Conduct of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research uses unstructured data collection methods, such as observations or documents to find themes and meanings to tell our understanding to the world. Qualitative research tends to try to uncover the reasons for behaviors, attitudes and motivations, instead of just the details of what, where and when. Qualitative research can be done across many disciplines, such as social science, healthcare, education and business.

To do qualitative research, there are six following steps one can follow:

I. Question(s) under study:  A good research question needs to be clear and specific. For any qualitative research, question should explore reasons for why people do things or believe in something.

II. Literature review:  A literature review will also help you to become better informed about the topic you are choosing and help you to determine if there is a need for your question to be answered. A literature review can help you find out what others have found about your question. Doing this may help you to focus your question more specifically.

III.   Choice of a qualitative research methodology:

v Case Study Method – This method of qualitative research is an in-depth study a specific individual or phenomena in its existing context.

v Ethnography – It is research designed to explore cultural phenomena. It is the study of human interaction and communities through direct participation and observation within the community which one wish to study. Ethnography, as the empirical data on human societies and cultures, has become popular in the social sciences in general.  The typical ethnography is a holistic study and so includes a brief history, and an analysis of the terrain, the climate, and the habitat. In all cases it should be reflexive, make a substantial contribution toward the understanding of the social life of humans, have an aesthetic impact on the reader, and express a credible reality. It observes the world (the study) from the point of view of the subject (not the participant ethnographer) and records all observed behavior and describes all symbol-meaning relations using concepts that avoid casual explanations.

v Grounded Theory – The purpose is to develop theory based on the data collected. It looks at specific information and derives theories and reasons for the phenomena.

v Phenomenology – It researches the world through the eyes of another person by discovering how they interpret their experiences.  It is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness.

IV.  Collect your data: There are several methods of collecting data that you can use to do a qualitative research.

v Focus groups – Structured or unstructured focus groups allows for interaction between more participants and the interviewer about your topic. This form of data collection can be efficient as it involves more than one respondent at a time.

v Interviews – Unstructured interviews with research subjects is a form of data collection in which you allow your respondents to answer freely. The interviewer can probe and explore topics as they come up.

v Surveys – Written questionnaires and open-ended surveys about ideas, perceptions and thoughts is another way in which you can collect data for your qualitative research.

v Participant observation – Participant observation is the immersion of the researcher in the community or situation being studied. This form of data collection tends to be more time consuming, as you need to participate fully in the community in order to know whether your observations are valid.

v Direct observation – Direct observation of a situation or your research subjects can occur through videotape playback or through live observation through a one-way mirror. In direct observation, you are making specific observations of a situation without influencing or participating in any way.

V.  Analyze the data collected: Once you have collected your data, you can begin to analyze it and come up with answers and theories to your research question(s)/queries.

v Statistics – You can analyze your data using statistics. Descriptive statistics simply describe what the data is showing while inferential statistics tries to formulate conclusions beyond the data.

v Pattern Analysis– Identify themes, ideas and patterns in your data.

v Narrative analysis – Narrative analysis focuses on speech and content, such as grammar, word usage, story themes, meanings of situations and the social, cultural and political context of the narrative.

v Content analysis – Content analysis looks at texts or series of texts and looks for themes and meanings by looking at frequencies of words.

VI.  Report Your Research:  When preparing a report on your qualitative research, keep in mind the audience for whom you are writing and make sure that your purpose for the research query is compelling. Explain your research methodology and analysis in detail in the report besides your findings.