ED 151 – Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods 9/25/2003

Make appointment rather than office hours to meet.

Come to class prepared with questions/comments on the reading material.

You are expected to complete ALL the readings.

Expected to contribute to all class activities and to participate in field activities.

Field activity: Mini mini research project with group – One observation, two interviews, meet with research group.

Grading: 25 % Qualitative Product/Process Paper

20% Observation Process

20% Interview Memo

20% Qualitative Research Critique

15 % Class contribution

Memo #1:

Identify site

Observe based on specific research question

Memo #2:

Interviews: Someone at site needs to agree to 2 one-hour interviews

Transcribe both interviews.

Group writeup and then individual writeup

Human subjects – need to go through them if the information you’re collecting will be used for anything outside this class.

In qualitative research the researcher is the tool – you have to examine your own subjectivity

Ethnography is a subset of qualitative research, a kind of qualitative research – the two are not synonymous.

HOMEWORK:

Spindler was the grandfather of school ethnography, and he writes about what makes good qualitative research – as you read on in the class see if his observations apply.

Don’t’ read Geertz this week. Read Pheland & Cao “Speaking Up” instead and apply Spindler’s criteria – read not for content so much as for HOW they did the qualitative research.

Exercise: drawing without looking

Qualitative research product called “portraiture” – Sarah Lightfoot The Good High School – description & qualitative as an art form

• What if subject doesn’t agree with the portrait?
• Portrait is in time – as subject is at moment of observation, not before or after – therefore experiment cannot be verified. – It could be, you could say the essence remains the same but it’s a topic of debate
• You will get lost in the research – tons of notes, “I don’t know my story yet”
• You have to have a high tolerance for chaos if you go into qualitative research. You have to understand that you can’t capture it all and that you’re creating an imperfect product and jump into the chaos and muddle through
• Are you an observer? Or a participant-observer? How does my presence affect the results?
• Observation is not comfortable – people are not used to being observed, we are not used to observing
• Appearances and social context matter

Exercise: Qualitative Research, class definition

What is it?

• Nara: Non-quantitative data collection; information that can’t be reduced to numbers. In-depth examination of small samples
• Anne: Themes and pattern in a setting or in groups of people or an individual person through observations and interviews

When do you use it?

• With small samples
• When trying to determine successful implementation strategies
• For in-depth opinion or impressions feedback
• When you want human story to flesh out a numeric picture

What is your experience with it?

• Interviews by phone and in person.
• Transcription.
• Meeting minutes.
• Class notes.
• Brainstorming sessions.

What?

Soft tools

No rules, abstract

Values, needs, behaviors, why not, how much

Capturing the essence of something or someone

Telling the story

Human interaction, shares experiences

Questions of generalizability & smaller sample sizes

Perspective – “it seems,it appears”

Contextual information

When?

Micro-personal examples

Challenging assumptions

Undestanding phenomenon

Degrees or kinds of something

Subjective experiences