![](/olcweb/styles/shared/spacer.gif) | ![How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education Book Cover](/sites/dl/free/0072532491/title/fw_sm.gif) How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education, 5/e Jack R. Fraenkel,
San Francisco State University Norman E. Wallen,
San Francisco State University
The Nature of Qualitative
Main PointsThe Nature of Qualitative Research - The term "qualitative research" refers to research investigations of the quality of relationships, activities, situations, or materials.
- The natural setting is a direct source of data and the researcher is a key part of the instrumentation process in qualitative research.
- Qualitative data are collected mainly in the form of words or pictures and seldom involve numbers. Content analysis is a primary method of data analysis.
- Qualitative researchers are especially interested in how things occur and particularly in the perspectives of the subjects of a study.
- Qualitative researchers do not, usually, formulate a hypothesis beforehand and then seek to test it. Rather, they allow hypotheses to emerge as a study develops.
- Qualitative and quantitative research differ in the philosophic assumptions which underlie the two approaches.
Steps Involved in Qualitative Research - The steps involved in conducting a qualitative study are not as distinct as they are in quantitative studies. They often overlap and sometimes even conducted concurrently.
- All qualitative studies begin with a foreshadowed problem, the particular phenomenon the researcher is interested in investigating.
- Researchers who engage in a qualitative study of some type usually select a purposive sample. Several types of purposive samples exist.
- There is no "treatment" in a qualitative study, nor is there any manipulation of variables.
- The collection of data in a qualitative study is ongoing.
- Conclusions are drawn continuously throughout the course of a qualitative study.
Approaches to Qualitative Research - A biographical study tells the story of the special events in the life of a single individual.
- A researcher studies an individual's reactions to a particular phenomenon in a phenomenological study. He or she tries to describe an individual's experiences from the subject's perspective.
- In a grounded theory study, a researcher forms a theory that is formed inductively from the data that is collected as part of the study.
- A case study is a detailed study of one or (at most) a few individuals or other social units, such as a classroom, a school, or a neighborhood.
Generalization in Qualitative Research - Generalizing is possible in qualitative research, but it is of a different type than that found in quantitative studies. It is more likely it will be done by interested practitioners.
Ethics and Qualitative Research - The identities of all participants in a qualitative study should be protected, and they should be treated with respect.
Reconsidering Qualitative and Quantitative Research - Aspects of both qualitative and quantitative research often are used together in a study. Increased attention is being given to such mixed-method studies.
- Whether qualitative or quantitative research is the most appropriate boils down to what the researcher involved wants to find out.
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