Tips on Qualitative Research in Education

Qualitative research is a broad field of inquiry that uses unstructured data collection methods, such as observations or documents to find themes and meanings to inform our understanding of the world. Qualitative research tends to try to uncover the reasons for behaviors, attitudes and motivations, instead of just the details of what, where and when. Qualitative research can be done across many disciplines, such as social science, healthcare and business. To do qualitative research, there are some steps you can follow.

1. Decide on a question you want to study. A good research question needs to be clear, specific and achievable. To do qualitative research, your question should explore reasons for why people do things or believe in something.

2. Do a background literature review. A literature review can help you find out what others have found about your question. Doing this may help you to focus your question more specifically. A literature review will also help you to become better informed about the topic you are choosing and help you to determine if there is a need for your question to be answered.

3. Choose a qualitative research methodology you want to use.

  Ethnography – Ethnography is the study of human interaction and communities through direct participation and observation within the community you wish to study.

  Phenomenology – Phenomenology is the study of the subjective experiences of others. It researches the world through the eyes of another person by discovering how they interpret their experiences.

  Grounded Theory – The purpose of grounded theory is to develop theory based on the data collected. It looks at specific information and derives theories and reasons for the phenomena.

  Case Study Research – This method of qualitative study is an in-depth study a specific individual or phenomena in its existing context.

4. Collect your data. There are several methods of collecting data that you can use to do qualitative research.

  Direct observation – Direct observation of a situation or your research subjects can occur through video tape playback or through live observation through a one way mirror. In direct observation, you are making specific observations of a situation without influencing or participating in any way.

  Participant observation – Participant observation is the immersion of the researcher in the community or situation being studied. This form of data collection tends to be more time consuming, as you need to participate fully in the community in order to know whether your observations are valid.

  Interviews – Unstructured interviews with research subjects is a form of data collection in which you allow your respondents to answer freely. The interviewer can probe and explore topics as they come up.

  Surveys – Written questionnaires and open ended surveys about ideas, perceptions and thoughts is another way in which you can collect data for your qualitative research.

  Focus groups – Structured or unstructured focus groups allows for interaction between more participants and the interviewer about your topic. This form of data collection can be efficient as it involves more than one respondent at a time.

5. Analyze your data. Once you have collected your data, you can begin to analyze it and come up with answers and theories to your research question.

  Coding – Identify themes, ideas and patterns in your data

  Statistics – You can analyze your data using statistics. Descriptive statistics simply describe what the data is showing while inferential statistics tries to formulate conclusions beyond the data.

  Narrative analysis – Narrative analysis focuses on speech and content, such as grammar, word usage, story themes, meanings of situations, the social, cultural and political context of the narrative.

  Content analysis – Content analysis looks at texts or series of texts and looks for themes and meanings by looking at frequencies of words.

6. Prepare your report. When preparing the report on your qualitative research, keep in mind the audience for whom you are writing and also the formatting guidelines of the research journal you wish to submit your research to. You will want to make sure that your purpose for your research question is compelling and that you explain your research methodology and analysis in detail.

~ Related Book ~

Research Methods in Education: 

An Introduction (9th Edition)

William Wiersma (Author), Stephen G. Jurs (Author)

Product Detail:

·  Hardcover: 493 pages

·  Publisher: Pearson; 9th edition (March 9, 2008)

·  Language: English

·  Product Dimensions: 1 x 7 x 9.4 inches

·  Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds

·  Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars 

Overview:

A classic in its field, Research Methods in Education explains the research process with emphasis on the formulation of a research question, referencing current literature in the field, using appropriate research designs, and writing and evaluating research reports. Both quantitative and qualitative research designs are described. Measurement, sampling, and statistics are presented as essential research tools.

Retaining the clear, concise writing style and organization that has made this text so popular, Research Methods in Education helps students evaluate research literature as well as master research methodology. It emphasizes the rationale for commonly used research procedures and their applications. The authors outline the nature of educational research and clearly define the steps in the research process.

The text is broad in scope–covering both quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research methodologies as well as describing how to write research proposals and reports of completed research. Research Methods in Education gives students a solid understanding of all the elements of research.

From the Back Cover

Wiersma / Jurs, Research Methods in Education: An Introduction,

A classic in its field, Research Methods in Education explains the research process with emphasis on the formulation of a research question, referencing current literature in the field, using appropriate research designs, and writing and evaluating research reports. Both quantitative and qualitative research designs are described. Measurement, sampling, and statistics are presented as essential research tools.

New to this edition:

• The reorganization of the chapters into three sections is in response to requests from reviewers and current users of the text.
• New examples have been added that capture the students’ interest, for example, the relationship between poor reading skills and suicidal tendencies.
• New exercises have been added at the end of every chapter.
• The previous data sets used in the statistics chapters have been updated with current data sets.

Here’s what your colleagues are saying:

“I have used Wiersma’s texts for many years and…I plan to continue to use it.”

-          Doris L. Prater, University of Houston

“Very thorough, easy to read and follow.”

-          Darla Twale, University of Dayton

“Research Methods in Education is a useful guidebook for students to understand the basic principles and methodology involved in all types of research, be it experimental, quasi-experimental, survey, correlational, action, enthroposophic, or single subject design. Basically, the text covers all aspects of qualitative and quantitative research methods.”

-          Gholam Kibria, Delaware State University