CHAPTER 5:

UNDERSTANDING DATA
AND WAYS TO
SYSTEMATICALLY
COLLECTLESSON
DATA1:
Qualitative Research Designs
Learning Competency: Chooses appropriate qualitative research design CS_RS11-IVa-c-1
INTRODUCTION:
Choosing carefully an appropriate qualitative
research design aligned with the problem
inquiry or research questions can never be
overemphasized. Braun and Clarke (2013)
suggest the following questions as useful
guides, as you think of a suitable research
design.
1. What do I want to know?
2. Why do I want to know it?
INTRODUCTION:
3. What assumptions am I making about
research and knowledge (what are my
theoretical and methodological positions)?
4. What types of data would best answer
these questions?
5. What type of data will I use to tell me what I
want to know? (The answer to this and to
the previous question is not always the
same.)
INTRODUCTION:
6. How much data will I need?
7. How will I collect my data?
8. If my research involves participant:
a. Who will I need to collect data from?
b. How will I access and recruit these
participants?
9. How will I analyze my data in order to
answer my questions?
INTRODUCTION:
9. What particular ethical issues do I need to
consider?
10. Are there any practical factors that I need to
take into account?
The section on Research Design, thus, presents
a plan for the conduct of the study,
demonstrates the researcher’s capability of
conducting the research and preserves the
design flexibility.
RESEARCH DESIGN
 Research Design – refers to the plan,
path, blueprint and overall strategy
utilized to carry out research through
the collection, interpretation,
analysis, and discussion of• the data.
St
e
p
Collect
1
St
e • Interpret
p
2
St
e
p
• Analyze
3
St
e
p
• Discuss
4
HOW FLEXIBILITY IS BUILT INTO
THE RESEARCH DESIGN
In answer to the question of Lincoln and Guba,
1985, as cited in Marshall and Rossman, (1995),
to wit: “How do researchers maintain the
needed flexibility of research design, so that
the research can “unfold, cascade, roll and
emerge” and yet present a plan that is logical,
concise thorough, and meets the criterion of
do-ability?” Marshall and Rossman say that the
researcher builds flexibility into the design by:
HOW FLEXIBILITY IS BUILT INTO
THE RESEARCH DESIGN
1. Demonstrating the appropriateness and
the logic of qualitative methods or the
particular research questions; and
2. Devising a research plan that includes
many of the elements of traditional plans
but reserves the right to modify and
change the initial plan during data
collection.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
 Several research designs have been
advanced in conducting qualitative
research by experts for different goals or
purposes.
 Leedy and Omrod (2001) recommend the
following: Case Studies, Grounded Theory,
Ethnography, Content Analysis and
Phenomenological Studies.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
 Cresswell (2003) shows how these
methods meet different needs. Case studies
and Grounded theory, for example, explore
processes, activities and events while
ethnographic research analyses broad
culture-sharing behaviors of individuals or
groups. Case studies, as well as
phenomenology, can be used to study
individuals.
 Research
Quantitativ
Qualitative
e
Descriptiv
e
Causal-
Correlatio
Descriptive
n
Comparativ Experimental Phenomenologi
e
cal

Quasi-
Experimental Historical
Case
True Study
Experimental Grounded
Theory

Ethnograph
y

Narrative

Content
Analysis
RESEARCH DESIGN
1. Descriptive – this research aims to
accurately and systematically
describe a population, situation or
phenomenon. It can answer what,
where, when, how and why.
 this is both applicable to
Quantitative and Qualitative research
RESEARCH DESIGN
2. Phenomenological – is a form of
qualitative research that focuses on the
study of an individual’s lived
experiences within the world.
Understanding the ontological (theory of
being) and epistemological ( theory of
knowledge) assumptions underpinning
these approaches is essential for
successful conducting phenomenological
research.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
2. Phenomenological Study – Creswell (1998)
points out that the essence of this study is the
search for “the central underlying meaning of
the research participant’s experience”. Leedy
and Ormod (2001) stress that the purpose of
the study is “to understand an experience
from the research participant’s point of view”.
Thus, focus on the research participant is more
pronounced in this kind of qualitative research.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
2. Phenomenological Study – after the researcher
has obtained data from observations, videos,
lengthy interviews, images and others, the
critical question is asked: “What does the
experience mean to the research participant
himself/herself? “How will s/he described this
lived experience of being at the center of the
research process? “What are his/her
significant remarks?
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
2. Phenomenological Study
Examples:
a. could be that of comfort women during WWII
b. that of rehabilitated drug dependents or rescued
trafficked women.
c. a study of college graduates who opt to do
community outreach with the poor sectors of
society instead of practicing their professions
immediately after graduation.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
2.
DESIGN
Phenomenological Study – Creswell (1998) suggests the
following procedural research format:
a. Writing the research questions that explore the meaning of
the experience
b. Conducting the interviews
c. Analyzing the data to find the clusters of meanings
d. Writing a report that makes the readers understand more
clearly the essential structure of the experience
- Data collected lead to identifying common themes in
people’s perceptions of their experiences.
RESEARCH DESIGN
3. Historical – studies the meaning of past
events in an attempt to interpret the
facts and explain the cause of events,
and theory effects in the present
events. In doing so, researchers rely
heavily on primary historical data
( direct account or event, archival data
– official documents, personal records,
and records of eyewitnesses).
RESEARCH DESIGN
3. Historical – less frequently on
secondary historical data
(information from persons who
didn't witness the event; e.g.
textbooks, newspapers,
encyclopedia.
RESEARCH DESIGN
4. Case Study – is an in-depth study of
one person, group, or event. In a case
study, nearly every aspects of the
subject’s life and history is analyzed to
seek patterns and causes of behavior.
Case studies can be used in a variety
of fields including psychology,
medicine, education, anthropology,
political science, and social work.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
4. Case Study – studies a person, program or
event in a defined time frame (Leedy and
Omrod, 2001). Cresswell (1998) says the
structure of a case study should be the
problem, the context, the issues and the
lessons learned. He adds that sources of data
collection are direct or participant observation,
interviews, archival records or documents,
physical artifacts and audio-visual materials.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
4. Case Study – a case is being investigated or
studied may be that of an individual or a
group of persons. This kind of research is
used to gain deeper insight on a
phenomenon, validate earlier findings or
gather more deep-seated data.
E.g: case studies of drug-rehabilitated
teenagers, transgenders, gay, marriages,
success stories, among others.
RESEARCH DESIGN
5. Grounded Theory (GT) – is a research
method concerned with the generation of
theory, which is ‘grounded’ in data that
has been systematically collected and
analyzed. It is used to uncover such
things as social relationships and
behaviors of groups, known as social
processes. It was developed in California,
USA by Glaser and Strauss during their
study – “Awareness of Dying’
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
5. Grounded Theory – the theory or general
pattern of understanding will emerge as it
begins with initial codes, develops into broad
themes or domains and redounds into a
grounded theory or broad interpretation.
Grounded Theory – is an attempt to extract
a general abstract theory of a process, or
interaction grounded in views of research
participants.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
5. Grounded Theory – this process uses
multiple stages of data collection and the
refinement and interrelationship of
categories of information. In this design,
data are constantly compared with
emerging categories and theoretical
sampling of different groups is done in
order to concretize similarities and the
differences of information.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
5. Grounded Theory – the purpose of grounded
theory is to build a theory that is faithful to the
evidence (Neuman, 2007). It is literally grounded
on, or built on data collected. It is a method of
discovering new theory. The researcher sees
micro-level events as the foundation for a more
macro-level explanation. It seeks theory that is
comparable with the evidence that is precise
and rigorous, capable or replication and
generalizable.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
5. Grounded Theory – the researcher of a qualitative
study builds theory by making comparisons. For
example, when a researcher observes and event,
like a police officer confronting a speeding driver,
she or he immediately ponders questions and
looks for similarities and differences. When
watching a police officer stop a speeding driver, a
qualitative researcher asks: Does the police
officer always radio in the car’s license number
before proceeding?
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
5. Grounded Theory – After radioing the car’s
location, does the officer ask the driver to
get out of the car or others, casually walk up
to the car and talk to the seated driver?
When data collection and theorizing are
linked, theoretical questions arise that
suggest future observations, so new data are
tailored to answer theoretical questions that
came from thinking about previous data.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
6. Ethnography – is a study through
direct observation of users in their
natural environment rather in a lab.
The objective of this type of
research is to gain insights into
how users interact with things in
their natural environment.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
6. Ethnography methods include direct
observation, diary studies, video
recordings, photography and artifact
analysis such as devices that a person
uses throughout the day. Observations
can be made anywhere from the user’s
workplace, their home or while they
are out with family and friends.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
6. Ethnography – the length of the
studies can vary depending on
the research that is being
conducted. They can range from a
couple of hours of observation, to
studies that last several months.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
6. Ethnography – Macmillan (1993) defines
this as interactive and which requires
relatively extensive time in a site to
systematically observe, interview and
record processes as they occur naturally
at the selected location.
- studies group of people that share a
common culture. (Leedy and Omrod (2001)
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
6. Ethnography – Cresswell (2003) says that
“ethnographies study an intact cultural group in
a natural setting over a prolonged period of time
by collecting, primarily, observational data.
 Aspects included in ethnography: justification for
the study, description of the group and method of
study, the evidence to support the researcher’s
claims and the findings to the research questions.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
7. Narrative – a literary form of
qualitative research, narrative
research is all about collecting and
telling a story or stories
chronologically and in detail.
Researchers write narratives about
experiences of individuals, describe a
life experience with the individual.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
7. Narrative – usually, a narrative
research design is focused on
studying an individual person. The
researcher becomes the
interpreter of the individuals
stories, as opposed to a
community
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
8. Content Analysis – this research design
calls for “a detailed and systematic
examination of the contents of a
particular body of materials for the
purpose of identifying patterns, themes
or biases (Leedy and Ormod 2001). This
method identifies specific characteristics
of the content of human communication.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
8. Content Analysis – this kind of research
examines the choice and use of words from
which concepts or images are vividly
derived. It looks at the relationship between
words and their meanings, stressing the
system of relations between words as a
source of meaning. Primary data collection
strategy is recorded dialogue (text based,
or audio/video recorded)
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
8. Content Analysis
Two steps for data collection:
1. The researcher analyzes the materials and
puts them in a frequency table as each
characteristic or quality is mentioned.
2. The researcher conducts a statistical
analysis so that the results are reported in
a quantitative format.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
 What, then, is the best research design?
- Yin (1984, as cited in Marshall and Rossman,
1995) proposes three questions, in answer to
the above questions:
1. What is the form of the research question? –
Is it exploratory? Does it seek to describe the
incidence or distribution of some
phenomenon or does it try to explain social
phenomenon?
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
 What, then, is the best research design?

2. Does the research require control over behavior, or

does it seek to describe naturally occurring events?
3. Is the phenomenon under study contemporary or
historical?
 Answer to these suggests the choice of one research
strategy (design) over another. The strategy is a road
map, an over-all plan for undertaking a systematic
exploration of the phenomenon of interest; the methods
are the specific tools for conducting that exploration.
  Research questions should match the strategy Research
Design (Marshall and Rossman, 1995)
Purpose of the Research Research Examples of
Study Question Strategy Data Collection
Techniques
EXPLORATORY – What is Case Study Participant
to investigate happening in Field Study observation; in-
little – this social depth
understood program? What interviewing
phenomena; to are the salient elite;
identify/ themes, interviewing
discover patterns,
important categories in
variables; to participants’
generate meaning
hypotheses for structure? How
further are these
  Research questions should match the strategy Research
Design (Marshall and Rossman, 1995)
Purpose of the Research Research Examples of
Study Question Strategy Data Collection
Techniques
EXPLORATORY What events, Multisite Case Participant
– to explain beliefs, Study History observation;
the forces attitudes, Field Study in-depth
causing the policies are Ethnography interviewing;
phenomenon shaping this Survey;
in question; to phenomenon? Questionnaire;
identify How do these Document,
plausible forces interact Analysis
causal to result in the
networks phenomenon?
shaping the
  Research questions should match the strategy Research
Design (Marshall and Rossman, 1995)
Purpose of the Research Research Examples of
Study Question Strategy Data Collection
Techniques
DESCRIPTIVE – What are the Field Study Participant
to document salient Case Study observation;
the behaviors, Ethnography In-depth
phenomenon events, Interviewing;
of interest beliefs, Document
attitudes, Analysis;
structures, Unobtrusive
processes measures;
occurring in Survey;
this Questionnaire
phenomenon? s