FICHA DE LEITURA Tas Steffenello Ghisleni 1. REFERNCIA STRAUSS, Anselm L. Qualitative analysis for social scientists.

USA: Cambridge, 1987. Prefcio; Cap. 1 e cap. 3. 2. OBJETIVOS DA OBRA Estudar a pesquisa qualitativa, explicando, com exemplos, o funcionamento de alguns mtodos e tcnicas. Comentar como feito o tratamento dos dados nesta pesquisa. 3. ARGUMENTOS PRINCIPAIS DO AUTOR O pesquisador quantitativo costuma ser fraco no contexto e o qualitativo fraco nas comparaes, porque estuda situaes individuais. As anlises qualitativas muitas vezes so mais do que teis, so indispensveis. A anlise qualitativa ocorre em nveis: 1) explicitao, 2) abstrao e 3) sistematizao. As regras existem e devem ser usadas, mas tambm possvel modifica-las, se for o caso. quebrar paradigmas. A teoria fundamentada como um novo estilo de fazer pesquisa qualitativa. A codificao um processo difcil. Existem sete regras empricas sobre o processo de codificao: 1) descobrir categorias e nome-las, mesmo que provisoriamente; 2) relacionar essas categorias especificamente ou com possveis variveis de condies, consequncias, estratgias e interaes; 3) relacionar categorias e subcategorias, todos uns aos outros; 4) fazer tudo com uma base de dados especfica e dar referncia a eles; 5) sublinhando para facilitar a digitalizao e classificao; 6) depois da categoria principal ser escolhida relacion-la com todas as outras categorias e subcategorias; 7) posteriormente as categorias menores ou independentes podem ser destacadas como mais ou menos irrelevantes. 4. RELAES COM OUTROS AUTORES Podemos relacionar de forma geral com a maioria dos autores que caracterizam as pesquisas qualitativas. 5. CITAES DESTACADAS Qualitative researchers tend to lay considerable emphasis on situational and often structural contexts, in contrast to many quantitative researchers, whose work is multivariate but often weak on context. Qualitative researchers tend, however, to be weak on crosscomparisons because they often study only single situations, organizations, and institutions (STRAUSS, 1987, p.2). Among social scientists a distinction is commonly drawn between quantitative and qualitative research (STRAUSS, 1987, p.2). Qualitative researchers tend to lay considerable emphasis on situational and often structural contexts, in contrast to many quantitative researchers, whose work is multivariate but often weak on context. Qualitative researchers tend, however, to be weak on crosscomparisons because they often study only single situations, organizations, and institutions (STRAUSS, 1987, p.3). More important for our purposes here is that improved qualitative analysis requires more explicitly formulated, reliable, and valid methods than currently exist. Analysis is synonymous with interpretation of data (STRAUSS, 1987, p.4). The methodological thrust of the grounded theory approach to qualitative data is toward the development of theory, without any particular commitment to specific kinds of data, lines of research, or theoretical interests. So, it is not really a specific method or technique. Rather, it is a style of doing qualitative analysis that includes a number of distinct features, such as theoretical sampling, and certain methodological guidelines, such as the making of constant comparisons and the use of a coding paradigm, to ensure conceptual development and density (STRAUSS, 1987, p.5). Of course, theory is generated and tested even by researchers whose analytic methods remain relatively implicit, but the grounded theory style qf analysis is based on the premise that theory at various levels of generality is indispensable for deeper knowledge of social phe nomena (Glaser and Strauss 1967; Glaser 1978 (STRAUSS, 1987, p.6). One of our deepest convictions is that social phenomena are complex phenomena (STRAUSS, 1987, p.7).

This is why grounded theory methodology emphasizes the need for developing many concepts and their linkages in order to capture a great deal of the variation that characterizes the central phenomena studied during any particular research project (STRAUSS, 1987, p.7). Our guidelines for developing theory are not merely a kind of laundry list of suggestions, however: they are stronger than that, for they emphasize that certain operations must be carried out. Coding must be done, and generally done early and continually. Analytic memos must be done early and continually in conjunction with the coding. And a few concepts, loosely strung together, cannot satisfy the requirements for formulating social theory (STRAUSS, 1987, p.8). We should note also that research work consists of more than sets of tasks or a clear formulation of the goals of those tasks. It involves the organization of work - the articulation of tasks (itself a type of work) including the management of physical, social, and personal resources necessary for getting the research work done, whether working alone, with someone else, or in a team (STRAUSS, 1987, p.9). In fact, it is important to understand that various kinds of experience are central to all these modes of activity induction, deduction, and verification that enter into inquiry (STRAUSS, 1987, p.12). Our approach to the qualitative analysis of data is termed grounded theory "because of its emphasis on the generation of theory and the data in which that theory is grounded (STRAUSS, 1987, p.22). Once the core category or categories have been committed to, then the researcher will be seeking to relate other categories to them, thereby gradually densifying the theory (STRAUSS, 1987, p.24). "Grounded theory is based on a concept-indicator model, which directs the conceptual coding of a set of empirical indicators. The latter are actual data, such as behavioral actions and events, observed or described in documents and in the words of interviewees and informants. These data are indicators of a concept the analyst derives from them, at first provisionally but later with more certainty" (STRAUSS, 1987, p.25). Data collection never entirely ceases because coding and memoing continue to raise fresh questions that can only be addressed by the gathering of new data or the examining of previous data" (STRAUSS, 1987, p.27). "The goal of grounded theory is to generate a theory that accounts for a pattern of behavior which is relevant and problematic for those involved. The generation of theory occurs around a core category (and sometimes more)" (STRAUSS, 1987, p.35). Coding is the most difficult operation for inexperienced researchers to understand and to master, as noted earlier. Even when understood theoretically, the actual procedures are still baffling for some people, despite watching an instructor or some other experienced researcher do the coding. What is needed, apparently, are examples of coding steps, and visualizations of actual codes. Finally, considerable practice at coding is requisite" (STRAUSS, 1987, p.56). Often in contemporary qualitative research the emphasis on interactions (and on immediately contextual aspects in relation to interactions) is so strong that it overwhelms or prevents attention to the larger structural conditions" (STRAUSS, 1987, p.78). The rule of thumb for the researcher is to be alert for what in the collected data bears on the more microscopic as well as the more structural. For both levels, the researcher should also be developing categories, following the usual coding paradigm. Analysis should relate those categories (as always). And, as always, the emerging analysis should guide the further data collection, through theoretical sampling, as it bears on the hypothesized relationships among the major categories being developed throughout the course of the research" (STRAUSS, 1987, p.80). 6. COMENTRIOS E JUSTIFICATIVA DE UM POSSVEL USO DA OBRA NO PROJETO DE PESQUISA Concordo com o autor quando o mesmo afirma que as pesquisas qualitativas precisam ser desenvolvidas e transmitidas de forma mais ampla para os pesquisadores das cincias sociais. E que ela tem sua validade, mesmo com a enorme variao entre os fenmenos, a subjetividade do pesquisador e a inexistncia de regras rgidas. Foi interessante conhecer a teoria fundamentada, ou seja, o estilo proposto pelo autor para fazer anlise qualitativa garantindo a densidade terica. E a teoria complexa refora a importncia do contexto e as relaes entre os contedos e conceitos. O principal que podemos tirar do texto que as regras esto a para serem observadas, mas que tambm podem ser modificadas se o contexto exigir que isto acontea.