QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
Lecture about unit 1
Ontology is concerned with the nature of reality and what there is to know about the world.
Epistemology is concerned with questions about how we know this world. These are philosophical
questions. The answer to these questions will influence both what you want to research, and how
you want to research. In Ritchie and Lewis, a distinction is made between two ontological positions:
realism and idealism. These positions are also referred to by researchers as objectivism and
constructivism.
Ontological positions have consequences for our epistemological position. If we assume that there is
an external reality, it follows that we can study this reality by using our senses: we can see it, hear it,
smell it, touch it, taste it. The idea that we can know reality through using our senses is called
empiricism. If we believe that reality is constructed, we have to adopt a different way of gaining
knowledge about this constructed reality. For example, we have to acknowledge that people
construct realities in different ways, and we have to find out how people construct meaning.
Ontology + epistemology = paradigm
Historically, the first scientific paradigm is referred to as positivism. Positivism adopts an objectivist
ontological position and a realist epistemology. In other words: positivists assume that there is an
external reality, and that we can know this reality by using our senses. This was quite revolutionary at
that time. This position has been nuanced later, as scientists became convinced that reality can never
be fully known. This nuanced version of positivism is called post-positivism. However, post-positivism
still adopts a rather objectivist approach to scientific inquiry.
From the seventies onwards, different paradigms started to develop. The interpretivist paradigm
posits that it is important to find out how people understand and interpret the world around them.
After all, if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.
Constructionist paradigms, of which there are many, go even a step further. If people construct the
reality in which they live, so do researchers. It is therefore important for social researchers to reflect
continuously on their own role. Another insight brought by constructionist approaches is the
recognition of the importance of language. After all, it is through language that people construct
meaning. This insight is referred to as the linguistic turn.
Furthermore, acknowledging the role of researchers themselves in constructing realities has given
rise to (participatory) action research. Realizing that they are part of the construction, researchers
came to feel responsibility for the outcomes of their research. This had led researchers to adopt
research approaches that question existing realities, as in critical theory, or that would result in
concrete benefits for the people involved, such as action research.
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,Kahoot quiz
Which of the following is not a contrast between quantitative and qualitative research?
- Interpretivist vs constructionist
"Culture as text: The development of an organizational narrative"
- Intepretivist/constructionist
"Measuring normative beliefs and shared behavioral expectations in organizations…."
- (Post)positivist
Provides rich context and analysis…
- Strength QL
Provides strong overall view of population
- Strength QN
Personal experiences are described in detail…
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, - Strength QL
"Organizational culture of participation: Development and validation of a measure"
- QN approach
How employees with different national identities experience a geocentric organizational culture of a
global corporation
- QL approach
"Drinking beer and understanding organizational culture embodiment"
- QL approach
UNIT 1
The foundations of qualitative research
There are several reasons why it is helpful to understand something of the background of qualitative
research:
1. It is important to be aware that there is no single, accepted way of carrying out qualitative
research. How researchers proceed depends upon a range of factors, including their beliefs about the
nature of the social world (ontology), the nature of knowledge and how it can be acquired
(epistemology), the purpose(s) and goals of the research, the characteristics of research participants,
the audience for research, the funders, and the positions and environments of the researchers
themselves. Differences in the mix of these factors have led to numerous variations in approaches to
qualitative research.
2. Views on whether and how quality in qualitative research practice can or should be assessed
depend in part on positions that people hold on key areas of philosophical debate. In other words
the degree to which a research study is accepted, and by whom, will partly depend on the particular
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, stance(s) that those involved (researchers, funders, participants, etc.) take. At a general level,
qualitative research is often described as a naturalistic, interpretative approach, concerned with
exploring phenomena ‘from the interior’ and taking the perspectives and accounts of research
participants as a starting point. Denzin and Lincoln propose that in spite of the inherent diversity
within qualitative research, it can be described as: A set of interpretive, material practices that make
the world visible. The practices transform the world. They turn the world into a series of
representations, including fieldnotes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings and memos
to self … qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of or
interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. (page 3) It should be
recognized that a comprehensive definition of qualitative research is difficult to attain, because of
the wide array of approaches and beliefs it encompasses. In order to understand the different
approaches adopted by qualitative researchers, it is helpful to have some understanding of the
philosophical debates underpinning the development of social research in general. The issue of how
the social world can be studied raises a number of philosophical questions. Some of these relate to
‘ontology’ and others relate to ‘epistemology’. Differences in researchers’ answers to these questions
have led to the divergent ‘schools’, ‘interpretive frameworks’ and approaches to qualitative research
described later in this chapter.
Ontology what we consider as reality
Ontology: nature of reality and what there is to know about the world. Key ontological questions
concern whether or not there is a social reality that exists independently of human conceptions and
interpretations and, closely related to this, whether there is a shared social reality or only multiple,
context-specific ones. An underlying ontological question concerns whether the social and natural
worlds exist in similar ways or whether the social world is fundamentally different because it is open
to subjective interpretation. Some early commentators believed that the social world was similar to
the physical world and was governed by universal, causal was. However, it has been argued that the
two are very different, and that any regularities identified by social enquiry cannot by governed by
immutable laws, because human beings have agency and therefore have choice about what they do.
Many contemporary qualitative researchers would share this latter view, rejecting the idea that fixed
‘laws’ governing the social world exist or could be identified.
Some examples of ontological questions:
- What is the nature of the (social) entities?
- Does social reality exist independently of human conceptions and interpretations?
- Is there a common, shared, social reality or just multiple context-specific realities?
- Is social reality independent of human actors or is it constantly being constructed by them?
Realism: Based on the idea that there is an external reality which exists independently of people’s
beliefs about or understanding of the social world. In other words there is a distinction between the
way the world is, and the meaning and interpretation of that world held by individuals.
Idealism: No external reality exists independent of our belief or understanding. Reality is
fundamentally mind-dependent: it is only knowable through the human mind and through socially
constructed meanings, and no reality exist independently of these.
Epistemology ways of knowing what reality is
Epistemology: How can we learn about (social) reality? (The nature of knowledge and how it can be
acquired). Epistemology is concerned with ways of knowing and learning about the world and
focuses on issues such as how we can learn about reality and what forms the basis of our knowledge.
Some examples of epistemological questions:
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