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Summary Qualitative research practis Jane & Lewis
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Qualitative Research Practice: A guide for Social Science students and researchers. Inclusief samenvatting van alle hoofdstukken
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Ritchie & Lewis - Qualitative Research Methods
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Qualitative research practice Jane Ritchie & Jane LewisLEES SLIDES EN KEYPOINTS IN BOEK!!!!!
H1
How researchers carry out qualitative research depends upon a range of factors including:
Ontology: Beliefs about the nature of the social world and what can be known about it.
Epistemology: The nature of knowledge and how it can be acquired.
Purposes and goals of the research
Characteristics of the research participants
Audience
Funders of the research
Position and environment of the researchers themselves
Definition of qualitative research is used as an overarching category, covering a wide range of
approaches and methods found within different research discipline. Therefore, there are more
definitions of qualitative research.
Key elements which give qualitative research its distinctive character:
Aims which are directed at providing an in-depth and interpreted understanding of the social
world of research participants by learning about their social and material circumstances,
their experiences, perspectives and histories.
Samples that are small in scale and purposively selected on the basis of salient criteria.
Data collection methods (close contact between researcher and participants, interactive and
developmental)
Analysis (open to emergent concepts and ideas)
Outputs which tend to focus on the interpretation of social meaning through mapping and
re-presenting the social world of participants.
Rene Descartes ( 1637): Researchers should attempt a distance from any influences that might
corrupt their analytical capacity
Newton & Bacon (17e eeuw): knowledge about the world can be acquired through direct observation
(induction) rather than deduced from abstract propositions.
David Hume (1711-76): knowledge about the world originates in our experiences and is derived
through the senses.
Empirical research: Evidence based on direct observation and collected in an objective and unbiased
(onbevooroordeeld) way.
Auguste Comte (1798-1857): the social world can be studied in terms of invariant laws just like the
nature world. (positivism)
Positivism:
Methods of natural sciences appropriate for the study of social phenomenon
Only the phenomena which are observable can be counted as knowledge
Knowledge is developed inductively by the accumulation (opeenstapeling) of verified facts
Hypotheses are derived deductively from scientific theories to be tested empirically
(scientific method)
, Observations are the final arbiter in theoretical disputes
Facts and values are distinct, thus making it possible to conduct objective enquiry.
Immanuel Kant: there are ways of knowing about the world other than direct observation and that
people use these all the time
Perception not only by senses but also human interpretations of what our senses tell us.
Our knowledge is based on understanding which arises from thinking about what happens to
us, not only particular experiences.
Knowing and knowledge transcend basic empirical enquiry
Distinctions exist between ‘scientific reason’ (based on causal determinism) and ‘practical
reason’ (based on moral freedom and decision-making with less certainty)
Wilhelm Dilthey (1860-1870): the importance of ‘understanding’ and of studying people’s ‘lived
experiences’ which occur within a particular historical and social context. Self-determination and
human creativity play important roles in guiding our actions. (interpretivism)
Interpretivism: school of thought that stresses the importance of interpretation as well as
observation in understanding the social world.
Max Weber (1864-1920): the researcher must understand the meaning of social actions within the
context of the material conditions in which people live. direct observational understanding and
explanatory/motivational understanding. Difference in the purpose of understanding between
natural and social sciences. Natural: the purpose is to produce law-like propositions; social: the aim is
to understand subjectively meaningful experiences.
Ethnomethodolgy: the study of how people construct social order and make sense of their social
world and symbolic interactionism (the study of symbolic meanings and interpretations attached to
social actions and environments).
Positivism and legitimacy of social research based on the scientific method is debated ( pag 8-9)
Denzin & Lincoln (1994): the researcher cannot capture the social world of another, or give an
authoritative account of his or her findings, because there are no fixed meanings to be captured.
In the twentieth century there had been a major growth in the use of narrative and biographical
methods to provide partly greater understanding of phenomena in the context of people’s own
accounts of their personal development and histories but also because of the previously described
challenges to ways of involving study participants in generating research evidence.
Within the social research key ontological questions concern: whether or not social reality exists
independently of human conceptions and interpretations, whether there is a common social reality
or just multiple context-specific realities. And whether or not social behavior is governed by ‘laws’
that can be seen as immutable or generalizable.
Realism claims that there is an external reality which exists independently of people’s beliefs or
understanding about it. (distinction between the way the world is and the meaning and
interpretation of that world held by individuals)
Critical realism/Subtle realism: social phenomena are believed to exist independently of
people’s representations of them but are only accessible through those representations.
, Materialism claims that there is a real world but that only material features, such as economic
relations, or physical features of that world hold reality. Values, beliefs or experiences are
‘epiphenomena’ (features that arise from, but do not shape, the material world)
Idealism asserts that reality is only knowable through the human mind and through socially
constructed meanings.
Different position within idealism: it is possible for meanings and representations to be
shared or collective, while those holding a relativist position argue that there is no single
reality, only a series of social constructions (Hughes and Sharrock)
Relativism
Epistemology: concerned with ways of knowing and learning about the social world and focuses on
questions such as; how can we know about reality and what is the basis of our knowledge?
3 main issues in debate of social research:
1. Relationship between researcher ( objective or not) and researched (value-
mediated/negotiated)
2. Theories about ‘truth’ (views about similarities or differences between the natural and social
worlds)
3. The way knowledge is acquired (induction/deduction)
To encourage pragmatism the qualitative and quantitative research methods can be seen as an
appropriate method for addressing specific questions. More like complementary strategies instead of
competing. (transdisciplinary/multi-method)
BOX 1.3 pagina 16-17
Ontological position: emphasize the critical importance of respondents’ own interpretations of the
relevant research issues and accept that their different vantage points will yield different types of
understanding. Don’t feel that diverse perspectives negate the existence of an external reality which
can be ‘captured’. (subtle realism)
Epistemological position: the fact that historical context is largely one of quantitative research.
(interpretivism, pragmatism)
Lees blz. 23-24 voor key points and terms!!
H2
Theoretical research: the aim of testing, generating or enhancing thinking within a particular
discipline. (work on new theories or test existing theories)
Applied research: using the knowledge acquired through research to contribute directly to the
understanding or resolution of a contemporary issue (gain insight for problems of specific
information)
Functions of qualitative research: (lees slides door)
Contextual: describing the form or nature of what exists
Explanatory: examining the reasons for what exists
Evaluative: appraising (begroten) the effectiveness of what exists.
Generative: aiding the development of theories, strategies or actions
General agreement that the factors that determine whether qualitative methods should be the
principal method used are centrally related to the objectives of the research.
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