Summary Qualitative Research Methods - Social Sciences (VUB)
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Course
Qualitative Research Methods
Institution
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
In this document you will find the summary of Qualitative Research Methods where I included his slides, added with my extra notes during class and the examples/exercises in class
Table of Contents
Class 1: Introduction and Research question ........................................................................................... 3
Situating the course ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Developing research themes and questions in qualitative research ............................................................................ 3
Exercise in developing research questions in qualitative research ............................................................................ 10
Class 2: Research Questions, Sampling, ethics and planning .................................................................. 12
Goals of lesson ............................................................................................................................................................ 12
I. ..............................................................................................................................................Research question part 2
.................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
II. ................................................................................................................................................... Theoretical sampling
.................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
3. ..............................................................................................Sampling in focus groups (not needed for group work)
.................................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Assignment:................................................................................................................................................................. 17
III- Researching in an ethical way:............................................................................................................................... 17
Negotiating access to actors and organisations: ........................................................................................................ 20
Planning qualitative research: .................................................................................................................................... 21
Class 3: Developing interview questions ............................................................................................... 21
Goals ........................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Interviews.................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Techniques to generate discussion in a focus-groups ................................................................................................ 24
Interview questions for qualitative structured interviews - a second example ......................................................... 25
General guidelines ...................................................................................................................................................... 27
Class 4: The interview performance ...................................................................................................... 27
Goals lesson ................................................................................................................................................................ 27
1. ............................................................................................................................................ Conducting the interview
.................................................................................................................................................................................... 27
What does it mean to interview? ............................................................................................................................... 27
The moderator - Focusgroups ..................................................................................................................................... 28
Possible exam questions: ............................................................................................................................................ 28
Possible problems ....................................................................................................................................................... 29
Probing techniques ..................................................................................................................................................... 29
The Why question ....................................................................................................................................................... 30
Exercise: ...................................................................................................................................................................... 30
Evaluating the interview ............................................................................................................................................. 31
Some concluding advice on conducting interviews: ................................................................................................... 31
1
, Possible exam question............................................................................................................................................... 31
Class 6: Grounded Theory and Thematic Analysis .................................................................................. 32
Lesson goals ................................................................................................................................................................ 32
Grounded Theory ........................................................................................................................................................ 32
Coding data ................................................................................................................................................................. 33
Exercice – example for TA ........................................................................................................................................... 42
Class 7: Narrative Analysis .................................................................................................................... 43
Lesson Goals................................................................................................................................................................ 43
Discourse as synonymous for narratives .................................................................................................................... 44
Narrative Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................... 44
Goals of lesson ............................................................................................................................................................ 54
What is ethnography................................................................................................................................................... 54
............................................................................................................................................................................. 54
The phases in ethnographic research ......................................................................................................................... 56
Challenges in ethnographic research .......................................................................................................................... 63
Why should ethnographic research be done? ............................................................................................................ 65
2
,Class 1: Introduction and Research question
Situating the course
An introduction course: will only be a small level of depth, as the whole range of qualitative research needs to be
covered. Not every form of data-collection and analysis techniques will be taken into account, just the most relevant
ones. It only allows for basic skills
→we’ll focus on basic and essential skills
→Develop good research question and feel comfortable to dev a good sample and conduct a good research, plan
good, good interview questions
→Basic principles of DOING qualitative research and dev a solid foundation for other courses in the future.
Specific goals
The ability to develop and evaluate a qualitative research design based on the following questions and points
1. How can you develop research questions that can be studied by qualitative research, and how are these informed
by the literature, philosophical traditions and data-analysis?
2. How will you develop a theoretically relevant sample and how will you negotiate access to cases and settings
successfully?
3. How will you consider ethical issues in conducting qualitative research?
4. How will you plan your qualitative research effectively?
5. How can I develop a good interview questionnaire and conduct interviews effectively?
6. How will you decide which data-analysis techniques to use and how does this inform your design (research
questions, sample and interview questions)?
!!! this year: no coding of the interviews but still analysing data
We only have to think about the implication that it has on the research design
How to realise the goals
1. Lectures with guided exercises, in which the professor will explain the theory
2. Group assignment
The groups are meant to develop a specific set of research questions that are appropriate for qualitative research and
reflect on how underlying philosophical assumptions, the literature and the analysis of the collected data shape these
research questions.
Developing research themes and questions in qualitative research
A research theme describes the general topic of interest which wants to be researched
→ E.g. Research on communication between patients and medical doctors.
A research questions describes a specific question that needs to be answered in relationship to this theme.
→ E.g. How do doctors and patients define ‘good communication’ and how can we explain variability in such
views?
A theme can vary in terms of abstraction level or focus, e.g .:
Research into the relationships between doctors and patients (= general theme).
→Can be divided into different sub-themes, e.g.:
1. Research into communication between doctors and patients.
2. Research into discrimination of certain categories of patients by doctors.
3. Research into the role of workload on the quality of the relationship between doctors and patients.
3
, Setting up the central theme of your research and your specific research questions is influenced by:
1. Formal requirements: coherence, structure and relevance
2. Methodological principles
3. Personal interests, knowledge and experiences.
→key influence in you shaping your research question
4. Audience
→normally academic audience but you might address diff audiences in the future with diff expectation
5. Literature →it guides us
6. Philosophical Paradigms. →influence research in the kinds of RQ that we want to study
→Often not aware of that bcs we take assumptions with us without reflection on how we do research and
leads us to asking particular questions
1- Formal requirements
• Good research questions are coherent, focused and relevant
3 RQ is a good amount
• Not too many and not too few research questions (too / not too ambitious)
→ otherwise: too superficial
• Not too broad and not too narrow (too vague or ambitious / too restrictive);
• Not too much or too little overlap between the different research questions (repetition / not enough coherence);
➔ What we want to see is that the research relate to each other but it can’t be the same only with a minor
differences but if they are completely difference you have to look up completely different readings,…
• Clear relationship between research questions and overarching theme (s) is important;
• No double, triple… research questions (confusing);
→No different questions in one question →think carefully in the concepts that you use (behaviour if you want to
look behaviour but don’t synonyms if they are not!)
We check research question (if they are clear, overlap,..) with criteria of evaluation
• Consistent use of concepts in formulating research questions is important.
2- Methodological requirements
1. Qualitative research requires its own type of research questions:
• Normally you first choose research questions and only afterwards an adequate methodology to answer those
research questions, but in this course (and sometimes in reality) methodological choices are made in advance
(for / by you).
• Qualitative and quantitative research lend themselves well to investigating certain research questions, but
less so for others.
• A common mistake is that students formulate research questions that can be adequately explored by
quantitative, but much less well by qualitative research.
→You can’t have research question that measures effects →you need experiments to do that
• Do not focus on research questions in qualitative research where you try to:
a. measure effects ("To what extent or how strongly does variable X influence variable Y?);
b. establish if something happens or not ("Does X occur or not?"); →not qualitative
c. →Every sample in qualitative has non-representative: some things happen only in the samples
d. Don0t ask the extent to which something happens
e. measure or quantify some variation ("To what extent does that opinion occur?");
4
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