Qualitative Research
What is Qualitative Research?
By Suzanne Campbell
"A researcher that selects a qualitative research method collects open-ended, emerging data that is then used to develop themes. This method allows for a study of an exploratory nature."
"Some of the characteristics of qualitative research include taking place in a natural setting, using multiple methods that are interactive and humanistic, emerging data rather than prefigured data, and being fundamentally interpretive."
"Five strategies have been identified as qualitative research methods. They include ethnographies, grounded theory, case studies, phenomenological research and narrative research."
"Ethnographies allow the researcher to collect data by observation of members of a cultural group in their natural setting over a period of time. In grounded theory, the researcher is able to formulate a theory related to a process, action, or interaction grounded in participants' responses and reactions. Research that focuses on the lived experiences of humans becomes the foundation of phenomenological research. Participant stories that are retold by the researcher in a narrative list of life events are known as narrative research. Case studies are conducted via the researcher who explores in detail 'a program, an event, an activity, a process of one or more individuals'."
"The themes formulated from the data and the words of the participants drive home the story. Those words bring their experiences to life, thus allowing us to make a connection."
Quantitative & Qualitative Research: Perceptual Foundations
By Chris Barnham
"The way in which quantitative research and qualitative research are conventionally contrasted with each other runs along familiar lines – the former is seen as offering ‘hard’, ‘factual’ data, while the latter is depicted as softer, as providing deeper insight, but at the expense of being necessarily more ‘interpretivist’ and ‘subjective’ in its approach Seldom is it recognised that this way of distinguishing the two methodologies is, in fact, rooted in our quantitatively determined beliefs about human experience."
By Suzanne Campbell
"A researcher that selects a qualitative research method collects open-ended, emerging data that is then used to develop themes. This method allows for a study of an exploratory nature."
"Some of the characteristics of qualitative research include taking place in a natural setting, using multiple methods that are interactive and humanistic, emerging data rather than prefigured data, and being fundamentally interpretive."
"Five strategies have been identified as qualitative research methods. They include ethnographies, grounded theory, case studies, phenomenological research and narrative research."
"Ethnographies allow the researcher to collect data by observation of members of a cultural group in their natural setting over a period of time. In grounded theory, the researcher is able to formulate a theory related to a process, action, or interaction grounded in participants' responses and reactions. Research that focuses on the lived experiences of humans becomes the foundation of phenomenological research. Participant stories that are retold by the researcher in a narrative list of life events are known as narrative research. Case studies are conducted via the researcher who explores in detail 'a program, an event, an activity, a process of one or more individuals'."
"The themes formulated from the data and the words of the participants drive home the story. Those words bring their experiences to life, thus allowing us to make a connection."
Quantitative & Qualitative Research: Perceptual Foundations
By Chris Barnham
"The way in which quantitative research and qualitative research are conventionally contrasted with each other runs along familiar lines – the former is seen as offering ‘hard’, ‘factual’ data, while the latter is depicted as softer, as providing deeper insight, but at the expense of being necessarily more ‘interpretivist’ and ‘subjective’ in its approach Seldom is it recognised that this way of distinguishing the two methodologies is, in fact, rooted in our quantitatively determined beliefs about human experience."