Qualitative research is a vast field of investigation. It consists of collecting unstructured data, such as observations, interviews, surveys and documents. This information allows you to identify deep patterns and meanings, in order to broaden your understanding of the world and offer a new perspective. This type of research usually seeks to unravel the reasons behind behaviors, attitudes and motivations. In fact, it doesn't just give details on what, where and when. It can be done in multiple disciplines, such as social sciences, healthcare and business, and is adaptable to almost any single workplace or educational environment.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Prepare the Research
Step 1. Establish the question you want to answer
To be considered valid, a question must be clear, specific and manageable. For the purpose of qualitative research, it should explore the reasons why people do certain actions or believe in something.
- Research questions are among the most important aspects to structure the investigation. They determine what you want to learn or understand. Plus, they help you focus on a focused study, since it's impossible to investigate everything at once. The question will also shape how you conduct your research, as different questions require different methods of inquiry.
- You should start with a burning question and then narrow it down to make it manageable enough to be analyzed effectively. For example, "the meaning of the teacher's work" is too broad a topic for a single research. However, if that's the topic you're interested in, you might want to narrow it down to one type of professor or focus on one level of education. For example, you can analyze the meaning of the profession for teachers who pursue this profession after leaving another one or who work closely with children between the ages of 14 and 15.
Advise:
find a good balance between a burning question and a searchable one. The first contains doubts that you really want to answer and often involves a rather large field. The second, on the other hand, is linked to information that can be investigated directly using the available research methods and tools.
Step 2. Do a literature selection
Literature review is to study what others have written about your particular research and topic. This procedure allows you to read a little of everything on the subject and examine studies that relate to it. Then, we need to sum up with an analytical report that synthesizes and integrates the existing research (instead of just presenting a brief summary of each study in chronological order). In other words, you need to do a research on the research already conducted.
- For example, if your research focuses on the meaning attributed to their work by teachers who chose this career after pursuing another profession, you should look at the literature on this topic. What motivates people to choose teaching as a second career? How many professors are in this professional phase? Where do most of the teachers of this type work? These readings, combined with a selection of existing literature and research, will help you refine your question and lay the necessary foundation for your own investigation. In addition, they will allow you to get an idea of the variables that could impact the research (such as age, gender, social class, and so on) and that you will need to take into account in your study.
- A selection of the literature will also help you determine if you are actually interested and willing to dig deep into the topic and research. Additionally, it will let you know if there are any missing parts in existing studies, which you could focus on by conducting your own investigation.
Step 3. Evaluate if qualitative research is the right tool for your question
Qualitative methods are useful when a question cannot be answered with a simple affirmative or negative hypothesis. Qualitative studies are often particularly effective in answering questions such as "how?" and what?". They are also indicated when a certain pre-established budget has to be respected.
For example, if the research aims to understand the ideas of teachers who have decided to pursue this profession after leaving another, it is not possible to give an affirmative or negative answer. Furthermore, there is unlikely to be a single all-encompassing answer. This means that qualitative research is the best way to go.
Step 4. Consider your ideal sample size
Contrary to quantitative research methods, qualitative ones do not rely on large samples, but can still generate important perspectives and discoveries. For example, since you are unlikely to have the necessary funds to examine all the professors who have chosen teaching as a second career at the national level, perhaps you can decide to limit your study to one of the main urban areas (such as Milan) or to schools within a radius of 200 km from where you live.
- Consider the possible outcomes. Since qualitative methodologies are generally quite extensive, it is almost always possible that useful data will emerge from the research. This study differs greatly from a quantitative experiment, where an unproven hypothesis can mean that a lot of time has been wasted.
- The research budget and available financial sources must also be considered. Qualitative research is often less expensive, and easier to plan and implement. For example, it is usually easier and cheaper to gather a small group of people for interviews than to buy statistical analysis software and hire experts on the subject.
Step 5. Choose a qualitative research methodology
The qualitative research framework is the most flexible of all experimental techniques, so there are a number of valid methodologies to consider.
- Action search. This method focuses on solving an immediate problem or working with other people to resolve the issue and address particular issues.
- Ethnography. It is the study of human interaction and communities through direct participation and observation in the collectivity that you want to examine. Ethnographic research comes from the discipline of social and cultural anthropology, but now its use is spreading more and more.
- Phenomenology. It is the study of the subjective experiences of other people. It consists of researching the world through the eyes of another person, discovering how they interpret their experiences.
- Grounded Theory. The goal of this method is to develop a theory based on systematically collected and analyzed data. It searches for specific information, and then derives theories and motives in order to explain the phenomena.
- Search for case studies. This qualitative research method is an in-depth study concerning an individual or a specific phenomenon in its context of belonging.
Part 2 of 2: Collect and Analyze Data
Step 1. Collect the data
Each research methodology uses one or more techniques to collect empirical data, including interviews, participant observation, fieldwork, archive searches, documentaries, and so on. The method of data collection will depend on the research methodology. For example, case study research usually relies on interviews and documentaries, while ethnographic research requires considerable fieldwork.
- Direct observation. Direct observation of a situation or research subjects can be achieved through a camera recording or live analysis. As for direct observation, you need to make specific considerations about a situation without influencing it or participating in it in other ways. For example, perhaps you want to watch teachers who have chosen this job as a second career as they go about their routine in and out of the classroom. As a result, you decide to review them for a few days, making sure you get permission from the school, students, and professor, while taking detailed notes.
- Participant observation. The researcher immerses himself in the community and in the situation to be studied. This form of data collection tends to be more time consuming, because you have to participate fully in the community in order to understand if your observations are valid.
- Interviews. Qualitative interviews basically consist of the process of collecting data by asking people questions. They can be very flexible. In fact, it is possible to make them in person, but also by phone, via the internet or in small groups called focus groups. There are also different types of interviews. Structured ones have pre-established questions, while unstructured ones are more fluid conversations, where the interviewer can investigate and explore topics as soon as they are brought up. Interviews are especially useful if you want to learn about people's feelings and reactions to something. For example, it would be very useful to meet with teachers who do this job as a second career for an interview (structured or not) in order to gather information on how they represent and describe their work.
- Surveys. Written questionnaires and limitless surveys of ideas, perceptions and thoughts are another useful method for collecting data for qualitative research. Think back to the example of the teacher study. If you are concerned that professors are less direct during an interview because their identity would be obvious, you could conduct an anonymous survey of 100 teachers in the area.
- Analysis of documents. This involves examining written, visual and audio documents that exist regardless of the researcher's involvement or encouragement. There are different types of documents, including official ones published by institutions and personal ones, such as letters, memoirs, diaries and, in the 21st century, social network accounts and online blogs. For example, if you research the education sector, institutions such as public schools offer various types of documents, including reports, flyers, manuals, websites, resumes, and so on. You can also try to inquire if a teacher reviewed has an online meeting group or blog. Document analysis can often be useful when used in conjunction with another method, such as interviews.
Step 2. Analyze the data
Once you have collected them, you can start examining them, offering answers and theories to the research question. Although there are different methods of investigation, all modes of qualitative research analysis deal with textual criticism, whether the text is written or oral.
- Codes. With this method you assign a word, phrase or number to a certain category. Start with a pre-set list of codes that you have derived from your previous knowledge of the subject. For example, "financial matters" or "community involvement" might be two codes that come to mind after you have done a selection of the literature on teachers pursuing the profession as a second career. Then, it examines all the data in a systematic way, coding ideas, concepts and themes in their respective categories. It also develops another set of codes, which will emerge from reading and analyzing the data. For example, as you code interviews, you may find that the word "divorce" appears frequently; you can add a code for that. This tactic helps you organize your data and identify common patterns and characteristics.
- Descriptive statistics. You can analyze the data using statistics. The descriptive ones help to expose, demonstrate or summarize the data to highlight repeating patterns. For example, if you have 100 evaluation forms filled in by students to grade their professors, you may be interested in summarizing teachers' overall performance; descriptive statistics allow you to do this. However, keep in mind that they cannot be used to draw conclusions or confirm or disprove hypotheses.
- Narrative analysis. It focuses on speech and content, such as grammar, use of words, metaphors, historical themes, analysis of situations, cultural and political context of a text.
- Hermeneutical analysis. It focuses on the meaning of a written or oral text. Basically, it tries to explain the meaning of the object of study and highlight a sort of underlying coherence.
- Content analysis / semiotics. Content analysis or semiotics examines texts or series of texts in search of themes and meanings. This research is based on the observation of the frequency with which words are repeated. In other words, it seeks to identify regular structures and patterns in an oral or written text, and then make inferences based on these linguistic repetitions. For example, you may find repeating terms or phrases, such as "second chance" or "making a difference", and which emerge in several interviews with second-career professors. Then, you decide to investigate the significance of this frequency.
Step 3. Write your search
When preparing a qualitative research report, keep in mind the target readers and also the formatting guidelines of the journal you intend to submit the study to. You have to make sure that the purpose of the exam is convincing; in addition, it explains the research methodology and analysis in detail.
