understanding qualitative research€¦ · qualitative research has been employed to test rather...

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UNDERSTANDING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS Dr. Stephen Afranie

www.a-strategic.com [email protected] | 030 295 7658 / 055 982 5292

Philosophical Foundations of Qualitative Research

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE UNDERSTANDING QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH


General Knowledge on Research/ Warming up

• What is research?

• What is there to find in the social world?

- The „what‟, „who‟, „where‟, „when‟, „why‟ and „how‟

(regularities, relationship, explanations, descriptions, etc.)

• How do we find what is there to find?

• What differentiates scientific from unscientific research?

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE

UNDERSTANDING QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH


Research Traditions and Basis for Distinction

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH

• Basis for distinction:

- epistemological orientation

- ontological considerations

- Pragmatism

Influence on:

• Research design, data collection,

analysis/interpretation (quantification, text/ words

• Connection between theory and research (deductive

and inductive)


Basis For Different Traditions: Epistemological Issues

• Appropriateness of source of knowledge about the social

world

• What is the best approach of generating credible and

trustworthy knowledge about the social world?

• E.g. is the natural science model of research process

suitable for the study of the social world?

• - Positivism

• - Interpretivism

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Positivism: (Quantitative Tradition)

• Emphasises the importance of following the natural science –

same principles, procedures and ethos

• It is predominantly both deductive theoretical approaches

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Positivism: (Quantitative Tradition)

• Emphasizes quantification in the design, collection and

analysis of data

• Committed to natural scientific model and positivism in

particular

• Deductive relationship between theory and research –

emphasizes the testing of theories

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Interpretivism: (Qualitative Tradition)

• Basis:

• The subject matter of the social science/world is -

people and their institutions - are fundamentally

different from that of the natural sciences

i.e. - the study of social world requires different

logic of research procedures

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Interpretivism (Qualitative Tradition)

• Social reality has a specific meaning, relevance and structure for

social actors (agency)

• Social actors continually interpret the symbolic meaning of their

environment (including physical, social and actions of others) and

act on the basis of the imputed meaning

• social science approach should aim at gaining access to actors‟

common sense thinking and interpret their actions and their social

world from the actors‟ own point of view

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Basis for Different Traditions: Ontological issues

The nature of social entities:

• Objectivism: as objective entities external to social actor (E.g.

organization and culture analogy)

• Constructionism: social entities and their meanings are

continually negotiated and renegotiated by social actor

• Structuration: mixture of objectivism and constructionism

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Basis for Different Traditions: Pragmatism

• The approach to generating credible social

knowledge should not depend on either positivists

nor interpretivists traditions but what knowledge is

needed for at what time.

• Combination (mixed-traditions) approaches may be

relevant in most times (mixed-methods).

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Implications of the Traditions for Social Research

• The various ways of looking at the social world has created three

paradigms of approaching social research:

- positivism/objectivism - quantitative

- interpretivism/constructionism – qualitative

- Pragmatism - mixed-methods - third emerging tradition

• The philosophical traditions influence design and execution of

research.

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


What is Qualitative Research?

• Qualitative methods is “a broad class of empirical

procedures designed to describe and interpret the

experiences of research participants in context-

specific settings” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000).

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Some Principles Guiding the Conduct of Qualitative Research

• Broad concepts - i.e. concepts that provide general

sense of reference and guidelines (not fixed minded/

expectations).

• Commitment to viewing events and the social world

through the eyes of the people being studied/ actor.

• Description and emphasis on context – greater deal

of descriptive details.

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Some Principles Guiding the Conduct of Qualitative Research

• Emphasis on process - view social life in terms of process –

how events and patterns unfold over time

• Flexibility and lack of structure: No imposition of

predetermined framework on the social world

• Look for concepts and theory grounded in data

• Emphasizes words/text in the collection and analysis of data

• Inductive approach to theory and research

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Some Qualitative Methods

• In-depth Interviews (IDI) lived experience

• Key Informant Interviews – worth of knowledge

• Group Interview

• Focus Group Discussions

• observations (Participant, Non-participant, structured, unstructured, overt, covert)

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Some Qualitative Methods

• Historical Methods (life history, oral history, documentary e.g. diary, biography/autobiography etc.)

• Discourse/conversation analysis (language-based)

• NB: Multi-method approach (triangulation) is frequently

employed

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Criticisms: Subjectivity

• Reliance on researchers‟ unsystematic views about

what is significant and important from the problem

formulation stage to conclusions

• Researchers‟ close relationship with subjects/

participants

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


CRITICISMS: Replication Difficulties

• Reliance on researchers‟ ingenuity - too much flexibility in

standard procedures to follow

• The choice of what is significant to observe

• Influence of researchers‟ characteristics (gender, age,

appearance etc.) on participants‟ responses

• Influence of data interpretation by subjective leanings of the

researcher

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Criticisms: Generalization

• Scope of findings is restricted –providing contextual

understanding

– small number, culturally, socially and at times

geographically bounded – even same categories/

target in different settings –

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


Approaches to data Validity and Reliability

• Appropriate design and selection of participants

• Competence of researcher - right questions would be asked in

the right way.

• Triangulation - information collected by different tools from

different categories of participants.

• Thematic saturation

• Use of an independent transcriber and analyst of

transcriptions.

• Validation of findings

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


CONCLUSION and CAUTION

• Quantitative and qualitative represent different research

strategies.

• Each has striking difference in terms of the role of theory,

epistemological and ontological concerns.

• However, the difference is not hard-and-fast one.

• Studies that have the broad characteristics of one strategy

may have characteristics of the other.

• The two can be combined in one research project.

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH


CONCLUSION and CAUTION

• Qualitative research has been employed to test rather than

generate theories.

e.g. Adler and Adler (1983) relationship between

participation in athletics and academic achievement

• Not all quantitative designs are meant to test theories.

DR. STEPHEN AFRANIE


RESEARCH

Qualitative & Quantitative Research

• The aim is a detailed description.

• Researcher may only know roughly in advance what he/she is looking for.

• The design emerges as the study unfolds.

• Researcher is the data gathering instrument.

• Aim is to classify features, count them, and construct statistical models in an attempt to explain what is observed.

• Researcher knows clearly in advance what he/she is looking for.

• All aspects of the study carefully designed before data collection.

• Researcher uses questionnaires or equipment to collect data.

Qualitative & Quantitative Research

• Data is in the form of words, pictures or objects.

• Subjective - individuals’ interpretation of events is important

• Qualitative data is more 'rich', time consuming, and not generalizable.

• Researcher tends to become subjectively immersed in the subject matter.

• Data is numerical in nature.

• Seeks measurement & analysis of target concepts.

• Data is generalizable.

• Researcher remains separated from the subject matter.

030 295 7658 / 055 982 5292

[email protected]

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understanding qualitative research€¦ · qualitative research has been employed to test rather...

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