What is qualitative data?
Qualitative methods are ways of collecting data which are concerned with describing meaning, rather than with drawing statistical inferences. What qualitative methods (e.g. case studies and interviews) lose on reliability they gain in terms of validity.
Qualitative data analysis is used for any non-numerical data collected as part of the evaluation. Unstructured observations, open-ended interviews, analysis of written documents, and focus groups transcripts all require the use of qualitative techniques. Analyzing qualitative data is challenging, although many people find it interesting. Great care has to be taken in accurately capturing and interpreting qualitative data.
Qualitative analysis is best used in situations where we need a fairly in-depth understanding of the intervention, including cases where we are evaluating something relatively new, and can be used to answer questions like:
• Is the intervention being implemented according to plan?
• What are some of the difficulties faced by staff?
• Why did some participants drop out early?
• What is the experience like for participants?
• Are there any unexpected impacts on families and communities?
Key Considerations in the Early Phase of Qualitative Data Analysis
While collecting data
- Keep good records
- Write up interviews, impressions, notes from focus groups
- Make constant comparisons as you progress
- Meet with the team regularly to compare notes and make adjustments
Write contact summary report
- Write a one page summary immediately after each major interview or focus group
- Include all the main issues
- Include any major information obtained
- What was the most interesting, illuminating or important issue discussed or information obtained?
- What new questions need to be explored?
Use tools to help you
- Create a separate file for your own reactions during the study, including your feelings, hunches, and reactions
- File your ideas as they emerge
- Keep a file of quotations from the collection process for use in bringing your narrative to life when you write your report
Get ready for the data analysis
- Make sure all of the information is in one place
- Make copies and place originals in a central file
- Use copies to write on, cut and paste as needed.
What are the advantages of qualitative research?
- In-depth examination of phenomena
- Uses subjective information
-Not limited to rigidly definable variables
-Examine complex questions that can be impossible with quantitative methods
-Deal with value laden questions
-Explore new areas of research
- Build new theories
Disadvantages of qualitative research
- Subjectivity leads to procedural problem
- Replicability is very difficult
-Researcher bias is built in and unavoidable
- Labor intensive and expensive
- Not understood well by 'classical' researcher
Main Types of Qualitative Research
Attempts to shed light on a phenomena by studying indepth a single case example of the phenomena. The case can be an individual person, an event, a group, or an institution. | |
Theory is developed inductively from a corpus of data acquired by a participant-observer. | |
Describes the structures of experience as they present themselves to consciousness, without recourse to theory, deduction, or assumptions from other disciplines | |
Focuses on the sociology of meaning through close field observation of sociocultural phenomena. Typically, the ethnographer focuses on a community. | |
Systematic collection and objective evaluation of data related to past occurrences in order to test hypotheses concerning causes, effects, or trends of these events that may help to explain present events and anticipate future events. (Gay, 1996) |
more elaborations and explanations can be referred in HOW TO DESIGN AND EVALUATE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION by Fraenkel, Wallen and Hyun (8th edition).
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