FULL SUMMARY MTO E- QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS

HC 1 MTO-E QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Checking you presumptions
- Induction  generally associated with qualitative
Deduction  quantitative
- Random  quantitative
Non random  qualitative
- Specific  qualitative
All similar  quantitative
- Exploratory/Explanatory  qualitative

Starting the cycle: Research goals
- Contextual or descriptive or exploratory
- Explanatory
- Evaluative
- Generative

Research objectives
Fundamental or theoretical research
- Start : Knowledge problem
- Contribution to scientific knowledge, theory
- Gap, contrast, error
o (Gap logic, contrast logic, error logic)

Applied research:
- Start: policy or practice problem
- Contribution to approach or solution of problem
- Initiative outside scientific community (policy, practice)

Qualitative or mixed?
Stand-alone when:
- Ill defined
- Deeply rooted
- Complex
- Specialist
- Delicate
- Sensitive
Mixed
- Using multiple qualitative techniques
- Using quantitative and qualitative

Working definition
Qualitative research is a naturalistic, interpretative approach, concerned with exploring phenomena
‘from the interior’ and taking the perspectives and accounts of research participants as a starting
point.

,In sum: characteristics QR
Perspective participants What is studied?
- Meaning of social phenomena
- Experience of events
- Understanding mechanisms.
Open or flexible procedure / methods How it is studied?
- Research design
- Data collection
- Data analysis
Nature of the findings What are the outcomes?
- Show meaning
- Descriptions
- Understanding (meaningful picture)

Foundations of research




Philosophy: Ontology
What is reality?
Realism  Reality is something external which exists independently of people’s beliefs or
understandings.
Idealism  Reality is mind-dependent
Critical (depth Realism  Reality is something that exists independently of who observe BUT is
accessible through the perceptions and interpretations of others.

Realism versus Idealism




Philosophy: Epistemology
How can we learn?
Positivism  Knowledge is produced through observation and remains unaffected by the research
process.
Post-positivism  knowledge is produced by testing propositions
Interpretivism  Knowledge is produced by exploring and understanding the world focusing on
meaning and interpretation.

,Foundation of research
- Qualitative methods generally fit assumptions interpretative paradigm
- Quantitative methods generally fit assumption (post-) positivistic paradigm
Epistemology
- How is knowledge acquired?
o Induction – deduction – abduction – retroduction
- How does the relationship between the researcher and the researched influence facts and
values?
o Objective observation – emphatic reality – value-mediated observation
- What is truth?
o Correspondence – coherence theory of truth – pragmatic

Epistemology: induction versus deduction
- Deduction  move from general (theory) to particular (data)
- Induction  Moving from particular (data) to general (theory)

Epistemology: Induction and deduction
- In the light of the realism – idealism continuum…




Epistemology: Researcher and Researched
How does the relationship between the researcher and the researched influence the connection
between facts and values?
- Objective observation  complete independence between phenomena studies and
behavior of the researcher
- Emphatic neutrality  research is not value-free but desirable, transparency is important.
- Value-mediated  findings are the product of values of the researcher and negotiation
between researcher and researched.

In the light of the Realism – Idealism continuum…..




Epistemology: truth
What does it mean to accept particular claims as the truth?
- Correspondence theory of truth  Complete match between observations and reality.
- Coherence theory of truth  Reality can be captured by consensus
- Pragmatic theory of truth  Truth is assured by outcomes.

In the light of the realism – idealism continuum

, Use of theory in QLR
- Literature and theory
- Examine first person perspective
- Differences in traditions
- Reinventing the wheel
- Evidence

Theory in quantitative research No theory in qualitative research?




Theory in qualitative research




Sensitizing concepts
- Lens
- Help you to move on in your field of research
- Explanatory power for unraveling your puzzle
- Opening up creativity, not constraining (Tunnel vision)
Theoretical sensitivity  Sensitive to thinking about data in theoretical terms
- Enables researchers to discover new insights by using a certain theoretical lens to look at the
data.

Definitive and sensitizing concepts

Sensitizing concepts Definitive concepts
- Broad and general description - Fixed content
- Not yet formalized - Know how to measure: operational
- Lens definition.
- In a field that needs exploration of the - Measuring instrument available
first perspective - In a mature field

Qualitative Quantitative