TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Basic Interpretive Qualitative Study

 Can be used when an instructor is interested in how students make meaning of a situation or phenomenon. It
uses an inductive strategy, collecting data from interviews, observations, or document analysis (e.g., students'
written work). Analysis is of patterns or common themes and the outcome is a rich descriptive account that
makes reference to the literature that helped frame the study.
 Example: An interview of 45 women from varying backgrounds and a comparison of the developmental patterns
discerned with earlier findings on male development. They found women's lives evolved through periods of
tumultuous, structure-building phases that alternated with stable periods.

Phenomenological Study

 Aims to find the essence or structure of an experience by explaining how complex meanings are built out of
simple units of inner experience, for example, the essence of being a participant in a particular program or the
essence of understanding a subject. The method involves temporarily putting aside or "bracketing" personal
attitudes and beliefs regarding the phenomenon, thereby heightening consciousness and allowing the researcher
to intuit or see the phenomenon from the perspective of those who have experienced it. All collected data is laid
out and treated as equal, clustered into themes, examined from multiple perspectives, and descriptions of the
phenomena (how and what) are constructed.
 Example: Eight clinical psychology practicum-level trainees were interviewed to obtain experience of good
supervision. Meaning units were identified from these and a meaning structure was identified and refined into
the essence or essential elements of good supervisory experiences shared by a majority in this context.

Grounded Theory Study

 Derives from collected data a theory that is "grounded" in the data, but therefore localized, dealing with a
specific situation like how students handle multiple responsibilities or what constitutes an effective lesson plan.
The method involves comparing collected units of data against one another until categories, properties, and
hypotheses that state relations between these categories and properties emerge. These hypotheses are
tentative and suggestive, not tested in the study.
 Example: Ten school counselors were given structured interviews to help determine how their professional
identity is formed. This data was coded first to form concepts and then to form connections between concepts. A
core concept emerged and its process and implications were discussed. School counselors' professional
interactions were identified as defining experiences in their identity formation.

Case Studies

 A descriptive intensive analysis of an individual, unit, or phenomena selected for its typicality or uniqueness.
Different methods could be used to conduct this analysis (like ethnography) but the focus is on the unit of
analysis, like an individual student's experiences.
 Example: The faculty of a small Southern Historically Black College was examined in order to examine concerns
of a digital divide between predominantly White colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The
study reports on technology familiarity and use scores of these faculties and what was done by college
administrators in the three years following the collection of these scores. Recommendations on how to close this
divide are shared.

Ethnographic Study

 Traditional in anthropology for studying human society and culture. It is less a method of data collection and
more the use of a socio- cultural lens through which the data are interpreted. Extensive fieldwork is usually
required in order to give a cultural interpretation of the data and immersion in the culture is common, but a
 description of the culture (the beliefs, traditions, practices, and behaviors of a group of individuals) and an
interpretation of the culture through the point of view of an insider to that culture are necessary components of
ethnographies.
 Example: Native American students training to be teachers were followed through interviews over a five-year
period to chart the progress towards a goal of facilitating the development of Native American teachers and to
better understand and address their unique problems. Their beliefs, views about self, and concerns were
presented.

Narrative Analysis

 This involves the use of stories or life narratives, first person accounts of experiences. These stories are used as
data, taking the perspective of the storyteller, as opposed to the larger society, with the goal of extracting
meaning from the text. The most common types of narrative analysis are psychological, biographical, and
discourse analysis. The former involves analyzing the story in terms of internal thoughts and motivations and the
latter analyzes the written text or spoken words for its component parts or patterns. Biographical analysis takes
the individual's society and factors like gender and class into account.
 Example: Oral narratives were collected from three social studies teachers' lectures, conversations with students,
and student interactions over a 14-month period. These narratives were coded and analyzed and used to argue
that storytelling or the use of oral history was well received by students and provided richer data than more
traditional teaching methods.

Critical Qualitative Research

 This writing aims to reveal and critique the social, cultural, and psychological assumptions regarding present day
contexts with the goal of empowering individuals and enabling change. It challenges current power distributions
and the status quo, as opposed to merely revealing meaning. Research questions may address race, gender, and
class influences, how current power structures may serve some groups' interests and oppress others, and how
truth and knowledge are constructed. This analysis is critical for methods like participatory action research which
uses such critique as the basis for collective action.
 Example: A critical examination of the consumer education texts used in adult literacy programs revealed
content that was disrespectful of adult learners and their previous experience as consumers, promoted certain
ideologies regarding consumerism, and defended the status quo by placing blame for economic troubles on
individual inadequacies, ignoring societal inequities.

Postmodern Research

 This is research that challenges the form and categories of traditional qualitative analysis. The postmodern
perspective involves questioning certainties and assumptions in the world including the nature of truth, the
ability of research and science to discover this truth, and all generalizations and typologies. Three "crises" have
resulted from these questions; whether the experience of another can be captured or whether it is created by
the researcher, whether any study can be viewed as valid if traditional methodologies are flawed, and whether it
is possible to institute any real change. While no single methodology is encouraged, this research is characterized
by the inclusion of a plurality of voices and interpretations, an awareness of exclusion and the politics involved
the choice of perspectives, and a sensitivity to the power of the author's voice and language usage.
 Example: This paper critiques the use of self-reflection by higher education teachers as a student-centered
method of continuing professional development. The author argues that the widespread and unquestioned use
of reflective self-assessment assumes that the self has a transparent nature and can be adequately examined by
introspection and ignores the many post-modern and post-structuralist challenges of this view. For example, if
our views of the self are themselves constructed by the society we live in and the language we use, is true
knowledge of the self, independent of these, even possible? If our "selves" are constructed then attempting to
gain knowledge through self-reflection is a mis-cognition and instead results in the creation of a less
independent and more societal-regulated self.