Question

The suggested techniques to qualitative research encompass narrative, phenomenological, grounded theory, ethnography and case study. From a general perspective what would be the suggested application for each of the following?

Sample size, data saturation, and how to determine appropriate sample size

Type of data collected (i.e., perceptions of people regarding a phenomenon, narrative stories of people's experiences, artifacts, written material)

How data are collected (i.e., interviews, focus groups, written accounts)

How data are analyzed (e.g., words, themes, content, use of software programs)

How results are presented (i.e., use of participant's words, percentage and number of participants who expressed a theme, major themes or outliers)

Answer 1

Narrative Research :

Narrative research has many forms, uses a variety of analytic practices, and is rooted in different social and humanities disciplines.  “Narrative” might be the term assigned to any text or discourse, or, it might be text used within the context of a mode of inquiry in qualitative research, with a specific focus on the stories told by individuals .

The procedures for implementing this research consist of focusing on studying one or two individuals, gathering data through the collection of their stories, reporting individual experiences, and chronologically ordering (or using life course stages) the meaning of those experiences. Although narrative research originated from literature, history, anthropology, sociology, sociolinguistics, and education, different fields of study have adopted their own approaches.

Types of Narrative Studies

One approach to narrative research is to differentiate types of narrative research by the analytic strategies used by authors.

A second approach is to emphasize the variety of forms found in narrative research practices

A biographical study is a form of narrative study in which the researcher writes and records the experiences of another person’s life. Autobiography is written and recorded by the individuals who are the subject of the study

Procedures for Conducting Narrative Research

1. Determine if the research problem or question best fits narrative research
2. Select one or more individuals who have stories or life experiences to tell, and spend considerable time with them gathering their stories through multiples types of information.
3. Research participants may record their stories in a journal or diary, or the researcher might observe the individuals and record fieldnotes. Researchers may also collect letters sent by the individuals.
4. Collect information about the context of these stories. Narrative researchers situate individual stories within participants’ personal experiences (their jobs, their homes), their culture (racial or ethnic), and their historical contexts (time and place).
5. Analyze the participants’ stories, and then “restory” them into a framework that makes sense. Restorying is the process of reorganizing the stories into some general type of framework. This framework may consist of gathering stories, analyzing them for key elements of the story (e.g., time, place, plot, and scene), and then rewriting the stories to place them within a chronological sequence .

Phenomenological Research

Whereas a narrative study reports the life of a single individual, a phenomenological study describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon. Phenomenologists focus on Five Qualitative Approaches to Inquiry describing what all participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon.

The basic purpose of phenomenology is to reduce individual experiences with a phenomenon to a description of the universal essence.

Types of Phenomenology

1. hermeneutical phenomenology
2. transcendental phenomenology

Procedures for Conducting Phenomenological Research

1. The researcher determines if the research problem is best examined using a phenomenological approach. The type of problem best suited for this form of research is one in which it is important to understand several individuals’ common or shared experiences of a phenomenon.
2. A phenomenon of interest to study, such as anger, professionalism, what it means to be underweight, or what it means to be a wrestler, is identified.
3. The researcher recognizes and specifies the broad philosophical assumptions of phenomenology. For example, one could write about the combination of objective reality and individual experiences.
4. Data are collected from the individuals who have experienced the phenomenon. Often data collection in phenomenological studies consists of indepth interviews and multiple interviews with participants.

Building on the data from the first and second research questions, data analysts go through the data (e.g., interview transcriptions) and highlight “significant statements,” sentences, or quotes that provide an understanding of how the participants experienced the phenomenon. Moustakas (1994) calls this step as horizonalization.

Grounded Theory Research

Although a phenomenology emphasizes the meaning of an experience for a number of individuals, the intent of a grounded theory study is to move beyond description and to generate or discover a theory, an abstract analytical schema of a process.

• Participants in the study would all have experienced the process, and the development of the theory might help explain practice or provide a framework for further research.

Types of Grounded Theory Studies

1. .Systematic design
2. open coding

Procedures for Conducting Grounded Theory Research

1. The researcher needs to begin by determining if grounded theory is best suited to study his or her research problem. Grounded theory is a good design to use when a theory is not available to explain a process.
2. The research questions that the inquirer asks of participants will focus on understanding how individuals experience the process and identifying the steps in the process.
3. although other forms of data may also be collected, such as observations, documents, and audiovisual materials. The point is to gather enough information to fully develop (or saturate) the model. This may involve 20 to 30 interviews or 50 to 60 interviews.
4. The analysis of the data proceeds in stages. In open coding, the researcher forms categories of information about the phenomenon being studied by segmenting information. Within each category, the investigator finds several properties, or subcategories, and looks for data to dimensionalize, or show the extreme possibilities on a continuum of, the property.
5. The result of this process of data collection and analysis is a theory, a substantive-level theory, written by a researcher close to a specific problem or population of people.

Ethnographic Research

Ethnography is a qualitative design in which the researcher describes and interprets the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group.

Types of Ethnographies

There are many forms of ethnography, such as a confessional ethnography, life history, autoethnography, feminist ethnography, ethnographic novels, and the visual ethnography found in photography and video, and electronic media.

The realist ethnography is a traditional approach used by cultural anthropologists.

In this ethnographic approach, the realist ethnographer narrates the study in a third-person dispassionate voice and reports on what is observed or heard from participants.

the ethnographer remains in the background as omniscent reporter of the facts.

Narrative Research :

Definition and Background

Narrative research has many forms, uses a variety of analytic practices, and is rooted in different social and humanities disciplines.  “Narrative” might be the term assigned to any text or discourse, or, it might be text used within the context of a mode of inquiry in qualitative research, with a specific focus on the stories told by individuals .

The procedures for implementing this research consist of focusing on studying one or two individuals, gathering data through the collection of their stories, reporting individual experiences, and chronologically ordering (or using life course stages) the meaning of those experiences. Although narrative research originated from literature, history, anthropology, sociology, sociolinguistics, and education, different fields of study have adopted their own approaches.

Types of Narrative Studies

One approach to narrative research is to differentiate types of narrative research by the analytic strategies used by authors.

A second approach is to emphasize the variety of forms found in narrative research practices

A biographical study is a form of narrative study in which the researcher writes and records the experiences of another person’s life. Autobiography is written and recorded by the individuals who are the subject of the study

Procedures for Conducting Narrative Research

1. Determine if the research problem or question best fits narrative research
2. Select one or more individuals who have stories or life experiences to tell, and spend considerable time with them gathering their stories through multiples types of information.
3. Research participants may record their stories in a journal or diary, or the researcher might observe the individuals and record fieldnotes. Researchers may also collect letters sent by the individuals.
4. Collect information about the context of these stories. Narrative researchers situate individual stories within participants’ personal experiences (their jobs, their homes), their culture (racial or ethnic), and their historical contexts (time and place).
5. Analyze the participants’ stories, and then “restory” them into a framework that makes sense. Restorying is the process of reorganizing the stories into some general type of framework. This framework may consist of gathering stories, analyzing them for key elements of the story (e.g., time, place, plot, and scene), and then rewriting the stories to place them within a chronological sequence .

Phenomenological Research

Whereas a narrative study reports the life of a single individual, a phenomenological study describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon. Phenomenologists focus on Five Qualitative Approaches to Inquiry describing what all participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon.

The basic purpose of phenomenology is to reduce individual experiences with a phenomenon to a description of the universal essence.

Types of Phenomenology

1. hermeneutical phenomenology
2. transcendental phenomenology

Procedures for Conducting Phenomenological Research

1. The researcher determines if the research problem is best examined using a phenomenological approach. The type of problem best suited for this form of research is one in which it is important to understand several individuals’ common or shared experiences of a phenomenon.
2. A phenomenon of interest to study, such as anger, professionalism, what it means to be underweight, or what it means to be a wrestler, is identified.
3. The researcher recognizes and specifies the broad philosophical assumptions of phenomenology. For example, one could write about the combination of objective reality and individual experiences.
4. Data are collected from the individuals who have experienced the phenomenon. Often data collection in phenomenological studies consists of indepth interviews and multiple interviews with participants.

Building on the data from the first and second research questions, data analysts go through the data (e.g., interview transcriptions) and highlight “significant statements,” sentences, or quotes that provide an understanding of how the participants experienced the phenomenon. Moustakas (1994) calls this step as horizonalization.

Grounded Theory Research

Although a phenomenology emphasizes the meaning of an experience for a number of individuals, the intent of a grounded theory study is to move beyond description and to generate or discover a theory, an abstract analytical schema of a process.

• Participants in the study would all have experienced the process, and the development of the theory might help explain practice or provide a framework for further research.

Types of Grounded Theory Studies

1. .Systematic design
2. open coding

Procedures for Conducting Grounded Theory Research

1. The researcher needs to begin by determining if grounded theory is best suited to study his or her research problem. Grounded theory is a good design to use when a theory is not available to explain a process.
2. The research questions that the inquirer asks of participants will focus on understanding how individuals experience the process and identifying the steps in the process.
3. although other forms of data may also be collected, such as observations, documents, and audiovisual materials. The point is to gather enough information to fully develop (or saturate) the model. This may involve 20 to 30 interviews or 50 to 60 interviews.
4. The analysis of the data proceeds in stages. In open coding, the researcher forms categories of information about the phenomenon being studied by segmenting information. Within each category, the investigator finds several properties, or subcategories, and looks for data to dimensionalize, or show the extreme possibilities on a continuum of, the property.
5. The result of this process of data collection and analysis is a theory, a substantive-level theory, written by a researcher close to a specific problem or population of people.

Ethnographic Research

Ethnography is a qualitative design in which the researcher describes and interprets the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group.

Types of Ethnographies

There are many forms of ethnography, such as a confessional ethnography, life history, autoethnography, feminist ethnography, ethnographic novels, and the visual ethnography found in photography and video, and electronic media.

The realist ethnography is a traditional approach used by cultural anthropologists.

In this ethnographic approach, the realist ethnographer narrates the study in a third-person dispassionate voice and reports on what is observed or heard from participants.

Narrative Research :

Definition and Background

Narrative research has many forms, uses a variety of analytic practices, and is rooted in different social and humanities disciplines.  “Narrative” might be the term assigned to any text or discourse, or, it might be text used within the context of a mode of inquiry in qualitative research, with a specific focus on the stories told by individuals .

The procedures for implementing this research consist of focusing on studying one or two individuals, gathering data through the collection of their stories, reporting individual experiences, and chronologically ordering (or using life course stages) the meaning of those experiences. Although narrative research originated from literature, history, anthropology, sociology, sociolinguistics, and education, different fields of study have adopted their own approaches.

Types of Narrative Studies

One approach to narrative research is to differentiate types of narrative research by the analytic strategies used by authors.

A second approach is to emphasize the variety of forms found in narrative research practices

A biographical study is a form of narrative study in which the researcher writes and records the experiences of another person’s life. Autobiography is written and recorded by the individuals who are the subject of the study

Procedures for Conducting Narrative Research

1. Determine if the research problem or question best fits narrative research
2. Select one or more individuals who have stories or life experiences to tell, and spend considerable time with them gathering their stories through multiples types of information.
3. Research participants may record their stories in a journal or diary, or the researcher might observe the individuals and record fieldnotes. Researchers may also collect letters sent by the individuals.
4. Collect information about the context of these stories. Narrative researchers situate individual stories within participants’ personal experiences (their jobs, their homes), their culture (racial or ethnic), and their historical contexts (time and place).
5. Analyze the participants’ stories, and then “restory” them into a framework that makes sense. Restorying is the process of reorganizing the stories into some general type of framework. This framework may consist of gathering stories, analyzing them for key elements of the story (e.g., time, place, plot, and scene), and then rewriting the stories to place them within a chronological sequence .

Phenomenological Research

Whereas a narrative study reports the life of a single individual, a phenomenological study describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon. Phenomenologists focus on Five Qualitative Approaches to Inquiry describing what all participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon.

The basic purpose of phenomenology is to reduce individual experiences with a phenomenon to a description of the universal essence.

Types of Phenomenology

1. hermeneutical phenomenology
2. transcendental phenomenology

Procedures for Conducting Phenomenological Research

1. The researcher determines if the research problem is best examined using a phenomenological approach. The type of problem best suited for this form of research is one in which it is important to understand several individuals’ common or shared experiences of a phenomenon.
2. A phenomenon of interest to study, such as anger, professionalism, what it means to be underweight, or what it means to be a wrestler, is identified.
3. The researcher recognizes and specifies the broad philosophical assumptions of phenomenology. For example, one could write about the combination of objective reality and individual experiences.
4. Data are collected from the individuals who have experienced the phenomenon. Often data collection in phenomenological studies consists of indepth interviews and multiple interviews with participants.

Building on the data from the first and second research questions, data analysts go through the data (e.g., interview transcriptions) and highlight “significant statements,” sentences, or quotes that provide an understanding of how the participants experienced the phenomenon. Moustakas (1994) calls this step as horizonalization.

Grounded Theory Research

Although a phenomenology emphasizes the meaning of an experience for a number of individuals, the intent of a grounded theory study is to move beyond description and to generate or discover a theory, an abstract analytical schema of a process.

• Participants in the study would all have experienced the process, and the development of the theory might help explain practice or provide a framework for further research.

Types of Grounded Theory Studies

1. .Systematic design
2. open coding

Procedures for Conducting Grounded Theory Research

1. The researcher needs to begin by determining if grounded theory is best suited to study his or her research problem. Grounded theory is a good design to use when a theory is not available to explain a process.
2. The research questions that the inquirer asks of participants will focus on understanding how individuals experience the process and identifying the steps in the process.
3. although other forms of data may also be collected, such as observations, documents, and audiovisual materials. The point is to gather enough information to fully develop (or saturate) the model. This may involve 20 to 30 interviews or 50 to 60 interviews.
4. The analysis of the data proceeds in stages. In open coding, the researcher forms categories of information about the phenomenon being studied by segmenting information. Within each category, the investigator finds several properties, or subcategories, and looks for data to dimensionalize, or show the extreme possibilities on a continuum of, the property.
5. The result of this process of data collection and analysis is a theory, a substantive-level theory, written by a researcher close to a specific problem or population of people.

Ethnographic Research

Ethnography is a qualitative design in which the researcher describes and interprets the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group.

Types of Ethnographies

There are many forms of ethnography, such as a confessional ethnography, life history, autoethnography, feminist ethnography, ethnographic novels, and the visual ethnography found in photography and video, and electronic media.

The realist ethnography is a traditional approach used by cultural anthropologists.

In this ethnographic approach, the realist ethnographer narrates the study in a third-person dispassionate voice and reports on what is observed or heard from participants.

Procedures for Conducting an Ethnography

there is no single way to conduct the research in an ethnography. Although current writings provide more guidance to this approach than ever (for example, see the excellent overview found in Wolcott, 1999), the approach taken here includes elements of both realist ethnography and critical approaches.the ways that used are

1. Determine if ethnography is the most appropriate design to use to study the research problem. Ethnography is appropriate if the needs are to describe how a cultural group works and to explore the beliefs, language, behaviors, and issues such as power, resistance, and dominance.
2. Identify and locate a culture-sharing group to study. Typically, this group is one that has been together for an extended period of time, so that their shared language, patterns of behavior, and attitudes have merged into a discernable pattern.
3. Select cultural themes or issues to study about the group. This involves the analysis of the culture-sharing group. The themes may include such topics as enculturation, socialization, learning, cognition, domination, inequality, or child and adult development.
4. Forge a working set of rules or patterns as the final product of this analysis. The final product is a holistic cultural portrait of the group that incorporates the views of the participants (emic) as well as the views of the researcher (etic). It might also advocate for the needs of the group or suggest changes in society to address needs of the group. As a result, the reader learns about the culture-sharing group from both the participants and the interpretation of the researcher. Other products may be more performance based, such as theater productions, plays, or poems.

Case Study Research

case study research involves the study of an issue explored through one or more cases within a bounded system . Although Stake (2005) states that case study research is not a methodology but a choice of what is to be studied.

Types of Case Studies

1. intrinsic case study
2. collective case study

Procedures for Conducting a Case Study

1. researchers determine if a case study approach is appropriate to the research problem. A case study is a good approach when the inquirer has clearly identifiable cases with boundaries and seeks to provide an indepth understanding of the cases or a comparison of several cases.
2. Researchers next need to identify their case or cases. These cases may involve an individual, several individuals, a program, an event, or an activity.
3. The data collection in case study research is typically extensive, drawing on multiple sources of information, such as observations, interviews, documents, and audiovisual materials.
4. In the final interpretive phase, the researcher reports the meaning of the case, whether that meaning comes from learning about the issue of the case (an instrumental case) or learning about an unusual situation (an intrinsic case).

The Five Approaches Compared

All five approaches have in common the general process of research that begins with a research problem and proceeds to the questions, the data, the data analysis, and the research report. They also employ similar data collection processes, including, in varying degrees, interviews, observations, documents, and audiovisual materials. Also, a couple of potential similarities among the designs should be noted. Narrative research, ethnography, and case study research may seem similar when the unit of analysis is a single individual.