focusing the study ( qualitative research )
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Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.2
Key Questions• How can the problem statement be best
written to reflect one of the approaches to qualitative research?
• How can the purpose statement be best written to convey the orientation of an approach in qualitative research?
• How can a central research question be written so that it encodes the approach to qualitative research to be used?
• How can a central research question be written to reflect the issues being explored in one of the qualitative approaches?
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.3
The Research Problem
• The first few paragraphs of the study state the research problem
• The research problem states the issue leading to a need for the study
• The need for the study is framed within the existing literature and can foreshadow the qualitative approach that will be used
• The purpose of the introduction is to present an overall rationale for studying the problem
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.4
The Need for the Study
• When writing about the problem, need for the study often relates to the qualitative approach:– Need in narrative: to hear the stories of
individuals– Need in phenomenology: need to learn about
common experiences toward phenomenon– Need in grounded theory: need for a
theoretical understanding– Need in ethnography: need for understanding
a culture-sharing group– Need in case study: need for in-depth analysis
of a case that is unique or illuminates a problem or issue
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.5
The Purpose Statement:General Guidelines
• The purpose statement provides the major objective or the intent to the study
• The elements of a purpose statement– It identifies the qualitative approach to be used– It encodes the passage with words that
indicate the action of the researcher and the focus of the approach to research
• Understand – Narrative studies• Describe – Case study, ethnography,
phenomenology • See (Table 6.1) for other suggestions
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.6
The Purpose Statement:General Guidelines
• The elements of a purpose statement (cont.)– It includes the central phenomenon (i.e.,
central concept being explored)– It foreshadows the participants and the site for
the study– It includes a general definition for the central
phenomenon
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.7
Purpose Statement Script The purpose of this ____________ (narrative,
phenomenological, grounded theory, ethnographic, case) study is (was? will be?) to _________ (understand? describe? develop? discover?) the __________(central phenomenon of the study)
for ____________ (the participants) at ________ (the research site). At this stage in the research, the ___________ (central
phenomenon) will be generally defined as
_____________ (provide a tentative, preliminary definition of the central concept).
Words to Use in Encoding the Purpose Statement
Narrative Phenomenology Grounded
Theory
Ethnography Case
Study
Narrative study StoriesEpiphaniesLived
experiencesChronology
Phenomenological
studyDescribeExperiencesMeaningEssence
Grounded
theoryGenerateDevelopPropositionsProcessSubstantive
theory
EthnographyCulture-sharing
groupCultural
behavior and
languageCultural portraitCultural
themes
Case studyBoundedSingle or
collective
caseEvent,
process,
program
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e 6.8
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.9
The Purpose Statement:A Narrative Example
In my research, which has involved collecting women’s accounts of their experiences of becoming mothers, I am seeking to understand how women make sense of events throughout the process of childbearing, and constructing these events into episodes thereby (apparently) maintainingunity within their lives. (Miller, 2000, p. 309)
women’s accountswomen’s accounts
understandunderstand
these events into episodes these events into episodes
Elements of Narrative •Participant accounts•Purpose to understand•Reconstruction of accounts
constructingconstructing
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.10
The Purpose Statement:A Phenomenological Example
Given the intricacies of power and gender in the academy, what are doctoral
advisement relationships between
women advisors and women
advisees really like? Because there
were few studies exploring women doctoral students’ experiences in the literature, a phenomenological study devoted to understanding women’s lived experiences as advisees best lent itself to examining this question. (Heinrich, 1995, p. 449)
what are doctoralwhat are doctoral
advisement relationships betweenadvisement relationships between
women advisors and women women advisors and women
lived experienceslived experiences
•Elements of Phenomenology Description•Lived Experienceadvisees really like?advisees really like?
what are doctoralwhat are doctoral
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.11
The Purpose Statement:A Grounded Theory Example
The primary purpose of this article is to
present a grounded theory of academic
change that is based upon research
guided by two major research
questions: What are the major sources
of academic change? What are the major
processes through which academic
change occurs? For purposes of this paper, grounded theory is defined as theory generated from data systematically obtained and analyzed through the constant comparative method. (Conrad, 1978, p. 101)
grounded theorygrounded theory
Elements of Grounded Theory Develop a theory•Describe a process•Theory is based on the data from participants
processesprocesses
theory generatedtheory generatedfrom datafrom data
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.12
The Purpose Statement:An Ethnographic Example
This article examines how the
work and the talk of stadium
employees reinforce certain
meanings of baseball in
society, and it reveals how
this work and talk create and
maintain ballpark culture.
(Trujillo, 1992, p. 351)
Elements of Ethnography•Culture-sharing group•Language and Cultural Behavior•Cultural beliefs
work and the talkwork and the talk stadiumstadium
meanings of baseballmeanings of baseball
employees employees
ballpark cultureballpark culture
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.13
The Purpose Statement:A Case Study Example
Although scholars have shown that
sport is fundamental in constituting
and reproducing gender inequalities,
little attention has been paid to sport
and gender relations in later life. In
this article we demonstrate how men
exploit women’s labor in the sport of
lawn bowls, which is played
predominately by older people.
(Boyle & McKay, 1995, p. 556)
Elements of Case Study •Description•Specific Case•Bounded System
demonstratedemonstrate how menhow men
exploit women’s labor in the sport ofexploit women’s labor in the sport of
lawn bowls,lawn bowls,
predominately by older peoplepredominately by older people
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.14
Qualitative Research Questions
• The four types of questions (Marshall & Rossman, 1999)– Exploratory: to investigate phenomenon little
understood– Explanatory: to explain patterns of behavior
related to phenomenon– Descriptive: to describe a phenomenon– Emancipatory: to engage in social action
about the phenomenon
• The questions are open-ended and non- directional
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.15
Qualitative Research Questions
• The questions frequently start with words such as what or how rather than why
• The researcher usually only needs 5-7 questions
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.16
The Central Question• General guidelines
– Pose an overarching question followed by several subquestions
– Pose the broadest question that can be posed about the research problem
– Encode the question with language from one of the five approaches to inquiry
• A narrative example (Angrosino, 1994)– No central question was posed in the article– A possible central question: What story does
Vonnie Lee have to tell?– The central question implies an individual has
a story to tell– The central question implies that there will be
some critical point of interest
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.17
The Central Question
• A phenomenological example (Anderson & Spencer, 2002)– No central question was posed in the
article– A possible central question: What
meaning do the 41 men and 17 women with a diagnosis of AIDS ascribe to their illness?
– The central question implies that the participants have a common lived experience that provides meaning for their lives
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.18
The Central Question
• A grounded theory example (Morrow & Smith, 1995)– No central question was posed in the article– The study posed broad questions that guided
their interviews– The questions focused on understanding the
women’s experiences and shaping them into coping strategies used to survive their abuse as part of a theory of the process
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.19
The Central Question
• An ethnography example (Haenfler, 2004)– No central question was posed in the article– A possible central question: What are the core
values of the straight edge movement, and how do members construct and understand their subjective experiences of being a part of the subculture?
– The central question identifies a culture-sharing group
– The central question begins by asking for a description of core values
– The central question uses the description of the core values to build an understanding of the experiences that are presented as themes in the study
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.20
The Central Question• A case study example (Asmussen &
Creswell, 1995)– The authors posed five central guiding
questions in the article• What happened?• Who was involved in response to the incident?• What themes emerged during the eight-month period
that followed this incident?• What theoretical constructs helped us to understand
the campus response?
– The questions focused the development of a description of the incident, the emergence of themes, and finally theoretical constructs
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.21
The Subquestions: Types of Subquestions
• Issue-oriented subquestions– These questions address the major concerns
and complexities to be resolved– These questions take the phenomenon in the
central research question and break it down into subtopics
• Procedural subquestions– These questions cover the anticipated needs
for information (e.g., information needed for the description of a case)
– These questions cover procedural steps in the process of research associated with one of the approaches
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.22
Examples From the Five Approaches:Narrative
• Issue subquestions - These questions deal with areas of the stories (e.g., emotion, how an individual felt, how an individual live an experience something)
• Examples of procedural subquestions– What are the object experiences in this
individual’s life?– What are the stories that can be told from these
experiences?– What are the turning points in the stories?– What are some theories that relate to this
individual’s life?
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.23
Examples From the Five Approaches:Phenomenololgy
• Issue subquestions– Ask general questions about the
experiences of the participants regarding the central phenomenon (what they do, what they don’t do, contexts, etc.)
– Ask specific questions about their understanding of the central phenomenon (definitions, characteristics, behaviors, experiences that they have had)
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.24
Examples From the Five Approaches:Phenomenololgy
• Procedural subquestions– Questions that include the structural
meanings of the experiences– Questions that include the underlying
themes and contexts that account for the participant’s feelings and thoughts about the central phenomenon
– Questions that include invariant structural themes that facilitate a description of the central phenomenon as it is experienced by the participants
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.25
Examples From the Five Approaches:Grounded Theory
• Examples of issue subquestions– What process is being described by the
participants?– What theory emerges that describes the
process
• Procedural subquestions– Could be posed as aspects of the axial coding
process and could deal with the following• The categories that emerge• The causes, contexts, intervening conditions,
strategies and consequences (outcomes) that resulted
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.26
Examples From the Five Approaches:Ethnography
• Issue subquestions– Questions that center on a description of the
culture sharing group– Questions that deal with the major beliefs,
values, and behaviors of this group that help us understand their culture and how it is maintained
• Procedural subquestions– A description of the context of the culture– An analysis of the dominant cultural themes– An interpretation of cultural behavior
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.27
Examples From the Five Approaches:Case Study
• Issue subquestions– Questions regarding the context of the case
and how it contributes to your understanding of the central phenomenon
– Questions regarding the major perspectives or issues related to the central phenomenon
– Questions regarding he theoretical constructs that help you to understand the central phenomenon
– Questions regarding the practical implications of what was learned
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.28
Examples From the Five Approaches:Case Study
• Examples of procedural subquestions– How can the events be described?– What are the major themes that
emerged?– What assertions emerge from the
description and themes?
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