Qualitative Research in Education: A User′s Guide

by Marilyn V. Lichtman

Qualitative research is a general term that describes in-depth research about human behavior.

This is a book about the systematic investigation of social phenomena and human behavior and interaction. Note the key phrase systematic investigation. Research of this kind is called qualitative research—qualitative in that it relies on verbal and visual communication to answer questions. It examines humans in their natural settings rather than in experimental environments.

Ethnographers emphasized observations in natural settings with the goal of describing the people and their culture.

While quantitative research follows fairly objective and clear guidelines, qualitative research most certainly does not.

By the time the first Handbook of Qualitative Research was published (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994), definitions included “multimethod in focus,” “interpretive,” and “naturalistic approach to subject matter.”

Qualitative research is a general term. It is a way of knowing in which a researcher gathers, organizes, and interprets information obtained from humans using his or her eyes and ears as filters. It often involves in-depth interviews and/or observations of humans in natural, online, or social settings. It can be contrasted with quantitative research, which relies heavily on hypothesis testing, cause and effect, and statistical analyses.

Qualitative research is a way of knowing that assumes that the researcher gathers, organizes, and interprets information with his or her eyes and ears as a filter. It is a way of doing that often involves in-depth interviews and/or observations of humans in natural and social settings. It can be contrasted with quantitative research, which relies heavily on hypothesis testing, cause and effect, and statistical analyses.

The scientific method is a systematic way of testing hypotheses and determining cause and effect. It involves several basic steps: develop a question, identify related research, develop a hypothesis (a formal statement about the relationship between variables), design an experiment, analyze the data to test the hypothesis, and present results.

The scientific method relies heavily on numbers and statistics. Different terms are often used to describe the scientific method. In this book, I have used them interchangeably. I might talk about the scientific method; quantitative methods; experimental research; traditional paradigms; foundationalist (traditional experimental research) paradigms; positivism, which deals only with observable entities and objective reality; or traditional research paradigms.

Traditional research paradigms, or ways of seeing the world, make certain assumptions about the world. They assume that there is an objective reality that researchers should try to uncover as they conduct their research. Further, they assume that the role of the researcher is neutral; his or her purpose is to describe an objective reality. These paradigms are called positivist,

A postpositivist point of view held that researchers should strive to capture reality by using multiple methods. In such a way, reality would be approximated

New generations of qualitative researchers adopted a poststructural or postmodern point of view (e.g., Koro-Ljungberg, 2008; Mazzei, 2007). Some said that a positivist or postpositivist stance was no longer the only acceptable way to conduct research. Multiple realities constructed by the researcher replaced the traditional single approximation of an objective reality.

Torrance (2008) spoke of the movement in the United States for randomized control trials and the (unfortunate, in my view) development of standards and guidelines to control the production of qualitative research. Further, Torrance commented that this movement, which he called neopositivist, has reached the United Kingdom

I don’t mean to imply that there are right or wrong answers. That would be presumptuous. Nor are there right or wrong questions.

While quantitative researchers think about the world as having an objective reality, many qualitative researchers speak about a worldview in which reality is constructed by the researcher.

Constructivism is a theory, or proposed explanation of a phenomenon, that says that knowledge is constructed by the researcher and is affected by his or her context.

Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods of Research

It is not a positivist view, nor is it a constructivist one. It operates from a pragmatic perspective, and questions about how one knows the world are of less importance than those involved in how to combine elements from qualitative and quantitative paradigms.

in my experience, many of the journal articles present quantitative results before the qualitative and treat the latter as a “lesser.”

A multimethod study involves all qualitative data or all quantitative data. A mixed method study involves both qualitative and quantitative data.

The purpose of qualitative research is to describe, understand, and interpret human phenomena, human interaction, or human discourse.

Qualitative researchers tend to ask “why” questions and questions that lead to a particular meaning (Hollway & Jefferson, 2000). Because qualitative researchers are interested in meaning and interpretation, they typically do not deal with hypotheses.

They suggest that in qualitative interviewing “you can understand experiences in which you did not participate” (p. 3). Because much of the interviewing can be unstructured, they suggest that qualitative interviewers “explore new areas and discover and unravel intriguing puzzles” (p. 4).

Qualitative researchers do not always know whom they will study or what they will study. Qualitative researchers feel free to modify protocols as they progress through the ever-changing landscape of those they study.

Qualitative researchers do not always begin with a detailed and concrete plan for how they will conduct their research.

Deductive reasoning works from the general to the specific. In contrast, qualitative research deals with specifics and moves to the general.

When using an inductive approach, one thing leads to another, like scaffolding. You begin by gathering a considerable amount of data. You then go through your data to see whether you can find many examples of a particular thing, in order to identify a central issue or idea (a concept or theme). Of course, you might find some statements that do not support the theme. As you collect and simultaneously look at your data, you begin to move to more general statements or ideas based on the specifics found in your data.

Qualitative research involves the study of a situation or thing in its entirety, rather than identification of specific variables.

Qualitative researchers want to study how something is and understand it. They are not interested in breaking down components into separate variables.

Qualitative research typically involves studying things as they exist, rather than contriving artificial situations or experiments.

Natural settings are preferred when talking to people or observing them. Interviews can be conducted in the home or office of the participant, or by phone or in cyberspace. Observation of the interaction of individuals in natural settings can be conducted in classrooms, in homes, in the school yard, or at a parent-teacher meeting.

Most qualitative researchers acknowledge the dilemma of trying to be unbiased and objective.

A bias is a preference that inhibits impartial judgment. Bias and qualitative research is a topic that challenges both students and their professors.

Some qualitative researchers, who see themselves as phenomenologists, use a technique they call bracketing. I will talk more about this later, but for now, think of bracketing as trying to identify your views on the topic and then putting them aside.

the view that they can verify their interpretations by having others look at the data and go through the same process. They refer to this process as member checks or inter-rater reliability.

if they collect data from multiple sources, they will have a more accurate picture and thus remain less biased. The...

Themes are developed from the data. All of the traditions and approaches eventually lead to your taking the large amount of data you collect and making sense of it. Grounded theory uses a structured approach to data analysis and offers specific steps to follow in order to organize and synthesize data.

the postpositivist movement acknowledged that it is not possible for the researcher to be separate from the system or society he is studying. Instead, objective reality is approximated rather than achieved. The underlying assumption, however, is that if we had the correct tools, we could characterize our reality objectively.

interpretivism (a doctrine that emphasizes analyzing meanings people confer on their own actions), constructivism, and critical theory, accept that reality is virtual and is shaped by various forces.

Objectivity should not be considered bad; rather, it is just another way of thinking about how we gain knowledge and what knowledge is. So, for now, try to open your mind to the idea that designing a study to provide data that is objective and factual is not part of your goal. And you are to disabuse yourself of the need to be sorry that you are not quite sufficiently objective.

Ontology is concerned with what is real or the nature of reality.

only be reached in an imperfect manner but nevertheless would anticipate a researcher striving to reach it. Those espousing a critical theory paradigm consider historical realism, while those who see themselves as constructivists speak of relativism and constructed realities.

I would suggest that it is neither possible nor desirable for researchers to keep their values from influencing aspects of the research study.

Trained as a traditional researcher, you would take the position that action is not part of your responsibility. You do the work; someone else uses it.

I have heard some people say that doing qualitative research is appealing because you don’t have to deal with numbers, statistics, and tables. But often, I believe, the lack of rules, the vast amounts of data to process, and the tasks of writing are baffling to some.