Tentamenstof
Week 1
Hoofdstuk 1, 2, 3
Hoofdstuk 1
What do you need to become a QR? (blz. 9/10)
Qualitative sensibility: an orientation towards research – in terms of research questions, an
analysing data – that fits within the qualitative paradigm.
• Interest in process and meaning (above cause and effect)
• Critical and questioning approach to life (iets niet zomaar aannemen als waar) and
knowledge
• Ability to reflect on, and step outside, your cultural membership, to become a
cultural commentator (identifying your own assumptions and putting them aside –
bracketing them off)
• Eyes and ears / double-consciousness
• Reflexivity (reflecteren op jezelf – eigen rol als onderzoeker (one’s own role as
researcher) – en op onderzoek dat je analyseert (the ressearch process))
• Including our various insider (sharing some group identity with participants)
and outsider (not sharing some group identity with participants) positions
• Good interactional skills
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• A basic grasp of some methods of data collection and analysis
• A conceptual understanding of qualitative approaches
What is QR?
• Words as data, collected and analyzed in all sorts of ways
• Meanings
• Rich/thick data (meer nuance, detail, diepte (when context is included))
• Theory generating
Thin data: when context is exluded
1
,3 basic forms of frameworks:
- Searching for patterns
- Looking at interaction
- Looking at story
3 types of questions in qualitative research:
1. Research questions: what you’re trying to find out
2. The questions you as participants to generate data
3. The question you ask of your data, in order to answer your research questions
Big Q vs Small Q
Big Q: Application of techniques within a qualitative paradigm
• Paradigm:
• Multiple versions of reality
• The use of qualitative data, and the analysis of words which are not reducible
to numbers
• The use of more ‘naturally’ occurring data collection methods that more
closely resemble real life
• An interest in meanings rather than reports and measures of behavior or
internal cognitions
• The use of inductive, theory-generating research
• A rejection of the natural sciences as a model of research
• The recognition that researchers bring their subjectivity into the research
process – this is seen as a strength rather than a weakness
2
, • Perspective (er zit een heel wereldbeeld (epistemologisch) achter and we see things
from a perspective)
Small Q: qualitative techniques outside a qulitative paradigm
• Techniques
• Mixed method
History QR in CS
• Interdisciplinair
• Psychology (from its inception)
• Sociology
• Political Science
• QR in CS tracks
Dominance of behaviorism and then cognitive experimentalism meant that it wasn’t until
the 1980s that qualitative approaches regained a foothold, and subsequently flourished.
In qualitative research, the person was theorized as operating within a subjective,
interpreted world, the organization of which offered a certain version of reality. The
relationship between person and context was seen as more fluid and reciprocal, with
influence in both directions.
à Often rejection of values, assumptions and practices of quantitative, experimental
psychology
Hoofdstuk 2
10 Fundamentals of QR
1. QR is about meaning, not numbers
- It records the messiness of real life, puts an organizing framework around it and
intrerprets it in some way.
- Not about testing hypotheses, and not typically about seeking comparisons between
groups
- Does not assume the ‘same’ accounts will always be generated, every time, by any
researcher
2. QR doesn’t provide a single answer
Verschillende onderzoekers geven verschillende antwoorden/inzichten. (Betekent niet dat
alles maar kan / no ‘anything goes’)
- Geeft meer ruimte voor creativiteit
Tells one story among many that could be told about the data
Stories are partial and subjective
You don’t need to be claiming to tell the only or absolute truth to be telling a compelling
‘truth’ about your data.
3. QR treats context as important
Context speelt een rol in hoe mensen dingen interpreteren.
- Bijv. cultuur/gender/leeftijd
3
, Kwalitatief onderzoek erkent dat er subjectiviteit is (we onderzoeken subjectiviteit en onze
analyse is subjectief).
Recognizes that biases exist, and incorporates them into the analysis.
Perspectival subjectivity: the idea that what we see and understand reflects our identities
and experiences – the contexts we’ve existed in.
4. QR can be experiential (ervaringsgericht) or critical (kritisch)
2 hoofdvormen
- Experiential: onderzoekt de ervaringen van mensen
Validates the meanings, views, perspectives, experiences and/or practices expressed
in the data.
- Critical: onderzoekt de onderliggende (culturele) waarden onder de
ervaringen/associaties
Takes an interrogative stance towards the meanings or experiences expressed in the
data, and uses them to explore some other phenomenon.
How language gives shape to certain social realities – and the impact of these.
Researchers use language to explore the ways different versions of reality are
created.
o Interest in representation and/or construction: Interest in factors which
shape or create meaning and the effects and implications of particular
patterns of meaning
§ Practice of deconstruction: texts are taken apart and interrogated for
the dominant and hidden assumptions (or oppositions) they rely on.
o Interested in language practice: Qualitative research seeks to examine the
ways language is used to create particular versions of reality
5. QR is underpinned by ontological assumptions
Ontology: whether or not we think reality exists entirely separate from human practices and
understandings or whether we think it cannot be separated from human practices, and so
knowledge is always going to reflect our perspective
Realism: reality is entirely independent of human ways of knowing about it (mind-
independent truth)
Critical realism: er is wel een werkelijkheid, maar iedereen kan deze alleen door zijn eigen
bril zien
Relativism: reality is entirely depending on human interpretation and knowledge
(correspondence theory of truth)
4
