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Chapter Resources
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Chapter 2: Philosophical Assumptions and Interpretive Frameworks
- Flashcards
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- Examine a qualitative journal article, such as the qualitative study by:
Brown, J., Sorrell, J. H., McClaren, J., & Creswell, J. W. (2006). Waiting for a liver transplant. Qualitative Health Research, 16(1), 119–136.
There are four major philosophical assumptions used in qualitative research: ontology (what is reality?), epistemology (how is reality known?), axiology (how are values of the research expressed?), and methodology (how is the research conducted?). Look closely at the Brown et al. (2006) article and identify specific ways in which these four philosophical assumptions are evident in the study. Give specific examples using Table 2.1 as a guide.
- It is helpful to read qualitative articles that adopt a different interpretive lens. Examine the following articles that work from different interpretivist frameworks:
- A postpostivist framework:
Churchill, S. L., Plano Clark, V. L., Prochaska-Cue, M. K., Creswell, J. W., & Onta-Grzebik, L. (2007). How rural low-income families have fun: A grounded theory study. Journal of Leisure Research, 39(2), 271–294.
- A social constructivist framework:
Brown, J., Sorrell, J. H., McClaren, J., & Creswell, J. W. (2006). Waiting for a liver transplant. Qualitative Health Research, 16(1), 119–136.
- A feminist framework:
Therberge, N. (1997). “It’s part of the game”: Physicality and the production of gender in women’s hockey. Gender & Society, 11(1), 69–87.
Identify how these three articles differ in their interpretive frameworks.
- Examine the Therberge (1997) feminist qualitative research article. Identify where the following elements of a feminist interpretive framework are found in the study: the feminist issue(s), the directional question, the advocacy orientation of the aim of the study, the methods of data collection, and the call for action.
Chapter 3: Designing a Qualitative Study
- Flashcards
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- It is important to be able to “see” how authors incorporate the characteristics of qualitative research into their published studies. Select one of the qualitative articles presented in Appendices B-F. Discuss each of the major characteristics advanced in this chapter as they have been applied in the journal article. Note which characteristics are “easy” and which are “more difficult” to identify. The characteristics mentioned earlier are the following:
- The researcher conducts the study in the field in a natural setting.
- The researcher does not use someone else’s instrument but gathers data on his or her own instrument.
- The researcher collects multiple types of data.
- The researcher uses both inductive and deductive reasoning in making sense of the data.
- The researcher reports the perspectives of the participants and their multiple meanings.
- The researcher reports the setting or context in which the problem is being studied.
- The researcher allows the design or procedures of the study to emerge.
- The researcher discusses his or her background and how it shapes the interpretation of the findings.
- The researcher reports a complex picture of the phenomenon being studied.
- Consider how to address an ethical issue. From Table 3.2 in the text, choose one of the ethical issues that arise during the process of research. Invent a dilemma that might happen in your own research and then present how you might anticipate resolving it in the design of your study.
- Before designing your own study, it is helpful to think about the way that qualitative studies are structured. One way to begin thinking about the structure of qualitative studies is to sketch out the flow of activities that authors used in their published studies. To this end, I would like you to select one of the articles (a different one than you used to answer Exercise 1) in Appendices B-F. I would like you to draw a picture of the flow of the larger ideas using boxes or circles and arrows to indicate the sequence of ideas. For example, one study may start with a discussion about the “problem” and then move on to a “theoretical model” and then on to the “purpose,” and so forth. By engaging in this activity, you will have a general structure for how you might organize and present the topics in your own study.
- Overall, any project undertaken by a qualitative researcher needs to be an insightful study that someone would like to read. Here are some design elements that would make your study attractive to a reader:
- Study an unusual group of people.
- Take an angle or perspective that may not be expected. It might well be the reverse side (the shadow side) of what is expected.
- Study an unusual group of people or an unusual location.
- Collect data that are not typically expected in social science research (e.g., collect sounds, have participants take pictures).
- Present findings in an unusual way, such as through the creation of analogies (see Wolcott, 2010) or maps or other types of figures and tables.
- Study a timely topic that many individuals are discussing and that is in the news media.
Consider which (one or more) of these aspects fit your project and discuss how they relate to your study.
Chapter 4: Five Qualitative Approaches to Inquiry
- Flashcards
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- Select one of the five approaches for a proposed study. Write a brief description of the approach, including a definition, the history, and the procedures associated with the approach. Include references to the literature.
- Find a qualitative journal article that states in the article that it is a narrative study, a phenomenology, a grounded theory, an ethnography, or a case study. Using the elements of “defining features” advanced in this chapter, review the article and locate where each defining feature of the particular approach appears in the article.
- Take a proposed qualitative study that you would like to conduct. Begin with presenting it as a narrative study, and then shape it into a phenomenology, a grounded theory, an ethnography, and finally a case study. Discuss for each type of study the focus of the study, the types of data collection and analysis, and the final written report.
Chapter 5: Five Different Qualitative Studies
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- Begin to sketch a qualitative study using one of the approaches. Answer the questions here that apply to the approach you are considering. For a narrative study: What individual do you plan to study? And do you have access to information about this individual’s life experiences? For a phenomenology: What is the phenomenon of interest that you plan to study? And do you have access to people who have experienced it? For a grounded theory: What social science concept, action, or process do you plan to explore as the basis for your theory? Can you interview individuals who have experienced the process? For an ethnography: What cultural group of people do you plan to study? Has the culture-sharing group been together long enough for patterns of behavior, language, and beliefs to form? For a case study: What is the case you plan to examine? Will the case be described because it is a unique case, or will the case be used to illustrate (and illuminate) an issue or a problem?
- Select one of the journal articles listed in the Additional Readings section. Determine the characteristics of the approach being used by the author(s) and discuss why the author(s) may have used the approach. Go back to Chapter 4 and the “defining features” of the approach and see how many of them you can find in the journal article. Discuss specifically where the “defining features” occur.
Chapter 6: Introducing and Focusing the Study
- Flashcards
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- Consider how you would write about the research problem or issue in your study in an introductory passage to a study. State the issue in a couple of sentences, and then discuss the research literature that will provide evidence for a need for studying the problem. Finally, within the context of one of the five approaches to research, what rationale exists for studying the problem that reflects your approach to research?
- Try out the script in this chapter for writing a purpose statement using one of the approaches. Now adopt a different approach and write the purpose statement using the second approach.
- The challenge in writing a good central question is not writing it too broad or too narrow. Consider four key elements of a central question: the central phenomenon, the participants, the site, and the approach to inquiry. Write it in an open, evolving, nondirectional way, starting with the word how or what. Keep the question short. You might first write your central phenomenon that you wish to explore. Then put the words what is before the central phenomenon. Examine what you have written to determine whether it will be a satisfactory central question written as the broadest question that you could ask in your study.
- Write several subquestions. Subdivide your central question into several subtopics. Consider these subtopics the types of questions that you would ask a participant.
Chapter 7: Data Collection
- Flashcards
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- Gain some experience in collecting data for your project. Design an interview or an observational protocol for your study. Conduct either an interview or an observation and record the information on the protocol you have developed. After this experience, identify issues that posed challenges during this data collection.
- It is helpful to design the data collection activities for a project. Examine Figure 7.1 for the seven activities. Develop a matrix that describes data collection for all seven activities for your project. Provide detail in this matrix for each of the seven activities.
Chapter 8: Data Analysis and Representation
- Flashcards
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- It is good to practice coding text data in a general sense before coding to develop an analysis within one of the five approaches. To conduct this practice, obtain a short text file, which may be a transcript of an interview, field notes typed from an observation, or an optically scanned text file of a document, such as a newspaper article. Next code the text by bracketing large text segments and asking yourself, “What is the content being discussed in the text?” Assign code labels to the text segments. Using information in this chapter, assign labels that match (a) what you would expect to find in the database, (b) surprising information that you did not expect to find, and (c) information that is conceptually interesting or unusual to participants and audiences. In this way, you will derive code labels that might be useful in forming themes in your study, and these procedures will direct you away from weak codes such as “positives” and “negatives.”
- Obtain some pictures from students or participants who are in one of your projects (or, alternatively, select some pictures from magazine articles). Practice coding these visual data. Begin by asking yourself, “What is occurring in the picture?” Assign code labels to these pictures looking again for (a) what you would expect to find in the database, (b) surprising information that you did not expect to find, and (c) information that is conceptually interesting or unusual to participants and audiences.
- Gain some experience using a computer software program. Select one of the computer programs mentioned in this chapter, go to its website, and find the demonstration program. Try out the program. Often these demos will enable you to input a small database so that you can actually try out the features of the program. You might experiment with demos from different software programs.
Chapter 9: Writing a Qualitative Study
- Flashcards
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- It is useful to see the overall flow of ideas in a qualitative journal article study within a particular approach to qualitative research. The flow of ideas can then be adapted to use in your specific project. Go back to Chapter 5 and select one of the journal articles that fits your particular approach (narrative, phenomenology, etc.). Find the article and then diagram its overall structure by drawing a picture of it using circles, boxes, and arrows. Where does the article start? With a personal vignette, a statement of the problem, a literature review? Draft this picture of the flow of ideas in the journal article to use as a model for your own work.
- Look at the gunman case study in Appendix F. Learn about how to write a theme passage by examining one of the themes in this case study. Take, for example, the theme passage on “safety.” Underline (a) the multiple perspectives that are advanced, (b) the different sources of information used, and (c) the quotes and whether they are short, medium, or long. In this type of analysis you will have a deeper understanding of the writing of a theme passage in your qualitative study.
- It is useful to actually see “thick” description in action when writing qualitative research. To do this I often turn to good novels in which the author provides exquisite detail about an event, a thing, or a person. For example, turn to page 14 in Paul Harding’s award-winning book, Tinkers (2009), and read the passage about how George repaired a broken clock at a tag sale. Write about how Harding incorporates a physical description, includes a description of the steps (or movement), uses strong action verbs, draws on references or quotes, and relies on the five senses to convey detail (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch). Use this type of detail in your qualitative descriptions or themes.
Chapter 10: Standards of Validation and Evaluation
- Flashcards
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- One of the approaches for validation was to write “thick description” into the description of cases or settings and in themes. Look for a detailed description in a short story or a novel. If you do not find one, you might use the story about the “Cat ‘n’ Mouse” as found in Steven Millhauser’s book (2008), Dangerous Laughter. Identify passages in which Millhauser creates detail by physical passages, movement, or activity description. Also identify how he interconnects the details.
- Practice intercoder agreement. Have two or more coders go through a transcript and record their codes. Then look at the passages all coders have identified and see whether their codes are similar or match. Look back at the example of intercoder agreement I provide in this chapter as a guide for your procedure.
- In this chapter I identify the key characteristics of each of the five approaches that might be used in evaluating a study. Select one of the approaches, find a journal article that uses the approach, and then see if you can find the key characteristics of evaluation of that approach in the article.
Chapter 11: "Turning the Story" and Conclusion
- Chapter Quiz
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Chapter Exercises
- Take a qualitative study that you have written and turn the story into one of the other approaches of qualitative inquiry.
- In this chapter, I presented the study of campus response to a gunman incident in five ways. Take each scenario and define and describe each part that is labeled in italics. Look at the glossary in Appendix A for help in providing a definition.
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