Qualitative Research

Format
Format for Qualitative Research

TITLE PAGE
APPROVAL SHEET
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapters
1 INTRODUCTION
(Discussion of the problem/topic)
Purpose of the Study
Research Questions
Theoretical Lens
Importance of the Study
Scope and Limitation of the Study
Definition of Terms
Organization of the Study
2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

3 METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Research Participants
Role of the Researchers
Data Sources
Data Collection Procedure
Data Analysis
Trustworthiness of the Study
Ethical Consideration

4 RESULTS

5 DISCUSSIONS
(Discussion of the Results)
Implications for Teaching Practice
Implications for Further Research
Concluding Remarks
 REFERENCES

APPENDICES
A. Letter of Permission
B. Informed Consent/Assent
C. Validation Forms
D. Audit Trail
E. Archival Log
F. Certificate from the Editor
G. Certificate from the Adviser
H. Certificate from Research Ethics Committee
Qualitative

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

(Discussion of the problem/topic)

Purpose of the Study
Research Questions
Theoretical Lens
Importance of the Study
Scope and Limitation of the
Study
Definition of Terms
Organization of the Study
 Introduction
• 5-6 paragraph
• Start with problem situation, a saying, a
vignette
• Provide the existing problem
• 1st paragraph- start with problem situation
• 2nd-global, 3rd-national 4th-local
• 5th- research gap
• last paragraph- urgency of the study
• Emphasize the social relevance
• What for that you would conduct the study?
 Research Gap

Establish the research gap like…

• you have not come across a research like
the one you want to propose or if there
are, the studies are of foreign origin, none
in the local setting, and the type of
research used is quantitative. Therefore,
for you to come up with an in-depth
understanding of such, you will conduct
the study in a qualitative format.
Purpose of the Study

• Use the template of Creswell

(index)
• Short and concise but everything
is there including the informants
and short meaning of the research
title
 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,
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.
phenomenology 9
 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 6.
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
10
 Purpose Statement Script for QUALI (Creswell’s
Template)

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).
Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e
6.
11
Research Questions

• It is composed of central/ grand tour

questions (very broad questions) and
reduce them into specific questions like
what….? and move to a more specific
question like how….?
• Questions are emerging. They can vary or
change along the course of the study.
• Make sure that questions can evoke
meaningful responses from the
participants.
• 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
Theoretical Lens

• The older, the better.

• It is a theory if it has a name like Searles’
Theory of Speech Acts, Chomsky’s
Linguistic Theory and others….
• If it has no name, it is just a proposition.
• It can be stated like:
This study is seen through the proposition of
___________ who pointed out that
___________.
Importance of the Study

Mentions the importance of studies

and researches on:
• Stakeholders
• Educators
• Administrators and other entities
who can benefit from your study
In paragraph form (beneficiaries
are not enumerated)
Sample: Importance of the Study
By doing this qualitative research, I hope to provide a
unified assessment tool to evaluate students in a group
performance. This is seen as beneficial to the DepEd officials
who are responsible of providing guidelines to upgrade the
quality of education. Moreover, in higher education, learning
and teaching can work as an essential aid in ensuring that
students undertake deep learning and that courses are
constructively aligned i.e. the learning outcomes are clearly set
out and any form of assessment of teaching content matches such
learning outcomes.
Also, this study can give the School Heads a clear idea as to
how the MAPEH teachers conduct and give grades to their
students and how effective they are in managing MAPEH
lessons.
Correspondingly, this study would help the MAPEH
Teachers to evaluate consistently and fairly the product of
student learning, as well as the process and progress, thus
increasing accountability …..
Scope and Limitation of the Study
Scope:
• target research participants (be specific)
• who are those that will not be included
• the main focus of your study (the boundary of
the study)
Limitation:
• admission of weakness (to provide strength to your study)
• Ex. The data are not generalized statements but limited to
the participants of the study
• Ex: The study did not provide a comprehensive
triangulation of the inputs of the participants
Definition of Terms

 Provide introduction
 provide conceptual and
operational definitions
 Define only important terms
(keywords of the title)
Organization of the Study

•Discuss how you organize your

study
• begin with: aim of the study and
what tools to use to gather data.
• discuss what each chapter is all
about, from chapter 1-5.

Follow the template of an institutional

format
 Qualitative

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
(You may indicate here the different major titles
of your literature. Only those with bearing to
your study should be included.)
• For theses- 10-page RRL is required
• For dissertation- 20 or more pages RRL is
needed
• (Other panelists would require 30% of the total
number of pages of your study)
• RRL must be thematic, must be adjusted
according to your results in the succeeding
chapter.
Qualitative

Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY

o Research Design
o Research Participants
o Role of the Researchers
o Data Sources
o Data Collection Procedure
o Data Analysis
o Trustworthiness of the Study
o Ethical Consideration
 Research Design
•State that it’s a Qualitative type of
Research
(including the strategy of inquiry
(approach): phenomenological, case
study etc.)
•Describe the type of research and
approach with author
•Why that approach is used? (what makes
it suitable as an approach in your
investigation)
Research Participants

• Who are the participants? –

describe
• How many are they? (including
basis on determining their number)
• Why they are chosen as
participants? (the criteria in
their selection –be specific!)
• Provides sampling method
• How do you intend to identify your
participants?
• Purposive Sampling
• Sampling Design
• Can be Snow-Ball Sampling (Referral
System)
• When it has reached SATURATION (no other
information is added, the information given is
just repeated over and over, no new ideas
emerged)
• In-Depth Interview (IDI) must be triangulated
with Focus Group Discussion (FGD)
• 2 FGD’s must be supported by three interviews
to establish trustworthiness of the study
• Ideal- 7 to 8 participants (Members of FGD &
for IDI)
Role of the Researcher
• Describe your role as the researcher
• What are the things that you will possibly do
being the researcher?
- How will you interact with the participants?
- Will you do the actual gathering of
information through various methods?
- Will you do the interview etc?
- Will you formulate a program as part of the
study?
- Are you the one who will transcribe?
Data Sources

•Responses of participants
from In-Depth Interview (IDI)
and Focused Group
Discussion (FGD)
•where are you going to get
the data?
• includes locale of the study
Data Collection Procedure

• all procedures to undergo to get the data

(interview, focus group discussion (FGD),
document analysis, observation, etc.)
• enumerate ALL procedures
- identifying participants
- informing them (orientation)
- preparation of materials etc..
• provide a support why those procedures are
done
Sample:
Data Collection Procedure

As a researcher, we will take rigorous steps in date

collection procedure. Qualitative researches engage series of
activities in the process of collecting data before arriving to the
completion of the research study (Creswell, 2007).
Essential step are to seek permission to conduct the study;
find participants who will be involve in the study; ready the
availability of materials and tools for data gathering; and select
the place where to conduct the study.
First, the participants will be chosen according to their
availability and their willingness to participate. We will make
sure that all of the questions will be well-answered. All of the
participants will be listed according to the grade level where
they belong. We will ensure that those who will be chosen really
have an experience on the phenomenon being studied (Creswell,
2007).
 Second, the participants will be informed about the study and they
will be requested to sign the consent form in order to have an agreement
that the research participants will participate full cooperation and
without coercion.
Third, the participants will be oriented regarding the central
purpose of the study, the protocol design in data collection, and the
participants’ confidentially.
Fourth, the essential materials and instruments in data gathering
like the guide questions and audio recorder for the interview and
notebook for field notes will be prepared.
Fifth, the researcher will do an in-depth interview. Answers of the
participants will be recorded. After recording their answer,
documentation will be stored in the computer or any available drive to
be ready for transcription.
McCracken (1998) claimed that in qualitative study, the process of
collecting data involves primary in-depth interview with as many as (9)
individual. In this study, there were participants per grade level (9
participants) under the in depth-interview to get hold of the data desire
for the result of the study.
• IDI
• FGD
• Archives
• Documents
• Videos
• Features
• Photo Voice
Trustworthiness of the Study

Lincoln and Guba’s (2005) maintained

in his classic work on how to assess
truth in qualitative report, namely:
1. Credibility,
2. Transferability,
3. Dependability, and
4. Confirmability
Credibility
• Is an evaluation of whether or not the
research findings represent a “credible”
conceptual interpretation of the data
drawn from the participants’ original data
(Lincoln and Guba, 2005)
• establishing that the results of the research are
believable. This is a classic example of ‘quality
not quantity’. It depends more on the richness
of the information gathered, rather than the
amount of data gathered.
• A study is credible when it
represents faithful desriptions,
and when the readers or other
researchers confronted with the
experience can recognize the
phenomenon being studied
(Koch, 1994).

Member check must be conducted

with the participants to verify the
authenticity of the data.
HOW TO ENSURE
CREDIBILITY?
 Iterative questioning
 Data triangulation (FGD
supported by IDI)
 Triangulation through multiple
analysts
 Member checking
Transferability refers to the degree in
which the research can be transferred to
other contexts; this section is defined by
readers of the research. The reader notes the
specific details of the research situation and
methods, and compares them to a similar
situation that they are more familiar with. If
the specifics are comparable, the original
research would be deemed more credible. It
is essential that the original researcher
supplies a highly detailed description of
their situation and methods.
Transferability
• To address transferrability , Lincoln and Guba
(2005) suggested to include in the apendix the
data analysis and documents used to generate
answers to the research questions.

• The complete set of data must be saved on file for

an immediate availability upon request to give
other researchers the ability to transfer the
conclusions of the inquiry to other cases, or to
repeat as closely as possible the procedures of
the project (Lincoln and Guba, 2005).
HOW TO ENSURE TRANSFERABILITY?
 Thick description of the phenomenon
(essential RRL) – describing in detail the
participants and setting of scrutiny
 Providing detailed account of research
experiences during data collection
 Thick description of the
procedures/methodology
 Making connections to cultural and
social contexts that surround data
collection
 Dependability ensures that the
research findings are consistent and
could be repeated. This is measured
by the standard of which the research
is conducted, analyzed and
presented. Each process in the study
should be reported in detail to enable
an external researcher to repeat the
inquiry and achieve similar results.
Dependability
• To establish the issue of
dependability, Patton (1995)
suggested to rely the
independent audit of the research
methods to a competent debriefer
(expert in the field) who will
assess the confirmability and
dependability of the work .
HOW TO ENSURE
DEPENDABILITY?
 External audit (inquiry
audit)
-Other person examining the
process of data collection,
data analysis, and results of
the study –debriefing
 Triangulation
 Confirmability questions how the
research findings are supported by the data collected.
This is a process to establish whether the researcher
has been bias during the study; this is due to the
assumption that qualitative research allows the
researcher to bring a unique perspective to the study.
An external researcher can judge whether this is the
case by studying the data collected during the original
inquiry. To enhance the confirmability of the initial
conclusion, an audit trail can be completed
throughout the study to demonstrate how each
decision was made.
HOW TO ENSURE
CONFIRMABILITY?
 Audit Trail (the researcher
details the process of
collecting analyzing and
interpreting data; having
field notes
 Triangulation
Data Analysis

•Discuss how the data will

be analyzed.
• Content Analysis
• Thematic Analysis
Content analysis is carried out by:
1. Coding the data for certain words or content
2. Identifying their patterns
3. Interpreting their meanings.

This type of coding is done by going through all

of the text and labeling words, phrases, and
sections of text (either using words or symbols)
that relate to your research questions of interest.
After the data is coded you can sort and
examine the data by code to look for patterns.
Thematic analysis – grouping the data into
themes that will help answer the research
question(s). These themes may be (Taylor-Powell
and Renner, 2003):
 Directly evolved from the research questions and
were pre-set before data collection even began,
or
 Naturally emerged from the data as the study was
conducted.
Once your themes have been identified it is useful to
group the data into thematic groups so that you can
analyze the meaning of the themes and connect
them back to the research question(s).
• The fewer themes, the
better.
• 3-7 themes (ideal)
Ethical Consideration

Make sure that the participation of the

participants is completely voluntary by
requesting them to sign a Consent Form
(Macnamara, 1994).

Glesne and Peshkin (1992) suggested that a

researcher can protect the anonymity of the
participants by assigning them numbers or
aliases.
• Moreover, it should firmly adhere
to the fundamental principles of
highest ethical standards as cited
in The Belmont Report (1979)
where three core principles are
identified: respect for persons,
beneficence and justice.
 Qualitative

Chapter 4
RESULTS

• Follow the order of research

questions
• Articulate the answers of your
research questions and support
with actual transcripts
• Have a topic sentence or statement
• Present the data per se
• No author
 Qualitative

Chapter 5
DISCUSSION
• Repeat the result section
without the transcript but get
support from your RRL
(authors)
• Explain the results
comprehensively
Important:
• There is NO CONCLUSION
in qualitative research, only
IMPLICATION for
PRACTICE (not definitive)
• Concluding Remarks
• No recommendation