Module 4 - Jan. 31-Feb. 6 - Designing a Qualitative Study

Chapter 6 - Willis; Chapter 3 Creswell
Reflective worksheet 2 due Feb 6

Willis, Chapter 6 - General Guidelines for Qualitative Research (pp. 185-227)
This chapter further defines QR in terms of 'family resemblances' which makes sense as there are so many different methods that could fall under the QR family.  As Willis notes, "there are no features common to all the members" in the family (p. 186). I am coming to understand that QR is indeed 'blurred at its edges' - and the 'game' example fits very nicely as an analogy. Wittgenstein suggests that you 'cannot use language to precisely define something' (p. 187).  Resemblances, however, may not be enough to establish a family connection - further complications!! I like Kuhn's idea of extending family resemblances to include both resemblances and nonresemblences - coming to know what something is is informed by knowing what something isn't.

The guidelines for QR presented by Willis include the following points:

1. Situated or contextual understanding, not truth, is the purpose of research
• which is accomplished by "immersing ourselves in the context we want to understand and by bringing to bear on our efforts all our past experiences and knowledge" (p. 189)
• quoting Bilimoria: "prejudices are made transparent for what they are, and their limitations are thereby undermined"
• interpretivists view knowledge as understanding ratehr than the ability to control - which is the PP goal - to predict and control
• distinction between researcher and participant is blurred in QR
• sometimes contextual understanding is called hermeneutic understanding idiographic understanding, or verstehen
• interpretivists may present theories or generalizations, as will PP, yet the purpose of a PP theory is to explain a phenomenon in a general or universal way. An Int's purpose would be to offer a perspective that helps the reader understand particular phenomenon studied (p. 190) - in this case the theory developed may or may not be applicable to other settings - it is up to the reader to decide how much attention s/b paid to the theory in other settings
• situated understanding not lawlike generalization is the outcome of Int research (IR)
• Critical Researchers (CR), on the other hand, fall btwn IR and PP - they expect to find ocal instances of universals such as oppression of the powerless by the powerful (p. 190)
• nomothetic study - looks at particulars in order to build general rules or laws about human behavior
• ideographic suty - is an effort "not to confirm and expand these general experiences in order to attain knowledge of a law ... but to understand how this man, this people, or this state is what it has become" (p. 191) 
2. Accept multiple sources of influence
• QR highlights the commitment to study and thought rather than an emphasis on a particular topic or research paradigm (p. 192)
• QR cuts across almost all the disciplines in the field and borrows from almost everywhere, including the arts and humanities, which provide ways of knowing that go beyond the scientific method
3. Expect multiple perspectives and seek them
• underlying epistemology emphasizes the need for multiple perspectives
• social reality is constructed through interaction, development of shared meaning and communication - therefore individual experience is not only relevant but crucial to the fabric of social reality in which people develop relationships with one another. 
• contrary to P, IR is an "inside-out" approach to social science - that is, the reality is dynamic and responsive to the fluctuations of human interaction, perception and creation of meaning (citing McQueen, 2002, p. 193)
• physical sciences generally adopt a physical realist position - that there is something external to the individual that determines what she or he believes is real -
• Critical theorists adopt a position that includes components of both physical realism and cultural realism
• IR generally take a nondeterministic view of things and adopt instead the view that each person can determine his or her own behavior - free will, voluntary control
• also, beliefs of groups of people arise from individuals interacting in groups - this difference - determinism vs. a form of free will is at the heart of many differences between PP, CT and IR.
• CT and IR feel that multiple perspectives often lead to a better understanding of the situation (p. 193)
• the idea of multiple perspectives derives from the basic belief that external reality is not knowable in any direct and sure way
• therefore different people and different groups have different perceptions of the world
• IR "are not searching for an objective, external answer to their questions, because they view the world through a series of individuals' eyes" (p. 194)
• IR do not see themselves separate from the process of research
4. Take a foundational rather than technique perspective
• change is encouraged because QR assume you will change as you come to know and udnerstand the research context better
• in all likelihood the point at which you are most ignorant about your research setting is before you start the study -- therefore that is a very bad time to set methods, topics, and hypotheses in stone
• general guidelines are more appropriate than specific technical requirements because each research situation is unique (p. 198)
• Bogdan & Biklen - "Plans evolve as [researchers] learn about the setting, subjects, and other sources of data through direct examination" p. 199
5. Practice recursive (iterative) and emergent data collection and analysis
• desirability of recursion or iteration in research
• QR, especially IR, views research as a nonlinear, recursive (iterative) process in which data collection, data analysis, and interpretation occur throughout the study and influence each other
• working with the data as you collect it gives you the opportunity to develop "emerging insights, hunches, and tentative hypotheses" (p. 202) which "direct the next phase of data collection, which in turn leads to the refinement or reformulation of questions and so on"
• the process of making meaning is emergent
• understandigns emerge from your exploration of the environment and the data collected - they are constructed in the context of the study
• grounded theory supports an emergent approach - which is nonlinear process - the theory you are testing and the questions you ask may change across the study
6. Use multiple sources of data
• because data collection techniques and participants selected influence the meaning and understanding developed by the research, multiple sources of data are often used
• different participants have different views so QR often presents more than one perspective
7. Think of research as a reflective process: The researcher is the primary tool for data collection and analysis
• QR is recursive and fuzzy
• methods from technique to purpose, can eolve across the research process
• evolution of the study is in the hands of the researcher - and data analysis almost always depends on the researcher - dependency on the researcher leads to a major principle of qualitative research:  reflection
• opposite approach to reflection is technical rationality - which is an epistemology of practice derived from positivist philosophy, built into the foundations of the odern research university
• reflective model of research - assumes that most important problems in the social sciences cannot be stated as well-formed issues and solved with preformed solutions
• reflection in action, reflection on action: Schon - thinking reflectively about what we have done, and are doing, leads to reformulations of the problem as well as to experimentation
• reflection represents an effort to reduce the reliance on pure data in research and to increase the use of reason
8. Emphasize Participatory Research p. 206
9. Adopt an open approach p. 209
• which acknowledges that the very act of coming into an environment is itself an event that is likely to change the situation and thus the data obtained - there is no way to get a tru impression in any absolute sense
10. Deal with bias directly
• QR rejects the very idea that you can be objective and neutral in research
• IR - recognize your biases and values to the best of your ability and acknowledge them; personal data is accepted and valued
11. Select natural contexts for research
• all our knowledge is tentative and subjective - that is why QR is done in natural or authentic settings
12. Research s/b holistic, not atomistic
• QR tends to look at the subject matter holistically and within the larger context in which it resides
13. Research involves more than induction and deduction: Anaolgical reasoning, abduction, and family resemblances
• QR tends to accept and encourage both induction and deduction
• case study - depends on analogical reasoning - which is a much looser, less precise approach to inference than either inductive or deductie logic - involes an acceptance of the idea that we are looking not for certainties but for understanding or partial similarities
• it's like abductive reasoning - which involves tentative acceptance of explanations

Alternatives to PP criteria for believability:  Validity and reliability

• when looking for  V and R you are looking for universals, so the concepts don't really match a QR paradigm - in QR triangulation is the equivalent of  V and R - finding multiple sources of confirmation when you draw a conclusion
• "the rationale for this type of strategy [methodological triangulation] is that the flaws of one method are often the strengths of another, and by combining methods, obserers can achiee the best of each, while oercoming their unique deficiencies" (citing Denzin, p. 219)
• method. triangulation involves confirmation across three different data collection methods, such as interviews, observations, and life histories
• triangulation is best used in QR that follows the PP search for generalizations - for laws and truth
• but if the goal of your research is understanding?? Bogdan and Biken advise against using the term
• because IR/theory emphasizes that reality is socially constructed, and thus there are multiple perspectives on reality, there is not necessarily a need to try to eliminate all but one true reality from your conclusions p. 220

Alternatives to Triangulation

• still need to conduct research in such a way that consumers have some confidence in what you say
• there are a number of ways to do that:
• member checks
• participatory research
• extended experience in the environment
• peer review
• researcher journaling
• audit trails p. 221

Conclusions? Aren't they generalizations?

• conclusions in a PP study generally involve generalizations that can be used by others
• what is generalized is abstracted out of the local context in which it was discovered
• abstraction is then communicated by the researcher to other scholars and practitioners
• local context is less important than the abstraction
• in IR the opposite is true - meaning resides in the context and it cannot be removed from it
• conclusions from an IR study become part of the background, the context, in which a professional makes decisions - they may be helpful, but the environment differs - it is up to the professional to decide on the fly in the context of practice, and research is only one sources of understanding about how to make those decisions

Creswell, Chapter 3 - Designing a Qualitative Study

Creswell clearly outlines elements that are common to qualitative research (QR) studies, although he explains there is no  agreed upon structure. Creswell begins the chapter by providing a definition of qualitative research:

"QR begins with assumptions, a worldview, the possible use of a theroretical lens, and the study of research problems inquiring into the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem.  To study this problem, QRs use an emerging qualitative approach to inquiry, the collection of data in a natural setting sensitive to the people and places under study, and data analysis that is inductive and establishes patterns or themes.  The final written report or presentation includes the voices of participants, the reflexivity of the researcher, and a complext description and interpretation of the problem, and it extends the literature or signals a call for action" (p. 37).

Common characteristics of QR:

• Natural setting as opposed to a lab
• Researcher as key instrument in data collection - collecting, examining, observing, interviewing
• Multiple sources of data - rather than a single data source
• Inductive data analysis - bottom-up, build patterns, and themes, or categories, organize data into increasingly more abstract units of information
• participants' meanings - focus on learning the meaning that the participants hold about the issue or problem
• emergent design - the process may change or shift after entering the field; key idea is to learn about the problem or issue from the perspective of partiipants
• theoretical lens - often QRs use a theoretical lens to view their studies - e.g. concept of culture, or gender, or race, or social, political or hisotrical contexts
• interpretive inquiry - researchers make interpretations of what they see, hear and understand.  "The researchers' intepretations cannot be separated from their own background, history, context, and prior understandings; readiers, participants, and researchers all make interpretation which leads to multiple views of the problem
• holistic account - QRs try to develop a comlex picture of the problem or issue

When to use QR:

• when a problem or issue needs to be explored
• when we need to study a group or population,identify variable that can then be measured, or hear silenced voices
• because we need a complesx detailed udnerstanding of the issue
• when we want to empower individuals to share their stories and minimze power relationships that often exist between researcher and participants
• when we want to write in a literary, flexible style
• when we want to understand the contexts or settings in which participants in a study address a problem or issue - cannot separate what people say from the context in which they say it
• when we want to follow up quantitative research and help explain the mechanisms or linkages in causal theories or models
• to develop theories when partial or inadequate theories exist for certian populations and existing theories do not adequately capture the complexity of the problem we are examining
• because quantitative measures and the statistical analyses simply do not fit the problem

QR requries extensive time in the field and time consuming data analysis. 

The Process of Designing a QR Study

• no agreed upon structure
• generally falls within the process of scientific research with common phases:  start with an issue or problem, examine the literature in some way related to the problem, pose questions, gather data and then analyze them, and write up reports
• methodological congruence - purposes, questions, and methods of research are all interconnected and interrelated so that the study appears a sa cohesive whole rather than as fragmented, isolated parts
• process of planning begins with the broad assumptions central to qualitative inquiry, a worldview consistent with it, and in many cases, a theoretical lens that shapes the study
• starts with a topic or substantive area of investigation
• problems span topics in the social and human sciences, ahllmark of QR today is the deep involvement in sissues of gender, culture, and marginalized groups
• ask open-ended research questions, listen to participants and shaping questions after exploration
• refrain from assuming the role of the expert researcher
• questions change during the process - emergent process - that reflects an increased understanding of the problem
• 4 basic types of info:  interviews, observations, documents, and audio visual materials
• backbone of QR is extensive data collection
• multiple sources of information
• examine and analyze data trying to make sense
• examine data inductively from particulars to more gneral perspectives
• work through multiple levels of abstraction
• many forms of analysis - metaphors matrices and tables, usign visuals, reconfiguring
• data is (re)presented partly based on participants' perspectives and partly based on our own interpretations, never clearly escaping our own personal stamp on a study
• tell a story that unfolds over time
• talk about experiences in conducting the study
• let voices of participants speak and carry the story through dialogue
• sensitive to ethical issues
• giving back to participants for their time and efforts - reciprocity
• how will partipants gain from the study?
• sensitivity to the potential of research to disturb the site and potentially exploit the vulnerable populations we study
• honor who owns the account
• respect them individually
• nondiscriminatory language
• did we get it right?
• engage in validation sstrategies which include confirming or triangulating data from several sources, having studies reviewed and corrected by participannts, and having other researhcer review our procedures (p. 45)

Characteristics of Good QR:

1. Rigorous data collection - multiple forms, adequately summarized, adequate time in the field, unusual forms of data collection
2. frames the study within the assumptiosn and characteristics of the qualitative approach to research - evolving design, presentation of multiple realities, researcher as an intsturment, focus on participants' views
3. researcher uses an approach to qualititative inquiry such as one of the 5 - using a recognized approach enhances the rigor and sophisiticaiton of the research design; researcher identifies and efines the approach and cites studies that employ it and follows the procdures outlined in the approach
4. researcher begins with a single focus - focused on understanding a single topic or idea
5. study includes detailed methods, a rigorous approach to data collection, data analysis, and report writing.  Rigor is seen when extensive data collection in the field occurs, when researcher conducts multiple laevels of data analysis.  Researher validates the accuracy of the account using validation - such as member checking, triangulating sources of data, or using peer or external auditors of the accounts
6. researcher analyzes data using multiple levels of abstraction - moves from particulars to general levels; presents themes thta explore the shadow side or unusual angles (e.g. camera not on)
7. writes persuasively
8. study reflects hisory, culture and personal experiences of the researcher; individuals position themselves withing the qualitative study
9. ethical - researcher is aware of and addressing in the study all of the ethical issues