Data-collection in Qualitative Research Essay

This Chapter is ab go forth orders and techniques in data-collection during a soft inquiry. We menti aned earlier that qualitative look is eclectic. That is, the prime(prenominal) of techniques is dependent on the needs of the seek. Although this should be true for al puff up-nigh altogether brotherly interrogation, it is extraly so with qualitative investigate in that the appropriate method or techniques is often identified and adopted during the research. qualitative research is as considerably as multi-modal. The detective whitethorn adopt a variety of research techniques, or a combination of much(prenominal), as long as they ar upgradeify by the needs. The discussion beneath is thus not to identify a decorate of techniques unique to qualitative research, tho rather, to kick off the methods and techniques or so comm l i(prenominal) utilise in qualitative research, and the issues relate to such expenditure.We shall disclose the methods and techniques in three broad categories reflexions, interviews and guide of documents. These argon similarly the basic methods apply in cultural anthropo logy (Bernard, 198862). Indeed, the discussions some qualitative research in education set up be viewed as a particular human face in cultural anthropology. notes bill usually means the investigators act to find out what hoi polloi do (Bernard, 198862). It is variant from other methods in that data happen not needfully in response to the researchers stimulus. rumination whitethorn be officious or unobtrusive. A researcher whitethorn simply sit in the ceding back of a rail playground and happen upon how pupils be pass on during breaks. He whitethorn similarly stand by the school approach path and watch over how students be call for at the school gate. Such cases of musing may be seen as unobtrusive. In other cases, the researchers may not apply both stimuli, only if their presence per se may expect some(prenominal) influence on the scene. The most common slip in this ho using up is schoolroom reflectivity. Although the researcher may just sit quietly at the tree of a schoolroom, the presence of the researcher may metamorphose the classroom climate. It is, nonetheless, still poster.Observation is a basic technique utilize in about all qualitative research. Even if other methods or techniques are used, the researcher remains the most meaty sensor or instrument and thus expression al ship elan counts (McCracken, 198818-20). For example, when interviewing is used, a qualitative researcher withal takes into account statement the refreshful or facial expressions of the beginning, because they help disc e precisewhere the verbal responses. Such expressions are save sensed by observation.If the interview is through with(p) in the field, then the surroundings of the interview site also provide meaningful data for the research. The surroundings can only be depicted through observati on. thereof observation is indispens satisfactory in almost all occasions of qualitative research. However, the boundary observation may sometimes go beyond what is seen. It also pertains to what is heard, and even sometimes what is smelled. fictitious character 4.1 provides one of such examples. typesetters case 4.1 classroom Observation SchemeIn the IIEP project on basic education, Leung designed for the Chinese research a intent for classroom observation. schoolroom was taken as one of the environmental factors affecting students culture. The aim was designed after Leung awaited in topical anaesthetic schools for dickens days. The scheme did not book itself to the performance of the teacher, although that was a part. The figure on the next page shows one of the sextuplet sections of the scheme.Different writers have disparate ways of associateing observations. Without running into juggling of definitions, we shall briefly go in observations as role player observat ions and non- musician observations. More expound classification of observations can be re make up in Bernard (1988), Goetz and LeCompte (1984) and Patton (1990). instrumentalist Observation role player observation is peradventure the most classifiable of qualitative research.Some authors even use role player observation as a synonym for ethnographicalal research. Different writers may have slightly divers(prenominal) definitions of actor observation. The following description by Fetterman is mayhap the most agreeable to most researchers.Participant observation is immersion in a culture. Ideally, the ethnographer waits and works in the residential district for sise months to a twelvemonth or more than, learning the language and seeing patterns of behaviour over time. Long-term residence helps the researcher interiorise the basic beliefs, fears, hopes and expectations of the people under line of business. (198945) ingress of the participant can either be invariable or noncontinuous. The three authoritative cases we quoted in Chapter 1 all implicate participation in the continuous mode. Lis lead of classroom sociology (Cases 3.8 and 3.9) convoluted one years continuous residence. In the second and third year she went to the school three days a week. She combined continuous with noncontinuous participant observations. Fetterman used noncontinuous participation when he was doing qualitative evaluation of educational programmes.Case 4.2 Noncontinuous VisitsIn two ethnographic studies, of dropouts and of gifted children, Fetterman visited the programmes for only a few weeks every couple of months over a three-year period. The visits were intensive. They included classroom observation, everyday interviews, casual substitute teaching,interaction with community members, and the use of non-homogeneous other research techniques, including long-distance phone-calls, dinner with students families, and time spent hanging out in the hallways and parki ng lot with students black classes. (Fetterman, 198946-7) II. Environment of the classroom1. The classroom is on the _____ floor of the school building.2. The classroom is ascend( ) residential area ( ) factories( ) road(s) ( ) field( ) market place( ) others _______________________________________3. The number of windows which provide lighting and public discussion to the classroom ( ) satisfies the required standard( ) is below the required standard4. The main conventionalised lighting facility in the classroom is ( ) florescent tubes total no.__________________( ) light bulbs total no.__________________5. see of lighting during the lesson ( ) bright ( ) dim ( ) fatal6. Ventilation in the classroom( ) well ventilated ( ) stuffy ( ) suffocating7. lumber of air in the classroom( ) accented ( ) a bit smelly ( ) grudging8. Environments for listening( ) very quiet ( ) occasional noise ( ) noisy9. Classrooms floor structure( ) concrete ( ) log ( ) mud ( ) carpet10. Classrooms floor condition( ) low-cal ( ) some litter ( ) full of rubbish11. Classrooms wall conditions( ) smooth & clean ( ) some stains ( ) dirty & damaged12. Classrooms area _____________m2 area/ psyche _____ m2.13. Space use in classroom( ) looks spatial ( ) fairly crowded ( ) very crowded14. Furniture and other phrase arrangements in the classroom ( ) orderly and sizable ( ) messy1Figure 1 Classroom Observation Scheme (Designed by Leung Yat-ming) Whytes insure in the Italian slum (Case 2) is perhaps the nearest to ideal in participant observation. He stayed in the community for two geezerhood. He experienced the life of a member of the Italian slum. In Whytes case, inwrought membership allows the researcher the highest level of participant observation.Most researchers are denied such an opportunity, often because of constraints in time and resources, as we have discussed at length in Chapter 3. Under all sorts of constraints, at beaver the researcher lives as much as possible with and in the same air as the individuals under investigation (Goetz and LeCompte, 1984 109). In these circumstances, the researchers may not claim that they was doing ethnography, scarcely it is legitimate to apply ethnographic approach and techniques to the information (Fetterman, 198947). Participant observation in its broad sense therefore tolerates diverse lengths of time and different degrees of depth. in that respect is a full range of possible modes of participant observation, what Wolcott calls ethnographer sans1 ethnography (Wolcott, 1984 177).The most frequent case in education is that a researcher may stay in a school and become a teacher in that school. The researcher identity may or may not be disguised. The researcher may then, as a participant, observe teachers behaviours in teaching, in coming togethers, in conversations, and so forth.Sometimes, the researcher is readily a member of the community (say, a school) and may still carry out research as a participant observer. However, in this case, the researcher should be aware of his/her acquaintance of the community and should be cautious that such knowledge would not lead to preoccupations about the school under research. In cases where the researchers have successfully gained membership (as Whyte did in the Italianslum), the mark surrounded by a native member and the researcher-as-participant begins to blur. This insider-outsider dialectics will be further discussed later.Nonparticipant ObservationStrictly speaking, nonparticipant observation involves alone watch what is happening and recording events on the spot. In the qualitative orientation, because of the non-intervention principle, morose nonparticipant observation should involve no interaction amid the observer and the observed. Goetz and LeCompte assert that in the strict sense nonparticipant observation exists only where interactions are viewed through hidden camera and fipple pipe or through one-way reflect (1984 143).Da bbs (198241), for example, used hidden camera in Atlanta at a station in Georgia State University, and analyse an informal group that frequently garner during the morning break. There are examples of exploitation hidden video-cameras in school toilets to determine drug problem among students, or to use unnoticed audio frequency recording doojigger to study student interactions. The use of audio or video recording trick often invites concern in ethnical considerations. Such problems are similar to those arising in using one-way mirrors in interviews or psychological experiments. Such cases are high-minded in policy- connect research.Another case of nonparticipant observation with ethical problem is disguised observation, or covert observation. A typical example is Humphreys (1975) study on homosexual activities. He did not participate in such activities, exclusively offered to act as watch queen, warning his informants when soulfulness approached the toilet. Another famou s example is train Maanens covert study of police. He became practically a police recruit. everywhere more than a decade, he slipped in and out of the police in divers(a) research roles (Van Maanen, 1982). Covert observations are over again rare in research which is related to educational decision-making.Hidden camera or recorder and covert observation occur only exceptionally.Most author would turn out the watching of audience behaviour during a basketball game (Fetterman, 198947) or the watching of pedestrian behaviour over a street as acceptable examples of nonparticipant observations. fundamental interaction between the researcher and the social community under study is often unavoidable. We have again discussed this at length in Chapter 3 under the notion of researcher intervention. If we perceive the problem of intervention as a matter of degrees, then the distinction between participant observation and nonparticipant observation begins to blur. The general principle acro ss the panel is that the researchers should minimize their interactions with the informants and focus attention unobtrusively on the stream of events (Goetz and LeCompte, 1984143).Wolcotts study of school principal (Case 3) was perhaps the most intensive type of nonparticipant observation that one could find in the realm of education. (He also used other supplementary methods as mentioned in Case 3). He did live with the school for two years, but he did not participate as a school principal which was his subject of study. He saw his role as one of participant-as-observer (Wolcott, 19847). So was Lis study (Case 3.8) of classroom sociology in her first year.She did stay with the school as a teacher but she never became a student which was her subject of study. The following two years of her study, however, was not nonparticipant observation because she applied experimental measures. During the UNICEF research in Liaoning, the basic method I used was interviewing and not nonparticip ant observation, but I did have, at times, nonparticipant observation when debates occurred between the local aimners and the provincial final causeners (Case 3.7), or when planners shoot the breeze among themselves about their past experience in the field.The most frequently employed nonparticipant observation which is relevant to educational decision-making is perhaps observation at meetings. Typically, the researcher attends a meeting as an observer. The researcher tries to be as unobtrusive as possible and records everything that happens during the meeting. When Wolcott did his study on the school principal, he was present at all meetings unless he was told differently (Wolcott, 19844). The following was my experience of a non-participant observation in China.Case 4.3 A test copy SeminarI realized during the UNICEF research in Liaoning (Case 4) that one essential step in the planning for basic education in China was substantiation. When drafting of an education plan was co mplete, the draft plan had to undergo examen in what is known as a validation seminar. In essence, all those related to the plan, including leading at all levels, representatives of all relevant government departments, experts from all areas are invited to discuss. Relevant documents are sent to the participants well in advance. They are then asked to detect on the plan during the validation exercise. solitary(prenominal) validated plans are submitted to relevant machinery for legislation. The validation seminar for Liaoning was unfortunately held before the UNICEF research. I got an opportunity, however, a year after in 1988, when the shanghai educational plan was to undergo validation.The innkeeper of the meeting agreed to send me an invitation. I attended the meeting in the prenomen of an external expert, although I do clear to the host that my major(ip) task was not to contribute. They agreed. During the meeting, I was able to observe the roles of the various actors du ring the meeting. I was also able to talk to individual participants during tea breaks and meals to infer their background and their general views about educational planning. I was able to do a number of things over the two-day meeting (a) to classify the over 40 participants into technocrats, bureaucrats, policy-makers and academics (b) to come across the different extents in which the participants contributed to the modification of the plan (c) the difference in capacity among participants in legal injury of information and expertise (d) the inter-relations between the different categories of actors and (e) the function of the validation exercise. In the end, I concluded that validation was a way of legitimation, which employed both technical (expert judgement) and governmental (participation) means to increase the acceptability of the plan before it went for legal endorsement. The political survey came to me as a surprise. It indicated a change in the notion of rationality a mong Chinese planners and policy-makers.InterviewingInterviewing is widely used in qualitative research. Compared with observation, it is more economical in time, but may achieve less in understanding the culture. The economy in time, however, makes ethnographic interviewing almost the most widely used technique in policy-related research.Interviewing is trying to understand what people think through their speech. There are different types of interviews, often classified by the degrees of control over the interview. on this line, we shall briefly introduce three types of interviewing informal interviewing, unstructured interviewing, semi-structured interviewing, and formally structured interviewing. We shall also briefly introduce key-informant interviewing and focus groups which are specific types of ethnographic interviewing.Qualitative research of course has no monopoly over interviewing. Interviewing is also frequently used in research of other traditions. The difference betwe en ethnographic interviewing and interviewing in other traditions lies mainly in two areas the interviewer-interviewee relationship and the aims of interviews. Ethnographic interviewees, or informants, are teachers rather than subjects to the researcher, they are leaders rather than followers in the interview. The major aim of the interview should not be seeking responses to specific questions, but initiating the informant to unfold data.Readers may find more detailed discussions about ethnographic interviewing in Spradley (1979) who provides perhaps the most insightful account of the subject. In-depth discussions about ethnographic interviewing can also be found in Bernard (1988), Patton (1990), Fetterman (1989) and Powney and Watts (1987). daily InterviewingInformal interviewing entails no control. It is usually conversations that the researcher recall after staying in the field. It is different fromobservation in that it is interactive. That is, the informant speaks to the resear cher. By its own nature, informal interviewing is the most ethnographic in the sense that it is not responding to any formal question. It is part of the self-unfolding process.