Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact

Description

The definitive step-by step resource for qualitative and ethnographic research. Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact is a comprehensive guide on both the theoretical foundations and practical application of qualitative methodology. Adopting a phronetic-iterative approach, this foundational book leads readers through the chronological progression of a qualitative research project, from designing a study and collecting and analyzing data to developing theories and effectively communicating the results—allowing readers to employ qualitative methods in their projects as they follow each chapter. Coverage of topics such as qualitative theories, ethics, sampling, interview techniques, qualitative quality, and advice on practical fieldwork provides clear and concise guidance on how to design and conduct sound research projects. Easy-to-follow instructions on iterative qualitative data analysis explain how to organize, code, interpret, make claims, and build theory. Throughout, the author offers her own backstage stories about fieldwork, analysis, drafting, writing, and publishing, revealing the emotional and humorous aspects of practicing qualitative methods. Now in its second edition, this thorough and informative text includes new and expanded sections on topics including post-qualitative research, phenomenology, textual analysis and cultural studies, gaining access to elite and difficult to access populations, on persuasive writing, novel interviewing approaches, and more. Numerous examples, case studies, activities, and discussion questions have been updated to reflect current research and ensure contemporary relevance. • Written in an engaging and accessible narrative style by an acclaimed scholar and researcher in the field • Offers new and updated examples of coding and qualitative analysis, full-color photos and illustrations, and a companion instructor website • Synthesizes the most up-to-date multidisciplinary literature on qualitative research methods including seven main approaches to qualitative inquiry: grounded theory, case study, ethnography, phenomenology, narrative and autoethnography, participatory action research, and arts-based research • Presents innovative qualitative data collection methods and modern representation strategies, such as virtual ethnography, photo-voice, and mobile interviewing Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact is an ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate students, instructors, and faculty across multiple disciplines including the social sciences, healthcare, education, management, and the humanities, and for practitioners seeking expert guidance on practical qualitative methods. Cover Title About the website Title - Full Copyright Page Contents Detailed Contents Preface: Is this book for me? Chapter 1 Developing contextual research that matters Overview and introduction Three core qualitative concepts: self-reflexivity, context, and thick description Self-reflexivity Context Thick description How qualitative research is distinct from quantitative research A phronetic approach: doing qualitative research that matters Strengths of qualitative research Qualitative research is useful in a variety of jobs, settings, and disciplinary foci Exercise 1.1 Interviewing a friend, colleague, or classmate Moving from ideas to sites, settings, and participants Sources of research ideas Exercise 1.2 Field/site/participant brainstorm Consider This 1.1 Sources of research ideas Compatibility, yield, suitability, and feasibility Researcher’s Notepad 1.1 Negotiating challenges with rare or hidden populations Tips and Tools 1.1 Factoring the ease of fieldwork Moving toward a research question Researcher’s Notepad 1.2 Published examples of research questions Considering collaboration Exercise 1.3 Published examples of research questions Exercise 1.4 Three potential field sites and/or participant groups In summary Key Terms Chapter 2 Entering the conversation of qualitative research Inductive/emic, deductive/etic, and abductive/iterative approaches The funnel metaphor Sensitizing concepts Exercise 2.1 A quick dip into the field A complex focus on the whole Naturalistic inquiry Thick description Bricolage A sampling of theoretical approaches that commonly use qualitative methods Symbolic interactionism Consider This 2.1 How do I know myself? Structuration theory Consider This 2.2 Why am I standing in line? Exercise 2.2 Action vs. structure Sensemaking Historical matters and current conversations in qualitative research The early days Ethically problematic research and the creation of the IRB Recent history in academia and the private sector Current conversations: ethics, post-qualitative research, big data In summary Exercise 2.3 Research problems and questions Key Terms Chapter 3 Paradigmatic reflections and qualitative research territories Paradigms: positivist, interpretive, critical, postmodern Positivist and post‐positivist paradigms Interpretive paradigm Exercise 3.1 Verstehen/understanding Critical paradigm Postmodern and other “post” paradigms Consider This 3.1 Whose stylistic rules? Paradigmatic complexities and intersections Exercise 3.2 Assumptions of paradigmatic approaches Key territories and approaches of qualitative research Case study Grounded theory Ethnography and ethnography of communication Phenomenology Participatory action research Narrative inquiry and autoethnography Creative, performative, and arts‐based approaches In summary Key Terms Chapter 4 Research design: Sampling, research proposals, ethics, and IRB Planning the data collection: fieldwork, interviews, texts, and visuals The value of fieldwork and “participant witnessing” The value of interviews Consider This 4.1 Yin and yang: taijitu The value of textual analysis and cultural studies The value of visual and arts‐based materials Developing a sampling plan: who, what, where, how, and when Random samples and representative samples Convenience/opportunistic samples Maximum variation samples Snowball samples Theoretical-construct samples Typical, extreme, deviant, and critical incident samples Tips and Tools 4.1 Sampling plans How and when to choose your sample Ethics and institutional review boards (IRB) Research instruments, informed consent, and confidentiality Different levels of ethical risk and IRB review The quirks of IRB Creating a research proposal Tips and Tools 4.2 Research proposal components Title, abstract, and key words Introduction/rationale Exercise 4.1 Conceptual cocktail party Literature review/conceptual framework Research questions/foci Methodology and methods Tips and Tools 4.3 What belongs in a qualitative methods section? Budget/timeline Tips and Tools 4.4 What to include in a qualitative project budget Projected outcomes In summary Key Terms Chapter 5 Negotiating access and exploring the scene Confessional tales that illustrate common challenges of access and consent Riding my mentor’s coattails: Citywest 911 emergency call-takers Becoming a full participant: the Radiant Sun cruise ship Entering a closed organization: Women’s Minimum and Nouveau Jail Accessing an elite interviewee population surrounding a delicate topic Practical considerations of negotiating access Do some homework before approaching the scene Researcher’s Notepad 5.1 Contact information log Please don’t reject me! Seeking research permission Researcher’s Notepad 5.2 Sample access proposal: Emotion, culture, and organizational communication Virtual “access” versus textual harvesting Negotiating access for interviews Abandoning the ego, engaging embodiment, embracing liminality Exercise 5.1 Self-identity audit Navigating those first research interactions Researcher’s Notepad 5.3 Initial reactions speak volumes Relationship building with participants Seeking informed consent in the scene Tips and Tools 5.1 Navigating the beginning of the qualitative research project Exploratory methods Briefing interviews and participant information table Researcher’s Notepad 5.4 Participant information table Member diaries Maps and narrative tours Exercise 5.2 Map and narrative tour In summary Key Terms Chapter 6 Field roles, fieldnotes, and field focus Field roles and standpoints Complete participant Play participant Focused witness Consider This 6.1 When playing is uncomfortable Complete witness Visual and virtual aspects of fieldwork Writing fieldnotes: raw records, headnotes, and formal fieldnotes Raw records and headnotes Exercise 6.1 Taking raw records in the scene Formal fieldnotes Researcher’s Notepad 6.1 Fieldnote header Qualities of good fieldnotes Economy versus detail Showing (and using dialogue) versus telling Making the familiar strange and the strange familiar Noticing the data as evidence Analytic reflections Consider This 6.2 Noticing the data as evidence Fieldnote wrap-up Tips and Tools 6.1 Fieldnote writing tips Focusing the data and using heuristic devices Exercise 6.2 Fieldnotes Following, Forgetting, and Improvising In summary Key Terms Chapter 7 Interview planning and design: Structuring, wording, and questioning Self-reflexivity in interviews Exercise 7.1 Self-reflexive interviewing Interview structure, type, and stance Level of structure in interviews Interview types: ethnographic, informant, respondent, narrative, discursive Interview stances: naïveté, collaborative, pedagogical, responsive, confrontational Interview guide and question wording Tips and Tools 7.1 Interview structure, types, and stances Wording good questions Exercise 7.2 Strategizing interviews Researcher’s Notepad 7.1 Research questions versus interview questions Interview questions: types, purposes, examples, and sequencing Opening the interview Tips and Tools 7.2 Interview question types Generative questions Directive questions Closing the interview Interview question wrap-up Visual, embodied, and experiential approaches Researcher’s Notepad 7.2 Mobile peripatetic interviews How many interviews are “enough”? In summary Exercise 7.3 Interview schedule or guide Key Terms Chapter 8 Interview practice: Embodied, mediated, and focus-group approaches Conducting face-to-face interviews Interview logistics Why good interviewing is so much more than asking questions Technologically mediated approaches to interviewing Strengths of mediated interviews Disadvantages of mediated interviews Tips and Tools 8.1 Mediated interviews: advantages and disadvantages The focus-group interview The value of focus groups When to use focus groups Planning focus groups Facilitating the focus group Tips and Tools 8.2 Logistics of formal focus groups Overcoming common focus group and interviewing challenges Exercise 8.2 Practicing focus groups Researcher’s Notepad 8.1 Remedial–pedagogical interviews Transcribing Exercise 8.2 Role-playing interview challenges in a fishbowl Tips and Tools 8.3 Common transcribing symbols In summary Key Terms Chapter 9 Data analysis basics: A phronetic iterative approach A phronetic iterative analysis approach Organizing and preparing the data Coding: what it is and how to start Consider This 9.1 Motivating questions and coding domains Analysis logistics: colors, cutting, or computers? Manual approaches Researcher’s Notepad 9.1 Manual coding visual displays: Artistic canvas and tabletop categories Computer-aided approaches with everyday software Primary-cycle coding, coding question start list, and first-level descriptive codes Focusing the analysis and creating a codebook Researcher’s Notepad 9.2 Codebook excerpt Consider This 9.2 Focusing the data analysis Secondary-cycle coding: second-level analytic and axial/hierarchical codes Exercise 9.1 Grouping together codes via axial and hierarchical coding Synthesizing activities: memos, negative cases, and analytic outlines Researcher’s Notepad 9.3 Analytic memos Researcher’s Notepad 9.4 Loose analysis outline Following, Forgetting, and Improvising In summary Exercise 9.2 Iterative analysis basics Key Terms Chapter 10 Advanced data analysis: The art and magic of interpretation Advanced logistical tools for data analysis Visual data displays Researcher’s Notepad 10.1 Matrix display Tips and Tools 10.1 Flowchart depicting iterative analysis process Computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) Exemplars and vignettes Developing typologies Dramatistic strategy and narrative analysis Tips and Tools 10.2 Questions to inspire narrative analysis (adapted from Harter, 2013) Metaphor analysis Explanation and causality Discourse tracing Researcher’s Notepad 10.2 Micro, meso, macro sources A post-qualitative analysis: deconstructionism and arts-based research Following, Forgetting, and Improvising In summary Exercise 10.1 Advanced data analysis/interpretation Key Terms Chapter 11 Qualitative quality: Creating a credible, ethical, significant study Moving beyond objectivity, reliability, and formal generalizability Eight “big tent” criteria for high quality qualitative research Tips and Tools 11.1 Eight “big tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research Worthy topic Rich rigor Sincerity Exercise 11.1 Gauging worth and rigor Self-reflexivity Transparency Researcher’s Notepa 11.1 Sincerity word cloud Credibility Thick description Crystallization or triangulation (NOT both at the same time) Multivocality Tips and Tools 11.2 Intercoder reliability Member reflections (NOT member “checks”) Resonance Transferability and naturalistic generalization Aesthetic merit Significant contribution Exercise 11.2 Articulating and gauging significance Ethical research practice Procedural ethics Situational ethics Consider This 11.1 Situational and relational ethics Meaningful coherence Following, Forgetting, and Improvising Consider This 11.2 The ten lies of ethnography In summary Key Terms Chapter 12 Theorizing and writing: Explaining, synthesizing, and crafting a tale Theorizing, brainstorming, explaining Exercise 12.1 Words push back on us: a creative analytic exercise Exercise 12.2 Theorizing via bracketing, abduction, metaphor, and explaining Types of tales: realist, impressionistic/poetic, confessional/autoethnographic The realist tale Creative, impressionist, and literary tales The confessional tale Researcher’s Notepad 12.1 Poetic inquiry Archaeology of a “traditional” qualitative essay Researcher’s Notepad 12.2 Dialogue as a powerful literary tactic Exercise 12.3 Accidental rewrites Writing the framing material: title, abstract, key words Writing the introduction, the literature review, and the conceptual framework Writing the research methodology and method(s) Findings and analysis: choosing an organizational approach Researcher’s Notepad 12.3 Methods data display Themes/topics Chronology/life-story Convergence/braided narrative Puzzle explication strategy Separated text Layered/messy texts Exercise 12.4 Which writing strategy? Conclusions, implications, limitations, and future research Following, Forgetting, and Improvising In summary Key Terms Chapter 13 Drafting, polishing, and publishing Writing as a method of inquiry How to write and format qualitative research Choosing the research materials Rich, luminous, and thick representations Structuring the data in sections, paragraphs, and sentences Exercise 13.1 Writing from different perspectives and verb tenses Formatting qualitative work Visual representations and art Researcher’s Notepad 13.1 Visual representation Setting yourself up for success by considering the audience first Exercise 13.2 Article format model Submitting, revising, and resubmitting for journal publication Tips and Tools 13.1 National or international journals that have published qualitative communication research (an incomplete list): Rise and grind: overcoming common writing and submission challenges How to write a lot Addressing common challenges in qualitative writing Following, Forgetting, and Improvising In summary Key Terms Chapter 14 Qualitative methodology matters: Exiting and communicating impact Navigating exit and research disengagement Give notice and say goodbye Exits can be emotional Don’t spoil the scene Give back Researcher’s Notepad 14.1 Thank you note Ethically delivering the findings Public scholarship: crafting representations that move beyond the scholarly essay Following, Forgetting, and Improvising Public scholarship Staged performances Researcher’s Notepad 14.2 Staged performance with impact Films White papers and translated essays Tips and Tools 14.1 White papers Grant applications and reports Consulting and private sector ethnography Media relations Exercise 14.1 Six-word stories Web presence Warning: doing research that matters can be terrifying Overcoming lingering obstacles to public scholarship Exercise 14.2 Making an impact via public scholarship Following, Forgetting, and Improvising In summary Key Terms Appendix A Researcher’s Notepad Fieldnote Appendix B Researcher’s Notepad Focus group guide Appendix C Researcher’s Notepad Interview/focus group excerpts with different levels of transcription detail References Index EULA