UNDERSTANDING DATA AND WAYS TO

SYSTEMATICALLY COLLECT DATA

MODULE 5
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
LESSON 1
Research design refers to the way in which a
research idea is transformed into a research
project or plan that can then be carried out in
practice by a research or research team‘.
 ETHNOGRAPHY is the direct description o a
group, culture or community.

Research methods include immersion.

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 their observation with their
own ethnic view and explore the differences
between the two.
Field notes are written throughout the field
work about events and behavior in the
setting.
Ethnographers describe, analyze, and
interpret culture and the local ethnic
perspective of its members while making
their own interpretations.
The main evaluative criterion is the way in
which the study presents the culture as
experienced by its members.
GROUNDED THEORY (GT) is an approach
that generates and modifies a theory.

It is an approach to collecting and analyzing

data. The finished product is also called a
GT—it is a development directly based and
grounded in the data collected by the
researcher.
Data are not only collected through non-
standardized interviews and participant
observation but also by access to other
sources.
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— theoretical notes—provide
the researcher with developing theoretical ideas.
The theory that is generated has exploratory
power‘ and is grounded in the data.
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.
PHENOMENOLOGY

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.
Phenomenology stems from the Greek
words “pheninoemn” meaning appearance
and “logos” meaning reason.
 As a philosophy, phenomenology is “a radical beginning, a return to
philosophical questioning, a way to see the world anew as it really is
rather than as it is constructed” (Caelli, 2000, p371).

 As a research method, phenomenology is “…the rigorous and unbiased

study of things as they appear so that one might come to an essential
understanding of human consciousness and experience…” (Valle &
Halling, 1989, p.6).
“Phenomenology is the study of essences” (Merleau-
Ponty, 1962 p. vii).
Essences are the essential elements of a phenomenon,
those things which makes it recognizable as such (van
Manen, 1990).
Phenomenology does not look for cause-effect
relationships nor does it seek to generalize (Porter,
1999).
 It is a process of observing and analyzing “the
things themselves” (Husserl, 1962) in a new way.
 “A good phenomenological text has the effect of
making us suddenly „see‟ something in a manner
that enriches our understanding of everyday life
experience” (van Manen, 1997).
 Hermeneutic phenomenology is the study of
lived experience as it is immediately
experienced; however, it cannot be
understood until it is reflected on.
WHAT PHENOMENOLOGY IS AND WHAT IS NOT
Is
 Study of lived experience
As we immediately experience it
 Explication of phenomena as
they present themselves to
consciousness
Consciousness is retrospective,
we cannot understand an
experience until it is reflected on
Is not
 An empirical science
Does not generalize or develop
theory
 Not mere speculative inquiry in
the sense of unworldly reflection
Concrete experiences understood
through language
WHAT PHENOMENOLOGY IS AND WHAT IS NOT

Is Is not

 The study of essences  Neither mere particularity,

That which makes the “thing” what it is nor sheer universality
 Description of the experiential Paradoxically explicates
meanings we live as we live them what makes something
 Human scientific study of phenomena unique and different
The systematic, explicit, self critical and
intersubjective analysis of the lived
world
WHAT PHENOMENOLOGY IS AND WHAT IS NOT

Is Is not

 Attentive practice of thoughtfulness  Does not solve problems

Constant awareness of what it means to  Meaningful questions that allow for
live a life thoughtful and tactful action

 Search for what it means to be human

Quest to live to our fullest potential
 A Poetizing activity
Adapted from Researching Lived Experience
Discovery of memories
Max van Manen (1990) pp. 8-13 & 21-2
CASE STUDY is a bounded system, a single entity, a
unit around which there are 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 discover rather than
the testing of a hypothesis.
A case study is 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.
SOURCE

Practical Research 1 Teacher’s Guide. DepEd.

2016.