Research Approaches: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method

Enlarging Knowledge and Understanding

Involves:
- Identifying and describing differences (nature, operation, etc.).
- Explaining origins, relationships, influencing factors, etc.
Example: Children's learning differences.
- Nature of differences?
- Origins?
- Possible interventions?
Quantitative and qualitative research: two ways to answer these questions. Mixed methods combines both.

Split into quantitative and qualitative methods.
Choice depends on:
- Research questions
- Underlying research philosophy
- Researcher's preferences and skills

Expressed in words.
Used to understand concepts, thoughts, or experiences.
Gathers in-depth insights on poorly understood topics.
Common methods:
- Interviews with open-ended questions
- Observations described in words
- Literature reviews exploring concepts and theories
Naturalistic inquiry: seeks in-depth understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting.
Focuses on the "why" rather than the "what" of social phenomena.
Relies on direct experiences of human beings as meaning-making agents.
Examines how people make sense of real-life experiences in their own minds and words.
Bembas saying: ichkalipa chumfwa umwine (expressed in everyday language using everyday concepts).
Based on the idea that "reality" is subjective.
Every human being constructs a personal view of the world based on interactions.
Reality consists of impressions, inferences, and opinions.
Task: Gain insights into these constructions of reality.
- Understand the world as experienced, structured, and interpreted by people.

Natural setting:
- Real-world setting.
- Observe participants' behavior.
- Draw conclusions based on answers and behavior.
- Data collected at the site where participants experience the issue.
Researcher as key instrument:
- Researcher performs qualitative research.
- Can be conducted by a group or individual.
- Researchers collect data themselves.
- Do not rely on questionnaires or instruments developed by others.
Multiple sources of data:
- Interviews, observations, documents, etc., are gathered.
Inductive data analysis:
- Patterns, categories, and themes are built from the "bottom-up."
Flexible:
- Can change at any stage.
- Course of research might change.
- Used where flexible nature is acceptable.
Holistic Account:
- Aims to paint the larger picture.
- Focuses on different perspectives and factors involved.
Participants’ meanings:
- Focus on learning the meaning that participants hold about the problem.
Emergent design:
- Initial plan cannot be tightly prescribed.
- Phases may change or shift after research begins.
Interpretive inquiry:
- Researchers interpret what they see, hear, and understand.
Holistic account:
- Researchers develop an understandable picture of the problem.
- Identify complex interactions of factors.

A problem or issue needs exploration.
Need a complex, detailed understanding of the issue.
Want to empower individuals to share stories without power dynamics.
To write in a literary, flexible style.
To understand contexts or settings of participants.
To follow up quantitative research.
Quantitative measures do not fit the problem.
Qualitative inquiry is for researchers willing to:
- Commit extensive time in the field.
- Engage in complex, time-consuming data analysis.
- Write long passages.
- Participate in a changing form of social and human science research.

Expressed in numbers and graphs.
Used to test or confirm theories and assumptions.
Establishes generalizable facts about a topic.
Common methods:
- Experiments
- Observations recorded as numbers
- Surveys with closed-ended questions
Collection of information which can be analyzed numerically.
Results presented using statistics, tables, and graphs.
Quantify opinions, attitudes, behaviors, and other defined variables.
Goal: to support or refute hypotheses about a specific phenomenon.
Contextualize results in a wider population.
Attempts to explain phenomena by collecting and analyzing numerical data.
Tells you if there is a “difference” but not necessarily why.
Data collected are always numerical and analyzed using statistical methods.
Variables are controlled as much as possible (RCD as the gold standard).
Eliminate interference and measure the effect of any change.
Randomization to reduce subjective bias.
If there are no numbers involved, it is not quantitative.
Some types of research lend themselves better to quantitative approaches than others.

Qualitative Data:
- Deals with descriptions.
- Data can be observed but not measured.
- Colors, textures, smells, tastes, appearance, beauty, etc.
- Qualitative → Quality
Quantitative Data:
- Deals with numbers.
- Data which can be measured.
- Length, height, area, volume, weight, speed, time, temperature, humidity, sound levels, cost, members, ages, etc.
- Quantitative → Quantity

Systematic integration, or “mixing,” of quantitative and qualitative data within a single investigation.
Permits a more complete and synergistic utilization of data.

Collecting and analyzing both quantitative (closed-ended) and qualitative (open-ended) data.
Using rigorous procedures in collecting and analyzing data appropriate to each method’s tradition.
Ensuring the appropriate sample size for quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Integrating the data during data collection, analysis, or discussion.
Using procedures that implement qualitative and quantitative components either concurrently or sequentially, with the same sample or with different samples.