Since the readings this week were rather lengthy, I have decided
to summarize and focus on chapter 9, qualitative methods. Also, I think Graham
and others have done a good job talking about quantitative, and I would like to
approach this slightly differently from some of the other posts I have read.
I've decided to briefly summarize the chapter and intersperse my response to
some key points throughout the discussion.
Chapter 9
discusses the characteristics of successful qualitative research; according to the
chapter, qualitative research should take into consideration the audience of
the piece, as well as include multiple sources of data. I particularly connected
with the concept in the chapter of observation in a "natural setting"
as important to qualitative research. I’m glad the book stressed that point,
because as we have been discussing all along in class, it's clearly important
for us to collect data “in the field” to create a true picture of what we're
studying. As Dr. Pimentel has been stressing all along, qualitative research is
very much about context. Without studying phenomena in the proper context, we
cannot attempt to gain useful information. This relates directly to the other
main concern early in this chapter, which is the idea of the "researcher
as instrument"; it's critical to remember that as we embark on qualitative
research, we have a responsibility to report the information appropriately.
Because we don't have an exterior "instrument" to follow (as in 158
regarding quantitative research), we must develop our data appropriately to avoid
pitfalls or mistakes.
The chapter then
delves into different ways to collect data. Creswell specifically mentions
qualitative observations, interviews, and documents. I found it interesting
that he brought up the idea that a qualitative observer can be anything from a
non-participant to a complete participant. This is definitely something I will
keep in mind as we move towards conducting our research, because some of the
areas and communities I would like to study are things I am somewhat tied to
emotionally. I was uncertain whether or not to study things I deal with every
day, but I very well may do so given the advice in this chapter, assuming I can
do so with validity.
Creswell then
moves into a discussion of the steps in coding data. I was quite surprised by
the intensity of this analysis, simply because the rest of the book had been
somewhat dry; in this section, Creswell gives more
specific philosophical advice, such as deciding "What is this
about?" and other critical questions we must ask ourselves as we
"code" qualitative data.
Finally, Creswell
speaks about the aforementioned issue of validity. I was particularly
drawn to the idea of "member checking" as a method of finding
validity in your results. I found it quite interesting that he feels we as
researchers might go back to people we have interviewed with some version of
our findings, in order to see if they agree that the findings are appropriate.
He also discusses some key concepts we have covered in class, including the
importance of a "thick description" to help transport readers
(191-192), as well as how we might use self-reflection in order to honestly
present our biases to readers.
Overall, this was
quite an interesting chapter, as opposed to Chapter 8, which I found a bit
rough, simply because it read more as a kind of handbook of terms than a
discussion of the philosophy of research as in Chapter 9. However, Chapter 8
did include some relevant nuggets of information, such as external and internal
validity threats (162), which is something that, as Graham said in his
response, we can apply to our qualitative work.
No comments:
Post a Comment