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Qualitative Research Designs

Case Study Designs

A qualitative case study design involves an intensive exploration or description and analysis of a situation or social unit, such as an individual, group, institution, or community. In contrast to surveying a few variables across a large number of units, a case study focuses on investigating many, if not all, variables or factors in a number of cases. By concentrating on the cases, this approach is used to uncover the interplay of significant factors that are characteristic of a situation. While using a qualitative case study design such as descriptive, exploratory, or embedded with multiple cases is appropriate for University of Phoenix dissertation research, single case studies are not.

The content of a qualitative case study is determined chiefly by its purpose, which typically is to reveal the properties of the class to which the instance being studied belongs. If conducted over a period of time, the case study may be longitudinal; therefore, changes over time become one of the variables of interest. Other case studies focus on describing a situation as it exists at a particular time.

One of the characteristics of the case study approach is its adaptability to different research problems in many fields of study. There are four essential properties of a qualitative case study:

• Particularistic: Case studies focus on a particular situation, event, or program.

• Descriptive: The end product of a case study is a thick description of the situation under study.

• Heuristic: Case studies illuminate the reader’s understanding of the situation under study. They can bring about the discovery of new meaning, extend the reader’s experience, or confirm what is known.

• Inductive: Qualitative case studies, for the most part, rely on inductive reasoning for the formulation of concepts, generalizations, or tentative hypotheses that may be tested through future research.

The Ethnography Design

Ethnography is the research methodology developed by anthropologists to study human society and culture. The term ethnography has two distinct meanings. Ethnography is (1) a set of methods or techniques used to collect data, and (2) the written record that is the product of using ethnographic techniques.

Ethnographic techniques are the methods researchers use to uncover the social order and meaning a setting or situation has for the people participating in it. The five procedures commonly used in this type of investigation are participant observation, in-depth interviewing, life history, documentary analysis, and investigator diaries, which are records of the researcher’s experiences and impressions.

Participant observation is the cornerstone technique of ethnography, and a researcher might assume any of several variations of this technique. The following are the four variations:

• Complete participant: The researcher becomes a member of the group being studied—concealing the fact that he or she is observing and participating.

• Participant as observer: The observer’s objectives are not concealed but are clearly subordinated.

• Observer as participant: The role of observer is publicly known, and participation becomes a secondary activity.

• Complete observer: The observer is invisible to the activity—as in the case of a one-way mirror or hidden camera—or tries to become unnoticed, as in the case of camera crews that live with their subject, classroom observers.

Grounded Theory

Grounded theory (GT) is a qualitative research method in which a systematic set of procedures is used to develop theory grounded in the data when existing theories are inadequate to explain the phenomenon. The logic of the GT method is inductive rather than deductive, through an iterative process of going back and forth from the data to build a theory derived from data analysis. The analysis process using GT involves theoretical sampling; simultaneous and sequential collection and analysis of data in an iterative loop involving constant comparison of the data with an emerging theory; resulting in formulation of a theory, grounded in the data, to explain the phenomenon.

Data collection may take place through interviews, detailed observational field notes, documents and artifacts, or a combination of similar sources. Progressive questioning is used to minimize the framing of the interview by the researcher and allow for maximum participant disclosure.

Simultaneous data collection and analysis in an iterative loop distinguishes GT from other inquiry approaches. A recursive series of coding, questioning, and assessing is used to generate a theory. Theoretical sampling continues until all the categories of the data are investigated.

Delphi Research Design

Delphi studies focus on using many forms of knowledge to understand future possibilities. Experts come together to build consensus about what might take place in the future, its potential strengths and weaknesses, issues and problems, or potential solutions. Typically, experts participate in initial rounds of open-ended questions, followed by ranking of responses to build consensus. Approaches to exploring the future include the following:

• Descriptive approach (the imagined future)(including conjectures, speculations, and imagined situations

• Exploratory approach (the logical future)(forecasting based on methodical and relatively linear extrapolation of past and present developments into the future

• Prescriptive approach (the willed future)(normatively oriented projections of the future in which explicit value insertions and choices are made about how a specific future may be viewed or attained

Phenomenological Inquiry

Phenomenology is a school of thought that emphasizes a focus on people’s subjective experiences and interpretations in the world. Phenomenological theorists argue that objectivity is virtually impossible to ascertain, so to compensate, one must view all research from the researcher’s perspective. Phenomenologists attempt to understand those whom they observe from the subjects’ perspective. This outlook is pertinent in research where empathy and perspective become the keys to success. Husserl founded phenomenology; phenomenology is a modern philosophical tendency that emphasizes the perceiver. Objects exist and achieve meaning only if we register them on our consciousness. Phenomenological researchers are therefore concerned with the ways in which one’s consciousness perceives the world around us and our lived experiences.

Phenomenological inquiry includes multiple phenomenological research designs, including hermeneutic, empirical, and heuristic.

Data analysis in phenomenological inquiry focuses on understanding the general essence of the phenomenon as lived by the participants, understanding essential patterns among the essences, exploring how the phenomenon is experienced consciously, bracketing (suspending judgment), and interpreting meaning of the phenomenon from the participants’ perspective.

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