Qualitative Theory Use

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.