HTML Preview Qualitative Research Introduction page number 1.
Qualitative Research Introduction
“Data analysis is a systematic search for meaning. It is a way to process qualitative
data so that what has been learned can be communicated to others. Analysis means organizing and
interrogating data in ways that allow researchers to see patterns, identify themes, discover relationships,
develop explanations, make interpretations, mount critiques, or generate theories. It often involves synthesis,
evaluation, interpretation, categorization, hypothesizing, comparison, and pattern finding. It always involves
what H. F. Wolcott calls “mindwork”. . . Researchers always engage their own intellectual capacities to make
sense of qualitative data.” (Hatch 2002, 148)
An Introduction
This document is meant to be an introduction to qualitative research for those already familiar with
quantitative research. Throughout this document, the two approaches will often be compared to illustrate
the distinctive elements of qualitative research. Please note that the Research Support Group does view
either methodological approach as superior to the other. The research question is the best determinant of
the most appropriate methodology or a combination of the two.
Qualitative vs Quantitative: Questions & Approach
In comparison to quantitative research, qualitative inquiry employs different philosophical assumptions;
strategies of inquiry; and methods of data collection, analysis and interpretation (Creswell 2009, 173). A
qualitative approach emphasizes the qualities of entities, processes and meanings that are not
experimentally examined or measured in terms of quantity, amount, intensity or frequency (Denzin and
Lincoln 2000, 8). Put another way, quality refers to a thing’s essence and ambience - the what, how, when
and where of it. Qualitative research thus refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics,
metaphors, symbols and description of things (Berg 2007). The research questions often stress how social
experience is created and given meaning. The value-laden nature of such an inquiry stresses the
relationship between the researcher and subject(s), as well as the situational constraints that shape the
inquiry (Denzin and Lincoln 2011).
It may be helpful to review a list of characteristics common to several qualitative methods. Though the list
below is not exhaustive (Creswell 2009, 175-6), it offers a sense of well-known qualitative research
methods.
Research is often conducted in the field, allowing direct interaction with the people being studied in
their context.
Researchers collect data themselves by examining documents, observing behavior or interviewing
participants.
Multiple sources of data are preferred over a single source; this requires the researcher to review
all data, make sense of it and organize it into categories or themes that cut across all sources.
Researchers often build their patterns, categories and themes from the bottom up (inductive
analysis).
Center for Teaching, Research & Learning
Research Support Group at the Social Science Research Lab
American University, Washington, D.C.
http://www.american.edu/provost/ctrl/researchsupportgroup.cfm
202-885-3862