores for a test, answers to interview questions, anecdotes or
field notes?
(a) How does participation in School Based Assessment workshops
influence science teachersÊ classroom practice?
(b) In what ways do primary school children who are skilled in
Mathematics describe their problem-solving abilities?
(c) How do Tamil school children perceive the value of English
language textbooks in relation to examination preparation?
(d) What are the experiences of Form Five girls from fully residential
schools with respect to friendships developed with classmates?
2.4 ANALYSIS OF DATA

As qualitative researchers collect a significant amount of data, careful analysis is
required. Another point of concern is that data often come in different forms: for
instance, there would be pages and pages of transcripts of verbal interviews, field
notes written by the researcher, video recordings and/or photographs providing
evidence of events. In some cases, a researcher may also collect some form of
quantitative data, such as the income of childrenÊs parents or the number of times
a child has been given counselling. All of these data – in different forms and
amounts – need to be colligated to help a researcher understand a situation or to
answer the questions posed. In sum, the analysis of qualitative data requires as
much rigour and is as detailed as the collection of data.
Inductive analysis requires researchers to read and re-read data, comparing the
different forms of data as they go along. They often ask new questions as they
analyse each data set, and refine previous questions as new understandings
emerge from the analysis. Thus inductive analysis does not begin and end at a
specified time; nor does it follow a pre-determined path. Often researchers begin
the analysis as soon as they collect the data, and do not stop till they feel that
they have collected sufficient data to give them a complete picture of a setting or
scenario. As more data are gathered, several thematic concepts are derived.
These are central themes, emerging from indigenous categories or core concepts,
within the data. Early stages of data collection tend to be open-ended and it can

take several months for central themes or core ideas to germinate. The result of
inductive analysis is a series of themes or categories that emerge from systematic
analysis.
Let us look at an example that illustrates the inductive analysis of qualitative

data. A researcher, Ye Chen (2004) conducted a study of online help systems for
educational institutions. The aim of the study was to understand organisational
and human behavioural issues relating to online help systems. The data were
collected using interviews, observations and focus groups. Because data
collection was done using three different techniques, several forms of data would
have been collected. Thus, a systematic format for recording and coding the data
was necessary.
Figure 2.9: Sample data recording format

Source: Chen (2004).
In the data extract from Ye ChenÊs study (Figure 2.9), you will note that he
recorded several details for each set of data that he collected: title, date, time,
place, topic, name of researcher, a description of the problem and a description of
the event, or what actually happened. Notice too that the researcher has inserted
codes in parentheses, such as [„call help‰] to indicate the different segments of
the experience that he is analysing. After collecting several data sets like this one,

the researcher proceeded with inductive analysis. In this case he began by

answering questions about the design of campus-wide online help systems. All
the data from the interviews, observations and focus groups were analysed
inductively to develop ideas on how best to design online help systems. The
result of this procedure was creating time-critical and task-sensitive forms of
online help, merging computer-mediated communication (CMC) approaches and
customising online help for different user groups. As the data were recorded
according to a problem description and an experience or event, Ye Chen was able
to systematically analyse data under this code to offer insight on providing
online help at the university.
As you would note from the description, the analysis of data requires the
researcher to establish a detailed system to record and code the data. A
researcher often begins with a detailed record of the data; a data set may also be
coded according to who was involved in information gathering and the mode of
collection. In this way, qualitative researchers are able to keep track of the vast
amounts of data that they collect over the course of a study. You may begin by
writing all of this in longhand on paper, and later transferring the data into a
computer.
Although most qualitative researchers use inductive forms of data analysis, an

interesting feature of qualitative data is that it can be analysed inductively or
deductively. Deductive analysis is a process of using a list of pre-determined
categories to analyse data that have been collected. It is less common in
qualitative research than inductive analysis but it is a useful technique for
parsing out or reorganising large amounts of data. In this case, you could use
existing categories from published literature, or you could draw up a list of items
you wish to observe in the data. Either way, your list would have to be aligned to
the objectives and the research questions of your study. Often, researchers use
pre-determined categories when a field is well researched, and when occurrence
or absence of a phenomena is significant to the context or setting. Figure 2.10
shows sample data categorisation scheme.

Figure 2.10: Sample data categorisation scheme

Source: http://www.qualitative-research.net/
In the example given in Figure 2.10, there are two main categories and a number
of subcategories that may be used to analyse data on the relationship between
teachersÊ beliefs and their behaviour. Imagine that you have derived these two
predetermined categories – „Behaviours towards Dropouts‰ and „TeachersÊ
Beliefs about how to Intervene with Dropouts‰ – from a close review of the
literature on the subject. Under each of these categories, you have listed a
number of sub-categories, which are Taking Responsibility, Shifting
Responsibility to Others, Rehabilitation, Maintenance, and Punishment. All of
these sub-categories are then applied to the different segments of data you have
collected, and conclusions are made about the overall findings from this process.
As part of the analysis you may come across data segments that do not match
any of the categories or sub-categories. In that instance you would add to the list
a few „data-driven‰ categories, thereby further enriching the analysis.

ACTIVITY 2.4
Read closely the following extract.
In one of the case study components, for example, two student

ethnographers are visiting physical science classrooms twice a
week to understand the experience of Learning by Design (LBD)
through the eyes of two groups of students. What do they
experience as students? What kind of help from the teacher (and
from peers) contributes to their success? What confuses them?
How does their understanding progress? How well are they
working together, and what kinds of extra help do they need to
work together well? We carry this out in two classrooms where
teachers are using our well-developed units – one teacher is quite
proficient, and one is still learning. We want to understand the
affordances provided by our materials and by the teacher for the
students. We are learning from this, as well, some of the
affordances our materials provide and donÊt provide for teachers.
Source: Fasse & Kolodner (2000).
Discuss various aspects of the research methodology employed by the

authors. Consider the following questions to guide your discussion:
(a) Who are the researchers? Who is being researched?
(b) What is the aim of the study?
(c) What are the guiding questions used at the beginning of the study?
(d) What is the research setting?
(e) Why is a qualitative approach the best way to find answers to these
questions?

SELF-CHECK 2.1
1. What are some of the reasons for which you would embark on
qualitative research?
2. What would be the various forms of data that you could collect
for a study of this nature?
 Qualitative research is often exploratory in nature, leading to the emergence

of questions for a study.
 The researcher is the „primary instrument‰ in the data collection process

where the emphasis remains on gathering information that is accurate and
representative of participantsÊ views.
 The research context often determines the specific procedures to be followed

for data collection and analysis.
 Qualitative research benefits from inductive analysis whereby understanding

or theory emanates from examples, observations and data
Approach to research Inductive approach

Data analysis Interview questions
Data collection Observation
Deductive approach Observation notes or field notes
Emergent research questions Participants
Exploratory Research context or situation
Form of data The field

Bogdan, R. C & Biklen, S. K. (2003). Qualitative research for education: An

introduction to theories and methods (4th Ed.). New York: Pearson.
Ye Chen, (2004). To help helpdesk: a field study of online help systems in campus
context. Campus-Wide Information Systems, Vol. 21(2), 81-94.
Fasse, B., & Kolodner, J.L. (2000:194). Evaluating Classroom Practices Using
Qualitative Research Methods: Defining and Refining the Process. In B.
Fishman & S. O'Connor-Divelbiss (Eds.), Fourth International Conference of
the Learning Sciences (pp. 193-198). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Lim, P. and Pyvis, D. (2012). How Singapore Junior College Science Teachers
Address Curriculum Reforms: A Theory. Issues in Educational Research,
Vol. 22(2), 127-148.
Maryam Farooqui, Mohamed A Hassali, Aishah K Shatar, Asrul A Shafie, Tan B

Seang & Muhammad A Farooqui (2011). A qualitative exploration of
Malaysian cancer patients' perspectives on cancer and its treatment.
Biomedical Central Public Health 2011, 11:525.
Merriam, S. B., and Associates (2002). Qualitative research in practice: Examples

for discussion and analysis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Topic  Types of
3 Qualitative
Studies – Part 1
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Name at least six types of qualitative studies;
2. Outline salient characteristics of the basic qualitative study;
3. Discuss the relevance of ethnography in educational research;
4. Compare and contrast basic qualitative study and ethnography; and
5. Discuss and differentiate between objectives of conducting a basic
qualitative study and an ethnography.
 INTRODUCTION
It is often the case that one thinks all qualitative studies are the same. Many
individuals believe that there is little difference between the many types of
research designs and implementation formats that qualitative researchers
employ. You must have realised by now that this is not true, as there are several
types of qualitative research, and they differ in several respects.
Let us first look at Figure 3.1. From the dialogue and also from your previous
readings, can you tell the characteristic of the basic research?

34  TOPIC 3 TYPES OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES – PART 1
Figure 3.1: Discovering basic research

Source: http://goo.gl/xvVAaP
To answer the question, in this topic, we will discuss several types of studies,
pointing out the salient features that define each one of them as well as outlining
the procedures researchers follow as they conduct these studies. We will also
examine closely the features of three types of studies – basic qualitative study,
ethnography and action research – to support you as you make decisions about a
study that you may wish to conduct.
ACTIVITY 3.1
Based on your own readings and research, name at least three types of
qualitative research.
3.1 OVERVIEW OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES IN

EDUCATION
One of the more well-known proponents of qualitative research, Sharan
Merriam, has written a great deal about the various types of qualitative studies.
In her book Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (2009)
she describes six of the more common types of qualitative research studies used
in education. They are as listed in Figure 3.2:

TOPIC 3 TYPES OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES – PART 1  35
Figure 3.2: The common types of qualitative studies in education
Other writers have included narrative research (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000),
case study (Yin, 1984; 2003), and symbolic interaction (Bogdan and Biklen, 1982)
as a form of applied research called action research (Carr and Kemmis, 1986.)
This is not an exhaustive list of qualitative studies used for research in education
but they are common ways in which educationists explore teaching-learning
situations.
As discussed by Tesch (1990) in Niglas (2001), qualitative studies may be viewed

in terms of the research intent or the researcherÊs interests, which may be any of
the following, as seen in Figure 3.3:
(a) Examining the characteristics of a phenomenon such as language use;
(b) Discovering irregularities or solutions to a problem;
(c) Comprehending the meaning of a text, an action or event; and
(d) Reflection.

Figure 3.3: Viewing qualitative studies from research intent or researcherÊs interests
Source: Tesch (1990:71)
If you closely examine Figure 3.3, you will see that there is a wide range of
qualitative approaches, methods and genres, each providing the researcher with
a different perspective on how to view a setting. One reason for the many
different labels for qualitative studies is that they are used by professionals from
different circles. Anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and educationists,
to name a few, depend on different research genres to explain, illustrate or reflect
upon what happens among communities around the world.
Another important point to be raised here is related to the advantages and

disadvantages of qualitative studies. As shown in Figure 3.4, qualitative studies
use smaller sample sizes in comparison to quantitative studies. Additionally,
they are almost always conducted in a natural setting and require varied
questioning. Using smaller groups or sample sizes gives you the opportunity to
get more in-depth data and to discover ideas that you did not set out to do so.
Often, qualitative researchers do not aim to generalise their findings to larger
populations, thus you will not find this a trend in this line of inquiry.
Secondly, research done in a natural setting gives you valid results but there may
be an element of subjectivity in the process of interacting with participants. You
may also find that data are not forthcoming as you do not make a concrete plan
to seek specific information. Thirdly, varied levels of questioning, either in the
research questions you formulate or in the kinds of questions you pose to
participants, would produce better explanation and give depth to the analysis;
the disadvantage of this is that more time is required to interpret data as more
questions are asked and answered. However, the good news is that qualitative
researchers have found ways to overcome these challenges or disadvantages,
something which we will discuss in later topics. These advantages and
disadvantages are summarised in Figure 3.4.

Figure 3.4: Advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research

Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com
In this topic, we will study in greater detail the various features that define two
types of qualitative studies: the basic qualitative study and ethnography. As you
go through them in the following sections, you may wish to consider the
relevance of one of these types of studies for your own research.
ACTIVITY 3.2
1. How does qualitative research differ from quantitative research in

terms of sample size, setting and questioning style?
2. Explain what is meant by research intent and researcher interest.
3. The extract that follows is from a study conducted by a pair of

Malaysian researchers. They aim to uncover reasons why children
play video games, as well as their preferences about these games.
As you read the extract, discuss reasons for their choice of the
sample for the study. What are the advantages or disadvantages of
this sample size?

A qualitative method was being used for this study. Purposive

sampling was conducted to select participants who have been
playing video games for more than a year in whatever platforms
available. Six students were selected based on the diverse academic
performance and family economic status in order to provide a wider
level of studentsÊ representation. In this study, there was only one
setting where all the participants came from the same school in the
heart of Kuala Lumpur.
Source: Eow & Roselan, B. B. (2008).
3.2 BASIC QUALITATIVE STUDY

The basic qualitative study is the most common type of qualitative study used in
education circles (Merriam, 2009.) It aims to demonstrate to the reader how an
individual or a group experiences a situation or a phenomenon. In an educational
setting, this situation could be a task or an event that individuals carry out
naturally, or something they experience within a naturally occurring
environment.
As we learnt in Topic 1, the researcher is the main instrument in this type of

study (Merriam, 2002.) He/she makes decisions about significant aspects of the
research, such as, how to begin the study, with techniques to use in gathering
and analysing data and how to present related findings. The researcher seeks to
first discover how people experience this, and then relates it to others from the
perspective of the participants or actors. A number of techniques – interviews,
observations, think-alouds, field visits – inform the researcher what an everyday
event means, or how a task is implemented. The researchers also use an intricate
method of inductive analysis for the data gathered, thereby developing an
understanding of the experience, task or event.
To illustrate these points, let us go through a study by Coiro and Dobler (2007) as
in the extract that follows in Figure 3.5. In a study entitled „Exploring the online
reading comprehension strategies used by sixth-grade skilled readers to search
for and locate information on the Internet‰, the researchers explored sixth-grade
studentsÊ reading comprehension processes using a basic qualitative study. They
used a range of data collection techniques such as think-aloud protocols,
observations and semi-structured interviews. The researchers selected children
for their study based on specific criteria: as they required skilled readers, they
used data that gave them information about childrenÊs reading performance. If
you read the full study, you will find that the outcome of the study is a rich
descriptive account of how the children searched for and located information
on the Internet.
Figure 3.5: An extract from Coiro and DoblerÊs study
3.2.1 Key Characteristics

To further explore the characteristic features of this basic qualitative study, let us
begin with the title. Using the example of the study by Coiro and Dobler in
Figure 3.5, if you examine the title of the study closely, you will find out a
number of details relating to the study. One, words like „explore‰ is commonly
used in a qualitative study. Two, the title tells us that the authors seek to explore
„the online reading comprehension strategies of sixth-grade skilled readers‰ and
how these students „search for and locate information on the Internet‰. Thus the
title alone gives you clues about the possible type of study, and what the study is
broadly about.
The second feature you should look for is the aim or goal of the study, which in
this case is spelt out using the word „purpose‰. The third feature, setting, is three
different schools in the United States, and the authors give you information on
exactly which part of the country the schools are located. A fourth feature is the
criteria for selection of participants: note that in this case the researchers relied on
quantitative data (standardised reading scores, reading report card grades) and
qualitative data (Internet reading experiences) to determine which students were
skilled, and therefore would be the best informants for the study.

A fifth feature of the study by Coiro and Dobler is the range of procedures used
in data collection. The authors tell you that the participants went through several
distinct steps to provide several layers of data through sentences:
(a) „met individually with a researcher‰;
(b) „completed two separate tasks that involved‰;
(c) „reading within multi-layered websites‰;
(d) „or using the Yahooligans! search engine‰;
(e) „Students answered specific questions about their strategy use‰; and
(f) „in a follow-up interview after each reading session‰.
Based on this detailed procedure for collecting data about studentsÊ reading
comprehension processes, a vast amount of data would have been collected,
leading us to the sixth important feature of the study, data analysis. An
important word in the analysis is „evolved‰ as it tells us that the analysis did not
start with a well-defined plan but changed or advanced as the researchers dug
deeper into the childrenÊs reading comprehension processes. In the article, this
process is described in terms of „four distinct phases‰ whereby each phase
required the review of data from several sources mentioned, which are:
(a) „think-aloud protocols „;
(b) „field observations‰; and
(c) „semi-structured interviews‰.
As the title of the study suggests, the four phases of the analysis were aimed at
finding out more about how these skilled readers search for and locate
information on the Internet. The study is specifically about how information is
sought and located; it is not a general exploration of reading processes or of how
a group of children surf the internet.
If you recall some of the characteristics of qualitative research from Topic 1, you
will realise that the researchers would have analysed data in the form of
transcripts. There would be transcripts from the think-aloud protocols, field
observations, as well as semi-structured interviews.
During phase 1, the researchers focused on gaining an overall sense of the data,
mainly to understand the nature of online reading. In the second phase, they
assigned labels to the data and looked for patterns across the labels. This process
led the researchers to a preliminary finding - that participants were using their
prior knowledge as they made decisions about reading online. Based on this
finding, the third phase involved identifying the types of prior knowledge that

was used, and coding all the data with specific labels. In the final phase of the
analysis, the researchers examined patterns in the data that told them more about
how students read on the Internet. These patterns were then used to answer two
research questions raised in the study, as follows:
(a) What characterises the reading process as skilled readers search for and
locate information on the Internet?
(b) What informs the choices that skilled readers make as they search for and
locate information on the Internet?
Notice that in the basic qualitative study by Coiro and Dobler, research questions
are framed to understand and discover. Questions that are framed using terms
such as „what characterises⁄‰ and „what informs⁄‰ lead researchers get more
elaboration from the data they have collected. Such a strategy can be used when
teachers want to find out underlying motivations, values or concerns that
students hold as they go about performing a task, or how they make decisions
around a task. As described by Merriam (2002), a study of this type uses an
inductive strategy aims to find answers to questions relating to behaviour or
process. Although researchers make reference to the literature that helped frame
the study, the ultimate point of the study is to add to the knowledge base by
describing how the participants in their own research view an event or
experience a task.

ACTIVITY 3.3
Read the following article:
Twait, M. (2005). Undergraduate studentsÊ source selection criteria: A

qualitative study. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(6), 567-573.
Available:
http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/bitstream/1808/6700/1/
New_library_world.pdf
The article looks at how undergraduates make decisions about searching

for sources for a research paper. When you have read the article, dissect
it in terms of six features of a basic qualitative study as described:
(a) Title
(b) Purpose of the study
(c) Setting
(d) Criteria for selection of participants
(e) Procedures for data collection
(f) Procedures for data analysis
SELF-CHECK 3.1
1. Describe a basic qualitative study in your own words.
2. What are some of the key characteristics of such a study?
3.3 THE ETHNOGRAPHY

Before we continue, let us ponder upon Figure 3.6. What can you see from the
photo? If you want to conduct a study about those in the photo, what is the study
called?

Figure 3.6: Writing about people

Source: http://www.loyarburok.com/
Anthropologists have often been credited for initial use of ethnography as a

research tool, primarily to describe the culture, as in beliefs, values, views,
norms, habits, interpretations or perspectives, of a group of people. The word
itself is coined from the Greek words ethnos and grapho, which refer respectively
to „people‰ and to „write‰. Thus ethnography can be taken to mean „writing
about people‰ or „presenting a portrait of a group within a social structure.‰
However the reality of conducting an ethnography is much more than mere

description of a people or writing about a social entity. It involves a great deal of
time and rigour for the research, a demanding schedule where the researcher has
to be totally submerged in the research context, as well as a strong commitment
to getting an insiderÊs view on the social context which is being studied.
In education, the ethnography movement began in the late 1960s and 1970s. As
discussed by Gary Anderson (1989), the movement was originally fuelled by
anti-positivist sentiments of research. Similar to the discussion in Topic 1, it was
felt that theory-driven or rule-governed approaches to educational research were
incapable of „providing conceptually sophisticated accounts of social reality‰
(Anderson, 1989:249-250.) Thus, ethnographers began to develop strategies for
depicting social reality not just as description but also as representation. They
believed that meaning or interpretation is not static but dynamic; these meanings
and interpretations are socially constructed as individuals interact with each
other within a particular social context. Thus ethnographers seek to depict a
dynamic reality of a social environment within which groups of people interact.

3.3.1 Key Characteristics

It would be useful at this point to study an example of ethnography in education.
Here is an abstract of an influential work entitled „The Next Generation: An
Ethnography of Education in an Urban Neighborhood‰ written by John U. Ogbu
(1974). The outcomes of this ethnographic work had enormous impact on North
American scholarship in the 1970s and 1980s. It was also instrumental in raising
issues in other disciplines such as psychology and sociology. The study gives a
detailed record of the time John Ogbu spent studying failure in public schools,
particularly in trying to discover why minority children performed poorly in
school.
ACTIVITY 3.4
Read the following abstract and compare it to the abstract of the study
by Coiro and Dobler (2007) described in Figure 3.5. Based on your
reading of these two abstracts, write short notes on how you think the
basic qualitative study differs from the ethnography.
This book is about education in Burgherside, a low-income

neighbourhood in Stockton, California, the majority of whose residents
are blacks and Mexican-Americans; in which they make up about 92%
of the elementary school population. The study reported here probes
into the reasons for many children from the neighbourhood failing in
public schools. The goal was to study how the people in Stockton,
including Burghersiders, conceptualise their educational system and
their place in it, and how these conceptualisations influence the way
they behave within the institution. The author spent a total of 21
months (September 1968 to May 1970) doing the study. He lived in
Stockton during the first 16 months and then visited the city every
other week for interviews lasting for two to three days. The research
covered the following segments of the community: (a) Burghersiders;
(b) residents of adjoining neighbourhoods attending the same junior
and senior high schools with Burghersiders; (c) organisations and
leadership representing the interests of the subordinate minorities in
the wider community; (d) school personnel; (e) taxpayers, principally
the middle-class Stocktonians and the organisations they formed to
assist with "problems" of Burghersiders and similar groups.
Source: Ogbu (1974).

As before, let us begin with the title, „The Next Generation: An Ethnography of
Education in an Urban Neighbourhood‰. You will note that this title covers a
large group of children („next generation‰) and a wide space („urban
neighbourhood‰). To gain a comprehensive understanding of why minority
children do badly in school, Ogbu spent 21 months studying one community. He
spent all that time carrying out observations, interviews and reviewing
documents. You see, he did not just narrow down his research to look at one
aspect of the social environment; he started with a big question – Why is there
„such a high proportion of failure‰ (Ogbu, 1974:15) – and investigated the issue
from every possible angle. He was not interested in four or five children but a
whole community. Hence, the title reflects the totality of one communityÊs
experiences within a school system.
The second feature we can focus on is the social sphere encompassed in OgbuÊs
study. He tells us that he set out to study:
„how the people in Stockton⁄ conceptualise their educational
system and their place in it and how these conceptualisations
influence the way they behave within the institution.‰ (Ogbu,
1974:15)
The goal articulated in the mentioned lines spans several areas and would
require understanding of a broad social sphere. Note too that he set out to look at
how one element influences another: „how these conceptualisations influence the
way they behave within the institution.‰
In order to see how the people of Stockton „conceptualise their education

system‰ Ogbu gathered data from many people in and around the school. In the
abstract of his 1974 study, he tells us that five different „segments of the
community‰ were involved in the observations and interviews – from residents
to organisations, and from staff to assisting groups.
He worked on his study from September 1968 to May 1970, spending most of the
time getting to know the community and gathering information for the study. He
tells us that „he lived in Stockton during the first 16 months and then visited the
city every other week for interviews lasting for two to three days.‰ He uncovered
both the emic and the etic perspectives as he raised questions about what
education means to children, parents, teachers, administrators and people who
live around poor localities. This helped him broaden the social sphere that would
inform his study and help him get answers for his main research question, as
well as for the subsidiary research questions that he raised as he gathered and
analysed the data.

„It was only after going through an investigation of this breadth that Ogbu was
able to claim that failure or low levels of performance by minority children was
something that could be attributed to cultural factors. He also concluded that
Âmost remedial programmes are not effective because they treat the
symptoms rather than the causes of the problemÊ.‰ Janesick, (1991:112)
Ogbu came to these conclusions by poring over several layers of data, each
giving him a glimpse of the perspective that the minority community brought
toward schooling. Notice that to make a claim as big as this, he would also have
looked at problems among the society as well as the aims, implementation
strategies, reception and outcomes of the remedial programmes.
As shown in Figure 3.7, he would have gathered data in as many ways and in as
many forms as is possible. In the words of Janesick, (1991:112) Ogbu makes this
claim based on several levels of inquiry, including:
(a) Social stratification;
(b) Myths and stereotypes that support the system;
(c) Behaviours and beliefs about school;
(d) Attitudes of ghetto residents toward competition; and
(e) Exclusion of minorities from the reward of education.

Figure 3.7: Investigating a broad social sphere

Source: http://qrtips.com/
Thus, as ethnographers aim to explain issues in terms of the culture defined by a

community, they have to systematically gather data on several dimensions of
behaviour, which are the beliefs, values, practices, languages, norms, rituals,
events and material things that members in a community use daily. This is
required to produce a rich thick description of a phenomenon, as well as to
provide detailed explanations for the prevalence of an issue. It is only by looking
at the breadth of the human experience that ethnographers are able to make big
claims that will help address problems faced by selected communities.
Additionally, ethnographies are not so much methods of data collection but

rather the use of a socio-cultural lens for the interpretation of data (Merriam,
2002). As demonstrated in the work of Ogbu, a great deal of fieldwork is
required in order to give a cultural interpretation of the different forms of data
that have been collected. Finally, „an interpretation of the culture through the
point of view of an insider (emic) to that culture is necessary component of
ethnographies‰ (Merriam, 2002).

ACTIVITY 3.5
Consider the various features of ethnographies described in this

subtopic. How closely do these features apply to the „ethnography of
communication‰ described in the study by Shahrina Md Nordin and
Roselind Wan (2012)?
This study employs an ethnography of communication approach

to capture the organisational culture and its cultural behaviour, as
the approach acknowledges the link between language use and its
cultural context. The purpose of the study is to obtain a
description of the communicative processes and events in a
homogenous speech community on an isolated offshore oil
platform. An offshore oil platform is a restricted area that requires
a safety license to be on board, where the workforce has its own
identity shaped by their working condition and organisational
culture. The almost 300 employees stay together on the oil
platform for a two-week duration, away from their families,
forming a distinct community with the purpose to attain the
organisational production goal. The researcher stayed on the oil
platform for three weeks to collect data based on participant
observation and interviews. The unit analysis of this study is the
communicative events, as communication in a community can be
categorised into different kinds of events with different
behavioural norms. The findings provide a rich insight into the
communicative events on an offshore oil platform, within its
unique organisational culture. The communication processes and
events described will give a glimpse of the organisational
subcultures, which include power distance, stress management,
organisational commitment, and work culture. This cross
disciplinary paper about organisational communication and
teaching English as second language will conclude with
significant key take-aways for pedagogical implications. The
discussion on the pedagogical implications, with the underlying
theoretical framework of TBLT (task-based language teaching),
contributes significantly to the body of literature and to language
teachers, as it is based on an authentic research findings in a
restricted working area beyond the classroom.
Source: Shahrina Md Nordin & Roselind Wan (2012).

SELF-CHECK 3.2
1. Describe an ethnography.
2. What are some of the key characteristics of such a study?
ACTIVITY 3.6
In your own words, make a list of the ways in which the basic qualitative
study differs from the ethnography.
 Types of qualitative studies include basic qualitative study, phenomenology,

grounded theory, ethnography, narrative analysis and critical qualitative
research.
 There is a wide range of qualitative studies, approaches, methods and genres,

each providing the researcher with a different perspective on how to view a
setting
 Although different types of qualitative studies share some basic principles,

there are clear differences among them in terms of design and execution.
 Types of qualitative studies often differ in terms of the research intent or

researcher interest.
 The choice of a type of study is determined by your research objective and

how outcomes of your research can benefit your work.
 Qualitative research practice is guided by a set of guidelines for ethical

performance in the field to give focus to fieldwork.
 The basic qualitative study is the most common type of study adopted in
qualitative research in education.
 Ethnographies commonly start with big questions that lead to other smaller
questions to be researched and answered.

Advantages and disadvantages of Procedures used in data collection

Basic qualitative study Qualitative research
Ethnography Research intent or goal
Follow-up interviews Semi-structured interviews
Levels of inquiry Think-aloud protocols
Anderson, G. L. (1989). Critical Ethnography in Education: Origins, Current Status,

and New Directions. Review of educational research; 59(3) 249 - 270.
Bogdan, R.C., & Biklen, S. K. (1982). Qualitative research for education: An

introduction to theory and methods: Third Edition. Boston: Allyn and
Bacon.
Carr, W. & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming critical: Education, knowledge and

action research. Lewes, Falmer.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: A methodology for

studying lived experience. Research studies in music education (27). San
Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.
Coiro, J. & Dobler, E. (2007). Exploring the online reading comprehension

strategies used by sixth-grade skilled readers to search for and locate
information on the Internet. Reading Research Quarterly, 42(2) 214-257.
Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/181830/Coiro_J._and_Dobler_E._2007
Eow, Y. L., & Roselan, B. B. (2008). An exploratory study on the reasons and
preferences of six Malaysian students on the video games played. Journal of
Environmental & Science Education, 3 (1), 19-25. Retrieved from
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ894840.pdf
Janesick, V. J. (1991). Ethnographic Inquiry: Understanding Culture and

Experience, in Edmund C. Short (Ed.) Forms of curriculum inquiry, Albany,
New York: SUNY Press, 101-119.

Niglas, K. (2001). Paradigms and methodology in educational research.

Paper presented at the European Conference on Education Research (ECER),
Lahti, Finland. Education Line. Available at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/
Merriam, S. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Ogbu, J. U. (1974). The Next Generation: An Ethnography of Education in an

Urban Neighbourhood. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED091481
Shahrina Md Nordin & Roselind Wan. (2012). Ethnography of Communication

on an Offshore Oil Platform: Bridging Organizational Communication to
ESL Pedagogical Practices. The International Journal of Adult, Community
and Professional Learning, Vol 19(1) 47-57.
Tesch, R. (1990). Qualitative Research: Analysis types and software tools. New
York: The Falmer Press.
Yin, Robert K., (1984). Case study research: Design and methods, Newbury Park,
Sage Publications

Topic  Types of
4 Qualitative
Studies ă Part 2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Explain the process of a case study;
2. Give examples of action research as applied to education;
3. Differentiate between key features of the case study and action
research;
4. Explain when and why you would collect quantitative and
qualitative data in a case study and in action research; and
5. Illustrate, with the use of examples, how you would observe
principles of ethical practice in qualitative research.
 INTRODUCTION
The case study and action research are frequently used in education. How do you
think each of them differs? How would they differ from the basic qualitative
study and the ethnography? To answer these questions, in this topic, we will
discuss two other types of qualitative studies, namely, the case study and action
research. We will examine several features that differentiate them from other
types of qualitative studies and the ways in which they may be used in
education. As you read about these two types of studies, consider the various
aspects and procedures that are important to making decisions about the
research that you wish to conduct.

4.1 THE CASE STUDY

Case studies are used in both quantitative and qualitative research. However,
they take on different forms and definitions in qualitative research depending on
the purpose or research intent. In MerriamÊs terms, a qualitative case study is „an
intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance, phenomenon, or
social unit‰ (1988:21). Perhaps the most well-known case study in education is
„The Man in the PrincipalÊs Office‰ by Harry Wolcott (1973). Amid the many
influences on teaching and learning, Wolcott decided to focus on one individual,
the school principal. He made the school principal the focus of the study, though
many other factors determine what happens in a school.
In other words, to qualify as a case study, you have to state the boundary or
delimit the study. In the case of WolcottÊs study, the boundary was set by the
school principalÊs activities within the total research area of the school. In a case
study you would also limit the number of people you intend to interview, as well
as the amount of time you intend to spend researching the main subject. As
Merriam (1998:28) puts it, „if there is no end, actually or theoretically, to the
number of people who could be interviewed or to observations that could be
conducted, then the phenomenon is not bounded enough to qualify as a case.‰
These boundaries may be determined by using the guidelines in the following
Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1: Conducting a case study

Another very important feature of this type of research is that in a case study, the
researcher must determine the unit of analysis. This means that the focal subject
of the study ă the case itself - becomes important to the analysis of data. In the
case of WolcottÊs study, the focus is on the school principal, so all data related to
what the principal does or receives is analysed with respect to the way it affects
the principalÊs work. The researcher will not be overly concerned with influences
on students or teachers or other administrators in the school.
Case studies can be either a single-case design or a multiple-case design.

According to Yin (1984), a single-case design is ideal for studying unique or
extreme cases, to confirm or challenge a theory or for cases where the researcher
did not have access to the context. However, the researcher should be careful not
to misrepresent what was observed. On the other hand, multiple-case designs are
more suited when the researcher is interested in using more than one case to
gather data from various sources and draw conclusions from the facts. These
cases then serve to confirm or corroborate evidence which enhances the validity
of a study.
ACTIVITY 4.1
How does ethnography differ from the case study? Discuss with
reference to the work done by Ogbu and Wolcott.
4.1.1 Examining a Case Study

Let us now turn our attention to a case study about how an individual makes the
journey from being a student to a teacher. The study is about Maria, a soccer
player who is learning to be a teacher (Caniglia and Pellegrino, 2014). Thus there
are two distinct spheres of MariaÊs life being explored in this study: being an
athlete and learning to be a teacher. The researchers, Joanne Caniglia and
Christine Pellegrino aim to „investigate and describe patterns of behaviour‰ that
are exhibited as well as those that are transferred „from the soccer field to the
classroom.‰ They use a number of data collection techniques in the study, via
MariaÊs „journals [diaries,] lesson plans, teaching commentaries, videos and
interviews.‰ All of these are analysed to gain „an in-depth understanding of the
complex nature‰ of MariaÊs life as an athlete-student-future teacher.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe patterns of

behaviour that a student-athlete not only exhibits during athletic
competition, but also transfers from the soccer field to the college classroom
and to the teaching profession. Using journals, lesson plans, teaching
commentaries, videos, and interviews, a qualitative case study of a National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I soccer player revealed an
in-depth understanding of the complex nature of a student-athlete or
student-teacherÊs daily life. The findings of this study suggest that there are
many parallels between the skills acquired while a student participated in
sports and her student teaching experiences. Common themes that appeared
to transfer to the classroom included time management or organisation
skills, person-centred priorities, goal obtainment, and problem-solving
strategies.
Source: Caniglia & Pellegrino (2014).
ACTIVITY 4.2
Read the abstract and the full study by Joanne Caniglia and Christine
Pellegrino (2014) from the link provided. After you have read the article,
respond to the following questions.
(a) Create a matrix representing features of the basic qualitative study,

ethnography and case study. An example of a matrix is shown in
Figure 4.2.
Figure 4.2: Example of matrix

(b) Identify the research features that are common to the three different
types of studies and indicate how these differ for each study.
(c) Consider the study that you would like to carry out. What is the aim of your
study? Which of these designs would best fit your study?
4.2 ACTION RESEARCH

As a form of applied qualitative research, action research has recently gained a
lot of popularity in education circles. It is also known as Participatory Action
Research due to the emphasis on generating solutions to practical problems by
the participants themselves (Meyer, 2000). For example, as a teacher conducts an
investigation and implements a new system, she enhances her own and her
colleaguesÊ work environment. The key word here is action: it is a research
approach that encourages practitioners to be reflective of their own practice, and
to engage in continuous monitoring of the outcomes of the action. Based on the
belief that the practitioner is the best judge of his or her practice, action research
also encourages him/her to develop personal theories of practice. In this way,
teachers or administrators use their own research to bridge the gap between
theory and practice.
Two eminent researchers in this field, Stephen Kemmis and Robin McTaggart
developed a model that has been oft-used in action research. They proposed a
spiral model (Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988) comprising several steps: planning,
acting, observing and reflecting, and re-planning. These steps indicate the
movement from one critical cycle to another, and the way in which progress may
be made through the system. The researcher may go through as many cycles as
he wishes, but each cycle has to be completed before the next one begins. In this
way, people in an organisation such as a school, college or office can create
forums or friendly investigation circles where everyone can act as co-participants
to improve, change, transform or review activities in their organisation (Kemmis
and McTaggart, 1988:277).
Teachers, administrators and other practitioners carry out action research for two
main reasons: to directly involve practitioners in the improvement of their work,
and to encourage them to bring about improvement in what they are doing by
being researchers. There are two key parts to action research:
(a) Planning, implementing, monitoring and reviewing ways to improve
practice in a specific context (situation, system or scenario); and

(b) Recording what one has learnt in the process of improving practice. Let us
take an example of an action research study.
4.2.1 An Action Research Study

To illustrate the cycle of action research better, let us take an example of an action
research study.
Let us say you have noticed that many of your students do not do their
Mathematics homework. In fact, they do not seem to enjoy Mathematics the way
you do, and are lagging behind other classes of students in the school
assessment. You decide to do something about this, and embark on the first cycle
of action research.
You would have to go through two cycles of conducting action research as

demonstrated in Figure 4.3.
Figure 4.3: Steps in conducting action research

Source: http://celt.ust.hk/

Cycle 1:
(a) Reflect
First you raise the question „What can I do to increase student interest in
Mathematics?‰
(b) Plan
After reading up on strategies that have worked in other similar situations,
you devise a plan of action utilising real-world examples. You take time to
write out Mathematics problems using examples from your studentsÊ life ă
paying for breakfast, calculating bus fares, collecting money from friends
who are going to the cinema, and so on.
(c) Act
You implement the strategy, and encourage students to come up with their
own real-world examples.
After two months, you ask students for feedback on this strategy and give them a
test.
(d) Observe
Based on the feedback and outcomes of the test, you reflect on strengths
and shortcomings of the strategy. You find that many of the skilled
students are doing their homework and appear to show more interest.
Their scores are also higher than what they got in the previous test.
(e) Reflect
However, the less skilled students are still not improving their scores. They
seem to be interested in class lessons but their homework is still not
complete and you feel that they need to improve their performance. As
shown in Figure 4.3, you would have completed one cycle of the spiral
action research model by now.
Cycle 2:
(a) Replan
During the second month, you wish to focus on the less skilled students in
your class. Based on your reading, you decide to introduce a new strategy
whilst carrying on with the first strategy of using real-world examples.
(b) Act
This time you introduce visualisation strategies; now real-world
mathematics problems will be accompanied by visual aids, computer
graphics and realia.

(c) Observe
You continue to take notes on how the less skilled students are performing
and talk to them about how the strategy is working for them. Over time,
you give them all another test, get more feedback, observe homework and
classroom performance.
(d) Reflect
Create a new cycle, if necessary. By now you would have gone through two
cycles of action research to improve your own practice. You would have
collected a large amount of data and will be better informed about your
own practice as a Mathematics teacher, and about your studentsÊ response
to Mathematics instruction. The important thing is to realise that you
cannot plan success or failure of a strategy as in this study; you can plan to
teach to the best of your knowledge, and base your work on the tried and
tested strategies you have read about. But the number of cycles and
strategies you introduce, and who benefits from a strategy, evolves out of
reflection and action. As discussed earlier, after two or more cycles, you
would have found ways to improve your own practice in the context of
Mathematics instruction and learnt a great deal about your students.
To further understand these concepts, read the following extracts of a study

by Faizah Majid (2010) that was conducted using ideas from action research
(refer to Activity 4.3). As you read these extracts, take note of the data
collection techniques and ideas from published literature that helped the
researcher frame her findings and conclusions.

ACTIVITY 4.3
Read the following extracts:

1. Introduction & Reflection stage: The following are the common issues I
observed in my classes⁄ a) while the adult learners with teaching experiences
were able to relate and reflect on their experiences, those without were often
left to make their own assumptions of the contexts discussed; b) while those
who graduated from the Social Science disciplines were able to conduct group
and class discussions and oral presentations quite smoothly, those from the
Pure Sciences disciplines preferred written assignments and demonstrations,
and c) while those who obtained their first degree from foreign universities
were quite fluent in English which is the medium of instruction in the
university where I teach, those who were locally trained often shied away from
speaking up.
2. Planning stage: As a consequence of my reflection, I had identified three

classroom activities which were actually my proposed strategies in making use
of my adult learnersÊ diverse experiences. The three activities are; a) forming a
number of community of practices (CoP) (McNiff, 2002) that comprised those
with teaching experience and those without, b) providing various learning
tasks which catered to the adult learnersÊ different preferred learning style
(Willing, 1988), and c) negotiating with the adult learners on some assessments
procedures (Rogers, 2002)⁄ In planning for the three activities however, I had
kept in mind the following rules; a) encourage the use of English at all times, b)
be flexible with the adult learners within the accepted norms, and c) allow
changes to take place regardless of the initial plans.
3. Action stage: According to the syllabus, I would meet the adult learners once a
week for three hours straight. In the first week, when I met with the adult
learners for the first time, I introduced myself, my house rules and the course.
It was during the course introduction that I highlighted my three activities and
how the activities would be carried out for the next 12 weeks. At the end of the
lesson, I already studied their background and what their „experiences‰ were.
With that information, I started identifying each adult learner and placing them
in the respective groups for the CoP to take effect. My next action was to
prepare a variety of classroom activities to suit my studentsÊ different learning
styles. I hunted for ideas by reading books on learning styles and classroom
activities⁄ I ensured that I would cater to the different learning styles
throughout the semester by keeping a teaching log that detailed my classroom
materials and activities. My final action was to negotiate with my students on
how they wanted to be assessed⁄ I requested that their suggestions be based
on the consensus of their CoP and that they would refer to the syllabus and
scheme of work as reference.

4. Observation stage: I observed my studentsÊ performance and progress as

soon as I started my first strategy; CoP. I kept my observation notes in a
logbook for easy reference and retrieval. I also requested my students to
write a two-minute paper at the end of the respective lessons in which I
conducted activities that I thought could cater to their different learning
styles. To triangulate my data, I also called a few students and had informal
chats with them about the classes they had with me. In particular, during the
informal chats I wanted to know their opinions on the classes⁄ The three
sources of data helped me in identifying salient findings of my action
research.
Source: Faizah Majid (2010).
Based on your reading of the study by Faizah Majid (2010) respond to the
following questions:
(a) What and why did the author wish to change or improve a particular
area of learning?
(b) Which cycle (1 or 2) in the action research spiral do you think is
described in this study? Why do you say so?
(c) If you were to continue this study through another cycle, or if you
were to do it differently, what would you change and why?
Based on the reporting of the first cycle of her research, Faizah Majid (2010) tells
us that she began with the reflection stage. She initially identified „issues of
concern after teaching the adult learners‰ especially their diverse experiences.
Her research report marks the different stages that she pursued to address this
problem. At all times Faizah Majid kept her focus on three activities she had
planned to scaffold learning, as well as rules that would support her instructional
goals.

ACTIVITY 4.4
Examine Figure 4.4 and discuss with a peer how you might plan an
action research study related to a problem you wish to solve in your
own instructional environment.
Figure 4.4: An action research model

Source: http://www.personal.psu.edu/
SELF-CHECK 4.1
1. Name the different features of a case study in qualitative research.
2. Illustrate the various components of each cycle of action research.

4.3 ETHICS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

In any profession, practitioners are guided by principles of ethical practice.
Teachers do not discuss individual childrenÊs grades outside of the staff room or
parent-teacher conferences. Medical practitioners do not divulge the results of
patientsÊ medical tests to their own friends or family. Thus, protecting personal
data as well as the socio-emotional wellbeing of individuals you work with, or
conduct research on, is an important part of professional practice.
No matter which type of qualitative study you choose to conduct, observing

principles of ethical practice is part and parcel of your research. In the words of
Bogdan and Biklen (2007:48), two issues dominate ethics of qualitative research
with reference to the use of human subjects or participants. These are:
(a) Participants or informants are requested to take part in research projects
voluntarily. They should understand the nature of the study as well as the
dangers or obligations that are involved; and
(b) Participants or informants are not exposed to hidden risks as a result of
your study. If there are risks, they should be aware of them, and risks
should not be greater than the benefits of participation.
What do these mean?

Put simply, it is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure that participants,
informants or subjects take part in a research project or study of their own will,
without any cause for fear or intimidation. It also means that the researcher has
to ensure the safety of people participating in his or her study, and to make them
aware of the risks, dangers or benefits of participation. In order that these ideas
are successfully implemented in your own work, here are some guidelines you
may wish to follow.
(a) Get informed consent

Use a form which contains general information about your study, such as
the aims and how the information is to be used. Before they take part in
your study, participants should read the form and put down a date and
signature on it to ensure that they have understood how their participation
ă ideas, information, test results, and so on ă is to be used in your research.
Read the information aloud or explain it to those who cannot read or do not
know the language that you have used.
(b) Protect participantsÊ identity

Researchers commonly add a statement in the consent form that ensures
participants that you will honour their right to privacy. For this reason, real

names are not used in writing up the outcomes of a study, and interview
questions do not probe issues that are deemed private or sensitive.
Participants should be aware of the exact nature of information that you
intend to use so that they are not embarrassed or insulted when the
research report is made public.
(c) Raise awareness of risk or danger, if any

Any potential risks or danger emanating from your study should be
described in the consent form or explained to each individual. If there are
risks, the participant should be clear on the extent of these risks, and they
can choose not to take part in your study. Also, there should not be any risk
of exploitation of their thoughts or actions in the course of the study.
(d) Share ideas for reporting

Researchers commonly talk to participants about how they will disseminate
the results of their study. This may be done informally, but often this helps
participants to make choices about the information they wish to give to
you.
(e) Avoid getting involved

Sometimes the nature of qualitative inquiry leads researchers to get close to
participants in a way that might jeopardise or compromise oneÊs career or
professional standing. For example, if you are investigating an issue or
problem in a school and teachers begin to confess their own or someone
elseÊs misdeeds to you, you will have to excuse yourself from the situation.
It is common that in the course of interviewing, participants develop trust
in you, and begin to share their distress. It would not be your place to
counsel them or to find solutions to their problems.
(f) Be aware of your responsibility as a professional

Having ethical principles in mind also means that you will act if you find
out that there is malpractice, or if there is abuse of a person such as a child.
In such a case, you could seek help from another professional, or ensure
that the party receives help from those best placed to help them. Be aware
that such situations call for a sense of personal judgement and solutions for
ethical research practice are often difficult to prescribe.

ACTIVITY 4.5
1. Why is it necessary to follow principles of ethical practice in

research?
2. Describe the various principles of ethical practice that you would

heed when conducting qualitative research.
 The case study and action research are two types of studies commonly used
in qualitative research, and each follows a specific design.
 While these different types of qualitative studies share some basic principles,
there are clear differences between them in terms of design and execution.
 The five steps to conduct a case study are:

 Determine research area;
 Select case to be investigated;
 Collect data in the file, focusing on the case;
 Analyse as you gather data, using unit of analysis; and
 Determine findings as well as write a report.
 When choosing a type of study, the rule of thumb to follow is to determine

your research objective and establish the ways in which you can use the
outcomes of your research
 Qualitative research practice is guided by a set of guidelines for ethical

performance in the field.
 Researchers who follow principles of ethical practice generally feel that they
are more focused when they are in the field, and are therefore better placed to
produce research outcomes that are meaningful for a teaching-learning
environment.

Action research Multiple-case design

Awareness of risk Participatory action research
Boundary Planning
Case study Principles of ethical practice
Cycles Reflection
Implementing Reviewing
Improved practice Re-planning
Informed consent Single-case design
Intensive, holistic description Spiral model
Monitoring Unit of analysis
Bogdan, R. C., and Biklen, S. K. (2007). Qualitative Research in Education: An

Introduction to Theory and Methods, (3rd ed.). Journal of college student
development, 48(5), 509ă524.
Caniglia, J. & Pellegrino, C. (2014) From student-athlete to student-teacher: A

case study of one studentÊs journey. Journal of case studies in education,
Vol. 6. Retrieved from http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/141784.pdf
Faizah A. Majid (2010) Scaffolding adult learnersÊ learning through their diversity: an
action research. International conference on learner diversity 2010. Retrieved
from: http://education.uitm.edu.my/v1/images/stories/publication/faizah/
article5.pdf
Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R. (1988). The action research planner (3rd ed.).
Geelong, Australia: Deakin University Press.
Merriam, S. B. 1988. Case study research in education. A qualitative approach.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Meyer, J. (2000). Using qualitative methods in health related action research.

BMJ, 320(7228), 178-181.

Wolcott, H. F. (1973). The man in the principal's office: An ethnography. Toronto:

Holt Rinehart and Winston.
Yin, R. K. (1984). Case study research: Design and methods. Newbury Park: Sage
Publications.

Topic  Designing a
5 Qualitative
Study ă Part 1
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Identify defining properties of field notes collected for qualitative
studies;
2. Give details of the ways in which qualitative researchers use a
research design to make decisions about their study;
3. Apply a research design model to write goals, the conceptual
framework and research questions for a qualitative study of your
own; and
4. Describe the four criteria of good research questions.
 INTRODUCTION
At this juncture, a few pertinent questions may be raised about how you would
begin the research process. How do researchers make decisions about the setting
or about the data to be collected? How do they ensure that these defining
characteristics of qualitative research are integral to their work?
Most researchers begin with a research design in mind. The word „design‰ refers
to a plan or a scheme, or a conception of research, applied to any type of
qualitative study. When we talk about designing a qualitative study, we are
essentially talking about how you can use qualitative research conventions to
enter a research setting, to gather and analyse data and to present the findings
that emanate from the entire process. Although all researchers go through these
steps ă familiarisation, data gathering, analysis and presentation ă in one form or
other, or in a direct or indirect sequence, they make decisions at every phase of a
study. Bogdan and Biklen (2007:79) refer to this as „an evolving process,‰

TOPIC 5 DESIGNING A QUALITATIVE STUDY – PART 1  69
meaning that the early decisions about steps to be followed are later refined and
altered in the process of conducting research.
ACTIVITY 5.1
1. What does the term „research design‰ mean to you?
2. Read the work of some researchers and define „research design‰

in your own words.
5.1 BEGINNING YOUR RESEARCH

To begin your research, the designing and planning stage should take place. In
this section, we will discuss the properties of a research design and getting the
holistic view of a research.
5.1.1 Properties of Research Design

Before we go further into the components of designing a research, let us read the
following vignette.
Figure 5.1: Vignette from James A. Reeves

Source: Reeves (n.d.).
As an education major, you would recognise the previous vignette as part of a

classroom setting. The field notes in the vignette are taken from the work of

70  TOPIC 5 DESIGNING A QUALITATIVE STUDY – PART 1
James A. Reeves, who visited this class as a post-graduate student gathering data
for his research. The vignette is recorded as part of the natural proceedings in a
classroom, with children and the teacher being present while the researcher
gathers information. He can either use an audio or video device to record
everything that is going on in the class, or he can write field notes, by writing
down what he hears and sees ă as fast as he can!
If you consider the vignette as part of the field notes for a piece of research, you
will see that it has several properties. Some of these are:
(a) The children and teachers speak without being told what to say or how to
say it. This makes the Grade One classroom a natural setting. The
researcher does not intervene in what is going on. For example, he does not
intervene by introducing a lesson plan that the teacher has to implement.
He lets the children talk at will, and records what is said as it occurs
naturally. The teacher also does not direct the conversation toward a
direction she desires; the children function as part of the non-manipulated
setting.
(b) You will have observed too from the vignette that research data are
inherently descriptive. The researcher creates pictures in the readerÊs mind:
even if you have not been to the class, you will be able to picture the scene
with children sitting on a carpet on the floor, talking. In this segment of
data from the study, it is not critical that there is a certain number of
children in the class. If you were to conduct a study using a single group
experimental design, the rule of thumb would be to have a minimum of 30
children in the group. But if you are investigating the nature of classroom
interaction and are going to analyse how children or a teacher and children
talk about everyday events, it would not matter if there were three or 30
children. The aim is to maintain the individuality of the participants, not
necessarily to aggregate data across the many people you come into contact
with in the setting. Again ă and this cannot be emphasised enough ă it all
depends on what you wish to study and how many individuals will
provide sufficient data to support your investigation.
(c) The fieldnotes are a record of what happens in class, not what the
researcher thinks has happened. This is an important characteristic of
qualitative data, especially as the main instrument in the data collection
process, you are an observer of classroom events. As a researcher, you write
down what you see and hear, without altering the words that the children
use. Your observation notes also demonstrate what you saw or heard, not
what you thought was the case. Figure 5.2 illustrates the same sentence

would carry different meanings. Therefore, the researchers should describe

what they see carefully to deliver the correct situation to the readers.
Figure 5.2: Different meanings from the same sentence

Source: http://walkinthewords.blogspot.com/
Consider, for instance, the difference in meaning in the following

statements:
(i) One child said that she had a bleeding tooth, and another child
opened his mouth wide; and
(ii) One child said that she had a bleeding tooth, and another child is
shocked.
The first sentence i) describes what the researcher sees or observes; the
second ii) describes what the researcher thinks has happened. You can see
someoneÊs mouth opened wide but you cannot see shock. In this case
„shocked‰ is an inference made by the researcher based on the childÊs
reaction or based on the look on the childÊs face; it is not necessarily seen or
heard and may not be corroborated by someone else in the same room.
(d) Basically, the researcher writes down or makes a record of almost

everything that is going on, especially at the beginning of field work.
Although the researcher comes to the field with an idea of what he or she is
going to investigate, the aim is to get a holistic view of all events in the
research setting. We learn from Hammersley and Atkinson (2007) that there
are several reasons for this. Read the following section to find out what
these reasons are.

ACTIVITY 5.2
Your lecturer has asked you to conduct a qualitative study on how post-
secondary students make choices about college or university. Discuss
with him or her how you would conduct the study, the type of data you
will collect and what you hope to find.
5.1.2 Getting a Holistic View

First, as qualitative researchers interact closely with participants through
interviews and observation, they need to record data as objectively as possible.
Thus all angles of the setting have to be documented to get a holistic ă not partial
ă view of events. In the case of vignette in Figure 5.1, this would involve what the
teacher says in class and out of class, the physical classroom setting, the
childrenÊs words and manner of carrying out assigned tasks, and so on. Take for
example a situation when the teacher leaves the room and the children begin to
interact with you, the observer. Capturing this information while it happens
would add another dimension to the setting, and you might be able to explore a
different facet of the nature of childrenÊs interactions with someone other than
the teacher. You might find the interaction a source of useful information to give
you a more comprehensive understanding of what goes on in a Grade 1 class.
The situation portrayed in Figure 5.3 is an example of how children may act
differently with their teacher and the observer.
Figure 5.3: A teacher facing childrenÊs behaviour in the classroom

Source: http://ariellah.wordpress.com/
Second, one cannot always rely on memory, so selective gathering of information

on the site may be disadvantageous. Selectivity may also be difficult as we do not

always know which segments of data are significant until later, or when analysis
begins.
Third, researchers do not wish to subconsciously align data with the theories
they are developing or have read about. This would jeopardise the effort to
remain objective, threatening the validity of the findings of the study. For these
reasons qualitative researchers keep permanent records of almost everything that
occurs in the research setting.
Let us now turn our attention to how you might employ a research design for a
qualitative study of your own.
5.2 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN

The qualitative researcher Joseph Maxwell offers a useful way of making
decisions that are valid and significant to your research. As illustrated in Figure
5.3, MaxwellÊs qualitative research design model (2005:217) has five key
components. These are:
(a) Goals;
(b) Conceptual framework;
(c) Research questions;
(d) Methods; and
(e) Validity.
Maxwell calls this aspect of the study „design decisions‰ as they are useful in
engaging researchers in systematic planning and reflection at every step of their
research journey.

Figure 5.4: Qualitative research design model

Source: Maxwell, J. A. (2005:217)
In the sections that follow, we will go through these components to see how they
apply to different types of qualitative studies in education, and how they may be
collectively used to make decisions that are valid and significant to a study of
your own design. Three of these components ă goals, conceptual framework and
research questions ă will be dealt with here in Topic 5, while the other two ă
methods and validity ă will be discussed in Topic 6.
ACTIVITY 5.3
1. Other than the model presented in Figure 5.4, which models are used
in designing qualitative studies?
2. Conduct a brief literature review to locate and describe some of them.
5.2.1 Goals
As emphasised in Topics 1 and 2, qualitative researchers begin with the goals of a
study. This tells us in broad terms what we intend to study and how it will
impact our work or the work of others. If you do not have „a clear sense of the
goals of your research,‰ it is likely that you will „lose your focus and spend your
time and effort doing things that will not contribute to these goals‰ (Maxwell,
2005: 219).As the late Peter Mosenthal once said, „If you do not know where you
are going, it does not matter how fast you are running!‰

There are two functions of goals, as stated by Maxwell (2005).The aims of the
goals of your study are to:
(a) Guide your decisions on the design of your study; and
(b) Give you leads into how you can justify your study.
You can have one or more goals, but they are usually linked to a central purpose
or a broad overarching aim that you wish to achieve. As you lay out the goals of
your research, you will have to consider how and why your study is worth
carrying out. Your goals would help you clarify the issues you want to address,
the reasons for carrying out the study, and how the results will be useful to
others.
ACTIVITY 5.4
If you wish to carry out an ethnographic study, how might the goal(s)
be written? What feature(s) of ethnography would be significant to
writing your goals?
Goals differ based on the type of qualitative study you intend to carry out. If you
are conducting a case study, your goal may be to investigate a single person or
school. As you define your goal, you may include the participants, as in:
(a) This study was conducted to extend on previous research regarding the
role of the principal in a school change, as inclusive programmes are
developed, implemented, and sustained over time (Hoppey and McLeskey,
2013); and
(b) The aim of this study is to determine teachersÊ and studentsÊ views on
violence in one school (Altun and Baker,2010).
However, if you are conducting a basic qualitative study you may not begin with
a specific number of participants who will inform your study. The goal may be a
central question or your interest in an issue, stating explicitly what you intend to
achieve. For example:
 In this study, we examine Malaysian teachersÊ views of school-based
assessment as an alternative to national examinations for Year 6 children.

ACTIVITY 5.5
Study the following text and articulate the goals of the study in your
own words. How do these goals contribute to policy and practice in
schools? Why do you think the first paragraph is included in the
article? What type of qualitative study do you think this is?
As a centuries-old phenomenon, bullying has existed in schools

for a long time⁄ A remarkable shift of public attitude toward
bullying took place in the early 1980s when three Norwegian
boys aged 10 to 14 committed suicide partly as a result of severe
bullying by their peers (Olweus, 1991a; 1991b). Subsequently,
other tragic incidents from several places in the world have
heightened public concern about bullying. For example, in
Detroit, US, a young victim of bullying reacted with extreme
anger, shooting and killing the bully (Greenbaum, 1988). In
Tokyo, Japan, a 13-year-old boy hanged himself, leaving a note
blaming his classmates for severe bullying (Lane, 1989). In
Victoria, Canada, a 14-year-old girl died after being left to
drown following severe bullying by her peers (Vancouver
Province, 15 November 1998)...
⁄definition of school violence certainly includes bullying that

has become a prevalent, serious social problem among school-
age children in many parts of the world⁄ Given the recent
surge of interest and research in bullying in school, the current
review is an attempt to update our knowledge on this important
issue. Our aims were (a) to examine the nature and effects of
bullying in school; (b) to portray individual characteristics of
bullies and victims as well as characteristics of schools that
bullies and victims attend; (c) to synthesise remedies for
bullying in school; (d) to explore theoretical ideas that elucidate
the mechanisms of bullying and its multiple manifestations; and
(e) to critique existing studies methodologically and outline
directions for further studies.
Source: Ma, X., Stewin, L. L., & Mah, D. L. (2001).

5.2.2 Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework refers to the structure created by relationships among
key concepts in a study. As you work out the goals, you would identify the most
important concepts that ought to be included in your research. In qualitative
research, the number of concepts you choose is not important, nor is the
hierarchy, if any, among them. What is important is to demonstrate how these
concepts are inter-related, and how they give integrity to your entire study. For
example, you begin by reading up on your chosen topic and teasing out a variety
of concepts. Some of these might be informing concepts, which are those that
help you see the problem or issue in light of research that has been done by
others, or those that inform you of what ideas to consider as you develop a
research agenda. Concepts that are revealed as a result of your investigation may
be viewed as emerging concepts, that is, those concepts that you hope your
research will shed light on. The relationships that you develop between what has
been laid out as significant to the topic (informing concepts) and what you hope
to learn more about (emerging concepts) would provide you with a conceptual
framework for the entire study. In short, the conceptual framework helps you
explain to a reader what is going on in the field in relation to your study.
In a basic qualitative study conducted by Perry and Calhoun-Butts (2012), these

concepts are articulated in the following ways:
(a) Informing concepts

⁄we investigated the career, cultural, and educational development of
Hispanic youth who were participating in an after-school programme at a
non-profit organisation. Another purpose of this study concerned how
youth experienced the programme ·namely, how satisfied they were with
the programme. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind in the
field which not only asks Hispanic youth about career development based
on their own experience⁄ (p. 479)
(b) Emerging concepts

We propose that the current study can yield information about the holistic
development of Hispanic youth, including ways in which their
development can be positively facilitated, which is not accessible through
other research designs and methods (p. 479) ⁄Collectively, the results offer
a rich, multifaceted complexion of development and well-being, in which
career issues are but one component of a much broader portrayal of the
youthsÊ life experiences. (p. 508)

Perry and Calhoun-ButtsÊ study was informed by concepts such as career,

cultural, and educational development of Hispanic youth, after-school
programme, non-profit organisation and youth experience and satisfaction. You
would have noted that as a seminal piece of work about career development,
their work would have been informed by past research, theories and cultural
outcomes of similar non-profit organisations. Perry and Calhoun-Butts would
have done a lot of ground work to come up with the research objective, that is, to
understand the development of Hispanic youth and their experiences. This led
them to design a methodology that would lead to a set of emerging outcomes.
In a basic qualitative study, it would not be possible to identify all of these

emerging outcomes at the start of the study; they would be evident only after all
the analytical procedures were completed. There is a great deal of activity that
goes on between identifying informing and emerging concepts, but a well-
thought out design would demonstrate a clear link between the two components.
To reiterate, it is these links or relationships among key concepts that help you
conceive a conceptual framework for your study.
Figure 5.5 shows a sample conceptual framework. Study the figure in order for
you to answer the question in Activity 5.6.
Figure 5.5: Sample conceptual framework

Source: http://www.agungsuryakencana.com

ACTIVITY 5.6
In groups, discuss Figure 5.5 and explain how the concepts in the
framework may be explored in a basic qualitative study on young
English language teachersÊ professional development.
Now, let us try Activity 5.7.
ACTIVITY 5.7
Here is an abstract of a case study on the role of a principal in the context

of school change. Prepare a diagram to illustrate the conceptual
framework used in the study.
This investigation examined the role of the principal in school

change during the current era of high-stakes accountability.
Qualitative methods were used to conduct a case study of one
principal who had a record of success in leading school change
efforts and developing a model inclusive programme in his
school. The results of the case study revealed that the principal
viewed his primary role as „lubricating the human machinery,‰ or
providing support for teachers so that they could do their best
work. He enacted this role by nurturing and caring for his staff,
buffering his faculty from external pressures associated with high-
stakes accountability, providing high-quality professional
development, and ensuring that teachers had opportunities to
assume leadership roles in the school. The implications of these
findings for practice are discussed.
Source: Hoppey, D. & McLeskey. J. (2013)
5.2.3 Research Questions

If you revisit Figure 5.4 shown earlier, you will notice that the Research
Questions component has been placed at the centre of the diagram, with links to
the other four component parts of the model. Why do you think this is so?
Research questions are central to a study because they guide the study from the
beginning to the end. They give direction to the goals and conceptual framework

as you frame each question. That is to say that these three components ă goals,
conceptual framework and research questions ă are not developed in isolation or
separately, but interactively. The research goals determine the kinds of questions
you will ask; at the same time, the research questions guide the researcher as he
or she makes choices regarding the various concepts circumventing the study. As
you move further along with data collection and data analysis, your research
questions give direction to the methods you will employ and how you might
achieve validity in terms of the methods and findings of your study. We will
learn more about methods and validity in the next topic, but bear in mind that all
five components are integral parts of the model we are working with here (see
Figure 5.4).
Generally questions framed for qualitative research are meant to investigate a

process. The investigation could be related to a variety of processes: how people
make choices, how they communicate, why they take part in a ritual,
explanations for the way something is characterised. You will recall that in
Topic1 we read about the importance of meaning in qualitative research. Thus
research questions are usually framed to uncover the following:
(a) The meaning of events and activities to the people involved in them; and
(b) The influence of the cultural and social context on these events and activities.
Due to this emphasis on meaning from the perspective of actors in a setting,

some ethnographers write two levels of research questions: one set for the macro-
analysis and another for micro-analysis stage. For example, in an ethnographic
study on language socialisation in a Grade 1 classroom, Willett (1995) talks about
her investigation thus:
„The ethnographic study reported here focuses on phenomena examined

in the applied linguistic literature⁄ The study describes how the unique
sociocultural ecology of a particular first-grade classroom shaped the
children's use of interactional routines and strategies.‰ (p.474)
Here are the broad questions that guided WillettÊs macro-analysis:

(a) What was the nature (linguistically and socially) of the recurring events
selected for focus?
(b) How did the ESL children participate in these events designed for native
speakers?
(c) How did their participation change over time as their competence grew?
Academics at Central Michigan University have provided us with the following

guidelines for developing research questions. While reading, think about the way
you might be able to apply them to a study of your own.
(a) Choose research questions that are problematic and evocative.

Questions that are unique, that engage you in a challenging topic will catch
the interest of your intended audience. Look around your school or college
and identify an issue that is important to you and your colleagues. Write a
question emanating from a gap in knowledge in the field, one not answered
by past research on the same subject, or one that explores new or innovative
ideas in education.
(b) Write research questions that are relevant to your instructional

environment.
A relevant research question often explores a topic that is important to the
field, or one that will improve a situation or change ways of thinking about
common everyday practices. For example, your research questions can
explore in depth the dilemmas people face, or investigate whether newly
implemented processes or plans are working for your colleagues.
(c) The research questions should be written clearly.

They should specify what you hope to learn about teaching or learning as a
result of your study. If you have more than one research question, the link
between or among them should be obvious to a reader. Use words that are
easily understood and not confusing.
(d) The research questions should be researchable.

Although qualitative researchers commonly begin with a broad question, it
does not mean that you write a question that is so general that it will
require more than one study to answer it. A researchable question is one
that can be answered within a reasonable time frame, for which data can be
collected through cooperation within a community.

Figure 5.6 summarises the criteria of good research questions.
Figure 5.6: Criteria of a good research question

Source: http://widadhussein.weebly.com/
ACTIVITY 5.8
Using the criteria described in Figure 5.6, discuss the research questions
presented in the following three examples in terms of clarity and
researchability.
Figure 5.7: Three examples of researches

ACTIVITY 5.9
1. Write possible research questions for SuriaÊs study as described in

the following.
I am first going to spend some time getting to know the

school staff and children in Keningau Primary School. I
will begin by observing how children interact with staff
during the school assembly as well as with each other in
the canteen during recess. I will talk to the children when
they appear to be at ease with me, but the interviews will
begin only after a week or two. I will also talk to the
teachers when they are on break, taking notes as I go
along. After this I will develop a tentative list of questions
to compare the ways in which children interact with staff
and with each other in this school.
2. Based on a study of your own, write short notes on your research

goals, research questions, informing concepts and possible
emerging concepts.
 A number of defining properties determine the quality of data collected for

qualitative studies. The properties are that the study is done in a natural
setting, research data must be descriptive, the field notes are the record of
what happens during the observation and the data contains a holistic view of
the event. These help researchers differentiate between observations and
inferences as they collect and record qualitative data.
 It is important to focus on essential elements of a research design model for a

qualitative study of your own. The elements are goals, conceptual
framework, research questions, methods and validity.
 The first three elements of MaxwellÊs model are goals, conceptual framework
and research questions.

 To develop your research questions, there are four criteria to be considered

which are:
 Choose research questions that are problematic;
 Choose research questions that are relevant to your instructional
environment;
 The questions should be written clearly; and
 The questions should be researchable.
Conceptual framework Meaning of events or activities

Design decisions Micro-analysis
Emerging concepts Natural setting
Goals Observations
Inferences Researchability
Informing concepts Research design
Macro-analysis Research questions
Altun S. A. & Baker, O.E. (2010). School violence: A qualitative case study.
Procedia social and behavioral Sciences 2, 3165ă3169.
Biklen, S. K. & Bogdan, R. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An

introduction to theory and methods, (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Fries-Britt, S. & Griffin, K. (2007) The Black Box: How High-Achieving Blacks
Resist Stereotypes about Black Americans. Journal of college student
development, 2007, 48(5), 509ă524.
Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P.(2007). Ethnography: principles and practice (3rd

ed.). New York: Routledge.

Hoppey, D. & McLeskey, J. (2013). A Case Study of Principal Leadership in an

Effective Inclusive School. Journal of Special Education, 2013, 46(4), 245-256.
Ma, X., Stewin, L. L., & Mah, D. L. (2001). Bullying in school: Nature, effects, and
remedies. Research Papers in Education, v16(3), 247-270.Maxwell, J. A. (2005).
Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage. p.232.
Perry J. C. & Calhoun-Butts, C.(2012). A Qualitative Study of Urban Hispanic

Youth in an After-School Program: Career, Cultural, and Educational
Development. The counseling psychologist, 2012, v40(4), 477-519.
Willett, J. (1995). Becoming first graders in an L2: An ethnography study of L2

socialization. TESOL quarterly, 29, 473-503.
Reeves, J. A. (n.d.). Field notes form a first grade classroom. Retrieved from
http://bigamericannight.com/field-notes-from-afirst-grade-classroom/

Topic  Designing a
6 Qualitative
Study – Part 2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Define two of five essential elements of the qualitative research
design for your study;
2. Apply a framework for methods when conducting qualitative
research;
3. Give details of how you would define and determine validity in
your study, giving due consideration to bias and other threats to
validity; and
4. Apply a research design matrix and a research guide to design and
successfully carry out a qualitative study of your own.
 INTRODUCTION
As we observed in Topic 5, Joseph Maxwell (2005:217) has proposed a qualitative
research design model which you can apply to a study of your own. Three of the
five components of his design – goals, conceptual framework and research
questions – were discussed in Topic 5. In the subtopics that follow, we will
examine two other components of MaxwellÊs design, that is, methods and
validity. As you will recall, these „design decisions‰ assist researchers as they
systematically plan their own research. It is therefore important to consider how
all five elements of the model can collectively enhance the design of your own
qualitative study.

ACTIVITY 6.1
In your own words, define the five essential elements of MaxwellÊs (2005)
research design, which are goals, conceptual framework, research questions,
methods and validity.
6.1 METHODS
Once you have identified a topic for research and have written your research
questions, you will need to consider the various methods that you can use in the
field. As shown in Figure 6.1, the methods or procedures or techniques you
choose are related to four aspects of the research process.
Figure 6.1: Framework for methods in qualitative research
As has been pointed out, method selection and deployment is a dynamic process.
The selection of methods is highly sensitive to the research context, which is in
turn dependent on the degree to which you are able to carry out your research

plan. To restate Bogdan and Biklen (2007:79), research design is „an evolving
process, one in which questions to be asked and the data to be collected emerge
in the process of doing research‰. Often qualitative research requires us to go
back and forth among these four aspects of our research, and we make decisions
about which method to use depending on what is required at that point in time.
Thus, qualitative research methodology requires a great deal of flexibility and
appropriate forms of decision-making while you are in the field, or as you
interact with participants and gather information and data for your study.
6.1.1 Examining Methods

To provide a context for a discussion on methods, let us read an article by Junor
Clarke and Fournillier (2012). The article explores the value of action research in
the context of a teacher education programme for mathematics education. It
seeks to understand the professional development of two instructors and four
pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers. The study examined how
teachers combined knowledge from their content area and pedagogy courses
with the action research course. If you recall our discussion in Topic 2, action
research involves several cycles of investigation. In this project by Junor Clarke
and Fournillier, data were collected from multiple cycles implemented over four
years. Their design decisions were based on the strengths and weaknesses of
different methods, and on the best fit of various techniques for doing this.
As you examine the analysis in Table 6.1, you will note the detail with which
researchers describe the methods they used in a design. The setting is first
described in the context of the national-level decisions about teacher education as
well as the professional development of teachers. The complexity of the problem
is outlined, followed by a rationale for this action research project.
Subsequently, participantsÊ background and achievements are described and

names are given to each of them. The authors give details of several sources and
forms of data which they collected, demonstrating the comprehensive nature of
the investigation. All of these data – assignments, reflections, statements,
interviews, plans and discussions are integrated, cross-referenced and analysed
collectively with the benefit of the CHAT-3rd Framework. This process of
integration and cross-referencing of data is also known as triangulation, but we
will learn more about this technique later. Significant to the study are the
measures used to ensure validity: a detailed research design, multi-source data
collection, analytical framework as well as serious ethical considerations on the
part of the researchers.

Table 6.1: Analysis of Methods using Design Framework
Goal To explore the value of action research in the understanding of the professional
development of four pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers and their
instructors.
Conceptual Informing concepts: Two interacting activity systems; instructor and student repertoires.
Framework Emerging concepts: Teachers becoming researchers; instructor learning.
Research 1. How does the interaction between pedagogy and research methods work to
Questions develop pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers into becoming teachers
or researchers?
2. What do the instructors learn about their repertoires and those of their students as
they develop the research project within and across the disciplines?
Methods: a. Setting Teacher education in the US, selected programme – mathematics
Activity education, educational research course..
System
b. Participants Two instructors, four pre-service teachers.
c. Data Assignments and reflections
collection 1. Statements of philosophy of education: a document prepared
in the pedagogical methods courses served as a working
document as Principles and Standards for School
Mathematics (PSSM) teachers continue taking courses
throughout the International Teachers Programme (ITP). The
contents of this document served for analysis; at the same
time the research methods course instructor collected the
action research projects. Data extracted from the statement of
philosophy provided the PSSM teachers' thinking at that time.
2. Transcriptions of focus group interviews: data stored in the
office of the research professor's department chair. In these
interviews, the participants gave their views on the process of
them learning to teach and learning about learners and their
environments.
3. Action plans written as a document of their initial intent to
conduct research became evidence of teacher growth in
pedagogical and action research skills during the process.
4. Reflection memos: additional documents that provided
records of teacher-thinking that could be lost otherwise.
5. Online discussions: a source of reflective thoughts shared
among others who may have various influences on their
thinking.
6. Final action research project.
d. Data analysis CHAT-3rd Framework: (1) unit of analysis, (2) multi-voicedness,
(3) historicity, (4) contradictions, and (5) expansive cycles, to ask
the questions of the matrix – who, why, what, and how.
Guiding questions: (1) Who are the subjects of learning? (2) Why
do we learn? (3) What do we learn? (4) How do we learn?
Validity Detailed research design, multi-source data collection, framework analysis,
triangulation, ethical considerations.
Source: Maxwell (2005), Junor Clarke & Fournillier (2012)

ACTIVITY 6.2
1. Read the notes given in Table 6.1 and answer the questions.
(a) How are the goals of the study related to the research
questions?
(b) What is the difference between data collection and data
analysis?
Refer to Junor Clarke and FournillierÊs (2012) study if you need

more information.
2. Locate two (different) types of qualitative studies in your own field

and examine the methods used in each study.
3. Use the framework in Figure 6.1 to outline various features of the

methods used in each study.
6.2 VALIDITY
What is validity in qualitative research? What does it mean when researchers say
that they must ensure that their findings are valid?
Validity refers to integrity of measure, as in the validity of our findings, or the

validity of our data. For example, in qualitative research, we talk about the
magnitude of something, or its intensity or breadth, when we denote the measure
of a phenomenon – and the degree to which these so-called measures reflect
reality in a setting. No matter how careful you are as a qualitative researcher,
there are always threats to the validity of your design and research findings.
However, determining and expressing measurement is a lot more
straightforward in quantitative research than it is in qualitative research. This is
because quantitative research uses external forms of measure, such as rulers,
scores or scales but qualitative research is dependent on interpretation based on
the researcherÊs qualitative analysis of data. The issue is one of efficient choice:
whether the researcher has made an efficient choice as he or she attempts to
„measure‰ a phenomenon.
For example, we use a ruler to measure the length of a table and express that
length in centimetres or inches. If the ruler we choose is made of wood and if the
ruler gets wet, it might shrink a little. That would make this particular wooden

(and wet) ruler an invalid measurement tool for the length of the table (Black and
Champion, 1976).
However, if the researcher is meant to be the main instrument in the research,

there could be a threat of bias due to human interaction or to other elements such
as oneÊs disposition, emotion or stance. The researcherÊs lack of awareness of bias
or their leaning towards a self-selected stance would pose a threat to the validity
of the data collected or to the analysis of such data.
Another example is that of seeing things as the researcher wants them to be. For
example, you want to do away with school-based assessment and keep only
national examinations. Your study would be invalid if you only collect data from
disgruntled parents who are unhappy about school-based assessment. Thus,
your study would have greater validity if you choose to collect data openly, from
all or most parents, without the benefit of knowing whether they like or dislike
school-based assessment.
ACTIVITY 6.3
What is the issue being referred to in Figure 6.2? Discuss and compare
your answers with your coursemates.
Figure 6.2: A validity scenario

Source: http://www.nathanlittleton.co.uk/

6.2.1 Validity in Qualitative Data

The use of flexible and evolving methods and procedures in qualitative research
has led to new ways of determining validity of data and findings (Kumar, 2011).
In light of this, Lincoln and GubaÊs (1985) views on qualitative research have led
them to use the concepts credibility, transferability, dependability and
confirmability to define validity.
Maxwell (1992) has used the terms descriptive validity, interpretive validity,
theoretical validity, evaluative validity and generalisability while Miles and
Huberman (1994) have kept to the terms internal validity and external validity.
Latter-day researchers have examined validity in terms of transactional validity
and transformational validity (Cho and Trent, 2006). No matter how validity is
defined, it is important to bear in mind that qualitative researchers are always
concerned with the inherent trustworthiness and authenticity of interpretation of
data and findings of a study (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).
To represent the true nature of work in this field, Lincoln and GubaÊs (1985)
concepts of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability have
often been used as alternative criteria for judging validity in qualitative research.
As shown in Figure 6.3, these criteria have been aligned to traditional criteria for
judging quantitative research.
Figure 6.3: Alternative criteria for judging qualitative research

Source: Trochim and Donnelly(2007:149) cited in Kumar (2011:185)
Here is a brief explanation of these four concepts based on Kumar (2011):

(a) Credibility
This refers to the extent to which qualitative research findings are deemed
credible and believable from the perspective of the participants in a study.
This may be done by getting your findings confirmed and approved by the
participants themselves.

(b) Transferability
This is concerned with describing in detail the process of achieving your
findings. This will enable other researchers to adopt or understand the
various methods and procedures undertaken in your research. Note that
generalisability is not the aim of qualitative research; the aim is to achieve
findings that are trustworthy and authentic.
(c) Dependability
This is similar to reliability, and is concerned with achieving similar results
if the study is conducted using the same procedures and within the same
context. However, this may not always be achieved if changes have been
introduced to what is seen as the „same‰ context.
(d) Confirmability
This refers to the extent to which the results or findings of a study can be
corroborated by other studies. If findings are corroborated by other studies
using similar methods, it gives greater credence to your findings.
6.2.2 Establishing Validity

There are several ways in which we can establish validity in qualitative research,
some of which are described below.
(a) Triangulation.
Triangulation is the most common way of establishing validity in
qualitative research. It involves cross-checking information from several
dimensions, for example, checking across methods, investigators, theory
and data. This ensures that the study will be accurate. In methods
triangulation the researcher uses different methods to study a phenomenon
while investigator triangulation refers to two or more researchers involved
in interpreting and explaining data. Similarly, theory triangulation uses
more than one theory to explain findings while data triangulation refers to
the use of three or more sources of data to understand phenomena.
(b) Inter-rater Reliability.
Almost all qualitative researchers use some kind of peer review technique to
ensure credibility and dependability of data and findings. One such
technique is the inter-rater reliability check. Two or more peers re-analyse a
selection of data using researcher-allocated codes and categories and then
calculate the rate at which they agree on coding and categorisation of data.
Commonly, rater agreement of 70 per cent or more should be reached for
the data and related interpretation to be considered valid and dependable.

(c) Member Checking.

In this instance, a „member‰ refers to one of the participants or informants
in the study. Often a researcher returns to the research site to confirm
whether his or her recording, fieldnotes, interpretation or observations are a
true reflection of an event. This is more important as the researcher is the
main instrument in data collection (as discussed in earlier topics of this
module.)
(d) Audit Trail.
An audit trail refers to a system of good record-keeping maintained by the
researcher. This means that a detailed and accurate record of everything the
researcher did and of the data collected is readily available for an audit.
Such records are documented and organised appropriately for retrieval
purposes.
(e) Long Period of Time.
Most qualitative researchers gather data until a point of saturation, that is,
until a point in time where no new information or data is forth coming. This
not only gives the researcher sufficient time to get a holistic picture of the
phenomenon being observed, but also offers the opportunity to go through
two or more cycles of data gathering and analysis. Thus, longer periods of
time in the field are essential for ensuring validity of data and
interpretation.
ACTIVITY 6.4
How would you define validity in a study that you plan to conduct?
6.2.3 Threats to Validity

In qualitative research, there are two threats to validity which warrant discussion
according to Bogdan and Biklen (2007:37):
(a) Bias due to the effects of researchersÊ opinions, prejudices or beliefs on data
and analysis; and
(b) Changes in participantsÊ behaviour due to the presence of the researcher.
Researchers call these threats researcher bias, reactivity (Maxwell, 2005:243),

subjectivity (Le Compte, 1987), and observer effect (Bogdan and Biklen, 2007:38).
Various scholars have also explored the notion of change in intervieweesÊ

reactions or observed behaviour as well as related concepts in terms of observerÊs

paradox and Heisenberg effect.
For the purpose of this discussion, we will take a closer look at two terms, which
are researcher bias and observerÊs paradox.
(a) Researcher bias.

Qualitative researchers are often concerned that their personal involvement
in data analysis and interpretation of findings flavour their conclusions.
Biases attributed to the researchersÊ views, prejudices or beliefs (such as
gender bias, racial prejudice or preference for interviewing more skilled
students) are often unconsciously transmitted to the research. The concern
is that there might be possible contamination or distortion of data, and
research findings may be extrapolated beyond the reality of the research
context.
(b) ObserverÊs paradox.

While conducting research with electrons, Heisenberg discovered that the
heat of the microscope caused the electrons to move faster than they would
if they were not under a microscope (cited in Bogdan and Biklen,
2007:38).This phenomenon became known as the Heisenberg effect,
meaning that when an entity is under scrutiny, it begins to behave in ways
that might be „unnatural‰. For instance, if you interview a child in the
presence of her parents, she may say things that are meant to please her
parents; you may not get data representing the childÊs true feelings.
However, if you interview the child in the absence of her parents you might
violate an ethical rule which requires the presence of a family member for
the interview. Thus, the observer effect is something that all researchers
have to be cognisant of at all times in the course of the research process.
How then can qualitative researchers interpret findings and present their
conclusions with objectivity? How does a researcher hide the voice that often
wants to make personal comments on a situation?
One suggestion is to embrace the emic-etic distinction when writing fieldnotes or

observation notes. This means that you become aware that while you are writing
notes as an observer (outsider) there is a researcher in you who wants to
understand and present meaning (insider) as experienced by the actors
(participants themselves).Thus you write both your observations (what you see
and hear) and your personal comments on separate sections of the page or your
note book. One way of differentiating between writing your observations and
your personal comments is shown in Figure 6.4. As Bogdan and Biklen (2007)
point out, if potential bias is controlled to such an extent that one does not find a

way out for it, it has the potential to immobilise the researcher, to the detriment
of the study.
Figure 6.4: Difference between writing observations and personal comments
Other scholars have recommended longer periods of data collection and

intensive experience in the field to avoid researcher bias. In this way there will be
greater variation in the data you collect, whilst giving you a wide lens to view the
research setting and that which comes with it. Qualitative researchers call this
„rich‰ data, meaning that every turn is backed by one or two turns that show
consistency in the events that you are observing. Richness in data as well as
detailed description add rigour to your study as you aim to find sufficient
evidence for the claims you make.
A corollary strategy is to maintain audio, video or paper records for everything

you consider to be data. This concretises the data so that they are distanced from
you and can be coded, categorised and analysed as objectively as possible.
Researchers also use codes representing words used by their participants as well
as triangulation, strategies which we will cover in the next two topics.

ACTIVITY 6.5
With reference to your own research, or to journal articles you have read,
give examples of „researcher bias‰ and „observerÊs paradox‰.
(a) Because the participants saw me as a peer and knew that I was
knowledgeable about ⁄ they felt confident that I understood what
they meant when they talked about mediation and their
experiences. As a result, they did not have to explain their opinions
and experiences as thoroughly as they would have to an outsider.
Similarly, I think that I did not probe the interviewees and did not
ask them to explain as much as I could have, because I did feel like I
understood.
(b) Another challenge mentioned by more than one participant, was

remaining neutral. This came up in two different contexts. First,
two mediators had experienced situations in which an issue about
which they had professional expertise surfaced in a mediation and
they had to resist the inclination to give advice or make
recommendations based on that expertise. Doing so would
compromise their role as a neutral third party. Both of these
mediators said they had a very difficult time maintaining this
neutrality. Another challenge related to neutrality was brought up
by other mediators and had to do with the necessity to suspend
judgement while mediating. These mediators stated that they are
judgemental personally and that they make a conscious effort to
put those judgements aside when they are at the mediation table.
This is an essential skill for mediators and these mediators feel they
are still working on developing it.
SELF-CHECK 6.1
Why is it important for a researcher to focus on validity when
conducting a study?

6.3 DESIGNING YOUR OWN STUDY

As you design a study of your own you may wish to begin with a topic or
research setting that you believe is important to your work. Once you have done
this, you would begin by writing out details relating to the five components of
the research design we have discussed in this topic. This will help you make
design decisions related to one particular type of qualitative study we talked
about in Topic 2.
Here are some examples of studies that you might wish to research depending on
the type:
(a) Basic Qualitative Study: Malaysian teachersÊ views on increasing the
amount of time for physical education in primary schools;
(b) Case Study: Learning through art and craft: a technique for teaching
children in special education classes life skills;
(c) Ethnography: Examining the lives of children who work for their parents
after school and how this affects their commitment to school; and
(d) Action Research: A problem-based learning project to support mathematics
teachers in a rural school.
ACTIVITY 6.6
1. What is the type of study that you wish to conduct?
2. How does this type of study reflect the objectives of your study?
3. What might be a suitable title for your study?
In line with this, Maxwell (2005:241-242) offers a useful technique that you can
use to design your study. Figure 6.5 shows a matrix organised to develop links
between your research questions and methods. It provides a guide for making
design decisions, such as for you to identify ways in which each of the four
methods components will help you source data to answer your research
questions.

As shown in Figure 6.5, the key questions you would need to answer are:
(a) What do I need to know?
(b) Why do I need to know this?
(c) What kind of data will answer the questions?
(d) Where can I find the data?
(e) Whom can I contact for access?
(f) What is the timeline for acquisition of these data?
As an alternative, you may consider using the Qualitative Research Design Guide
(see Figure 6.6). As you go through this matrix, consider how its various
segments may be applied to the topic and research questions you have raised.
ACTIVITY 6.7
Examine the questions in Figures 6.5 and 6.6 and write answers to the
questions given. Who do you think would benefit most from the study
you wish to conduct?
Figure 6.5: Matrix for planning research methods

Source: Maxwell (2005:241-242)

Components of
Qualitative Questions to Ask Yourself Write Your Thoughts
Research Design [Based on Maxwell (2005)] and Decisions Here
Model
1. Goals Why is your study worth doing? What issues
do you want it to clarify, and what practices
and policies do you want it to influence?
Why do you want to conduct this study, and
why should we care about the results?
2. Conceptual What do you think is going on with the
framework issues, settings, or people you plan to study?
What theories, beliefs, and prior research
findings will guide or inform your research,
and what literature, preliminary studies, and
personal experiences will you draw on to
understand the people or issues you are
studying?
3. Research What, specifically, do you want to learn or
questions understand by doing this study? What do
you not know about the things you are
studying that you want to learn? What
questions will your research attempt to
answer, and how are these questions related
to one another? How are the questions
related to your conceptual framework?
4. Methods What will you actually do in conducting this
study? What setting will you study and who
are the subjects of your study? What are the
reasons for your choices? How are these
choices related to your research questions?
What approaches and techniques will you
use to collect and analyse your data, and
how do these constitute an integrated
strategy?
5. Validity How might your results and conclusions be
wrong? What are the plausible alternative
interpretations and validity threats to these,
and how will you deal with them? How can
the data that you have, or that you could
potentially collect, support or challenge your
ideas about what is going on? Why should
we believe your results?
Figure 6.6: Qualitative research design guide

 Two other essential elements of qualitative research design are examined,

which are:
 Methods; and
 Validity
 The „design decisions‰ assist researchers as they systematically plan their

own research. It is important that all five elements of design are aligned in
your research.
 In qualitative research, methods refer to all the procedures or techniques

you undertake in relation to four components of the research process. These
includes:
 Entering the field and identifying a research site;
 Contacting and selecting participants;
 Identifying sources of data and collecting different forms of data; and
 Analysing the various forms of data you have collected.
 When writing up a proposal or when conducting your research, you would

have to consider ways of defining and examining the validity of your data
and findings. These includes:
 Giving due consideration to threats such as researcher bias and observerÊs
paradox; and
 Using strategies such as triangulation, inter-rater reliability, member
checking, audit trail and long periods of time.

Audit trail Researcher bias

Authenticity of data and findings Research design matrix
Design decisions Research guide
Forms of data Sources of data
Inter-rater reliability Techniques
Member checking Triangulation of research site
Methods Trustworthiness of data and findings
ObserverÊs paradox Validity
Procedures
Beloo Mehra, B. (2002). Bias in qualitative research: Voices from an online

classroom. The qualitative report, 7(1).
Black, J. A. & Champion, D.J. (1976). Methods and issues in social research. New
York: John Wiley.

introduction to THEORIES AND METHODS (4th ed.). New York: Pearson.
Cho, J., & Trent, A. (2006). Validity in qualitative research revisited. Qualitative
research,6(3), 319-340.
Junor Clarke, P.A. & Fournillier, J. (2012). Action research, pedagogy, and
activity theory: Tools facilitating two instructorsÊ interpretations of the
professional development of four pre-service teachers. Teaching and
teacher education, TATE1658, 649-660.
Kumar, Ranjit, (2011) (3rded.).Research Methodology: A step-by-step guide for

beginners. New Delhi: SAGE Publications
LeCompte, M.D. (1987). Bias in the biography: Bias and subjectivity in

ethnographic research. Anthropology and education quarterly, 18(2), 43-52.

Lincoln, Y. S. & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach.

Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded
sourcebook of new methods, (2nd ed.), Sage, Thousand Oaks.
Perry, J. C.& Calhoun-Butts C.(2012).A qualitative study of urban Hispanic youth

in an after-school program: Career, cultural, and educational development.
The counseling psychologist, 2012, 40(4), 477-519
Trochim, W.& Donnelly, J. P. (2007). The research methods knowledgebase, 3rd

ed. Cincinnati, OH, Atomic Dog Publishing.

Topic  Data
7 Collection ă
Part 1
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Describe in detail key features of fieldwork in qualitative research;
2. Explain the researcherÊs role when conducting fieldwork;
3. Carry out your role as principal investigator in a qualitative study;
4. Apply a set of guidelines to select participants for your research; and
5. Write useful field notes as you observe an event in your research site.
 INTRODUCTION
We will now closely examine methods, which is one of the most important
components of research. As discussed in Topic 6, these decisions are related to
four different areas:
(a) Conducting fieldwork by entering the field and identifying the type of data
to collect from your research site;
(b) Making initial contact with and selecting participants for your study;
(c) Identifying sources of data and collecting different forms of data; as well as
(d) Analysing the various forms of data you have collected.
In this topic we will cover the first two areas, such as showing how you, as a
qualitative researcher, can carry out fieldwork and play your role as principal
investigator, as well as make initial contact, select participants and allocate sufficient
time for your research. Later, in Topic 8, we will see how these decisions will help you
take appropriate steps to collect data for your study. Decisions about techniques for
data analysis and presentation of your findings will be dealt with in Topic 9. The
process of methods decision-making is shown in Figure 7.1.
TOPIC 7 DATA COLLECTION – PART 1  105
Figure 7.1: The process of determining methods
7.1 FIELDWORK
Qualitative researchers collect data in the „field‰, not in a laboratory or
inauthentic space. They refer to this natural environment or research space as the
„field‰ or the „field site‰ no matter whether it is a school setting, a village setting
or a virtual space. For this reason, when you do your fieldwork you will interact
with participants, gather data, conduct interviews and observe events as they
unfold in the research setting which helps you understand the phenomenon
under study. Because all of this occurs in a natural setting with little or no
influence on your part, fieldwork is a fundamental part of your research. Myers
(2009) has identified the following as some of the key features of fieldwork:
(a) Gaining access;
(b) Becoming accepted;
(c) Informants or participants;
(d) Length of fieldwork;
(e) Equipment; and
(f) Field notes.

106  TOPIC 7 DATA COLLECTION – PART 1
In the subtopic that follows, we will take a closer look at some of these features.
ACTIVITY 7.1
In your own words, define the following: the field, the research site, field
site, fieldwork, methods, and data collection.
7.1.1 Key Features of Fieldwork

As you begin your fieldwork, you would have to take a number of steps to
secure the cooperation and trust of the participants in the setting. For example, if
you wish to research childrenÊs progress in reading, you would have to gain the
trust of a teacher, the school principal and the childrenÊs parents. You need to
gain trust to gain access or you might not get the data you need for your study.
Let us talk more about this critical step in the initial stages of your study.
(a) Gaining access

The first step to consider is how you can gain access to the field. For
example, you will need permission from a school or the Ministry of
Education to gain access to participants in the school or institutional setting.
Even if you wish to study children in their own home setting you would
need permission from the childrenÊs parents or guardians. Depending on
the site you have chosen for your study, gaining access would involve a
number of different things such as getting permission from the host, taking
necessary health precautions, conducting background checks on the
participants and demonstrating to the participants how your study is
important for educational progress. Over time there may be other
procedures you will have to undertake to maintain access to the site and to
your participants.
Bogdan and Biklen (2007) suggest that a qualitative researcher often has to
negotiate permission to get access to participants. Their advice is to be
persistent, flexible and creative in order to get a foot in the door. However,
gaining access is merely the first step in the process of doing fieldwork.
Here are some related considerations based on Spradley (1980:78).
(i) Space: Is the physical or virtual place you have chosen considered to
be the best site for collecting your data? For example, if you are going
to study childrenÊs progress in reading, this should be a space where
children read or where you will be able to observe their interactions
based on reading. You would also have to establish at the beginning

of your study that you will have access to this space for the duration
of your study.
(ii) Time: If you are going to examine childrenÊs progress in reading, it
means that you will be required to be at the site for some time.
Investigations of this nature ă like childrenÊs progress in an academic
area ă require at least six to 12 months to complete. Thus access to the
principal actors ă the children, teachers, perhaps parents ă is crucial to
the success of your study.
(iii) Actors: Are the people involved the most critical informants who will
give you the data you need to understand the phenomenon you are
interested in?
(iv) Activities and events: Will there be sufficient activity, such as
interaction, to get the data you require? Will the informants be
directly involved in these activities? For example, if you wish to study
childrenÊs progress in reading, will these activities directly involve the
children you are studying? Another example, in examining childrenÊs
progress in reading, will you have to observe children as they read,
interview them and the teacher and perhaps get permission to analyse
their reading scores?
(v) Goal: Of course, the most important consideration is whether you will
accomplish the goals you have set out for your study. Gaining access
to a setting should help you realise these goals or access becomes
futile.
ACTIVITY 7.2
You wish to conduct a study on how new teachers make decisions about
who to call on to answer questions in class. Make a list of all the things
you would consider to gain access to the research site that you have
chosen.
(b) Becoming accepted

One of the most important aspects of interaction with participants in the
field is becoming accepted as a researcher and as a professional. For this
you would need to consider ways in which you could gain rapport with
participants. You may have to learn a language, or know more about local
slang; this would help you interpret your data with greater ease. You
would also have to keep an open mind about the ways in which people in
the setting live their life, as in the food they eat, the ways they pray or the
priorities they set.

Sometimes there is initial resistance to your presence, but as you gain trust,
the resistance will decrease. The reverse can also happen: you might
initially be welcomed in the setting, but after some time you may be viewed
as a hindrance. Scott-Jones and Watt (2010) view acceptance as part of
getting immersed in the culture of the research setting. Their research
highlights the following considerations for getting accepted in a setting.
(i) Build rapport with participants. This requires strong interpersonal
skills to get along with people and to earn their trust by being honest
and transparent about what you aim to do. For this, you would have
to demonstrate that you are going to represent participantsÊ views as
they have been related to you. You will also have to show that you are
going to be accurate in reporting what happens, and be fair and
sensitive to the issues faced by participants. It is for this reason that
qualitative researchers draw a line between an observation and a
comment.
(ii) Maintain a balance. One difficulty you might have in the field is
making a conscious distinction between being a researcher and being
an insider in the research setting. This can be tricky, especially if your
setting requires you to be an active participant during data collection.
However, the good news is that such skills can be developed over
time and you will soon grow to understand the level of participation
that is required to get useful data.
SELF-CHECK 7.1
What does it mean to be immersed in the culture of your setting? What

possible challenges do you foresee with reference to being immersed in
the research setting of your choice?
(c) Length of time

It is often said that qualitative researchers cannot plan when they would
actually finish the data collection process, or how much time they would
need in the field. However, there is also a term „data saturation‰ which
refers to the point in time when you feel that you are actually getting the
same information all over again, and that no new insights are revealed from
the field or from your interactions. Every qualitative researcher has to
determine the length of time they spend on his or her own; the important
thing is to consider all elements of the study and determine whether they
have been covered in the course of your fieldwork.

ACTIVITY 7.3
You have been asked to evaluate your lecturer over the course of one
semester. What are some considerations for building rapport and
maintaining balance as a researcher and student in the class? What are
some of the methods that you would have to employ during fieldwork?
What would be your research site? Note down your answers on a piece
of paper and compare them with your course matesÊ answers.
7.2 PARTICIPANTS
Contacting and selecting participants for your study is determined by the focus
of your study. As soon as you have decided on the topic of study, or on the
objectives of your research, you could begin identifying the people who would
provide the data that you seek. These would also be people who would give you
access to artefacts, historical documents, office records and other non-
confidential information. You would be in contact with key informants or
participants throughout the data collection process; others might participate for a
short time, or you may need them to give you data on one aspect of your
research. Another way of looking at selection is to consider the role different
people will play in your study: those who are key participants will give you the
leads to other people; these people may be observed and/or interviewed from
time to time while others may be observed or interviewed for shorter periods.
7.2.1 Selecting Participants

Selection of participants also depends on the type of data you require for your
study. For example, the school principal could give you data on teachers who
teach remedial reading but it is the remedial reading teacher who would give
you data on student attendance and lesson plans for teaching reading. Children
registered in a remedial reading programme could give you another type of data:
narrative accounts of how they learnt to read, whether or not they have books at
home, if anyone reads to them, and so on. You would need to observe both
children and teacher interactions in order to get data on teaching methodology
and enactment of planned lessons. Thus the type of data these participants give
you would very much depend on the research objectives you are trying to meet
and the research questions you intend to answer. Let us take a snapshot at
participants and type of data (Table 7.1):

Table 7.1: Example of Participants and Type of Data
Participants Principal Teacher Students Teacher and

students
interacting in
the same space
Type of Data Names of Data on Narrative data Data on
teachers who student of how they teaching
teach remedial attendance and learnt to read, methodology
reading lesson plans whether or not and enactment
for teaching they have of planned
reading books at home, lessons
if anyone reads
to them
ACTIVITY 7.4
How do you decide who and how many subjects to include in your
sample? Elaborate your answer along with examples.
Your key informants are those who will give you the data you require in order to
meet your research objectives. For example, if you wish to research how children
respond to a strategy for teaching history, observing a classroom and talking to
the children may not be sufficient. You may also have to talk to the head of the
social studies department in the school, and visit the curriculum development
department in the locality. This would broaden your understanding of how the
particular strategy you are researching may be contextualised in the curriculum.
An important consideration in participant selection is whether they are willing to

give you data or grant you interviews. If you are interested in finding out how
pre-schoolers interact during recess you may visit several kindergartens before
you find one that will give you access to children during recess. Thus data are
collected from individuals who support your research. Selection may also be
through participants who have already agreed to be interviewed or observed. For
example:
(a) A teacher asks students in the class if they are willing to be interviewed;
(b) You might visit a community where you know you can publicly observe
peopleÊs interactions or behaviour; or
(c) You could use the „snowball technique‰ of interviewing: interviewees can
suggest others who are willing to be interviewed, thus expanding your pool
of informants.

ACTIVITY 7.5
You have come up with a list of strategies for involving parents in school
childrenÊs learning. You realise that you need to convince staff in your
school of the need to involve parents in the initiative. How would you go
about doing this?
7.2.2 Maintaining Objectivity

As we discussed in earlier parts of this module, the investigator is the primary
instrument for gathering and analysing data in qualitative research. Thus, it goes
without saying that you, as the researcher, are the most important individual in
the process of data collection. To carry out this role appropriately, you would
first have to maintain objectivity at all times. What does this mean? How can the
researcher be objective during data collection?
Let us look at an example. You wish to study the nature of Internet use among
schoolchildren. However, you have heard from family and friends that teenage
children use the Internet excessively. These same parents also have concerns
about the negative effects of the Internet. Around the time of your study, you
receive a notice from the school inviting you to attend a cyber safety programme
for parents. You put all of these separate events together and begin to think of the
Internet as potentially harmful; you then become concerned about your own
childrenÊs safety when they are on the Internet. This leads you to cancel the
Internet subscription in your own home and you hope your actions will improve
your own childrenÊs study habits and ensure their safety.
If you begin your study on the nature of Internet use among schoolchildren
around this same time or soon after, these ideas may influence the way you
collect data. You may unconsciously focus on negative Internet experiences, and
seek out parents who have indicated that their children have poor study habits as
a result of the Internet. In such a situation, your role as a researcher would
undoubtedly be compromised. Note that though you initially set out to study the
nature of Internet use among schoolchildren, your study turned out to be one
seeking negative Internet experiences, and how these lead to poor study habits.
This would mean that you were unable to objectively focus on describing ways in
which children use the Internet. Instead, you could have been biased in your
choice of participants for your study, as well as in the kind of data your focus is
on.

Although bias is difficult to control or keep out of data collection, it is a

significant element in research. If your personal biases about the Internet and its
influences on children creep in, the data you collect may not be valid. You may
have invalidated your study by purposely choosing participants who will give
you data that confirm your thinking about the negative influence of the Internet
on childrenÊs study habits. Thus, to maintain objectivity at all times, here are a
few suggestions from Mehra (2002):
(a) Behave neutrally as far as possible. This means that you get the participants
to tell their perspectives without them requiring an approval or
confirmation from you, the researcher;
(b) Ask as many open-ended questions as possible and do not endorse a
particular response from the participant;
(c) Take detailed field notes of what you see and hear. Begin writing as soon as
you arrive at your setting. Write down what you are observing, not what
you are thinking at that point in time. (Note that we discussed observations
and personal comments in the earlier topics covered in this module); and
(d) Focus on participants’ actions on the basis of what they themselves believe
and feel. Your data should be a reflection of what they tell you from their
own perspective.
SELF-CHECK 7.2
Why is maintaining objectivity a crucial part of conducting qualitative

research? List down the reasons that you can think of.
7.3 FIELD NOTES

Perhaps the most important part of observation in qualitative research is field
notes. These are all the notes that you take down as you observe what is going on
in your setting, for instance jottings, running thoughts, narratives, detailed
descriptions, diagrams or notes to yourself. Field notes are taken while you are in
the field, the site which you have identified for your study. By writing field
notes, you are keeping a record of all the activities that you observe in the course
of data collection.

Figure 7.2: Example of field notes

Source: touchedspace.wordpress.com
7.3.1 Writing Field Notes

Field notes are written in many forms and they serve a variety of purposes. They
may be handwritten, typed on a laptop or even audio-recorded. Most researchers
use a pen or pencil to write on paper, quickly as each action occurs, using their
own version of shorthand or short forms. These days many researchers carry a
laptop or electronic notebook to keep a digital record of what they see and hear.
These electronic devices can also help them take photographs or make a voice
recording of what they see around them. Researchers also use blogs or threaded
discussions as field notes, though this very much depends on connectivity.
As a record-keeping tool, field notes are very useful in qualitative research. They
are used to remember things that you have witnessed, to remind yourself of
something you should ask someone else, or even as a way of reflecting on what
has happened. Emerson, Fretz and Shaw (1995) highlight the fact that the
qualitative researcher cannot always interpret data or read into a situation while
he or she is in the field. Consider the following quote from their work:
„In short, the field researcher does not learn about the concerns and
meanings of others all at once, but in a constant, continuing process in
which he builds new insight and understanding upon prior insights and
understandings. Researchers should document these emergent processes
and stages rather than attempt to reconstruct them at a later point in light
of some final, ultimate interpretation of their meaning and import. Field
notes provide a distinctive resource for preserving experience close to the
moment of occurrence and, hence, for deepening reflection upon and
understanding of those experiences.‰(1995:8)
Thus, field notes are often seen as a permanent record of interactions and events.
Insight into a situation or event is often gained over a period of time, which is the
reason qualitative researchers take copious field notes about what they see and
hear. These notes are revisited many times and again, while you are collecting
different types of data, and as you recount the many things you have to ask for,
make inquiries about or consider taking follow-up action for. Like other aspects
of the qualitative researcher, field notes have to be frequently compared against
other types of data such as anecdotes, audio-recorded lessons or letters and
documents that you collect from your research site.
Figure 7.3 shows a sample of field notes written based on a classroom

observation.

Figure 7.3: Field notes based on classroom observation

ACTIVITY 7.6
Examine Figure 7.3 and answer the following questions.

(a) How would you describe these type of data?
(b) What are the various kinds of information that are registered in this
sample?
(c) Discuss reasons why the researcher collected these data and the
kinds of research questions that he or she might have raised for the
study.
In order to take down field notes that are reliable and provide a useful record of
ongoing events, you would need a keen eye for detail. Of course, different
researchers take down notes differently, but there are some things which may be
common to all types of field notes. According to Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein
(1997), you would typically include the following in your field notes:
(a) Date, time, and place of observation;
(b) Specific facts, numbers, details of what happens at the site;
(c) Sights, sounds, textures, smells, taste;
(d) Personal responses to the fact of recording field notes;
(e) Specific words, phrases, summaries of conversations, and insider language;
(f) Questions about people or behaviours at the site for future investigation;
and
(g) Page numbers to help keep observations in order.
Normally, the process for major parts of field notes consist of the following
(www.gpgrieve.org/PDF/How_to_write_Field_Notes.pdf):
(a) Jot down brief words or phrases. These jottings are written down while at
the field site or in a situation about which more complete notes will be
written later. They are usually recorded in a small notebook, jottings are
intended to help us remember things we want to include when we write
the full-fledged notes. While not all research situations are appropriate for
writing jottings all the time, they do help a great deal when sitting down
to write afterwards.
(b) Describe everything about the occasion you are writing about ă a meeting,
a lesson plan, a sequence of events, and any other occasion. While it is
useful to focus primarily on things you did or observed which relate to

the guiding question, some amount of general information is also helpful.
This information might help in writing a general description of the site
later, but it may also help to link related phenomena to one another or to
point to research directions later.
(c) Analyse what you learned in the setting regarding your guiding question
and other related points. This is how you will make links between the
details and the larger things you are learning about how culture works in
this context. What themes can you begin to identify regarding your
guiding question? What questions do you have to help focus your
observation on subsequent visits? Can you begin to draw preliminary
connections or potential conclusions based on what you learned?
(d) Reflect on what you learned of a personal nature. What was it like for you
to be doing this research? What felt comfortable for you about being in
this site and what felt uncomfortable? In what ways did you connect with
informants, and in what ways didn't you? While this is extremely
important information, be especially careful to separate it from analysis.
Most qualitative researchers walk around a research setting armed with the
necessary equipment they can use to record events. These may be pens or pencils
and paper, cameras, audio or video recording apparatus or files or bags to collect
artefacts such as old photographs and mementos. The important thing about
fieldwork in qualitative research is that a lot of what you call „data‰ is
unpredictable, and happens in a short spell of time. You always have to be
prepared to gather data as you observe or interact with key informants.
ACTIVITY 7.7
1. What is the difference between the span of time and the contact
hours in terms of time spent in the research site?
2. How should a researcher determine the length of time spent in

collecting data?

7.3.2 Researcher’s Role

It follows that a qualitative researcher has to play a complex role as he or she
collects data for a study. Primarily you should be prepared for uncertainties or
unforeseen events that may require a change in direction. Merriam (1998)
compares the role of the qualitative researcher to that of a detective who looks for
clues, finds the missing clues and puts the pieces together. Additionally, a
qualitative researcher should be aware of the mood, temperament or attitude of
participants he or she is observing or interviewing. This implies that you should
know when you can stay on site for long periods of observation and when you
should leave, when to allow for silence and when to probe for clarification.
Another skill that would help you is the ability to communicate well. According
to Merriam, (1998:23) a „good communicator empathises with respondents,
establishes rapport, asks good questions, and listens intently‰. The extent to
which qualitative researchers are able to communicate with warmth and
empathy often determines whether they are skilled or unskilled collectors of data
(Guba and Lincoln, 1981). Listening to individuals and writing clearly helps a
researcher obtain useful information from the field.
ACTIVITY 7.8
Read the following extract. Explain how this applies to research that you
plan to carry out.
Effective qualitative field researchers are those that build

relationships easily, are sensitive to their surroundings, and who
have few reservations about asking questions that enable them to
learn new things⁄ without transgressing the social norms of the
community. Researchers should also be able to separate
stereotypes, and personal opinions and judgements from accurate
observations and effective recording of wording, meanings and
opinions of research participants.
Source: De Clerck, Willems, Timmerman & Carling (2011:4).
 As qualitative researchers carry out fieldwork in a natural setting they have

to be prepared to interact with participants, gather data, conduct interviews
and observe events as they unfold in the research setting.

 Fieldwork is conducted with little or no influence on the part of the

researcher, and is a fundamental part of qualitative research.
 The key features of fieldwork are:

 Gaining access;
 Becoming accepted;
 Selecting informants or participants;
 Determining an appropriate length of time for fieldwork;
 Using the right equipment; and
 Writing field notes.
 The selection of participants is determined by the type of data the researcher

wishes to collect, and how these data will support the research objectives and
research questions.
 A qualitative researcher plays an important role during fieldwork; he or she

should thus be equipped with the right mindset and communication skills to
optimise his or her time in the field.
Becoming accepted Length of fieldwork

Fieldwork Methods
Field notes Objectivity
Field site Participants
Form of data Recording equipment
Gaining access Sources of data
Impartiality Types of data
Informants or participants

Bogdan, R. C & Biklen, S. K. (2003). Qualitative research for education: An

introduction to theories and. methods (4th ed.). New York: Pearson.
Chiseri-Strater, E. & Sunstein, B.S. (1997). Field working: Reading and writing
research. Blair Press: Upper Saddle River, NJ.
De Clerck, H.M., Willems, R., Timmerman, C. & Carling, J. (2011) Instruments

and guidelines for qualitative fieldwork. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.eumagine.org/outputs/PP6B%20Instruments.pdf
Emerson, R.M., Fretz, R.I., & Shaw, L.L. (1995). Writing ethnographic field notes.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1981). Effective evaluation: Improving the

usefulness of evaluation results through responsive and naturalistic
approaches. Jossey-Bass.
Mehra, B. (2002). Bias in qualitative research: voices from an online classroom.

The qualitative report, 7(1).
Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in

education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Myers, M. D. (2009). Qualitative research in business and management. Sage

Publications.
Scott-Jones, J., & Watt, S. (Eds.) (2010). Ethnography in social science practice.
Routledge.
Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. In Flick, U. (2009). An

introduction to qualitative research. Sage.

Topic  Data
8 Collection ă
Part 2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Describe the characteristic features of interviews and how you can
use them as techniques for data collection in qualitative research;
2. Make combined use of observations, interviews and document
examination for data collection;
3. Determine the level of involvement in the research site during
observation and interviewing; and
4. Employ the most appropriate interview structure for data collection
in a study of your own.
 INTRODUCTION
In Topic 2, we discussed four main types of qualitative research commonly used
in education, namely, the basic qualitative method, ethnography, case study and
action research. Irrespective of the type of research method adopted, the
techniques for data collection are more or less similar. In this topic, we will
discuss in detail two common data collection or evidence-gathering techniques
employed in qualitative research methods. For example, in an ethnography or a
case study, the data collection techniques employed could be observation,
interviews, the examination of documents or a combination of all of these
techniques.
Whether you choose to begin with observations, interviews or document

examination, the procedures to be followed cannot be prescribed in terms of
strict guidelines. Also, these techniques may be used either concurrently or one
after the other; it is the objectives of the study and the nature of data that you

wish to collect that will determine how and when a technique is to be used. In the
sections that follow, we explore in detail some common forms of data collection
used in qualitative research.
SELF-CHECK 8.1
What are the different ways in which you can collect data for a
qualitative study?
8.1 OBSERVATION
Most qualitative researchers begin with the most basic of research technique,
which is observation. When you observe someone or something, you are
gathering data by watching or closely examining what they do or say.
Observation involves all the senses; you keep a record of what you see, what you
hear and how something tastes or smells. Such records ă made up primarily of
images and words ă which you keep over the course of the study will be used to
build a story about the setting where you are conducting the study. Your
interpretation of the various things you see and hear in a setting will be the
impetus for pursuing other data collection techniques, such as interviews and
library research.
As a researcher you would probably want to know what is involved during

observation. What are the various steps you ought to take when you decide to
use observation as a data-gathering technique?
According to Creswell (2007:134), observation involves a series of steps, as

described in Figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1: Eight steps to do observation
ACTIVITY 8.1
What is observation, and how would you use it in a study of your own?

The following extract is taken from a study by Borg (1998:12).
Data collection and analysis in the study were not linear but cyclical,
which called for a sequential form of analysis (Delamont, 1992; Tesch,
1990). In practice, this means that data were collected and analysed
throughout the period of fieldwork, with each successive stage of data
collection being influenced by the analysis of the data already collected
(in contrast, a linear approach to data collection and analysis would
collect all the data before beginning to analyse them). This interaction
between data collection and analysis emerges clearly in the description
below of the procedures I followed.
1. I first conducted a 1-hour pre-observation interview with the
teacher in order to establish a profile of his educational
background, reasons for becoming a teacher, experience of
teaching, and general views about L2 teaching. I conceived of the
interview as a semi-structured conversation (Kvale, 1996) that
focused on particular themes without being rigidly structured and
in which my role was to interact with the teacher in order to
explore in as open-minded a manner as possible the meaning he
assigned to educational and professional experiences in his life. The
interview was recorded and transcribed.
2. The next stage of the study consisted of 15 hours of classroom
observations over a period of 2 weeks during which I obtained a
detailed account of classroom events through qualitative field
notes, audio recordings, copies of all instructional materials, and
samples of studentsÊ written work. My role in the classroom was
that of a non-participant observer (P. Woods, 1986).
3. I analysed the observational data after each lesson for key
instructional episodes · classroom incidents that generated
questions about the rationale for the teacherÊs approach to
grammar. The use of a particular grammar teaching activity, the
explanation of a grammar rule, a response to a studentÊs question
about grammar, or a reaction to a studentÊs grammatical error, for
example, were all seen to be key episodes as they prompted
questions through which I could gain insight into the factors
behind the teacherÊs behaviour. An analytic memo recording the
questions generated by the observational data was produced after
each lesson.

ACTIVITY 8.2
Read the extract by Borg (1998). Discuss the various steps involved in
collecting data for this qualitative study. How would you differentiate
between pre-observation and observation?
8.1.1 Being an Observer

As you begin your research, you will find that there are several ways of looking
at your role as an observer. A key question is related to the extent and the ways
in which you participate in activities within the setting. If the researcher views
this role as part of a continuum, he or she acts from the perspective of complete
observation on one end and complete involvement on the other end (Bogdan and
Biklen, 2007).
Figure 8.2: Complete observer

Source: http://www.jimwrightonline.com/
If you are a complete observer as illustrated in Figure 8.2, you would not
participate in any activity within the setting. You would observe, record, and
watch all activities in the setting as if you are seeing everything through a „one-
way mirror‰ (Bogdan and Biklen, 2007:91). Your observation would be a written
or recorded snapshot of all activity in the setting.

However, complete involvement often means taking part in everything that is

going on, for example, attending staff meetings or assemblies, playing games
with participants or discussing lesson plans with teachers and giving feedback.
Most qualitative researchers do not operate in either end of this continuum but
stay somewhere in between. How would you decide on this?
Figure 8.3 shows the Continuum between observation and involvement.
Figure 8.3: Continuum of observation and involvement
Bogdan and Biklen (2007) suggest that the extent of participation or involvement
depends on the stage of the study and on what you intend to achieve through
observation. For example, at the beginning of your study you would be engaged
more in observation and less in involvement.
This is because you wish to understand how things work in a setting, and it
would take time to gain acceptance in a setting. You would participate more as
you develop a good relationship with teachers, students, administrators and
perhaps parents.
Over time, you may wish to participate more in a setting perhaps because you
have questions, or you wish to try out a teaching technique or idea to know how
participants experience it.
ACTIVITY 8.3
1. What is the difference between complete observation and

complete involvement?
2. Give examples of complete observation and complete

involvement that you might undertake when observing classroom
processes in a primary or secondary school.

As an observer, there are several things you can do. The first is to write field
notes, which is to write down in detailed prose everything that you can see, hear,
smell or touch. If you are not being too obtrusive, you can audio-record your oral
description of a setting.
For example, while you accompany children on a field trip, you can record what
you see or hear around you, what you see the children are doing or even what
you hear them say. Field notes may be handwritten or typed, and are analysed in
the form that they are recorded.
The second thing you can do is to use a checklist or observation inventory. This is
usually done if you are certain before the observation visit that some procedures
will be followed.
For example, on school sports day, you can use a checklist to see if children
followed instructions on what to bring or wear or to keep a tally of teams that
win gold medals. You can also use a checklist to observe classroom activity
(Figure 8.4) using your research objectives as a guide.
Checklists are usually used to get an overview of a situation; you would have to
use results of this procedure to move on to other forms of observation or
interviewing, or both. A checklist would be analysed in accompaniment to field
notes or other forms of data that are collected. By itself, a checklist would not
provide adequate information to get an in-depth understanding of a subject.

Figure 8.4: Classroom observation checklist

A third thing you can do is to support your observation with an audio or a video
recording of ongoing events. Most researchers do this in addition to taking field
notes; their field notes may help them keep a record of what the audio or video
recording cannot capture. Thus, the recording gives the researcher a true and
more concrete picture of what transpired in the setting. The audio or video
recording would be transcribed in verbatim. Refer to the Appendix in this
module for guidelines on transcribing qualitative research data.
Finally, a fourth thing you can do during observation is ask questions. These
questions are meant to seek clarification about an ongoing activity, as well as to
gain insight into something that you are observing. This should not be confused
with interviewing - which will be discussed in the next subtopic - but should be
viewed as an opportunity to gather data which would not be available at a later
time.
For example, you may walk around the class during seatwork to see how
students are doing their mathematics problems. If you have occasion to ask
questions, you may use the opportunity to gather data on one or more childÊs
mathematics learning process. You would quickly write down the answers
children give you to such questions, or take short notes on what you hear from
them. Such an opportunity would give you authentic data, build an in-depth
understanding of the event, or give you an opportunity to cross-check data or
even see things from a different perspective from the one you were originally
pursuing.
SELF-CHECK 8.3
What are the four different things you can do during observation?

ACTIVITY 8.4
Forness and Esveldt (1975) conducted a study on high-risk kindergarten

children. Read the extract of their article below (pages 376 to 377) and
describe the observation protocol they might have undertaken in their
study. What degree of observation or involvement do you think was
exercised in this study?
The participating teachers were told that all children in their classes
would be observed over a period of days at the beginning of the school
year and again after the end of the first semester. They were also told
that they would be required to rate each child in certain academic and
behavioural areas at the end of each observation period. Information was
given them concerning the general nature of the project ă to identify
children in need of special help through observational techniques-but
they were not given information on specific observation categories.
The first observation phase was begun in mid-October and ended in
November. The second observation phase was begun in late February
and ended in mid-March. Both phases are hereinafter referred to as the
October and the March observations, respectively. During each
observation phase, each child was observed for a minimum of ten school
days during the same period each day. Since several children were
absent one or more days during an observation phase, it was necessary
to observe each class for more than 10 days.
Observers were two females in their early 20s. Both were trained
over a period of two weeks, prior to the October observation, in a
classroom of a laboratory school located on a university campus. They
subsequently spent one week in the two classrooms in which they would
be observing in order to learn the first names (and surnames, if needed)
of the children in each classroom. While less observer bias may have
been involved in identifying children by number rather than name, the
practical problems of having children wear identifying numbers in the
classroom and the inevitable and repeated use of the childÊs name by the
teacher precluded any serious consideration of this technique. As nearly
as possible, children were observed in all four classrooms during similar
conditions, which are during a group activity or discussion in which the
teacher directed the group from the front of the room and in which
children were required to participate at the teacherÊs direction (for
example, show and tell, classroom news, storytelling, and other
activities). Observers sat at the rear of the group and slightly to one side,
where eye or head orientation of the children could be observed.

8.2 INTERVIEWS
Like observation, the interview is a technique commonly used by qualitative
researchers. Interviewing is a rigorous data collection technique; it can span
many days or months and yield several volumes of data. Data from interviews
can be in multiple forms, for instance, yes-no or single word responses to close-
ended questions; lengthy narratives in response to open-ended questions;
elaborations or explanations based on probing questions; recall based on stimuli
such as audio or video recording, photographs, artefacts, test scores or quotes;
lesson plans that are sketched after a discussion; or revisions to a written
document based on one or more interview questions. You may also get vague
responses or monosyllabic responses to your interview questions, which often
means that the data are not very useful unless you seek clarification from the
interviewee.
Let us now turn our attention to the different ways in which you can conduct
interviews for your study. In the following pages, you will read about types of
interviews, the nature of structured and unstructured interviews, as well as the
types of questions you can ask during an interview.
8.2.1 Conducting Interviews

If you decide to conduct interviews for your research, how will you interact with
the interviewees? Would they be interviewed individually or in groups? Would
you think of questions before you meet them or would you allow the interaction
to dictate the kind of questions you will ask? What are the different types of
questions you would ask? Here are some pointers.
(a) Number of people to interview
After you have received consent, you may interview your respondents or
informants as individuals, dyads, small groups or focus groups. A one-on-
one interview would give you a great deal of focus on what the respondent
is saying while a group may require strong facilitation skills on your part. A
dyad ă two people at a time ă would be chosen because of the unique value
they bring to the research, for example, a mentor and mentee in a very
specific setting; a coach and a player; a husband and wife teaching team; a
professor and a teaching assistant teaching the same course.
You would choose to interview a group of people at the same time and
place for a number of different reasons. This could be due to limited time or
the similarity of their experiences in a setting. For example you may want to
interview a group of people who had together won a science competition,
or a group who had been chosen to take part in an activity.
On the other hand, a focus group interview is more like a group discussion
than an interview. It is usually designed around a specific topic and the
discussion is moderated by the researcher. What is important about the
focus group is the mix of people you choose for participation. The group
may be made of strangers or people who work in the same surroundings;
members of the focus group are usually chosen because they can give
different perspectives of an activity or issue.
For example, if you wish to study how the Internet supports group projects
within school-based assessment, your focus group could be made up of
students, teachers, parents, administrators and information technology (IT)
experts. As you moderate the groupÊs discussion, each of these focal people
would give you rich data ă based on their views and experiences - on the
use of the Internet.
Whether you choose to interview respondents individually, in pairs or

groups, there are no specifications in terms of the total number of people
you should interview. What is important is that the number or composition
of interviewees gives you the best possible data for your study.
(b) Mode of communication

Most qualitative researchers prefer to conduct interviews in a face-to-face
setting. This gives you more control over the interview, such as the space to
go back and forth between questions, to check on your recording apparatus
and to seek elaboration whenever it is required. This setting is useful if you
are studying a complex or sensitive topic, or if the interview is likely to be
lengthy (Mathers, Fox and Hunn, 2002).
Begin by using your research goals as a guide to select your respondents
purposefully. These people should be those who can best give you the data
you require to answer your research questions and to fulfil your research
goals. This means that you do not randomly select individuals to interview;
you would give due consideration to the role they play in the research
setting as well as the quality of data they can provide.
However, if this is not possible, you can gather data using a number of
other modes. Whether it is an individual, group or dyad, data gathering
would be based on what they can tell you and how well they can
substantiate their opinions, explain their actions or elaborate on their
thoughts. If you have the technology, you can also use interactive internet
applications such as „Skype‰ or video chats to collect data. Another way of
collecting small-scale data from large number of people is telephone
interviews, though you would not have direct access to your respondents.

(c) Type of questions

The most common type of questions asked by qualitative researchers is
open-ended questions. This refers to questions that would invite a variety
of responses, and would not limit the amount of information the speaker
could give. Some examples are:
What inspired you to become a teacher?
How would you describe your early experiences in this college?
That is very interesting. Why did you choose to take that course of
action?
On the other hand, close-ended questions limit the kinds of responses you
can get from an interviewee. Here are some close-ended questions:
Is this your first job since you graduated?
Are these the grades you expected from your students?
What are the titles of the courses you currently teach?
A third type of question you can ask in an interview is the probe question.
Probing questions usually follow-up on an earlier response, digging for
more information on a topic. Such questions often seek reasons, clarification
or detailed explanations for a situation. For example:
Can you give me some examples?
I donÊt understand. Why would your school principal do that?
That sounds interesting. Can you tell me more about it?
It sounds to me that you had a difficult time in school. Why didnÊt you
seek help for your problems?
SELF-CHECK 8.4
Explain what you understand by mode of communication, type of
questions and number of people to interview with reference to data
collection using interviews.
ACTIVITY 8.5
Besides the pointers mentioned in Section 8.2.1, what other

considerations should you take note of when using interviews to collect
qualitative data?

8.2.2 Types of Interviews

As shown in Figure 8.5, the type of interview you conduct may depend on
whether the questions you ask (for data collection) are prepared before the
interview, or if they are thought of as the conversation progresses in the course of
the interview.
Figure 8.5: Types and characteristics of interviews
Some researchers begin an interview with a few pre-determined set of questions,

or they would have at least one or two questions in mind before they begin the
interview. When you draw up a list of questions ahead of the interview, you
would be preparing for a structured interview. Often questions in a structured
interview would not vary much between what you prepare and what you ask.
According to Fontana and Frey (1994:363), structured interviews are used in a

situation where the interviewer asks respondents „a series of pre-established
questions with a limited set of response categories‰. In terms of process, you
would prepare a set of questions to ask every respondent, recording each
response either on a structured response sheet (such as a questionnaire) or using
a coding scheme or through an audio or video recording. Depending on the type
of questions you ask, you may or may not get variation in the responses; Fontana
and Frey (1994) suggest that variation in response would be received where an
infrequent open-ended question is used.

In a structured interview, the interviewer controls the pace of the interview in a

„standardised and straightforward manner‰(Fontana and Frey, 1994:363). They
emphasise that:
„all respondents receive the same set of questions, asked in the same
order or sequence, by an interviewer who has been trained to treat every
interview situation in a like manner. There is very little flexibility in the
way questions are asked or answered in the structured interview setting‰.
(1994:363)
However, if you begin with a list of pre-determined questions and plan to ask
follow-up questions as a result of what the respondents say, you would be
conducting a semi-structured interview. Qualitative researchers use semi-
structured interviews as a strategy to cast their net wide enough to capture as
much data as possible. Pre-determined questions would gather data on ideas or
topics that you consider critical to the study, while follow-up questions would
capture data that is incidental or that which may be used to explain related
issues.
Semi-structured interviews may consist of both closed and open-ended questions

based on the topic chosen for a study. The open-ended nature of the questions
provides opportunities for both the interviewer and interviewee to discuss these
topics in detail. If the interviewee has difficulty answering a question or hesitates,
the interviewer can push for more details or for further explanation. Both semi-
structured interviews and unstructured interviews are widely used in qualitative
research.
Unstructured interviews are the hallmark of qualitative research. What does this
mean? This simply means that qualitative researchers rely a great deal on the
situatedness of an event, on the ideas, concepts and propositions participants
report and on the various interpretations that they hold of the situation they are
in. By definition, therefore, questions for unstructured interviews are neither
planned nor close-ended. The researcher usually begins with a broad question or
topic, and lets the conversation unfold with time. Follow-up questions are then
used to clarify points, seek elaborations or to gather supporting details for an
idea. There is low level of interviewer control as the respondents take over and
talk about what is meaningful to them. In this way, rich, thick data are gathered
and analysed inductively together with all other forms of data that are collected.

SELF-CHECK 8.5
Name the different types of interviews. What are the differences
among these types of interviews?
ACTIVITY 8.6
In 1999, Norman Lederman published an article entitled „Teachers'
understanding of the nature of science and classroom practice: Factors
that facilitate or impede the relationship‰. Read the extract of the
following article and discuss the various data collection techniques
that were used in the study.
This investigation involved an in-depth year-long assessment of the

classroom practices and goals of five biology teachers. A
combination of semi-structured interviews (one at the beginning and
one at the end of the investigation), an open-ended questionnaire,
classroom observations, lesson plans, instructional materials,
periodic informal interviews or discussions, and student interviews
were used to investigate the relationship between teachersÊ
conceptions of the nature of science and classroom practices, and to
elucidate those factors that impede or enhance the relationship. One
general biology class (10th grade) for each of the teachers was
randomly selected for investigation. Teachers were interviewed 1
week prior to the beginning of the school year. These interviews
were semi-structured and designed to collect data on each teacherÊs
academic background, teaching experience, significant aspects of the
school context, general student body characteristics, specific
characteristics of the students enrolled in the selected biology class,
and goals and objectives for the biology class.
The instrument globally focuses on the complexities of tentativeness

in scientific knowledge, and specifically on (a) the use of human
creativity and imagination in the development of scientific
knowledge, (b) the subjectivity resulting from scientistsÊ background
experiences, knowledge, and scientific paradigms, (c) the difference
between scientific theory and law, (d) the importance of both
observation and inference to the development of scientific
knowledge, and (e) the empirical basis of scientific knowledge.

In particular, teachers were asked to respond to the following

open-ended questions:
(a) After scientists have developed a theory (for example, atomic

theory), does the theory ever change? If you believe that
theories change, explain why we bother to teach students
theories. Defend your answer with examples.
(b) What does an atom look like? How do scientists know that an
atom looks like what you have described or drawn?
(c) Is there a difference between a scientific theory and a

scientific law? Give an example to illustrate your answer.
(d) How are science and art similar? How are they different?
(e) Scientists perform scientific experiments and investigations

when trying to solve problems. Do scientists use their
creativity and imagination when doing these experiments
and investigations?
 In addition to written field notes, the two most common data collection or
evidence-gathering techniques employed in qualitative research are
observation and interviews.
 Observation and interviews may be used either concurrently or one after

the other; it is the objectives of the study and the nature of data that you
wish to collect that will determine how and when a technique is to be used.
 Examination of documents may be carried out during observation. These

would include letters, memos, notes, diaries, photographs, audiotapes,
videotapes, films, articles, books, manuscripts, e-mails, online discussions
reveal peopleÊs thoughts, actions and creations.
 Observation is the technique of obtaining data through direct contact with a

persons or group of persons. You may conduct complete observation or
complete involvement.

 When conducting interviews, you would give due consideration to the

number of people to interview at a time, the type of questions to ask and
the structure of the interview.
 The structure of the interview would involve a sequence of questioning,

open or close-ended questions, high or low level of interviewer control as
well as a coding or recording scheme.
 All field notes, audio or video recordings and other protocols would be
transcribed for collective analysis.
Close-ended questions Probing questions

Complete involvement Semi-structured interviews
Complete observation Sequence of questioning
Dyads Structured interviews
Focus groups Transcribe
Observer Transcription
Open-ended questions Unstructured interviews

introduction to theories and methods (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Borg, S. (1998). Teachers' pedagogical systems and grammar teaching: A

qualitative study. TESOL quarterly, 32(1), pp. 9-38.

Fontana, A. & Frey J. H. (1994). Interviewing; the art of science. The handbook of
qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Forness, S. R., & Esveldt, K. C. (1975). Prediction of high-risk kindergarten

children through classroom observation. The journal of special education, 9,
375-387.
Mathers, N., Fox, N. J. & Hunn, A. (2002). How to use interviews in a research project.
Research Approaches in Primary Care. Oxford: Radcliffe Medical Press.
Retrieved from: http://faculty.cbu.ca/amolloy/MBA603/MBA603_files/
UsingInterviews.pdf
Lederman, N. G. (1999). Teachers' understanding of the nature of science and

classroom practice: Factors that facilitate or impede the relationship.
Journal of research in science teaching, 36(8), 916-929.

Topic  Data
9 Analysis and
Interpretation
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Prepare and organise data which has been collected from
interviews, observations and other data collection techniques;
2. Develop themes based on coding and categorising data;
3. Apply specific data analysis techniques for qualitative research;
4. Use basic principles of triangulation in your analysis, presentation
of data and discussion; and
5. Write a qualitative research report based on data collection and
analysis.
 INTRODUCTION
Most qualitative researchers collect vast amounts of data. These may be in the
form of field notes, observation notes, reflections, studentsÊ essays, oral or written
responses to interview questions, lesson plans and/or studentsÊ responses to test
questions. What happens to this mass of data? How do qualitative researchers
make sense of all of their work, and reduce it to themes for discussion about the
object of their study?
This is where qualitative data analysis and the interpretation of qualitative data
comes in. As shown in Figure 9.1, the various forms of data that are collected are
treated collectively as the researcher attempts to get a holistic understanding of
the data he or she has collected. The researcher prepares data for analysis by
transcribing field notes, scanning pupil's essays, making all field notes legible,
and so on. The researcher then examines these data, and becomes familiar with

TOPIC 9 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION  141
them through a process of coding, labelling and categorising. Again, coding and
categorising involves treating the various forms of data in the same way. Finally,
there is a systematic way in which the researcher codes the text for description,
interpretation and for extracting themes from this process. These themes and
description are used in the discussion within the research report
The important thing to remember is that the process is interactive in nature; as

shown in Figure 9.1, much of the data are coded and categorised simultaneously.
Often emergent themes are recorded while the researcher is in the process of
coding the data. As has been emphasised in earlier topics of this module, data
analysis in qualitative research is a process rather than a step-by-step form of
guided prescription. At this juncture, it is important to take note of concepts such
as coding, categorising, themes, interpretation, presentation and discussion as
they apply to qualitative research. These concepts will be explained and used
several times in the sections that follow.
These various aspects of data analysis and interpretation in qualitative research

are discussed in detail. Based on the work of Creswell (2007), these various
aspects are discussed in three segments, which are:
(a) Preparing and organising data which has been collected from interviews,
observations and other data collection methods;
(b) Developing theory based on codes, categories and themes; and
(c) Interpreting and representing data in the form of discussion, tables and/or
figures.

142  TOPIC 9 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Figure 9.1: Key dimensions of qualitative data analysis

Source: Creswell (2005: 231)
SELF-CHECK 9.1
Why do you think qualitative researchers view data analysis as a

process that is interactive in nature?
9.1 PREPARING AND ORGANISING DATA

The first part of the process of analysing data is preparing and organising all the
data for analysis. As you have known, qualitative data is a large plethora of
words, ideas, responses, images and anecdotes gathered from a number of
different sources. Let us take a closer look at how this mass of information can be
organised for analysis.

9.1.1 Transcription
Almost all qualitative research studies involve some degree of transcription.
Transcription is the process of presenting spoken or recorded text in verbatim.
The purpose of transcribing your data is to have a tangible, printed or visual
record of all the data that you have collected. This simply means that you would
have to convert the audio or video-recorded data from interviews as well as the
handwritten field notes into print. If you do not transcribe your data, and choose
to analyse directly from an audio or video recording, there is the likelihood that
you will focus only on those sections that seem relevant or interesting to you.
As shown in the Sample Interview Transcript that follows, transcribing

everything that is said and done helps you recall events better. It is also a neat
record of all that you have as evidence of an event or scenario. When you are
confronted with a transcript of everything that you observed and recorded (for
instance, in the form of audio or video, interviews or field notes), you would get
a holistic view of the setting and the events you witnessed. Further, by creating a
distance between yourself and the data, you will reduce the chance of
introducing bias in the analysis.
Often, a transcript of spoken or visual text would include non-verbal cues; as you
will observe from the Sample Interview Transcript, cues such as „looks around
the class, puts two thumbs up‰ give you a deeper understanding of how the
interaction unfolded in the classroom. Additionally, you could include notes or
references to yourself, or personal comments. For example, references such as
„See Lesson Plan 28March/4.30pm ă I made comments about EamonnÊs teaching
strategies‰ bring together threads of data from different sources, leading to the
beginning of data analysis. A full list of instructions for transcribing qualitative
data is given in Appendix 1.

Sample Interview Transcript

13 April 2013 Interview with Andrea, Priscilla and Emma ResearcherÊs Comments
ă Focus Group 1
Interviewer: Alison
Yesterday the teacher
Alison- And do you feel in the classroom that you can talk had asked them to keep
as much as you want? Or do you think „I quiet
shouldnÊt be talking really, I should keep my
voice down.‰
Priscilla- (looks around the class) Keep our voice down.
Yeah. After the class we share.
Emma- We come together and we talk. After class.
Alison- Right, and when you are talking quietly in class, is
that just so that you do not disturb the other
students?
Andrea- Not to disturb other students.
Alison- Right, so itÊs not that you think - IÊd better not be
talking, I ought to do it by myself. I wonder if the teacher
Andrea- Sometimes we share opinions. encourages this. Later, I
Priscilla- Yeah, if she donÊt understand she shows it to me must ask teacher about
and if I donÊt understand I show it to Andrea. this procedure.
And before we show the teacher our work we
always look at one anotherÊs work. And if there
is something I donÊt feel comfortable with, if she
got a different answer, I will ask her how she got
that answer. And she will show it to me and I
say - no, itÊs not that way. And if she says she is
confident with her answer then the teachers
comes to see which one of us is right.
If she understands her way I donÊt push her to say
- no itÊs not that. If she says - this is not the way -
she donÊt push me. She waits for the teachers. SheÊs talking about
Andrea here..
Alison- If we take this bit of work on weights and
measures that youÊve been doing, is there any
way where you think it could have been better?
IÊm not asking you to bad mouth Teacher
Eamonn at all. But IÊm trying to find the best
ways of teaching. So is there anything about the
worksheets where you think - it would be better
if it were this or that? Or - I really donÊt
understand this?

Andrea- (puts two thumbs up) Eamonn is an

excellent teacher. The way he teaches, I
think is fantastic. Before I donÊt used to
understand a lot of maths but now
everything seems very simple.
Alison- When you said before that you didnÊt
understand a lot of maths, did you go to
classes as an adult or as a child?
Andrea- (remains silent) See Lesson Plan
Alison- I rephrase the question You told me that 28March/4.30pm ă I
you didnÊt understand a lot of maths. Was made comments about
this when you went to classes as an adult EamonnÊs teaching
or as a child? strategies.
I wonder if she is thinking

about her childhood in
her home country. I
should find out about
teaching methods there.
Source: http://www.nrdc.org.uk/
ACTIVITY 9.1
Examine closely the Sample Interview Transcript. Why are some lines
presented in italics and others underlined? What is the purpose of and
how can the researcher follow up on the „ResearcherÊs Comments‰?
9.1.2 Organisation
As you transcribe your data, you will also organise your data into sections that are
easy to retrieve. In the past, much of this was done with the aid of physical files and
organisers, but today most qualitative researchers rely on computer programmes and
computer software. Whichever format you use, you should choose an easy organising
scheme that will make data entry and retrieval easy. For example, if you have
interviewed ten teachers for 30 minutes each on their opinions about the leadership
style of their principal, you would do several things:
(a) Give each interviewee a pseudonym and not use their real names in the
data or on the write-up later. However, you would have to make a note or
recording elsewhere about who is who, for example, keep a record of real
and corresponding pseudonyms;

(b) Use appropriate labels for each file, for the time and place data were
collected, or even for each interview and interviewee so that you know
where, when and how the data were obtained. Most researchers do this
immediately or soon after the interview or observation has been carried
out. Confusion about time, date, place and source of data should be
avoided altogether; and
(c) The data obtained from each of the ten teachers should be organised and
labelled based on your unit of analysis. In other words, you have to
determine whether you intend to analyse the data at the word level,
sentence level or paragraph level. If you have chosen a pair or a dyad for
your interviews, this should be noted in the labelling. Similarly, interviews
with focus groups or random groups should be clearly marked so that there
is no confusion.
ACTIVITY 9.2
Find a member of your family, a friend or colleague and interview the
person for about 10 minutes concerning the characteristics of a good
teacher. Try to probe what it is that makes a good teacher. Make an
audio or video recording of the interview, and then transcribe the data
using a word processor. Include in the transcript as many non-verbal
cues as you can. After you have done this, respond to the following
questions.
(a) How long did the transcription take, compared to the conduct of
the original interview?
(b) Highlight the non-verbal communication you were able to
include. How does it add value to the subject or setting that you
are studying?
(c) Examine the questions you asked, and any comments you made.
Did you at any point lead the respondent in any way, or miss
important clues given by the respondent?
(d) Listen to the recording again, with the transcript in front of you.
Did you change any of the words from the recording? What
should you do if you did?
9.1.3 Familiarisation
One other thing that all qualitative researchers do is that they get immersed in
data, mostly by „reading and re-reading‰ the data they have collected. This part
of data analysis is referred to as „familiarisation‰ ă you develop a sense of what

your data are saying to you as you read, listen and watch your recordings. You
become familiar with all the different forms of your data, and start to think about
the depth and quality of the field notes and transcripts. You begin to analyse the
data in your mind as you make mental notes and write summaries of what you
read, hear and see. What all of this means is that the data are beginning to „speak
to you‰ and you are starting to form ideas about what is happening in your
setting. It is only when you understand the length and breadth of your data that
you know how much more data you need to collect, or if you should interview a
greater variety of people.
SELF-CHECK 9.2
What are the different ways in which you would prepare and organise
your data for analysis? What are some reasons for doing this?
9.2 DEVELOPING THEORY

When you have organised your data in terms of files and labels, you begin the
actual process of inductive analysis. What does this mean? How will you be able
to glean key findings from your research and communicate these in
uncomplicated straightforward prose?
Fortunately for us, the work of a group of sociologists (Corbin and Strauss, 2014;
Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Strauss and Corbin, 1997) has
shown us how we can do this efficiently. These qualitative researchers have
developed an inductive method of analysing qualitative data in which theory is
systematically generated from data. Let us examine some of the more salient
aspects of this process by discussing concepts such as codes, categories, themes,
grounded theory and constant comparative technique.
9.2.1 Codes, Categories, Themes and Theory

As shown in Figure 9.2, qualitative data analysis involves four elements: codes,
categories, themes and theory. We begin with coding, which is the process of
moving from the particular (data) to the general (themes and theory.) Strauss and
Corbin (1998) recommend open coding: you „sweep‰ through the data and
purposively mark all texts and images. This is done by:
(a) Examining the raw qualitative data in the transcripts, notes, essays, and others;
(b) Extracting sections of text units (words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs); and

(c) Assigning different codes to each of them.
In other words, you carve out segments of the data and give each segment a numerical
reference, symbol, descriptive words or label. Most of the text (or transcript) is marked
and given different codes. These codes are then refined or combined to form
categories, subcategories and themes.
An important thing to remember is that all the data ă whatever their form ă are
marked using codes. Qualitative research focuses on understanding the totality of an
experience, event or setting. For this reason, the data from interviews, observations,
documents and/or studentsÊÊ written or spoken output are subjected to coding and
categorising.
Codes for one form of data may be used for other forms of data. For example, you may
assign the code „reluctant teacher‰ to a segment of interview data as well as to a
segment of observation data such as field notes. The answer to a question that is asked
during an interview may be evident in a lesson plan or in a video-recording of a
classroom lesson.
When you categorise these codes, you will read all the transcripts, field notes, and
other forms of data to develop a list of categories. Later, it is this list of categories ă
from all marked data ă that will help you see the major themes underlying your
research. Taken together, these themes will help you develop a theory that is directly
related to the objectives of your study.
Figure 9.2: Codes-to-theory model for qualitative inquiry

Source: Saldana (2009:12)

Figure 9.3 shows another sample coding scheme for an interview transcript.
Figure 9.3: Sample coding for an interview transcript

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/lkloda/
ACTIVITY 9.3
Discuss the coding scheme employed in the data sample by Kloda (2012)
in Figure 9.3. What are other ways in which the data can be coded?

An interview transcript can be coded based on themes, as shown in Figure 9.4.
Figure 9.4: Thematic coding for an interview transcript
ACTIVITY 9.4
Answer the following questions based on the transcript in Figure 9.4.

(a) Identify the responses that are directly related to the transition
question.
(b) Underline the responses that correspond to each of the key themes
identified in the transcript.
9.2.2 Grounded Theory Method

Creswell (2009) defines grounded theory as follows:
„A qualitative strategy of inquiry in which the researcher derives a
general, abstract theory of process, action, or interaction grounded in the
views of participants in a study.‰ (pp. 13 and 229)
Based on this definition, you will notice that the emergent theory is grounded in
the perspectives residing within the data. These are the perspectives expressed in
documents and by the respondents, informants, actors who participated in your

study. That is to say, these are the perspectives of teachers, students, principals,
content writers, counsellors or parents whom you have observed and
interviewed. These perspectives are inherent in the data; they are grounded in
the data and not imposed by the researcher. The theory is developed through a
process of inductive analysis; it is not laid over the data before analysis.
Consistent with our earlier discussion on qualitative research, theory thus
„emerges‰ from the data through a process of rigorous inductive analysis.
You begin by determining the approach of analysing the data. This may be based
on the research questions and the objective(s) of your study. The grounded
theory approach offers a rigorous approach in generating theory from qualitative
data.
Thus, the word „theory‰ in „grounded theory‰ refers to the relationships that
exist among concepts gleaned from the data. The researcher continues with this
technique until what is called „theoretical saturation‰ is reached or no new
significant categories or concepts emerge. The theory that develops is best seen as
provisional until proven by the data and validation from others.
9.2.3 Constant Comparative Method

Data analysis based on grounded theory is cyclical in nature; it involves frequent
reading, re-reading and revisiting your data. As you do this, you begin to see the
emergence of new categories or concepts. You then begin to use various codes
and labels to in the light of as data analysis progresses.
This cyclical process of examining and analysing data is referred to as the

constant comparison technique (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). It involves
deconstructing data into discrete units that can be coded separately. For instance,
you can break down your data into idea units, concepts or incidents. Using this
method, newer or emergent categories or concepts are compared with categories
or concepts from the previous stage. Thus, analysis from a later stage is
referenced against analysis from a previous stage. To summarise:
„in the constant comparative method the researcher simultaneously codes

and analyses data in order to develop concepts; by continually comparing
specific incidents in the data, the researcher refines these concepts,
identifies their properties, explores their relationships to one another, and
integrates them into a coherent explanatory model.‰ (Taylor and Bogdan,
1984: 126).

ACTIVITY 9.5
Jacobs (2014) explored studentsÊ perceptions on problem-based learning.

Using a written questionnaire, she asked open-ended questions such as:
(a) What aspects of the course contributed most to your learning?
(b) What aspects of the course should be changed to make the course
better for you?
Examine the matrix in Figure 9.5 and make a list of possible codes that
Jacobs might have used in her analysis.
Figure 9.5: Categories, subcategories and codes for studentsÊ perceptions about
problem based learning
Source: Jacobs (2014)
9.2.4 Triangulation
Triangulation refers to the use of more than one method, investigator or theory to
strengthen the findings of a qualitative study. For example, if you merely observe
one teacher teaching a class, and do not have a second layer of data to
substantiate your findings from the observation, your data may be insufficient to
draw conclusions about her teaching. You would be more confident about your
findings if you included other data collection techniques such as interviews, or if
you included other investigators who could give you corroborating evidence of
the event.

Two types of triangulation are commonly used in educational research, viz.:

(a) Methods triangulation refers to the use of a number of different research
methods to study a phenomenon. For example you would use interviews,
lesson plans and lesson observations to understand how a teacher plans
and executes lessons in her class; and
(b) Investigator triangulation is the use of several researchers to collect, analyse
and interpret data. This is usually done in large-scale studies, especially
those where evaluation is a significant part of the study.
9.3 INTERPRETING AND REPRESENTING

DATA AND REPORTING FINDINGS
When you are comfortable that you have found the themes and have established
a strong sense of theory governing your findings, you would have to consider
how you might interpret and represent your data in the write-up of your study.
Interpreting data refers to making sense of your data, stepping back and forming
larger meanings of what is going on in a setting (Creswell, 2007). Representing
data is concerned with the visual and textual ways in which you can make your
findings accessible to readers.
According to Creswell (2007), interpretation and representation depends on the

approach you employ in your research design. Let us now turn our attention to a
number of ways that he suggests for interpretation and representation of data.
(a) Narrative
If you adopt a narrative stance in your study, you would likely interpret the
larger meaning of the story you wish to tell your audience. For this, your
data could be represented as a narration of the various processes, theories
and unique or general features gleaned from your work.
(b) Phenomenological
A descriptive mode is best suited to talk about „What happened‰ and
„How phenomena were experienced by participants in your study. Thus
you could represent data by narrating or discussing the essence of the
experience, or you could use tables or figures to drive home your points.
(c) Grounded Theory
Researchers who adopt grounded theory in their study could deliver their
findings by interrelating inherent codes and categories. They could also
present a visual model or theory to depict their findings.
(d) Ethnography
For ethnographers, it is important to interpret data to shed light on how a
culture operates, or how people who share the same background make
sense of the world around them. Thus they often use a strong narrative
stance in their interpretation and representation of data from their work.
(e) Case Study
If you use the case study approach for your research, you would likely use
direct interpretation or develop naturalistic generalisations in interpreting
your data. Data would be represented by providing a rich description of the
case being examined.
SELF-CHECK 9.3
Apart from grounded theory and the constant comparative methods,
what are some other ways that you can use to analyse qualitative data?
ACTIVITY 9.6
Conduct a 20-minute observation of a classroom (primary or
secondary) and write down in a notebook whatever you see. Analyse
the data using either the grounded theory approach or constant
comparative method. What steps should you take to ensure that you
get a holistic picture of the setting or events in the classroom?
 Data analysis in qualitative research is a process rather than a step-by-step

form of guided prescription.
 During data analysis and interpretation, the various forms of data are treated
collectively.
 There are three phases in qualitative data analysis: preparing and organising
data; developing theory based on codes, categories and themes; and
interpreting and representing data in the form of discussion, tables and/or
figures.
 Transcription, organisation and familiarisation are important components of

preparing and organizing data.
 Concepts such as codes, categories, themes, grounded theory and constant

comparative technique support the development of theory from data.

 Grounded theory method leads to a theory of process, action, or interaction

grounded in the views of participants in a study
 The constant comparative method is a cyclical process which involves

deconstructing data into discrete units that can be coded separately.
 Triangulation refers to the use of more than one method, investigator or

theory to strengthen the findings of a qualitative study.
 Interpreting data refers to making sense of your data, stepping back and
forming larger meanings of what is going on in a setting.
 Representing data is concerned with the visual and textual ways in which
you can make your findings accessible to readers.
 Interpretation and representation depends on whether you employ a:

narrative, phenomenological, grounded theory, ethnography and case study
approach to your research design.
Categorising Interpretation and representation of data

Coding Presentation of data and findings
Constant comparative technique Themes
Familiarisation Transcribing
Grounded theory method Triangulation
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative Quantitative and Mixed

Approaches. Sage.

Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2014).Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and

procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage publications.

Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967).The discovery grounded theory: strategies for
qualitative inquiry. London, England: Wiedenfeld and Nicholson.
Jacobs, L. (2014). The other side of the coin: OT students' perceptions of problem-
based learning. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy,44(1), 62-67.
Kloda, L. (2012). Clinical questions asked and pursued by rehabilitation

therapists: An exploratory study of information needs. Retrieved from:
http://www.slideshare.net/lkloda/clinical-questions-asked-and-pursued-
by-rehabilitation-therapists-an-exploratory-study-of-information-needs
Lincoln, Y., and Guba, E. (1985).Naturalistic Inquiry, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Ritchie, J., & Spencer, L., (1994). Qualitative data analysis for applied policy
research. In Bryman, A. & Burgess R. G. (Eds.),Analysing qualitative
data(pp. 173ă194). London: Routledge.
Saldana, J. (2012). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (No. 14). Sage.
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and

procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (Eds.).(1997). Grounded theory in practice. Sage.
Taylor, S. J.& Bogdan, R. (1984). Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods:

The Search for Meanings. New York: Wiley.

APPENDIX

Appendix 1
Qualitative Data Preparation and Transcription Protocol
Source:
http://courses.washington.edu/thesis/Manual%202/8_Data%20Entry/Instructi
ons_Transcription.doc
TEXT FORMATTING
General Instructions
The transcriber shall transcribe all individual and focus group interviews using
the following formatting:
1. Arial 10-point face-font

2. One-inch top, bottom, right, and left margins
3. All text shall begin at the left-hand margin (no indents)
4. Entire document shall be left justified
Labelling Focus Group Transcripts

Individual interview transcript shall include the following labelling information
at the top of the document:
Example:
Focus Group Location:
Cadre:
Date:
Number of Attendees (if known):
Name of Transcriber:
Number of Tapes:
Audiotape Changes
The transcriber shall indicate when the interview is recorded on a new tape and
include information verifying that the second side of the audiotape is blank as
well as the total number of audiotapes associated with the focus group. This
information shall be typed in uppercase letters.
Example:
END OF TAPE 1 (3 TAPES TOTAL); VERIFIED THAT SIDE B OF TAPE 1 IS
BLANK
START OF TAPE 2 (3 TAPES TOTAL)
END OF TAPE 2 (3 TAPES TOTAL); VERIFIED THAT SIDE B OF TAPE 2 IS
BLANK

160  APPENDIX
Documenting Comments
Comments or questions by the Interviewer or Facilitator should be labelled with
by typing I: at the left margin and then indenting the question or comment.
Any comments or responses from participants should be labelled with P: at the

left margin with the response indented. A response or comment from a different
participant should be separated by a return and then a new P: at the left margin.
Example
I: OK, before we begin the interview itself, IÊd like to confirm that you have
read and signed the informed consent form, that you understand that
your participation in this study is entirely voluntary, that you may refuse
to answer any questions, and that you may withdraw from the study at
any time.
P: Yes, I had read it and understand this.
P: I also understand it, thank you.
I: Do you have questions before we proceed?
End of Interview
In addition, the transcriber shall indicate when the interview session has reached
completion by typing END OF INTERVIEW in uppercase letters on the last line
of the transcript along with information regarding the total number of
audiotapes associate with the interview and verification that the second side of
the tape is blank. A double space should precede this information.
Example:
I: Is there anything else that you would like to add?
P: Nope, I think that about covers it.
I: Well, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. I really appreciate
it.
END OF INTERVIEW·(3 TAPES TOTAL); VERIFIED THAT SIDE B OF TAPE 2

IS BLANK

APPENDIX  161
CONTENT
Audiotapes shall be transcribed verbatim (recorded word for word, exactly as

said), including any nonverbal or background sounds (example: laughter, sighs,
coughs, claps, snaps fingers, pen clicking, and car horn).
 Nonverbal sounds shall be typed in parentheses, for example, (short sharp
laugh), (group laughter), (police siren in background).
 If interviewers or interviewees mispronounce words, these words shall be
transcribed as the individual said them. The transcript shall not be „cleaned
up‰ by removing foul language, slang, grammatical errors, or misuse of
words or concepts.
 If an incorrect or unexpected pronunciation results in difficulties with
comprehension of the text, the correct word shall be typed in square brackets.
A forward slash shall be placed immediately behind the open square bracket
and another in front of the closed square bracket.
Example:
P: I thought that was pretty pacific [/specific/], but they disagreed.
Filler words such as hm, huh, mm, mhm, uh huh, um, mkay, yeah, yuhuh, nah
huh, ugh, whoa, uh oh, ah, and ahah shall be transcribed.
Inaudible Information
The transcriber shall identify portions of the audiotape that are inaudible or
difficult to decipher. If a relatively small segment of the tape (a word or short
sentence) is partially unintelligible, the transcriber shall type the phrase
„inaudible segment.‰ This information shall appear in square brackets.
Example:
The process of identifying missing words in an audio taped interview of poor
quality is [inaudible segment].
If a lengthy segment of the tape is inaudible, unintelligible, or is „dead air‰

where no one is speaking, the transcriber shall record this information in square
brackets. In addition, the transcriber shall provide a time estimate for
information that could not be transcribed.
Example:
[Inaudible: 2 minutes of interview missing]

162  APPENDIX
Overlapping Speech
If individuals are speaking at the same time (i.e., overlapping speech) and it is
not possible to distinguish what each person is saying, the transcriber shall place
the phrase „cross talk‰ in square brackets immediately after the last identifiable
speakerÊs text and pick up with the next audible speaker.
Example:
P: Turn taking may not always occur. People may simultaneously contribute
to the conversation; hence, making it difficult to differentiate between one
personÊs statement [cross talk]. This results in loss of some information.
Pauses
If an individual pauses briefly between statements or trails off at the end of a
statement, the transcriber shall use three ellipses. A brief pause is defined as a
two- to five second break in speech.
Example:
P: Sometimes, a participant briefly loses . . . a train of thought or . . . pauses
after making a poignant remark. Other times, they end their statements
with a clause such as but then . . . .
If a substantial speech delay occurs at either beginning or the continuing a

statement occurs (more than two or three seconds), the transcriber shall use „long
pause‰ in parentheses.
Example:
P: Sometimes the individual may require additional time to construct a
response. (Long pause) other times, he or she is waiting for additional
instructions or probes.
Questionable Text
If the transcriber is unsure of the accuracy of a statement made by a speaker, this
statement shall be placed inside parentheses and a question mark is placed in
front of the open parenthesis and behind the close parenthesis.
Example:
P: I wanted to switch to ? (Kibuli Hospital)? if they have a job available for
me because I think the conditions would be better.

APPENDIX  163
Sensitive Information
If an individual uses his or her own name during the discussion, the transcriber
shall replace this information with the appropriate interviewee identification
label/naming convention.
Example:
P: My supervisor said to me, „P1, think about things before you open your
mouth.‰
P: I agree with P1; I hear the same thing from mine all the time.
If an individual provides othersÊ names, locations, organizations, and so on, the

transcriber shall enter an equal sign immediately before and after the named
information. Analysts will use this labelling information to easily identify
sensitive information that may require substitution.
Example:
P: My colleague =John Doe = was very unhappy in his job so he started

talking to the hospital administrator at = Kagadi Hospital = about a
different job.
REVIEWING FOR ACCURACY

The transcriber or proof reader shall check (proofread) all transcriptions against
the audiotape and revise the transcript file accordingly. The transcriber or proof
reader shall adopt a three-pass-per-tape policy whereby each tape is listened to
three times against the transcript before it is submitted. All transcripts shall be
audited for accuracy by the interviewer who conducted the interview or by the
study data manager.
SAVING TRANSCRIPTS
The transcriber shall save each transcript as a text file rich text file with an .rtf
extension.
For focus groups, the title should include the location of the focus group and the
cadre.

MODULE FEEDBACK
MAKLUM BALAS MODUL
If you have any comment or feedback, you are welcome to:
1. E-mail your comment or feedback to modulefeedback@oum.edu.my
OR
2. Fill in the Print Module online evaluation form available on myVLE.
Thank you.
Centre for Instructional Design and Technology

(Pusat Reka Bentuk Pengajaran dan Teknologi)
Tel No.: 03-27732578
Fax No.: 03-26978702

HMEF5103 Qualitative Research Methodology

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HMEF5103

Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Module Writer: Prof Dr Kuldip Kaur Karam Singh

Moderator: Assoc Prof Dr Lim Peck Choo

Reviewed by: Assoc Prof Dr Chung Han Tek

Developed by: Centre for Instructional Design and Technology

Printed by: Meteor Doc. Sdn. Bhd.

First Edition, April 2015

Copyright  Open University Malaysia (OUM), April 2015, HMEF5103

Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Topic 1 Qualitative Research in Education 1

Topic 2 Characteristics of Qualitative Research 16

Topic 3 Types of Qualitative Studies ă Part 1 33

Topic 4 Types of Qualitative Studies ă Part 2 52

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Topic 5 Designing a Qualitative Study ă Part 1 68

Topic 6 Designing a Qualitative Study ă Part 2 86

Topic 7 Data Collection ă Part 1 104

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Topic 8 Data Collection ă Part 2 121

Topic 9 Data Analysis and Interpretation 140

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Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

COURSE GUIDE DESCRIPTION

As an open and distance learner, you should be acquainted with autonomous

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Table 1: Estimation of Time Accumulation of Study Hours

Topic 2 discusses a number of critical characteristics of qualitative research. It

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Topic 3 provides you an overview of various types of qualitative studies in

Topic 6 continues the discussion on design features by focusing on two other

Topic 7 focuses on qualitative data collection, particularly on the selection of

Topic 8 continues the discussion on data collection by giving due consideration

Topic 9 covers the process of data analysis as it applies to qualitative research

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TEXT ARRANGEMENT GUIDE

Self-Check: This component of the module is inserted at strategic locations

Activity: Like Self-Check, the Activity component is also placed at various

References: The References section is where a list of relevant and useful

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Bogdan, R. C. & Biklen, S. K. (2003).Qualitative research for education: An

Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative Quantitative and Mixed

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among

Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach.

Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in

TAN SRI DR ABDULLAH SANUSI (TSDAS)

Emerald Management Plus and Ebrary Electronic Books. As an OUM learner,

Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)

The selection of techniques or the choice of an approach to a study is often

To begin, let us examine some definitions of qualitative research.

Qualitative inquiry is described by Creswell (1998:15) as a "process of

In Bogdan and Biklen (2003:2) qualitative research is described as an

Patton (2002) goes further by noting that qualitative research aims to

For Merriam (2002:5) qualitative researchers focus their efforts on interpreting

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Consider the definitions of qualitative research given. How are they

In qualitative research, we begin the research process by looking at the totality of

In sum, qualitative research is concerned with uncovering the multi-layered

1.1 RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

Figure 1.2: Paradigm shift

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