Subjectivity
Your own lens and how it affects your research process
Research question
questions that narrow problem into what the researcher specifically wants to understand.
Research problem
Issues, controversies, or concerns that begin to define the need for the study. When writing this, use the logic steps that Rubel likes.
Bracketing
Only used in respect to phenomenology, related to reflexivity. Can’t bracket out your assumptions or your lens.
Research Topic
the broad subject area
Reflexivity
- a circular process,
- having awareness of our process,
- questioning ourselves. Morrow (2005)
- Positioning ourselves in the study (IE in methods section) and how this impacts our interpretation
Ontology
The philosophical study of being, existence, and reality
Epistemology
How do we know what we know? What is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? What do people know?
Need to maintain our philosophical foundations throughout the study.
Positivism
Usually associated with more hardcore version of quantitative. Reality is dictated by ‘natural laws’ and knowledge of the way things are. context free. Research can reveal this truth. Replication = truth.
Post-positivism
Reality exists but is imperfectly understandable because of human failing. Early qual was post-positivistic
Constructivism
Creswell (2013) Characteristics of qualitative research
- Natural setting
- Researcher as the key instrument
- Multiple sources of data
- Inductive analysis (throw the ball up in the air first, then develop theory)
- Participants’ meanings
- Emergent designs
- Theoretical lens
- Interpretive inquiry
- Holistic account
When to use qualitative approaches
Qualitative research questions
- open-ended,
- evolving,
- non-directional
- exploratory,
- descriptive,
- more related to what and how than why
Grounded Theory
Narrative based machine,
Phenomenology
Coming up with the right GRQ
- Determining the meaning of important terms
- determining what the central issue is
- Determining the case - what you include or don’t include in your conceptual context
- Somewhat circular with conceptual context formation - lather, rinse, repeat (what do I already know about this)
Exploring the conceptual context
- Stay focused on GRQ
- What explanations are out there?
- What DO you know or think you know?
- What issues or tensions are there related to your GRQ?
- Brainstorm, draw a conceptual map, clump
Morrow (2005)
- Social Validity
- Subjectivity and reflexivity
- adequacy of data
- adequacy of interpretation
Trustworthiness
- Credibility (most important of the four) - alignment with participants perspectives or realities
- Transferability - enablement of determinations of applicability of findings to other settings
- Dependability - depth of account of potential influences upon data and results
- Confirmability - degree to which data and results can be corroborated by others. (Lincoln &; Guba, 1985)
(Lincoln &; Guba, 1985)
- Credibility (most important of the four) - alignment with participants perspectives or realities
- Transferability - enablement of determinations of applicability of findings to other settings
- Dependability - depth of account of potential influences upon data and results
- Confirmability - degree to which data and results can be corroborated by others. (Lincoln &; Guba, 1985)
- Credibility
- Transferability
- Dependability
- Confirmability
Four factors of trustworthiness (Lincoln & Guba, 1985)
Standard techniques for promoting trustworthiness
- Exploring, disclosing, and bracketing researcher bias
- reflexive journal
- Prolonged engagement
- Attending to the research relationship
- Triangulation
- Member Checking
- Peer debriefing
- (Lincoln &; Guba, 1985)
Purposive Sampling
Talking to people who can best inform you about the phenomena. It’s not random at all.
