Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation

Flashcards that summarize the key vocabulary and concepts from the video notes.

Qualitative Research

A field of study with its own literature base, research journals, special interest groups, and regularly scheduled conferences, focusing on discovery, insight, and understanding from the perspectives of those being studied to make a difference in people lives.

Interpretive/Constructivist Qualitative Research

A research paradigm focusing on multiple realities and interpretations of events, with the researcher constructing knowledge rather than finding it.

Phenomenology

The study of how people describe things and experience them through their senses, attending to perceptions and meanings that awaken our conscious awareness.

Symbolic Interactionism

A perspective focusing on meaning and interpretation, especially that which people create and share through their interactions, emphasizing the importance of symbols and interpretive processes.

Critical Research

An approach that critiques and challenges power relations, aiming to transform and empower, often drawing from feminist theory, critical race theory, and other critical perspectives.

Poststructuralism/Postmodernism

A perspective challenging rationality, scientific method, and certainties, celebrating diversity and plurality, often used in experimental and creative research.

Basic Qualitative Research

A common type of qualitative study focused on understanding the meaning a phenomenon has for those involved, emphasizing how people interpret their experiences and construct their worlds.

Phenomenological Study

A type of qualitative research seeking understanding about the essence and the underlying structure of a phenomenon, often involving intense human experiences.

Ethnography

A research process that focuses on human society and culture, involving immersion in the site, participant observation, and thick description to understand the beliefs, values, and attitudes shaping behavior patterns.

Grounded Theory

A research methodology focused on building substantive theory from data, using theoretical sampling and the constant comparative method to identify patterns and develop a core category.

Narrative Inquiry

A qualitative research approach using stories as data, analyzing first-person accounts of experience to understand the meaning of events through biographical, psychological, or linguistic lenses.

Qualitative Case Study

An in-depth description and analysis of a bounded system, where the unit of analysis is a case, such as a person, program, or event.

Mixed Methods Research

An approach to research which gathers both quantitative and qualitative data, integrates the two, and then draws interpretations based on the combined strengths of both data sets to understand research problems.

Action Research

A process that seeks to both understand and improve practice in practice-based settings by addressing problematic situations.

Critical Research

Research to critique existing conditions and through that critique to bring about change.

Arts Based Research

A practice of using different art forms in data collection and/or presentation.