QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS

A challenge to students who are new to qualitative research is trying to figure out what kind of
qualitative research study they will be doing. There are many different types of qualitative research,
such as ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, case study, narrative, and historical. As in
any type of research, it is important for the student to select the qualitative research approach that
would best answer the research question. The goals and methods associated with each approach will
be described briefly in this section.

Qualitative research design is an umbrella term for a various range of approaches and methods,
which vary considerably in terms of focus, assumptions about the nature of knowledge and the
role of the researcher.

Qualitative research designs are good at answering ‘How?’ and ‘What?’ questions (in contrast to the
‘Whether’ or ‘If’ queries commonly addressed by quantitative research).

In this section, examples of different qualitative research designs are presented and discussed in the
form of methodologies or approaches.

Ethnography is the direct description of a group, culture or community. The research methods are
as follows:

 Immerse themselves in the culture or subculture they study and try to see the world from
a cultural member‘s point of view.
 Data are collected during fieldwork through participant observation and interviews with
the key informants as well as through documents.
 Researchers observe the rules and rituals in the culture and try to understand the
meaning and interpretation that informants give them.
 They compare these with their own ethnic view and explore the local, ethnic perspective
of its members while making their own ethnic interpretations.
 The main evaluative criterion is the way in which the study presents the culture as
experienced by its members.
 Ethnographers describe, analyze and interpret the culture and the differences between
the two.
 Field notes are written throughout the fieldwork about events and behavior in the setting.

Sample Ethnographic Studies:

 The Kinship of Everyday Need: Relatedness and Survival in a Philippine Fishing Community
 Bagong Silang Community: An Ethnographic Study of Strategies of Survival
 A Story of High School Inclusion: An Ethnographic Case Study

Grounded Theory (GT) is an approach that generates and modifies a theory. This research
design has become a global phenomenon. It is an approach to collecting and analyzing data.

The finished product is also called a GT—it is a development of theory directly based and grounded
in the data collected by the researcher. From its very start, this approach has been modified,
not only by the main protagonists themselves but also by researchers who adopted and adapted
it during its application to their own inquiry. In this chapter, we will describe the main features of
GT and trace development and changes over time.

 Data usually are collected through non-standardized interviews and participant observation
but also by access to other data sources.
  Data collection and analysis interact. Researchers code and categorize transcripts from
interviews or field notes. The researcher has a dialogue with the literature when discussing
categories. Throughout the analytic process, constant comparison and theoretical sampling
takes place.
 Memos and theoretical notes provide the researcher with developing theoretical ideas. The
theory that is generated has exploratory power and is grounded in the data.

Sample Grounded Theory Studies:

 Perceptions of Filipino Women and Men on Intimate Partner Violence

 Becoming Selfless: A Grounded Theory of Commitment to Service
 From Person to Father: A Grounded Theory of Male Gender Identity Formation
 Investigating Food Development in an Area of the Philippines: An Explorative Study Using a
Grounded Theory Approach

Narrative Inquiry includes stories that reflect on people‘s experience and the meaning that this
experience has for them. Narrative research is a useful way of gaining access to feelings, thoughts
and experience in order to analyze them.

Narratives are tales of experience or imagination and come naturally to human beings. Narratives are
rarely simple or linear, and they often consist of many different stories rather than of a clearly defined
tale. Illness narratives are expressions of illness, suffering and pain. Narratives are often tales of
identity. In narrative inquiry the final story is constructed by participant, researcher and reader.

Sample Narrative Studies:

 The Narrative Research Trail: Values of Ambiguity and Relationships

 Narrative Inquiry: Approaches to Language and Literacy Research
 Through the Looking Glass Space to New Ways of Knowing: A Personal Research Narrative

Phenomenology is a 20th century school of philosophy rooted in philosophy and psychology which
focuses on the subjective experience of the individual and seeks to understand the essence or
structure of a phenomenon from the perspective of those who have experienced it.

Researchers who use phenomenological methods have formulated various methods of data analysis.
The approach should not be mechanical but insightful and illuminate the phenomenon under study
and capture its essence.

Sample Phenomenological Studies:

 Social Futures of Global Climate Change: A Structural Phenomenology

 The Importance of Feeling Awkward: A Dialogical Narrative Phenomenology of Socially
Awkward Situations
 Social Responsibility: A Phenomenology of Perceived Successful Student Leadership
Experiences
 Emotions in the Flesh: A Phenomenology of Emotions in the Lived Body

Case Study is a bounded system, a single entity, a unit around which there are no boundaries. It
has definite quality (time, space, and/or components comprising the case). It has no particular
method for data collection or data analysis. A case study uses an interpretative research. It is chosen
precisely because researchers are interested in insight, and discovery rather than the testing of a
hypothesis. Yin defines a case study as an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary
phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and
context are not clearly evident.
Sample Case Studies:

 Internationalizing the Basic Education Curriculum: A Philippine Case Study

 School Viability: A Case Study of Victoria Heights School in Manila
 Entrepreneurial University: A Case Study of De La Salle Araneta University, Philippines
 Team Effectiveness in an Academic School Organization: A Multiple Case Study