research methodology paper 2009

pdfDocument Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method14 PagesUploaded byGlenn BowenPaperRankViews  connect to downloadREAD PAPERDownloadUploaded byGlenn BowenLoading PreviewSorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.
Unlike positivist or experimental research that utilizes a linear and one-directional sequence of design steps, there is considerable variation in how a qualitative research study is organized. In general, qualitative researchers attempt to describe and interpret human behavior based primarily on the words of selected individuals [a.k.a., “informants” or “respondents”] and/or through the interpretation of their material culture or occupied space. There is a reflexive process underpinning every stage of a qualitative study to ensure that researcher biases, presuppositions, and interpretations are clearly evident, thus ensuring that the reader is better able to interpret the overall validity of the research. According to Maxwell (2009), there are five, not necessarily ordered or sequential, components in qualitative research designs. How they are presented depends upon the research philosophy and theoretical framework of the study, the methods chosen, and the general assumptions underpinning the study. Goals Describe the central research problem being addressed but avoid describing any anticipated outcomes. Questions to ask yourself are: Why is your study worth doing? What issues do you want to clarify, and what practices and policies do you want it to influence? Why do you want to conduct this study, and why should the reader care about the results? Conceptual Framework Questions to ask yourself are: What do you think is going on with the issues, settings, or people you plan to study? What theories, beliefs, and prior research findings will guide or inform your research, and what literature, preliminary studies, and personal experiences will you draw upon for understanding the people or issues you are studying? Note to not only report the results of other studies in your review of the literature, but note the methods used as well. If appropriate, describe why earlier.
Sorry, Readability does not yet present PDFs in a reading view.[View Original.
In their seminal work of 1988, Noblit and Hare proposed meta-ethnography as an alternative to meta-analysis [8]. They cited Strike and Posner's [9] definition of synthesis as an activity in which separate parts are brought together to form a 'whole'; this construction of the whole is essentially characterised by some degree of innovation, so that the result is greater than the sum of its parts. They also borrowed from Turner's theory of social explanation [10], a key tenet of which was building 'comparative understanding' [[8], p22] rather than aggregating data. To Noblit and Hare, synthesis provided an answer to the question of 'how to put together written interpretive accounts' [[8], p7], where mere integration would not be appropriate. Noblit and Hare's early work synthesised research from the field of education. Three different methods of synthesis are used in meta-ethnography. One involves the 'translation' of concepts from individual studies into one another, thereby evolving overarching concepts or metaphors. Noblit and Hare called this process reciprocal translational analysis (RTA). Refutational synthesis involves exploring and explaining contradictions between individual studies. Lines-of-argument (LOA) synthesis involves building up a picture of the whole (i.e. culture, organisation etc) from studies of its parts. The authors conceptualised this latter approach as a type of grounded theorising. Britten et al [11] and Campbell et al [12] have both conducted evaluations of meta-ethnography and claim to have succeeded, by using this method, in producing theories with greater explanatory power than could be achieved in a narrative literature review. While both these evaluations used small numbers of studies, more recently Pound et al [13] conducted both an RTA and an LOA synthesis using a much larger number of studies (37) on resisting medicines. These studies.