Qualitative Research; Telling the Story

8/2/2019 Qualitative Research; Telling the Story

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QualitativeResearch:Telling the StoryCTEWorkshop

March 26, 2012

Drs. Linda Gilbert and

Mai Yin Tsoi

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Todays goals

Broad overview of qualitative research

Basic, with additional references

Includes when to use (or not to use)

Identifies some common theoreticalperspectives

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Why Are You Here?

How many of you

Are just curious about Qual. Research?

Have prior experience with Qual.

Research?

Planning to conduct Qual. Research?

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What IS Qualitative Research?

Gather data to investigate humanbehavior

Looks at WHYand HOW As opposed to HOW MUCH

Used in many different academic settings

Common in social sciences, marketing,education

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Theoretical UnderpinningsApproach Theory

Grounded Theory Build up from detailed observation

Ethnography Looking at ethnic and culturalunderstandings

Critical Theory Looking at problems from

historical/cultural contextsInterpretivist Reality is constructed through social

experiences

Phenomenology Study of structures of experiences

Feminism Social construction of gender and sex

Discourse analysis Approaches to analyze events withsigns, symbols, language

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Why and When to Use QualResearch-Continuum

When do not know enough to do Quant.Research

Only a few subjects

In-depth versus broad

Rich data

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Some Cautionary Notes

Easy to do bad Qual Research

Difficult to conduct rigorous QualResearch

Researcher subjectivities need to beaddressed

Subjectivities can affect study design,analysis

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How To Get Started

As in all research: IDENTIFY QUESTION

Choose appropriate theory base

Theory base guides methodology

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Example Questions

Do students learn if using calculators?

Better with quantitative methodology What effect do calculators have on spatial

processing?

Could be both, depending on research goal

What are relationships between calculatoruse and student perceptions of their math

ability?

Better with qualitative methodology

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First Step: What Are YourResearch Questions?

Audience Examples?

How do students feel about science? What misconceptions do student have about

science?

What is the relationship between studying and

test scores? What impact does studying have on student

achievement?

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Choose Theory Base

Methodology

Example:

Study on social media on class blog

Discourse analysis - data in writings Therefore, a study with this belief would choose:

Class blog

Thematic coding

Concept mapping of theme nodes

Refer to Denzin and Lincoln for an excellentoverview of theory.

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Second Step: Identify DataTypes and Sources

Survey

Interview

Free-response questions

Videotaping

Observations

Document analysis

Artifact analysis

AND MORE!

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Third Step: How Will YouAnalyze Data?

Statistics (quant)

Mixed-Method (quant plus qual)

Thematic coding multiple approaches

Memoing

Case studies . Etc.

For more resources, see Denzin and Lincoln orbasic qualitative texts

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Pros and Cons to Qual.ResearchPROS CONS

Rich, in-depth mining of data Limited, contextualgeneralizability

Get answers to complexresearchrelationships/patterns

Time-consuming

Able to elucidate

quantitative results

rabbit hole

Discover unforeseenrelationships

Analysis subject to researchertransparency of process

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References For MoreInformation

Handout

General

Theory-specific

Broader context

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Group Activity

Using worksheet, come up with researchquestions

For example scenario

For your own study

Brainstorm on the best way to answerthose questions

What will your data look like?

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Documents

Qualitative Research; Telling the Story