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In Defense of Qualitative Research Methods
Grounded theory annotated bibliography
In Defense of Qualitative Research Methods
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Grounded Theory
Grounded Theory (GT) is an established research approach used to generate theories, and it has been applied based on empirical data in many fields. However, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1967) start using this approach in sociological theorizing based on qualitative inquiry. Since then, Grounded Theory (GT) approach appears as a powerful (ke, J. and Wenglensky, S., 2010) and widely popular (Birks, M., and Mills, J., 2015; El Hussein, M., Hirst, S., Salyers, V., and Osuji, J., 2014) qualitative research approach for developing theory grounded in qualitative data. It is popular because GT offers researchers the luxury of maintaining an open mind (Birks, M., and Mills, J., 2015) and allowing the data to generate a theory. In this process, the emergent findings represent natural phenomena, and the evolving theories are free from any preconceived pattern explicated from the literature.
However, Grounded Theory is identified as ?a qualitative research design in which inquirer generates a general explanation (a theory) of a process, an action, or an interaction shaped by the views of a large number of
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meaning a company, people or a nation; and the word, ?-graphy,? meaning a ?field of study?. Ethnographic research, thus, focuses ?on developing a complex and complete description of the culture of a group, or a culture-sharing group? (Creswell, J. W., 2013). In other words, it can be mentioned that an ethnographic research (a) documents routine daily lives of people (Fetterman, 1998); (b) explores a cultural group (Creswell, J. W., 2013); (c) interprets situation from participants? perspectives ( Nurani, L. M., and Kemanusiaan, K. K. Ilmu, 2008); (d) interacts and interviews participants in a natural setting ( Nurani, L. M., and Kemanusiaan, K. K. Ilmu, 2008); and (e) possesses a guiding question that evolves during the study (Hall,
In Essentials of Cultural Anthropology, the book defines ethnography as “a written account of how a single human population lives” (Bailey & Peoples, 2014, p. 8). It seems to be such a simple definition to the multiple levels needed to make a successful ethnography as shown by Douglas Raybeck in Mad Dogs, Englishmen, and the Errant Anthropologist. These multiple levels of ethnographic methods include problems that often arise, the assimilation into a culture, and the many different ways of perceiving culture. This method of study is particularly unique to the social sciences because of the extensive amount of assimilation one does in order to interpret a society's culture. There is the need for a year-long period--occasionally even longer--
In order to understand the production of sociological knowledge one must first examine the thought processes that lay behind each piece of research. Before a particular subject matter is researched, the researcher firstly makes certain assumptions about that matter. These assumptions differ dependent on the theoretical approach that is taken. They can be divided into three logical areas, namely ontology, epistemology and methodology.
Not only this, but anthropologists will also employ Ethnography, writing down a description and analysis, based upon the fieldwork. This helps keep a record of what was learned, while also keeping the culture being studied under its own viewpoint. These factors help impact the analysis of a culture, while still being observed under a cultural relativism outlook.
Ethnography is typically defined as research designed to explore cultural phenomenon that take place in another part of society or even the world. This requires a researcher to analyze similarities and differences between cultures through a perspective that is not judgmental, but more so open to new concepts that aren’t necessarily normal to their own culture. For my research, I decided to interview a friend of mine who is culturally different when compared to myself. Before beginning my interview I created a hypothesis, which I hoped to prove through my findings. Initially, I believed that most children, who are raised within a specific’s culture influence, tend to absorb the lifestyle and mindsets of their parents. Almost similar to the quote “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” By growing up within a specific culture’s influence, a child will grasp what they learned from their parents and apply it to their own lives.
As she so boldly states, “My argument should be familiar to anthropologists who have long acknowledge that the terms people use to organize their lives are not simply gloss for universally shred assumptions about the world and one’s place in it but are actually constitutive of different forms of personhood, knowledge, and experience” (16). She rejects the process of academic translation or the reductionism of universality and seeks to give authority and legitimacy to the people who participate in the ethnographer’s analysis. This approach has been the direction I want my ethnography to go in, away from a process that seeks to transfer an informants’ words into another language. It is indeed the scholars job to sort, present, and critique data in a way that is useful and thought provoking, not simply the mere parroting of the informants words, however, it is imperative not to squeeze these people into already established realms and categories, which do not adequately relay their true feelings and actions and promulgate ethnocentric assumptions and ideals. I hope my research is reflexive of what the people are indeed feeling and perceiving in addition to a critical
Participant observation is a method of collecting information and data about a culture and is carried out by the researcher immersing themselves in the culture they observing. The researcher becomes known in the community, getting to know and understand the culture in a more intimate and detailed way than would be possible from any other approach. This is done by observing and participating in the community’s daily activities. The method is so effective because the researcher is able to directly approach the people in the community in a natural context as opposed to taking the participant out of their environment. The aim of participant observation is to gain an understanding the subject’s life from their perspective, with the purpose of collecting more detailed information about a community’s habits, opinions, relationships and issues.
James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If ethnographies can provide answers to these difficult questions, then Spradley has correctly identified this method as revolutionary.
The author could have employed other methods of qualitative research such as, narrative analysis, grounded theory, discourse analysis, data display and analysis, content analysis and quantifying qualitative data and computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAPDAS) (Saunders et al., 2016). Nevertheless, these approaches seem cumbersome sometimes and take a long time to complete (Willig, 1999; Braun and Clarke, 2006 and Smith and Bekker,
The research is guided by a theoretical framework called the Grounded Theory Approach. The Grounded Theory Approach (GT), first described by Glaser and Strauss in 1967, is an inductively formatted, general method of research that is aimed towards theory development through the data collection process and constant comparative analysis of that data. Cohen and Crabtree, 2006). The concept relies contingently upon the data the study presents and is characterized by the proposed theory being perfectly depicted by the data accumulated. Cohen and Crabtree, 2006).
In the traditional sense, an ethnography was just merely an explanation of culture; how the interact, survive, and continue as a culture. However, in the contemporary sense, ethnographies are not only used to explain how cultures work, but to expose a problem within it and propose a solution for the problem that would work within the context of the culture. This sense of contextual problem solving is prevalent in the last two ethnographies we read as a class: Here Our Culture is Hard, by Laura McClusky, and The Righteous Dopefiend, by Philippe Bourgois. McClusky's study is on the issue of domestic
Introduction: Anthropologist sometimes do ethnographic studies where they look at things from an ethic prospective, ethnographic research usually involves observing the targets in their natural, real-world setting, rather than in the artificial environment of a lab or focus group. The aim is to gather insight into how people live; what they do; how they use things; or what they need in their everyday or professional lives. An Ethnographic study relies on techniques such as observation, photographs, interviews, and analysis of artefacts such as for example devices, tools or paper forms that might be used as part of a person’s job. Observations can be made at home, at work, or in leisure environments.
A good formal theory ought to be at least the equivalent ought of a ton of ethnographies and perhaps half a gross of substantive theories (Strauss 1987, p.248). A substantive grounded theory is a tailor-made theory while a formal grounded theory is a ready-made theory (Kearney 1998). Substantive theory may limit its application to other contexts if a constant comparative method of modifying a theory is neglected. Nevertheless, it may have important general implications and relevance to other areas. It is for this imperative that, the emergent substantive grounded theory generated from data, is moved to a formal theory. Formal theory allows more generalization, and transferability of research results, which may be adapted to other different scenarios.
In the centre of ground theory stands to build theory from data and to form and describe concepts which build the blocks of the given theory (Corbin, & Strauss, 2008). Process of analysis in case of grounded theory is casual, flexible and determined by the insight obtained from the data (Corbin & Staruss, 2008). This approach is positivist and the open coding allows to identify the most important variables (Corbin & Staruss, 1998). The interview and its grounded theory analysis reports regarding the conceptions of how distance learning is managed. It aims to illustrate in-depth explanations through cycling, reoccurring thoughts and which allow to generate theory against them. As per Threlkeld, Brezoska notes (1994) for successful distance learning,
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the study of people and cultures through close observation, reading and interpretation is known as ethnography. Ethnography is used amongst many disciplines such as politics and social studies, education, anthropology, nursing and others. Before going any further, it is essential to define culture as ethnography is the study of culture. As defined by many ethnographers in broader terms, culture is a patterned behaviour or way of life of a group of people.
Glaser, B.G., Strauss, A.L. (1967), The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Chicago: Aldine.