Module 5 - Feb 7- Feb. 13 - Qualitative Methods

Chapter 7 - Willis; Chapter 4 - Creswell
Reflective worksheet 3 due
Reflective activity:

What I would like you to do for this week is to look through some research journals and begin to look at studies that have been published and look for what methods they used.  See if you can find at least one example of the various methods that were covered in our readings this week.  See which ones are more common than others.  Which types of methods are more prevalent?   This is just a scanning exercise and it could be just reading the abstract for example.  If you find a few articles that use a method you are interested in, pay a little more attention to that article and look for how the authors described things in the study.  You can pick any journal and it would be good if those journals are in your area of professional expertise.

My Thoughts on the Readings

The idea of family resemblances in QR makes sense to me - there do seem to be so many varied methodologies that each have their own distinct features that fitting them under one umbrella was challenging - family resemblances accounts for the variations.  The key features of QR remain constant, however, that is, the underlying assumptions/worldviews - reality is internally located and multiple, knowledge is socially constructed.  I used to think that researchers were people who had special interests in particular topics, however I am reconsidering this and am beginning to think that researchers are skilled 'problem solvers' (for lack of a better descriptor, but I'll think about it ... artists? practitioners?) who have varied interests.  The key to the 'artistry' is in applying the philosophical lens and particular method to a context or problem situation.  

I've been trying to reconcile the 5 methods outlined by Creswell with the many methods outlined by Willis and am still trying to figure out why they don't cover the same methods - Creswell's 5 include: 

1. Narrative Research
2. Phenomenology
3. Grounded Theory
4. Ethnography
5. Case Study

On the other hand, in his chapter on methods, Willis describes:

1. Ethnography
2. Case Study
3. Interview Research (does this encompass Narrative research and Phenomenology?) - which I thought was a data gathering technique as opposed to a specific research method
4. Historiography (is this a form of Case Study?)
5. Participatory Qualitative Research (does this include Narrative Research and perhaps Phenomenology?
6. Emancipatory Research 

How do these methods relate?  How do they, or do they overlap?  This is something that I am still trying to work out. 

I found Creswell's chapter to be more understandable - the organization was straight forward and the methods were clearly described.  I found the charts on pages 78-80 to be particularly useful in comparing the 5 methods and it served to draw clear distinctions between them. 

And what about structure?  Yes, I admit, I did equate 'structure' with the more rigid design of QnR and tried to apply that to QR.  I understand now that QR has its own structure, which influences the design of studies - sometimes fluid and flexible, or emergent, or even at times more structured.  The fact that the design process differs from QnR does not make the process any less structured.  The structure of QR comes from its foundational ontological and epistomological beliefs - reality is internally located and multiple, knowledge is socially constructed, and the subjective nature of research.