Transcript Document

Qualitative & Mixed
Research Approaches
By
Guday Emirie (PhD)
Assistant Professor of Social & Cultural Anthropology
College of Social Sciences
Addis Ababa University
May 7, 2013
Addis Ababa
Qualitative Research Approach
It is one of the research approaches in which the inquirer
often makes knowledge claims based on:
• Constructivist perspectives (i.e., the multiple
meanings of individual experiences meanings socially
and historically constructed, with an intent of developing
a theory or pattern)
• Advocacy/participatory perspectives (i.e., political,
issue-oriented, collaborative, or change oriented) or
both.
• Narratives, phenomenologies, ethnographies,
grounded theory studies, or case studies. The
researcher collects open-ended, emerging data with the
primary intent of developing themes from the data
(Creswell 2013)
Major Types of Qualitative Research
Creswell (2013) illustrated the following major types of
qualitative research:
• Ethnographies, in which the researcher studies an
intact cultural group in a natural setting over a prolonged
period of time by collecting, primarily, observational data.
The research process is flexible and typically evolves
contextually in response to the lived realties encountered
in the field setting.
• Case studies, in which the researcher explores in depth
a program, and event, and activity, a process, or one or
more individuals.
• Narrative research, a form of inquiry in which the
researcher studies the lives of individuals and asks one
or more individuals to provide stories about their lives.
Major Types of Qualitative Research Con’t
• Phenomenological research, in which the researcher
identifies the "essence" of human experiences concerning
a phenomenon, as described by participants in a study.
Understanding
the
"lived
experiences"
marks
phenomenology as a philosophy as well as a method, and
the procedure involves studying a small number of subjects
through extensive and prolonged engagement to develop
patterns and relationships of meaning.
• Grounded theory, in which the researcher attempts to
derive a general, abstract theory of a process, action, or
interaction grounded in the views of participants in a
study. This process involves using multiple stages of
data collection and the refinement and interrelationship
of categories of information.
Qualitative Data Collection Methods
• Observations, in which the research takes field notes
on the behavior and activities of individuals at the
research site. In these field notes, the researcher
records, in an unstructured or semi-structured (using
some prior questions that the inquirer wants to know)
way, activities at the research site. The qualitative
observer may also engage in roles varying from a nonparticipant to a complete participant.
• Interviews, the researcher conducts face-to-face
interviews with participants, interviews participants by
telephone, or engages in focus group interviews with six
to eight interviewees in each group. These interviews
involve unstructured and generally open-ended
questions that are few in number and intended to elicit
views and opinions from the participants.
Qualitative Data Collection Methods Con’t
• Document review/analysis, during the process
of research the qualitative investigator may
collect documents. These may be public
documents (e.g., newspapers, minutes of
meetings, official reports or private documents
(e.g., personal journals and diaries, letters, emails).
• A final category of qualitative data consists of
audio and visual material. This data may take
the form of photographs, art objects, videotapes,
or any forms of sound.
(Creswell 2013)
Qualitative Data Analysis & Interpretation
• Data analysis in qualitative research is an ongoing process involving continual reflection
about the data, asking analytic questions, and
writing memos throughout the study.
• It is not sharply divided from the other activities
in the process, such as collecting data or
formulating research questions.
• It involves using open-ended data, for the most
part. This requires asking general questions and
developing an analysis from the information
supplied by participants.
(Creswell 2013)
Qualitative Data Analysis & Interpretation Con’t…
Qualitative data analysis & interpretation involves the
following steps:
1.Organize and prepare the data for analysis. This involves
transcribing interviews, optically scanning material, typing up
field notes, or sorting and arranging the data into different
types depending on the sources of information.
2.Read through all the data. A first general step is to obtain a
general sense of the information and to reflect on its overall
meaning. What general ideas are participants saying? What is
the tone of the ideas? What is the general impression of the
overall depth, credibility, and use of the information?
Sometimes qualitative researchers write notes in margins or
start recording general thoughts about the data at this stage.
3. Begin detailed analysis with a coding process.
Qualitative Data Analysis & Interpretation Con’t…
4. Use the coding process to generate a description of the
setting or people as well as categories or themes for
analysis.
5. Advance how the description and themes will be presented in
the qualitative narrative. The most popular approach is to
use a narrative passage to convey the findings of the
analysis. This might be a discussion that mentions a
chronology of events, the detailed discussion of several
themes (complete with sub-themes, specific illustrations,
multiple perspectives from individuals, and quotations), or a
discussion with interconnecting themes.
6. A final step in data analysis involves making an
interpretation or meaning of the data. Interpretation in
qualitative research can take many forms, be adapted for
different types of designs, and be flexible to convey personal,
research-based, and action meanings.
(Creswell 2013)
Qualitative Data Analysis
Purposes of QDA
• Steer a researcher’s thinking away from literature and
personal experiences
• Avoid standard ways of thinking
• Stimulate the inductive process
• Focus on what is in the data
• Allow for clarification of assumptions
• Listen to what people are saying and doing
• Force the asking of questions and giving of provisional
answers
• Discover properties and dimensions of categories
(Straus & Corbin, 1998:89)
Strengths of Qualitative Research
 Useful for obtaining:
 insights into the routine and problematic experiences
and the meaning attached to these experiences of
individuals (biography, auto-biography, life history, oral
history, auto-ethnography, case study) and groups
(phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory),
which under certain conditions (e.g., data saturation,
theoretical saturation, information redundancy), can
achieve understanding:
- case study- to study how…has affected…
- ethnographic study- to describe and interpret the types
of … experienced by different cultural groups
- phenomenological inquiry- to describe the meaning of
the lived experiences for individuals who have
experienced ………(sever e psychological trauma)
Strengths of Qualitative Research Con’t...
 Regardless of the research design or
method used, qualitative research can
inform policy development, if it is
conducted in a way that leads to insights
into particular … processes that exist
within a specific setting, location,
context, time, event, incident, activity,
and/or experience.
Limitations of Qualitative Research
“Qualitative research is typically based on
small, nonrandom samples…which means
that qualitative research findings are often
not very generalizable beyond the local
research participant” (Onwuegbuzie &
Johnson 2004:410)
Crises in Qualitative Research
According to Denzin & Lincoln (2005), qualitative
researchers must confront the following three crises:
1. Representation
• Difficulty for qualitative researchers in adequately
capturing lived experiences (p.19)
2. Legitimation
• “a serious rethinking of such a term as validity,
generalizability, and reliability (p.17)
3. Praxis
• leads qualitative researchers to ask, “How are
qualitative studies to be evaluated in contemporary,
post-structural moment?” (p.18)
Crises in Qualitative Research Con’t
To address these crises, in recent years there have been
calls for:
• more rigor in qualitative research, where rigor is defined
as the goal of making “data and exploratory schemes as
public and replicable as possible” (Dezin, 1978:7)
• making the research process more public (e.g.
frameworks for making qualitative data analyses more
explicit) though there has been little direction as to how to
accomplish this
Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech (2012) believe that Dezin &
Lincoln’s (2005) crises can be addressed by using a
framework for making qualitative data analyses significantly
more explicit
Overview of Mixed Research (MR)
Most Recent Definitions of Mixed Methods of
Research (MMR):
• an intellectual and practical synthesis based
on qualitative and quantitative research;
• the third methodological or research
paradigm (along with qualitative and
quantitative research);
• recognizes the importance of traditional
quantitative and qualitative research but also
offers a powerful third paradigm choice that
often will provide the most informative,
complete, balanced, and useful research
results;
Most Recent Definitions of MMR Con't
• MMR is the research paradigm that:
(a) partners with the philosophy of pragmatism is one of its forms (left,
right, middle);
(b) follows the logic of mixed methods of research (including the logic
of the fundamental principle and any other useful logics imported
from qualitative and quantitative research that are helpful for
producing defensible and usable research finding (s);
(c) relies on quantitative and qualitative viewpoints, data collection,
analysis and inference techniques combined according to the logic
of MMR to address one’s research question(s); and
(d) is cognizant, appreciative, and inclusive of local and broader
sociopolitical realities, resources, and needs. Furthermore, the
mixed methods research paradigm offers an important approach for
generating important research questions and providing warranted
answers to those questions. This type of research should be used
when the nexus of contingencies in a situation, in relation to one’s
research is likely to provide superior research findings and
outcomes” (Johnso, Onwuegbuzie,& Turner, 2007)
Mixed Research Process
According to Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech (2012) “Overview of
Mixed Research: A Step-by-Step Guide”, mixed research can be
conceptualized as comprising the following 13 distinct steps:
Step 1: Goal of Mixed Research
Step 2: Mixed Research Objective
Steps 3 & 4: Rationale & Purpose
Step 5: Research Questions
Step 6: Sampling Design
Step 7: Mixed Research Designs
Step 8: Data Collection
Step 9: Mixed Analysis
Steps 10-11: Legitimation and Interpretation in Mixed Research
Step 12: Writing Mixed Research Report
Step 13: Reformulating Research Question
Step 1: Goal of Mixed Research
• Predict
• Add to the knowledge base
• Have personal, social, institutional, and/or
organizational impact
• Measure change
• Understand complex phenomena
• Test new ideas
• Generate new ideas
• Inform constituencies
• Examine the past
(Newman, Ridenour, Newman, & DeMacro, 2003)
Step 2: Mixed Research
Objective
•
•
•
•
•
Exploration
Description
Explanation
Prediction
Influence
(e.g., Johnson & Christensen, 2008
Steps 3 & 4: Mixed Research
Rationale & Purpose
Collins, Onwuegbuzie, & Stutton (2006) identified:
• 4 major rationales for mixing quantitative &
qualitative data
• More than 65 purpose for mixing quantitative &
qualitative d ata
Reference
Collins, K.M.T, Omwuegbuzie, A.J. m& Stutton, I.L. (2006) “A Model
incorporating mixed methods research in special education
and beyond. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 4,
67-100
Rationale for Mixed Research Rationale:
Categories & Their Formulated Meanings
Categories
Formulated Meanings
Participant
Enrichment
Recruit participants; engaging in activities such as
institutional Review Board debriefings; ensure that
each participant selected is appropriate for inclusion
Instrument
Fidelity
Assess the appropriateness and/or utility of existing
instrument(s); create new instrument(s) and assess
appropriateness and/or utility
Treatment
Integrity
Assess fidelity of intervention
Significance Facilitate thickness and richness of data; augment
Enhancement interpretation of findings
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
Examples of Purpose for Mixing Quantitative &
Qualitative Approaches
Categories
Formulated Meanings
Participant
Enrichment
• Obtain participants’ feedback to results
• Identify outlying (deviant) cases
• Determine reasons for differential attrition among intervention
groups
Instrument
Fidelity
• Assess adequacy of observational protocols
• Explain within-and between participant variation in outcomes
on instruments
• Validate individual scores on outcome measures
• Develop items for an instrument
Treatment
Integrity
• Refine interventions for subsequent phases
• Determine program readiness to undergo a summative
evaluation
• Identify barriers and/or facilitators within intervention
condition
Significance
Enhancement
• Expand interpretation of quantitative results
• Expand interpretation of qualitative results
• Discover paradoxes and contradictions that lead to reframing of research question (s)
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
Step 5: Research Questions (RQs)
• RQs reflect the problem that the
researcher want to investigate
• More specifically, RQs are interrogative
statements that represent “an extension
of the statement of the purpose of the
study in that it specifies exactly the
question that the researcher will
attempt to answer”
(Johnson & Christensen, 2004:77)
Step 5: Research Questions (RQs) Con’t...
RQs can be formulated based on:
•
•
•
•
theories,
past research,
previous experience, or
the practical need to make data-driven
decisions in a work environment
Thus, they serve as signposts for the reader,
foreshadowing the specific details of the study.
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
Step 5: Research Questions (RQs) Con’t...
RQs have several roles:
• Provide a framework for conducting the study.
• Helping the researcher to organize the research and
giving it relevance, direction, and coherence,
thereby helping to keep the researcher focused
during the course of the investigation.
• Delimit the study, revealing its boundaries.
• Give rise to the type of data that are eventually
collected.
• Occupy a place in the mixed research process that
is central, interactive, emergent, and evolving.
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
Step 5: Quantitative Research Questions
(RQs) in Mixed Research
• Tend to be very specific in nature.
• Most quantitative RQs fall into one of the
following three categories:
(a) Descriptive
(b) Comparative
(c) Relationship
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
1. Descriptive RQs in Mixed Research
• Seek to quantify responses on one or
more variables
• Often begin with the words: “What is…” or
“What are…”
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
• Examples: ???
2. Comparative RQs in Mixed Research
• Seek to compare two or more groups on some
outcome variable (i.e., dependent variable) and
often use words such as “differ” and “compare”
• Comparative questions involving two groups
usually can be written using the following form:
- “What is the difference in (dependent variable)
between (Group 1) & (Group 2)?”
- This question can easily be extended for three or
more groups by replacing the word “between”
with “among”
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
3. Relationship RQs in Mixed Research
• Concerned with trends between (among) two (or
more) variables and often use words such as
“relate,” “relationship,” “association”, and “trend”.
• Relationship questions involving two variables
usually can be written by using the following form:
- “What is the relationship between (independent
variable) and (dependent variable) among
(population)?”
- This question can easily be extended for three or
more groups by replacing the word “between”
with “among”
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
Summary of Qualitative RQ in Mixed Research
• One can derive the quantitative research designs (i.e.,
historical, descriptive, correlational, causal-comparative,
experimental, experimental) from the quantitative RQs.
• Good qualitative RQs should identify the population and
dependent variable(s), whether they represent descriptive,
comparative, or relationship research questions.
• If they represent comparative or relationship research
questions, then the independent variable(s) also should be
identifiable.
• Researchers should avoid starting a quantitative RQs with the
word “Do” because it motivates “yes/no” responses, which, in
turn, place undue emphasis on null hypothesis significance
tests, possibly to the exclusion of indices of practical
significance.
• Unfortunately, many research methodology textbooks cannot
avoid using this form of quantitative research question.
(Onwueguzie, Collins, & Leech, 2012)
Support of MR by Researchers from Alternative
Paradigms Con’t…
• “Having demonstrated that we were not then (and are not now) talking about
antiquantiative posture or the exclusivity of methods, but rather the
philosophies of which paradigms are constructed, we can ask the question
again regarding commensurability: Are paradigms commensurable? Is it
possible to blend elements of one paradigm into another, so that one is
engaging in research that represents the best of both worldviews? The
answer, from our perspective, has to be cautious yes. This is especially so if
the models (paradigms) share axiomatic elements that are similar, or that
resonate strongly between them.” (Guba & Lincoln 1994:105)
• It is highly questionable whether such a distinction [between qualitative
inquiry and quantitative inquiry] is any longer meaningful for helping us
understand the purpose and means of human inquiry.”(Schwandt
2000:210)
• “All research is interpretive, and we face a multiplicity of methods that
are suitable for different kinds of understandings. So, the traditional
means of coming to grips with one’s identity as a researcher by aligning
oneself with a particular set of methods is no longer very useful. It we are
to go forward, we need to get rid of that distinction.” (Schwandt
2000:210)
Support of MR by Researchers from
Alternative Paradigms
• “Both qualitative and quantitative methods may be
used appropriately with any research paradigm.”
(Guba & Lincoln 1994:105)
• “The information may be quantitative or
qualitative. Responsive evaluation does not rule
out quantitative modes, as is mistakenly believed
by many, but deals with whatever concern, or
issue.” (Guba & Lincoln 1989:174)
• “indeed there are many opportunities for the
naturalistic investigator to untilize quantitative
data-probably more than are appreciated.”
(Lincoln & Guba 1985:198-9)
Criticism of MR by Researchers from
Alternative Paradigms
“It is not just the ‘methodological fundamentalists’
who have bought into [this approach]. A sizable
number
of
rather
influential…educational
researchers…have also signed on. This might be
a compromise to the current political climate; it
might be a backlash against the perceived
excesses of postmodernism, it might be both. It is
an
ominous
development,
whatever
the
explanation.” [emphasis added] (Howe 2007:57).
Thank you for your attention!!!