Let's Get Qualitative

 Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

- Einstein

As it would appear, in Module 3 we will be doing a qualitative research inquiry, which is what Module 2 is preparation for, so it's probably a good idea to look at what one of those actually is. 

Qualitative Research is a strategy for systematic collection, organisation, and interpretation of textual information.

Essentially, qualitative research (QR) is looking into phenomena that you can't put a number on, make into a graph, or colour into a pie chart (i.e. you can't use quantitative research to investigate). It's not about numbers, it's about things.

QR is thoughtful, deliberate, pays attention to broader context, and pays attention to the strengths/limitations of the methods used to collect the data. It approaches from the perspective and experiences of participants to find recurrent themes, generate hypotheses, identify properties of constructs, and conceptualise theories about what's going on. In other words, you want to know something (specific) about (specific) humans, so you've got to engage with those humans to make some discoveries.

QR can be used to understand behaviours, interactions, processes, perceptions, underlying reasons/opinions/motivations, provide insight into a problem, or help identify hypotheses for potential quantitative research.

Let's break down the characteristics of QR:

FOCUS: quality or meaning of experience

APPROACH: inductive (no prior hypothesis)

GOAL: understand, describe, discover (find depth, generate hypotheses)

PHILISOPHICAL ROOTS: Constructivism, Interpretivism

SETTING: natural

SAMPLING: purposeful (we're not choosing random people to talk to or using any old documents)

DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS: flexible, evolving, emergent

DATA COLLECTION: researcher as instrument - interview guides, observation tools

DATA ANALYSIS: iterative interpretation (finding data, analysing, going for more data, analysing...)

Methods used in QR: 

preparing & organising data

↓

reducing data into themes

↓

presenting data in narrative or graphic form

So how do we go about getting this famous 'data'? There are a few options and what you select will depend on your research question and what you're interested in exploring.

Major Qualitative Study Designs

In-depth Interviews - to explore individual experiences & perceptions in detail

Focus Groups - to generate unique insights into shared experiences & social norms

Observations - to learn about behaviours & interactions in natural settings; to study cultural aspects of a setting or particular context

Document Review - to identify patterns of communication; to describe characteristics of organisations or processes

(As excited as I am to delve into these, I'll probably blog about them separately otherwise we'll be here forever and a day).

Validity

The validity of qualitative research is especially important - since we're not using concrete numbers to demonstrate the phenomenon, we need ways of making sure this open-to-influence method and the inferences made are justifiable.

Validity is the extent to which the data and the interpretation of the data are credible.

According to Creswell & Miller (2000), there are nine validity procedures for qualitative research that add credibility to an account, and they vary as to whether the validity lens is one of the researcher, the participants, or the reader. With qualitative research, the primary lens is always the participants' (because it's their perspective & experiences we're looking into), but all three are important and their emphasis varies depending on the study undertaken.

The nine validity procedures are as follows:

1. TRIANGULATION

❗scary word alert❗Not actually scary. This just means using different information sources and searching for convergence between them - i.e. finding common themes or categories - giving you multiple forms of evidence. This employs the researcher's lens and may be across data sources, theories, methods, and/or among investigators.

2. DISCONFIRMING EVIDENCE

This is where the researcher first establishes preliminary themes or categories in the study, then goes through the data searching for evidence that either confirms or disconfirms these. Again this relies on the researcher's lens but it is difficult because researchers are naturally inclined to find confirming evidence, rather than what contrasts their ideas. Disconfirming evidence shouldn't outweigh confirming evidence, but supports credibility because, according to constructivists, reality is multiple and complex.

3.  RESEARCHER REFLEXIVITY

The researcher self-disclosing their assumptions, beliefs, and biases should happen early in the research process to understand their positions and then suspend or bracket them as the study proceeds. Again this is the lens of the researcher and reflects on social, cultural, and historical forces that shape their interpretation.

4. MEMBER CHECKING

Here, the data and interpretations are taken back to the study's participants for them to confirm the credibility of the information and account. The lens is focused on participants and may happen through a focus group to review the findings or by having participants view the raw data to comment on their accuracy - if themes/categories makes sense, whether they're developed with sufficient evidence, and whether the account is realistic/accurate. The researcher then incorporates their comments into the final narrative.

5. PROLONGED ENGAGEMENT IN THE FIELD

What it says on the tin - staying at the research site for a prolonged period of time to gain different perspectives and a better understanding of the context of participants' views. Researchers can build trust with participants so they are comfortable disclosing information, and they can compare other data or check out their hunches to solidify evidence. There's no set duration but ethnographers often spend 4-12 months at a site (clearly, we wouldn't be there that long as we only have 12 weeks).

6. COLLABORATION

Closely collaborating with participants throughout the research process with the intent of respecting and supporting them. This builds the participants' view into the study and may take multiple forms - participants may help form the research questions, assist with data collection & analysis, and be involved in writing the account.

7. THE AUDIT TRAIL

The researcher documents the inquiry process through journaling, keeping a research log of all activities, developing a data collection chronology, and recording data analysis procedures. An external individual (an auditor) examines the documentation with questions such as: Are the findings grounded in the data? Are inferences logical? Is the category structure appropriate? Can the inquiry decisions and methodologies be justified? What is the degree of researcher bias? What strategies were used for increasing credibility? 

8. THICK, RICH DESCRIPTION

Describing the setting, the participants and the themes of the study in detail to produce a feeling for the readers that they have experienced, or could experience, the events being described. This takes the lens of the readers and enables them to make decisions about the applicability of the findings to other settings or similar contexts.

9. PEER DEBRIEFING

Someone who is familiar with the research or the phenomenon being explored peer reviews the data and research process. They provide support, play devil's advocate, challenge the researcher's assumptions, push the researcher to the next methodological step, and ask difficult questions about the methods and interpretations. The lens is someone external to the study and this reviewer collaborates with the researcher.

There is so much to learn around qualitative research and the different ways data can be collected or analysed within it. I've been spending time trying to get to grips with the overall process and aim of this type of research to hopefully help inform my inquiry topic and the methods I will use. 

Methodology is what I next want to look into, especially as we may need to factor in the COVID-19 situation - by the time we do our inquiry things may be better, but we don't know that for certain and there is potential that we may not be able to do something we had hoped to do, or we may need to find a different way of doing it. All fun stuff.

In the mean time, I will have my head in books trying to navigate Module 2 with about as clear a map as the one for coming out of lockdown. 

Fingers crossed for universal improvement!

*I'm leaving several references below but I highly recommend the Yale University videos for understanding QR if (like me) you want someone to stand there and explain things to you - a treat we don't get very often ;) It's discussed as relating to the health sciences but this isn't a million miles from physical culture and isn't a hinderance to the research understanding*

References

Centre for Research Quality. (2015). Overview of Qualitative Research Methods [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsAUNs-IoSQ [Accessed 12^th February 2021]

 

Creswell, J.W. & Miller, D.L. (2000). Determining Validity in Qualitative Inquiry. Theory Into Practice. 39(3) p.124 7p Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=0842480a-58cc-4b5c-b190-9f67d1d1c299%40pdc-v-sessmgr01&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNzbyZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=3474023&db=ehh [Accessed 13^th February 2021]

 

Little, K. (2016). 10 Qualitative data analysis [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onWWfucwhSs [Accessed 12^th February 2021]

 

YaleUniversity. (2015). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: Data Analysis (Module 5) [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opp5tH4uD-w [Accessed 12^th February 2021]

 

YaleUniversity. (2015). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: Developing a Qualitative Research Question (Module 2) [video] Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0HxMpJsm0I [Accessed 11^th February 2021]

 

YaleUniversity. (2015). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: Focus Groups (Module 4) [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCAPz14yjd4 [Accessed 12^th February 2021]

 

YaleUniversity. (2015). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: Interviews (Module 3) [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PhcglOGFg8 [Accessed 12^th February 2021]

 

YaleUniversity. (2015). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: Scientific Rigor (Module 6) [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m0LVHK8a94&list=PLqHnHG5X2PXCsCMyN3_EzugAF7GKN2poQ&index=6 [Accessed 12^th February 2021]

 

YaleUniversity. (2015). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: What is Qualitative Research (Module 1) [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbdN_sLWl88 [Accessed 11^th February 2021]