Chapter 2. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Objective 1 – Define qualitative research.

Objective 2 – Highlight the distinctive features of qualitative research.

Objective 2 – Explain the qualitative theory use.

Objective 3 – Provide guidance on how to write qualitative research questions.

‘Qualitative research begins with assumptions, a worldview, the possible use of a theoretical 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, qualitative researchers 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 voices of participants, the reflexivity of the researcher, and a complex description and interpretation of the problem, and it extends to literature or signals a call for action’ (Creswell, 2007: 37).

The above-given definition covers all the main characteristics of qualitative research. They include as follows:

• Natural setting – data are collected in the field or at the site where participants experience the issue or problem being studied by talking to the people directly, and watching them behave and act within their context.
• Researcher as the key instrument – the researchers are the ones who actually gather the information without using or relying on questionnaires or instruments developed by other researchers. They collect data themselves through examining documents, observing participants’ behaviour, and interviewing participants.
• Multiple sources of data – multiple forms of data are gathered by means of interviews, observation and documents instead of relying on a single data source. Then the researchers review all of the data, and make sense of them by organising them into categories or themes that cut across all of the data sources.
• Inductive data analysis – qualitative researchers use the bottom-up approach to build their patterns, categories, and themes, i.e. they organise the data into increasingly more abstract units of information. This requires going back and forth between the themes and the database until a comprehensive set of themes is established. It may also involve interactive collaboration with participants, who are given a chance to shape the themes or abstractions that emerge from the process.
• Participants’ meaning – throughout the research process, the researchers keep a focus on discovering the views that the participants hold about the problem or issue, not the meaning that the researchers bring to the research or find in the literature.
• Emergent design – the qualitative research process is emergent, which means that the initial plan for research cannot be tightly prescribed, and that all the phases of the process may change or shift once the researcher enters the field, and starts collecting the data (the questions may change, the form of data collection may shift, the individuals and sites under study may be modified) with an aim to learn about the problem from participants.
• Theoretical lens – the theoretical lens, such as the concept of culture, gendered, racial or class differences, is often used to view the research.
• Interpretive inquiry – the researchers make an interpretation of what they see, hear, and understand, so these interpretations cannot be separated from the researchers’ own background, history, context, and prior understanding. Once the research report is issued, the readers, as well as the participants, interpret it, offering the new interpretation to the study, and thus multiple views of the problem emerge.
• Holistic account – a complex picture of the problem under study is developed by identifying the complex interactions of factors in any situation, i.e. by reporting multiple perspectives, identifying the many factors involved in a situation, and generally sketching the larger picture that emerges.

Qualitative research is appropriate when there is a need to study a group or population, hear the silenced voices, obtain a complex, detailed understanding of an issue, or context/setting in which the participants in a study address a problem, which cannot be done without talking directly to people, going to their homes or places of work, and allowing them to tell the stories unaffected by what we expect to find or what we have read in the literature. The qualitative research empowers the individuals to share their stories, have their voices heard, as well as to collaborate with the researcher throughout the data analysis and interpretation phases of the research. Qualitative research is often used as a follow-up of quantitative research, providing the explanation of why people reacted as they did, of the context in which they responded, and their deeper thoughts that governed their responses. Qualitative research helps to capture the interactions between people, including their individual differences, which cannot be accomplished by quantitative measures, which level all individuals to a statistical mean.

Qualitative research is time-consuming regarding both data collection and data analysis. The researcher spends many hours in the field, collecting data, trying to gain access, and establish rapport. The data analysis implies sorting through large amounts of data, and reducing them to a few themes or categories, which is followed by writing long reports, showing multiple perspectives, and incorporating quotes to support these perspectives (Creswell, 2007, p. 41).

Qualitative researchers use theory in their studies in several ways. First, like in quantitative research, it is used as a broad explanation for behaviours and attitudes, and it may be complete with variables, constructs, and hypotheses. For example, ethnographers employ cultural themes or ’aspects of culture’ (Wolcott, 1999, p. 113) to study in their qualitative projects, such as social control, language, stability and change, or social organization systems, such as kinship or families. Themes in this context provide a ready-made series of hypotheses from literature to be tested. Although researchers might not refer to them as theories, they provide broad explanations that anthropologists use to study the culture-sharing behavior and attitudes of people.

Secondly, researchers increasingly use a theoretical lens or perspective in qualitative research, which provides an overall orienting lens for the study of issues of gender, class, and race (or other issues of marginalized groups). This lens becomes an advocacy perspective that shapes the types of questions asked, informs how data are collected and analysed, and provides a call for action or change.

Qualitative research of the 1980s underwent a transformation to broaden its scope of inquiry to include these theoretical lenses. They guide the researchers as to what issues are important to examine (e.g. marginalization, empowerment), and the people that need to be studied (e.g. women, homeless, minority groups). They also indicate how the researcher positions himself or herself in the qualitative study (e.g. up front or biased from personal, cultural, and historical contexts), and how the final written accounts need to be written (e.g. without further marginalizing individuals, by collaborating with participants). In critical ethnography studies, researchers begin with a theory that informs their studies. This causal theory might be one of emancipation or repression (Thomas, 1993). Creswell (2007) provides a list of some of these qualitative theoretical perspectives available to the researcher, which include as follows:

• Feminist perspectives – they view as problematic women’s diverse situations, and the institutions that frame those situations. Research topics may include policy issues related to ensuring social justice for women in specific contexts or raising the awareness about oppressive situations for women (Olesen, 2000).
• Racialized discourses – they raise important questions particularly about people and communities of color (Ladson-Billings, 2000).
• Critical theory perspectives – they are concerned with empowering human beings to transcend the constraints placed on them by race, class, and gender (Fay, 1987).
• Queer theory – it focuses on individuals calling themselves lesbians, gays, bisexuals, or transgendered people. The research using this approach does not objectify individuals, it is concerned with cultural and political means, and conveys the voices and experiences of individuals who have been suppressed (Gamson, 2000).
• Disability inquiry – it addresses the meaning of inclusion in schools, and encompasses administrators, teachers, and parents who have children with disabilities (Mertens, 1998).

Rossman and Rallis (1998) capture the sense of theory as critical and postmodern perspectives in qualitative inquiry. At the end of 20^th century, traditional social science came under increasing scrutiny and attack as those espousing critical and postmodern perspectives challenged objectivist assumptions and traditional norms for the conduct of research. Central to this attack are four interrelated notions:

• research fundamentally involves issues of power;
• the research report is not transparent, but rather authored by a raced, gendered, classed, and politically oriented individual;
• race, class, and gender are crucial for understanding experience; and
• historic, traditional research has silenced members of oppressed and marginalized groups (Rossman and Rallis, 1998, p. 66).

Thirdly, distinct from this theoretical orientation are qualitative studies in which theory (or some other broad explanation) becomes the end point. It is an inductive process of building from data to broad themes, to a generalized model or theory (Punch, 2005). The researcher begins by gathering detailed information from participants, and then transforms this information into categories or themes. These themes are developed into broad patterns, theories, or generalizations, which are then compared with personal experiences or with the literature that exists on the topic. The development of themes and categories into patterns, theories, or generalizations suggests varied end points for qualitative studies. For example, in case study research, Stake (1995, p. 86) refers to an assertion as a propositional generalization – the researcher’s summary of interpretations and claims, to which the researcher’s own personal experiences are added, is called ’naturalistic generalizations’. As another example, grounded theory provides different end points. Inquirers hope to discover a theory that is grounded in information collected from participants (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Lincoln and Guba (1985) refer to ’pattern theories’ as explanations that develop during naturalistic or qualitative research. Rather than the deductive form found in quantitative studies, these pattern theories or generalizations represent interconnected thoughts or parts linked to a whole.

Finally, some qualitative studies do not employ any explicit theory. However, the case can be made that no qualitative study begins from pure observation, and that prior conceptual structure composed of theory and method provides the starting point for all observations (Schwandt, 1993). Still, one sees qualitative studies that contain no explicit theoretical orientation, such as in phenomenology, in which inquirers attempt to build the essence of experience from participants (Riemen, 1986). In these studies, the inquirer constructs a rich, detailed description of a central phenomenon.

According to Creswell (2009), in a qualitative study, inquirers state research questions, not objectives. These research questions assume two forms: the central question, and associated subquestions. The central question is a broad question that asks for an exploration of the central phenomenon or concept in a study. The inquirer poses this question, consistent with the emerging methodology of qualitative research, as a general issue so as not to limit the inquiry. To arrive at this question, one should ask: ’What is the broadest question that I can ask in the study?’ Beginning researchers trained in quantitative research might struggle with this approach because they are accustomed to the reverse approach: identifying specific, narrow questions or hypotheses based on a few variables. In qualitative research, the intent is to explore the complex set of factors surrounding the central phenomenon, and present the varied perspectives or meanings that participants hold. Creswell (2009) also provides the guidelines for writing broad, qualitative research questions:

• Ask one or two central questions followed by no more than five to seven subquestions. Several subquestions follow each general central question; the subquestions narrow the focus of the study, but leave open the questioning. The subquestions, in turn, can become specific questions used during interviews (or in observing or when looking at documents). In developing an interview protocol or guide, the researcher might ask an icebreaker question at the beginning, for example, followed by five or so subquestions in the study. The interview would then end with an additional wrap-up or summary question, or ask: ‘Who should I turn to, to learn more about this topic?’ (Asmussen & Creswell, 1995).
• Relate the central question to the specific qualitative strategy of inquiry. For example, the specificity of the questions in ethnography at this stage of the design differs from that in other qualitative strategies. In ethnographic research, Spradley (1980) advanced a taxonomy of ethnographic questions that included a mini-tour of the culture-sharing group, their experiences, use of native language, contrasts with other cultural groups, and questions to verify the accuracy of the data. In critical ethnography, the research questions may build on a body of the existing literature. These questions become working guidelines rather than truths to be proven (Thomas, 1993, p. 35). Alternatively, in phenomenology, the questions might be broadly stated without specific reference to the existing literature or a typology of questions. Moustakas (1994) talks about asking what the participants experienced, and about the contexts or situations in which they experienced it. In grounded theory, the questions may be directed towards generating a theory of some process. In a qualitative case study, the questions may address a description of the case, and the themes that emerge from studying it.
• Begin the research questions with the words what or how to convey an open and emerging design. The word why often implies that the researcher is trying to explain why something occurs, and this suggests a cause-and-effect type of thinking associated with quantitative research instead of the more open and emerging stance of qualitative research.
• Focus on a single phenomenon or concept. As a study develops over time, factors will emerge that may influence this single phenomenon, but one should begin a study with a single focus to explore in great detail.
• Use exploratory verbs that convey the language of emerging design:
  • discover (e.g. grounded theory);
  • seek to understand (e.g. ethnography);
  • explore a process (e.g. case study);
  • describe the experiences (e.g. phenomenology);
  • report the stories (e.g. narrative research).
• Use these more exploratory verbs that are non directional rather than directional words that suggest quantitative research, such as ‘affect’, ‘influence’, ‘impact’, ‘determine’, ‘cause’, and ‘relate’.
• Expect the research questions to evolve and change during the study in a manner consistent with the assumptions of an emerging design. In qualitative studies, the questions are often under continual review and reformulation (as in a grounded theory study). This approach may be problematic for individuals accustomed to quantitative designs, in which the research questions remain fixed throughout the study.
• Use open-ended questions without reference to the literature or theory unless otherwise indicated by a qualitative strategy of inquiry.
• If closed-ended questions, which are considered quantitative, are necessary (e.g. rating something/the satisfaction with something on a given scale), a text box should be added that asks for extra comments on why a specific rating was chosen, thus providing qualitative insights alongside their respective quantitative research question responses.
• Specify the participants and the research site for the study, if the information has not been given yet.
• Ensure that research questions are ethical and free from bias (it is always good to have another person check for unconscious bias).
• Consider the language used, and make sure it is clear and easy to understand. Therefore, jargon, acronyms, and overly technical language should be avoided.

Do the quiz and test your knowledge on qualitative research:

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Marshall and Rossman (1989) identified four qualitative research question types, each with its own typical research strategy and methods:

• Exploratory questions: these questions are used when relatively little is known about the research topic. The researchers usually interview participants, hold focus groups, or a case study to delve deeper into the phenomena.
• Explanatory questions: the research topic is approached with the aim to understand the causes lying behind phenomena. Multiple interconnected factors that have influenced a particular group or area are analysed
• Descriptive questions: these questions aim to document and record what is happening, and in order to answer them, researchers might interact directly with participants using surveys and interviews or observational and etnography studies that collect data on how participants interract with their wider environment.
• Predictive questions: these questions start from the phenomena of interest and investigate their future ramifications. They may involve looking back as well as forward. The researchers use content analysis, questionnaires, and studies of non-verbal communication.

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Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications.

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Fay, B. (1987). Critical Social Science: Liberation and Its Limits. Cornell U. P.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2000). Fighting for Our Lives, Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 206–214.

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Mertens, D. M. (2003). Mixed Methods and the Politics of Human Research: The Transformative-Emancipatory Perspective. In A. Tashakkori, & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research (pp. 135-164). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Moustakas, C. E. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Sage Publications, Inc.

Olesen, V. L. (2000). Feminist Qualitative Research and Grounded Theory: Complexities, Criticisms, and Opportunitites. The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory. SAGE Publications Ltd.

Punch, K. (2005) Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches (2nd ed.). Sage, London.

Riemen, D. J. (1986). Non-caring and caring in the clinical setting: Patients’ descriptions. Topics in Clinical Nursing, 8(2), 30–36.

Rossman, G. B., & Rallis, S. F. (1998). Learning in the field: An introduction to qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Schwandt, T. A. (2003). Back to the rough ground! Beyond theory to practice in evaluation. Sage.

Spradley, J. (1980). Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Stake, R. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Thomas, A. S. (1993). Doing Critical Ethnography. SAGE Publications, Inc.

Wolcott, H. F. (1990). Making a Study “More Ethnographic”. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 19(1): 44–72.