Qualitative Research Methods: Planning and Practice

1
Qualitative Research Methods Planning and
Practice

• Dr.Chris Atton
• Reader in Journalism
• School of Creative Industries
• (includes notes pages)

2
Beginning

• The subject matter is social life itself
• seeing the world from the viewpoint of the
  actor
• Learning about a culture from the inside out'
  (Hannabuss, 1996 22-23)
• Stresses understanding
• 'reflexive of the process that has produced it'
  (Altheide, 1996 2)

3
Reflexivity

• Requires a commitment to interpretation
• Is it possible or desirable for us to suspend our
  sense of belonging?
• A judicious balance between critical distance and
  empathy
• Patton's 'empathic neutrality'

4
Three Methods

• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Case study research

5
Selecting

• Not seeking representativeness
• Theoretical sampling
• Intrinsic study - for its own sake
• Instrumental or extrinsic study
• Intrinsic is pre-selected
• Instrumental - choose on basis of maximising what
  we can learn, ease of access, openness to our
  enquiry

6
The Principles of the Interview

• Dont put ideas into their heads - access their
  perspectives
• For motives and informal procedures
• For contradictions between attitudes and
  behaviour
• Gives respondents time to reflect

7
The Principles of the Focus Group

• Reliance on interaction within the group
• Researcher acting as moderator
• Group may influence nature of data it produces
• Less depth and detail about experience and
  opinions

8
The Principles of Case Study Research

• Qualitative observation
• Naturalistic fieldwork
• Holistic
• Ethnographic
• An integrated system
• A bounded system

9
Planning the Interview

• Consider time, cost, your skill
• Identify respondents availability,
  approachability
• Confidentiality and anonymity
• Pilot interview - clarity, relevance, best order

10
Planning the Focus Group

• Composition of groups
• Number of groups
• Recruitment
• Homogeneity of background, not attitudes

11
Planning the Case Study

• Identifying the case
• Access
• Planning with gatekeepers
• Time frame

12
Interview Practice

• Establish rapport - avoid jargon, be honest
• Explore questions fully
• How to take more than notes
• Reliability

13
Focus Group Practice

• Duration
• Unstructured or structured with probes
• Ground rules
• Low moderator involvement

14
Case Study Practice

• Observing
• Examining meaning and redirecting observation -
  progressive focusing
• Triangulation through multiple perspectives
• Interviews and documents?

15
Concluding

• Understand what and how the actors understand
• Preserve multiple realities
• Preserve different - even contradictory - views
  of what is happening

16
Reading

• McCracken, Grant (1988) The Long Interview.
  Newbury Park, Calif. and London Sage.
• Morgan, David L. (1988) Focus Groups as
  Qualitative Research. Newbury Park, Calif. and
  London Sage.
• Stake, Robert E. (1995) The Art of Case Study
  Research. Newbury Park, Calif. and London Sage.