Uom Educational Research Research Methods MEd_ver2

QualitativeQualitative Research Research MethodsMethods

M.Ed. Course 2006-8M.Ed. Course 2006-8

Dr. Andrew Azzopardi Department of Youth and Community

StudiesUniversity of Malta

These are my personal lecture notes and will not replace the reading course participants are expected to engage with.

Dr. Andrew Azzopardi E-Mail:[email protected] Telephone:23402919

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E-mail: [email protected]

Telephone: 23402919


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Assignment


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Themes: Session 1: Development of qualitative research Dr Andrew AzzopardiSession 2: Methodological and ethical issues in qualitative

research Dr Simone GaleaSession 3: Research processes and research methodsPart 1: Dr Andrew AzzopardiPart 2: Dr Simone GaleaSession 4: Analyzing and interpreting data. Checking for

standards in qualitative researchPart 1: Dr Andrew AzzopardiPart 2: Dr Simone Galea and Dr Andrew Azzopardi


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Course Description

This course is primarily intended to assist students to build the required competencies for the undertaking of research.

The course includes a critical account of the

developments of qualitative research with particular reference to the emergence, use and purpose of educational research. The course is grounded in a critical tradition of research that encourages researchers to reflect on their ideological, theoretical and political stances and the way they shape their particular interpretations of the world.


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Thinking Point :1. Is research important to you?2. Is research important to society?3. In what way/s can we do research?4. Can research change anything?


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Thinking Point :

A young man is found at the bottom of a cliff, dead. Right next to him there is a a box of tranquilizers. How will these ‘people’ react to this situation?

1. A psychologist2. A sociologist3. The family lawyer4. The doctor5. The parents6. The person in the street7. The youth and community worker8. The police officer


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Thinking Point:

What is your experience with research? What are the projects you have worked on?


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When social processes are involved, questions and answers multiply

Why are there so many different answers?

Social perception:1. Selection - What stimuli or messages do we take

in?2. Organization – What sense do we make of them?3. Interpretation – What meaning do we give to them

once they reach awareness?


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Thinking Point :

Why research?

Policy Academic Personal


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Main concepts:

Research is the search for truth Research helps us understand social reality


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Qualitative research approaches began to gain recognition in the 1970s. The phrase 'qualitative research' was until then marginalized as a discipline of anthropology or sociology, and terms like ethnography, fieldwork, participant observer were used instead. During the 1970s and 1980s qualitative research began to be used in other disciplines, and became a dominant - or at least significant - type of research in the fields of women studies, disability studies, education studies, social work studies, information studies, management studies, nursing service studies, human service studies and others. In the late 1980s and 1990s after a spate of criticisms from the quantitative side, new methods of qualitative research have been designed, to address the problems with reliability and and imprecise modes of data analysis.


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Defining Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions or inquiry that explore a social or human problem. The research builds a complex, holistic picture, analyses words, reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting (Creswell 1998: 15).


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Quantitative oriented research studies are undoubtedly a pivotal aspect of policy and service development efforts. This study-unit revisits the principal constructs of qualitative methods, and provides a detailed examination of statistical, computer assisted research techniques. We hope that this course will assist prospective service providers and planners in building an informed appreciation of the importance that robust quantitative research strategies play in the process of securing evidence-based planning approaches. The myriad instruments that are used in quantitative research inquires and their applicability to the planning process will thus be duly emphasized. This course also focuses on specific issues related to quantitative studies, including generaalisability and the limitations of official data, representation, and data triangulation.


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Although researchers in anthropology and sociology have used the approach known as qualitative research for a century, the term was not used in the social sciences until the late 1960s. The term qualitative research is used as an umbrella term to refer to several research strategies.

It is unfair to judge qualitative research by a quantitative research paradigm, just as it is unfair to judge quantitative research from the qualitative research paradigm.

"Qualitative researchers seek to make sense of personal stories and the ways in which they intersect" (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992). As one qualitative researcher noted, "I knew that I was not at home in the world of numbers long before I realized that I was at home in the world of words."


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The Assumptions of Qualitative Designs Qualitative researchers are concerned

primarily with process, rather than outcomes or products.

Qualitative researchers are interested in meaning how people make sense of their lives, experiences, and their structures of the world.

The qualitative researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. Data are mediated through this human instrument, rather than through inventories, questionnaires, or machines.


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In the social sciences, qualitative research is a broad term that describes research that focuses on how individuals and groups view and understand the world and construct meaning out of their experiences. Qualitative research methods are sometimes used together with quantities research methods to gain deeper understanding of the causes of social phenomena, or to help generate questions for further research. Unlike quantitative methods, qualitative research methods place little importance on developing statistically valid samples, or on searching for statistical support for hypotheses.


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The data collected in qualitative research has been termed "soft", "that is, rich in description of people, places, and conversations, and not

easily handled by statistical procedures." Researchers do not approach their research

with specific questions to answer or hypotheses to test. They are concerned with understanding

behavior from the subject's own frame of reference. Qualitative researchers believe that "multiple ways of interpreting experiences are available to each of us through interacting with

others, and that it is the meaning of our experiences that constitute reality. Reality,

consequently, is 'socially constructed'"

(Bogdan & Biklen, 1992).


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Qualitative research involves fieldwork. The researcher physically goes to the people, setting, site, or institution to observe or record behavior in its natural setting.

Qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through words or pictures.

The process of qualitative research is inductive in that the researcher builds abstractions, concepts, hypotheses, and theories from details.


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Human behavior is significantly influenced by the setting in which it occurs; thus one must study that behavior in situations.

Past researchers have not been able to derive meaning...from experimental research.

The research techniques themselves, in experimental research, [can]...affect the findings. The lab, the questionnaire, and so on, [can]...become artifacts. Informants [can become]...either suspicious and wary, or they [can become]...aware of what the researchers want and try to please them.

Additionally, informants sometimes do not know their feelings, interactions, and behaviors, so they cannot articulate them to respond to a questionnaire.


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One cannot understand human behavior without understanding the framework within which informants interpret their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Researchers need to understand the framework. In fact, the "objective " scientist, by coding and standardizing, may destroy valuable data while imposing her world on the informants.

Field study research can explore the

processes and meanings of events. .....Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. (1980).

Designing qualitative research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.


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Positivism is the view that serious scientific inquiry should not search for ultimate causes deriving from some outside

source but must confine itself to the study of relations existing

between facts which are directly accessible to observation.


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A doctrine which claims that social life should be understood and analysed in the same way that scientists study the

'natural world'. Underpinning this philosophy is the notion that

phenomena exist in causal relationships and these can be empirically observed, tested and measured. [Tony Bilton et

al., Introductory Sociology, 3rd edition. London, Macmillan, 1996:666]


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Quote:

“Whether you plan to conduct your own research projects, read others’ research reports, or just think about and act in the social world, knowing about research methods has many benefits. This knowledge will give you greater confidence in your own opinions; improve your ability to evaluate others’ opinions ; encourage you to refine your questions, answers, and methods of inquiry about the social world” (Russell 1999:18).


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Scientific/Quantitative Positivism is an early influential approach advocated by

Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim which suggests that sociology can be scientific. Positivism argues that:

1. Objective social facts2. Facts can be expressed in statistics3. You can look for correlations (patterns in which two or more

things tend to occur together)4. Casual relationships may represent causal relationships (one

thing causes another)5. It is possible to discover laws of behavior which are true for

all6. Human behavior is shaped by external stimuli rather than

internal stimuli7. To be scientific you should only study what you can observe.

It is therefore unscientific to study people’s emotions, meanings or motives which are internal.


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Instead, qualitative research focuses on the understanding of research phenomena in the original position, within their naturally-occurring context(s). One aim of the qualitative researcher is to tease out the meaning(s) the phenomena have for the actors or participants. Quantitative studies, however, may also observe phenomena in situ and address issues of meaning, and one criticism of this approach to qualitative research is that the definitions offered of it do not distinguish it adequately from quantitative research (for more on this issue, and about the debate over the merits of qualitative and quantitative approaches


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Because of its emphasis on in-depth knowledge and the elaboration of images and concepts, qualitative methods have been viewed as particularly useful to areas of social research such as "giving voice" to marginalized groups, formulation of new interpretations of historical and cultural significance of various events, and advancing theory, as in-depth, empirical qualitative studies may capture important facts missed by more general, quantitative studies. Such investigations usually focus on a primary case, on the commonalities among separate instances of the same phenomenon identified through analytical deduction or on parallel phenomena identified through theoretical sampling.


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Another way to describe these differences is cited by [Pamela Maykut, Richard Morehouse]:

Qualitative approaches use multiple realities which can only be understood by the intersecting socio-psychological constructions. Quantitative approaches have one reality created from dividing and studying parts of an entity.

Qualitative approaches have interdependency between the knower and the known. Quantitative approaches believe true objectivity exists because the knower can be studied outside of the known.

Qualitative approaches have non-numerical values that mediate and shape what is understood. Quantitative approaches believe that non-numerical values can be ignored or otherwise rendered unimportant.


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Differences between qualitative & quantitative research

Qualitative research develops theories whereas quant itative tests theories as well as develops them

Qualitative research describes meaning or discovery whereas quantitative establishes relationship or causation

In qualitative research the researcher is explicitly a part of the data gathering process whereas in quantitative, the researcher is formally an independent entity

Qualitative research uses communication and observation whereas quantitative research uses instruments

Qualitative research uses unstructured data collection whereas quantitative research uses structured data collection


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Generally (though there are exceptions), qualitative research studies rely on three basic data gathering techniques:

1. Participant observation2. Interviews3. Social artifacts (documents)


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Good Qualitative Research (Creswell1998)

Employ rigorous data collection procedures Frame the study within the assumptions and

characteristics of the qualitative approach to research

We use a tradition of inquiry We begin with a single focus The study is to include detailed methods, a rigorous

approach to data collection, data analysis and report writing

We write persuasively We analyze data using multiple levels of abstraction The writing is to be clear, engaging and full of

unexpected ideas.


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Qualitative approaches involves multidirectional relationships where events shape each other. Quantitative approaches claim that a preceding event can be said to cause a following event.

Qualitative approaches have only tentative explanations for one time and one place. Quantitative approaches believe that explanations can be generalized to other times and places.

Qualitative approaches seek to discover or uncover hypotheses. Quantitative approaches generally seeks verification or proof of hypotheses.


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Interpretive/Qualitative

Interpretativists usually advocate the use of qualitative data to interpret social action, with an emphasis on the meanings and motives of actors

From this viewpoint, people do not simply react to external stimuli but interpret the meaning of stimuli before reacting

We need to understand why people behave in particular ways (Weber)


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Strategies of Inquiry Quantitative(Experimental designs, non-experimental designs e.g.

surveys)(Predetermined, instrument based questions, performance

data, observational data, census data, statistical analysis) Qualitative(Narratives, phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory,

case study)(Emerging methods, open ended questions, interview data,

observation data, document data, text and image analysis) Mixed methods/triangulation(Sequential, concurrent and transformative)(Predetermined and emerging methods, open-ended and

close ended questions, multiple forms of data drawing on possibilities, statistical and text analysis) (Clark, 2005)


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Key terminology:

Ontological:What is the nature of reality? Reality is subjective and

multiple, as seen by participants in the study.Epistemological:What is the relationship between the researcher and that

being researched? Researcher attempts to lessen the distance between himself/herself and that being researched.

Rhetorical:What is the language of research? Researcher writes in a

literary, informal style using the personal voice and uses qualitative terms and limited definitions.

Methodological:What is the process of research? Researcher uses

inductive logic, studies the topic within its context, and uses an emerging design.


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Validity and Reliability (Measurement)

How are we going to measure? What are the criteria of evaluation?

Reliability is concerned with questions of stability and consistency – does the same measurement tool yield stable and consistent results when repeated over time. We want questions that yield consistent responses when asked multiple times .

Validity refers to the extent we are measuring what we hope to measure. We want questions that get accurate responses from respondents.


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Traditions Biography Phenomenology Grounded Theory Ethnography Case studies


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Each tradition will be explored by

focusing on: Philosophical and theoretical

frameworks Data collection Analysis and interpretation Standards of quality and verification


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Biography


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Auto/biographical research frequently raises un-answered questions, as well as identifying the paths and journeys that have been left behind because of painful memories and experiences (West 1996) …Auto/biography also implicates the researcher in her own personally reflective truth-seeking and experiential reconstruction. This search takes her to places where multiple regimes of truth reveal themselves and may be highly contested, where the self and the ‘subject’ of the research are challenged, particularly since auto/biographical research challenges the conventional distinctions between self and other. (Chan 2001, p.1).


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Biographical forms of research

A biography reports the life of a single individual. Biographical study Autobiography Life history Oral history Classical biography Interpretative biography


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On the other hand we have had criticisms being made on the value of biographies. Various people have spoken about the strange and intricate situation where stories are told but the intention is to create hero worship or a dimension of perception on the person involved that is unreal (Goodley 2003). The first taste of qualitative research came about through the notorious University of Chicago when a number of benefactors decided to fund a project which was later to become known as The Polish Peasant In Europe And America – A Classical Work Of Emigration History co-authored by William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki (1918-1920). This is a classic in the area of sociological outcomes and analysis. The value of such a text lies in the fact that this is probably the first qualitative research text to have an impact on the social sciences. Thomas and Znaniecki were amongst the first to propose this new methodology.


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Grounded Theory


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Grounded Theory

To generate or discover a theory The investigator needs to set aside as much as

possible, theoretical ideas or notions so that the analytic, substantive theory can emerge.

The researcher must still keep in mind that this form of inquiry is laden with specific steps in data analysis

The researcher faces the difficulty of determining when the theory is sufficiently detailed

The researcher needs to recognize that the primary outcome of this study is a theory with specific components; a central phenomenon, casual foundations, strategies, conditions and context, and consequences.

Developing theory grounded in data from the field.


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Narrative


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A new discipline, narratology (the term coined by Todorov in 1969) has slowly emerged which takes as its central task the analysis of stories and narratives (Plummer 2001, p.186).


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Two questions can be posed to explore the position of narrator and writer in collaborative narrative inquiry. First, how does the writer construct the life story of the narrator? Second, to what extent do narrators become involved in the writing of their own life story? (Goodley 1998, p.119).


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I believe that the core of narrative lies in the fact that narrative and story-telling remain bound to a partiality of perspective and thus may reject any form of abstract universalism. Narrative can take different forms of narrative; historiography, oral life story, myth, novel or film as their point of departure. Within social action, there are issues of social, cultural and political belonging. I believe that the core of narrative and its social and political importance lies in the fact that narrative and storytelling remain bound to a particularity of perspective, and thus must reject any form of abstract universalism. At first, this seems to contrast ‘theory’, ‘concept’ and ‘narrative’, but we also insist on exploring the possibilities of narrative theorizing. The argument always seems to bring it all down to a key notion; can we feature storytelling as a weak form of universalism? Can we find commonality in this method to the world of “inclusion”, exclusion (Slee 2000; Stirling 1992) and diversity.


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We need to keep in perspective that as Goodley (2003) says, people’s stories expose their innermost cultural and social accounts. People seem to understand better and describe events better when they are assisted by the narrative. We are all encapsulated in stories and this research will aim at injecting some understanding on the many matters correlated to “inclusion”. (Azzopardi 2006).


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In fact maybe stories… let’s take one of them that we lived a good part of it, you don’t see it so bad as when you read about it again. When you read it again you start to realise how serious it is. Sometimes you get so used to being in these circumstances that you let them go by. But when faced with the stories you tend to stop and think, ‘what happened was really bad!’ (Carmen, Facilitator).


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The most important data that I have gathered on narrative is not drawn from the observation of speech production or controlled experiments, but to from the reactions of audiences the narratives as I have retold them. In a regular and predictable fashion, certain narratives produce in the audience a profound concentration of attention that creates uninterrupted silence and immobility, an effect that continues long after the ending is reached. It is the effort to understand the compelling power of such narratives… (Labov 1997, p. 1).


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… I enjoyed reading them (Jack, Teacher). I think that they were very true. The stories trigger different

thoughts to the people that read them (Donnha, Parent Activist).

I liked the stories because we are living them all the time… We witness these things on television regularly and you end up putting the sound off. But the way they did it, it was really great (Maria, Parent Activist).

I preferred this style (Walter, Disabled Activist). Why do you think they are an effective means of research?

(Andrew, Researcher). Because they give a realistic picture of the situation (Carmel,

Disabled Activist). They are also food for thought (Sandra, Disabled Activist). I’ve read the stories and they are real… For example the issue of

over-protection in the first story, where a person with a disability isn’t even allowed to play. Most of the times, in research, things are done out of good intention but that lack of consultation gets at me (Richard, Disabled Activist).


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When you read stories, you start understanding more coherently the issues that are being passed on. Because in reading a story you’re going to engage with it, you’re going to feel the spirit there is. Questionnaires are artificial. Just a question and an answer. In a story you will get it, read, think about it. What I found interesting was the discussion we had in the focus group. Certain stories I read them ‘differently’ than other people. This helped because I could reflect and come up with my own conclusions (Anthony, Social Worker).


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Rather than concealing my identity, the literature is a key coordinating attribute of this narrative work and can be perceived as a basic means for individuals to denote the inclusive agenda we are all immersed in.


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The processes employed in semi-fictional and narrative writing include clear challenges to the offered narrative and re-writing of events. This can only be achieved by sharing responsibility, because no-one can really contradict authorial clout when it comes to writing fiction. I interpret narrative and semi-fictional writing to change the power relations between oneself and the informants.


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The value of narrative lies in the capacity to connect me with the proper story that is happening. This is not information that has to go from one medium to another, from one interpretive stance to another but a whole movement of debate that draws in the complexities straight on to the serving dish. It is precisely like consuming the stark realities that are encompassing this debate. There is no way to shed responsibility and shift the debate or try to interpret the way I, as the author wanted it written. This is a basic ethical premise. What is read is interpreted from the experience one has, allowing the wholeness and completeness of that debate to merge the positions that need to be taken.


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Joan’s story is one of changing self-identity – first the loss of the self she was before her illness, then the reconstruction of a new ‘stronger’ self. We can see this being played out through and against the public narratives of ‘normality’…. Her difficult struggle to ‘come to terms’ with the changes in her life and an altered self are clearly bound up with her long-standing acceptance of the implicit messages in these public narratives…. She found a way to re-tell her story to and of herself (Thomas 1999, p.51).


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In the process of unpacking life story research we may end up deconstructing the life stories that we initially present. Never mind, we hope we have done some justice to our narrators/narrative subjects and encouraged others to consider stories as the very stuff of research (Goodley et al 2004, p.x).


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While narrative researchers draw upon a variety of epistemological and theoretical positions, all proponents share the view that (some) understandings can be gleaned through turning to those who have in some way been labelled. A turn to narrative is a celebration of the insider, specificity, indexicality and of lay-knowledge. The strengths of narrative accounts are tied into the inherent personal and constructive qualities of accounting for oneself alongside and with others (p.3).


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The essence of this method was in getting the immigrants to tell their own life stories, either by hiring them to do so or by finding documents, especially letters, in which they did (Zaretsky 1996, p.x). Another important reader for me was The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (1985). This author has written several stories that emanated from a professional autobiography. Moreover, he managed to bring to the surface a number of interesting debates and personal reflections that said a lot about the professional dimension and how this could be more in line with the ‘patients’ (for him) or service users we are engaged with. He speaks about the passions and the galvanisation of people under the threat of being categorised, pigeon-holed and having their personality segmented.


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Narrative identity can be defined as a constantly evolving story, which compounds the past experience of human life. A person constantly renews his or her narrative by re-creating mental experiences in the form of words and sentences…. Narrative identity is closely related to the view that identity comes through a dialogue between the self and the environment. In order for a narrative to come about, there has to be true dialogue between participants who listen to each other. And even more: people want not only to be listened to, but also to be understood, which enhances the self-knowledge of both the narrator and the listener/reader (Syrjala and Estola 1999, p. 3).


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Creswell (1998) The author uses description and a high level of

detail The author tells this story informally, as a

‘storyteller’ The author explores cultural themes of roles and

behavior of the committee The author describes the ‘everyday life of

persons’ The overall format is descriptive


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Ethnography


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What is ethnography? What lies behind an ethnographic piece of

research?


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An ethnography is a description and interpretation of a cultural or social group or system. The researcher examines the group's observable and learned patterns of behavior, customs and ways of life (Harris, 1968). It is based on participant observation where the researcher is immersed in the process of day-to-day living and one-to-one interviews. The researcher studies the meanings of behavior, language and interactions of the culture sharing group.

Describing and interpreting a cultural and social group.


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Ethnographers prefer lengthy and deep involvement in the natural setting. Social life is complex in its range and variability. It also operates at different levels and has many layers of meaning (Berger, 1966). A long stay is necessary to gain access to these.

There has been some dispute as to whether there are such ‘real situations’, let alone whether they can ever be represented in research accounts.

‘The social world is an interpreted world…(Analytic realism) is based on the value of trying to represent faithfully and accurately the social worlds or phenomena studied’ (Altheide and Johnson, 1994, p. 489).

Ethnographers are interested in how understandings are formed, how meanings are negotiated, how roles are developed, how a curriculum works out, how a policy is formulated and implemented, how a pupil becomes deviant.

Social life is ongoing, developing, fluctuating, becoming. It never arrives or ends. Some forms of behaviour may be fairly stable, others variable, others emergent.


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Ethnographers do not, on the whole, start with a theory which they aim to test and prove or disprove, though there is no reason why they should not do that if they wished. They mainly work the other way round, seeking to generate theory from data. The theory is then said to be grounded in the social activity it purports to explain (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).

Ethnography is often criticised for producing a weak

basis for generalisations to be made. Thus, it might be demonstrated, very interestingly, that a pupil indulges in disruptive behaviour or engages in creative activity when subjected to certain treatment; some might ask, however, quite legitimately, 'to how many pupils does this apply?' We find it useful here to distinguish between internal and external validity. Internal validity refers to the accuracy of the account being presented as it applies to the case or cases researched. External validity refers to generalisation to other cases.


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Ethnography is concerned with life as it is lived, things as they happen, situations as they are constructed in the day-to-day, moment-to-moment course of events. Ethnographers seek lived experiences in real situations. In general, they try not to disturb the scene and to be unobtrusive in their methods. This is to try to ensure that data and analysis will closely reflect what is happening.

The researcher tries to make as few assumptions in advance on what problems and issues will be found. It helps if the researcher ‘makes the familiar strange’, not taking things for granted, questioning the bases of action (Becker, 1971); though, at other times, ‘deep familiarity’ with the scene and the people in it can aid insights (Goffman, 1989; Strauss and Corbin, 1990).


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Ethnography by tradition is an individual pursuit, which makes working on sensitive issues, and others as well, all the harder. In what Douglas (1976) calls the 'Lone Ranger' approach, ethnographers

…have gone out single-handedly into the bitterly conflictual world to bring data back alive. This approach has demanded considerable strength and courage much of the time and almost always an ability to operate alone, with little or no support and inspiration from colleagues. (p. 192)


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Phenomenology


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A phenomenological study describes the meaning of the live experiences for several individuals about a concept or phenomenon. Phenomenologist explore the structures of consciousness in human experiences.

The researcher brackets his/her preconceived ideas about the phenomenon to understand it through the voice of informants

The investigator writes research questions that explore the meaning of that experience for individuals and asks individuals to describe their everyday lived experiences

The investigator than collects data from individuals who have experienced the phenomenon under investigation

Meanings are clustered The phenomenological report ends with the reader

understanding better the essential, invariant structure or essence of the experience. Recognizing that a single unifying meaning of the experience exists.


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Case study


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A case study is an exploration of a ‘bounded system’ or a case (or multiple cases) over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context. This bounded system is bounded by time and place and it is the case being studied-a program, an event, an activity or individuals.

It is the development of an in-depth analysis of a single case or multiple cases.


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Almost there……!


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“Researchers have to be close to groups, live with them, look out at the World through their eyes, empathize with them, appreciate the inconsistencies, ambiguities and contradictions in their behavior” (Woods).


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“He was also reflexive, putting himself into the situation, looking at the effects on himself as part of the event” (Woods).


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There are dangers, as well as opportunities, in engagement. We encountered this in particularly acute form during our research on teacher stress” (Woods).


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Analyzing data is by no means straightforward, and writing up typically takes a number of drafts before one feels the research is adequate and appropriately represented” (Woods).


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Important pieces of research

The research on suicide – Emile Durkheim The effect of institutionalisation on people – Erving

Goffman The Balinese Cockfights - Clifford Geertz


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Illum…


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Considerations when identifying research topic Workability Interests Practicality Close to own profession Considerations/implications Relationships Necessity (for field/for profession)


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Exploratory stages Where?

Who?

How?

What?

When?

Why?


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Strategies for identifying relevant literature Long Essays, Dissertations, Theses On-line libraries Journals Texts Websites E-mail discussion groups


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Identify your objectives. What do you want to find out?

Determine your sample. To find out what you want to know, who should respond to the survey (be in the sample)?

Determine sample size/confidence. How many responses do you need to feel confident in the results?

Determine a timeframe and schedule. When do you need the results?


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Determine how much you can budget to the survey or surveys.

Develop several sample questions. Write your questions with the best-case scenario in mind - you can ask the most complex question you can think of. Any very complex questions or objectives might determine the type of survey you use.


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Prioritize the four key factors – sample, timeframe, budget, and complexity.

If sampling is the most important consideration, then a telephone survey might be best. If you need responses very quickly, computer/online surveys are the only choice. If you need a large number of responses, mail – or a combination mail and telephone – survey might be the best choice. If cost is the key factor, mail or computer surveys might be your choice. If the questions require respondent choices and interaction, telephone or computer surveys are best.


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Define the universe. Who do you want to get information from?

Develop a “sampling frame.” Who are the people that make up the group(s) you want to survey? Always use the most updated list available.


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Specify the sampling unit and element. What specific segment(s) will get you the information I need? All security company purchasing agents or your company users?

Specify sampling method. What selection criteria will you use: probability vs. non-probability, simple random, cluster, or stratified (I call it targeted)? (There are several other technical criteria that you might consider as well.)


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Determine sample size. Compute the ideal sample size using one of the formulas – or your own judgment. Several factors, including the study specs, population variability, analysis considerations, and cost, combine to determine sample size. The most common formula for computing the size of a simple random sample with a confidence level (CL) of 95 percent is:

n is the sample size d is the desired precision/margin of error Z is the value of corresponding the desired

confidence level obtained from a normal distribution table (usually 95%)

P is the proportion being estimated


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Compiling a literature review Start today Categorising Tagging Back ups Referencing


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First impressions:

Target Population Sample Size Theme Topic


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Whenever a sociologist starts a piece of research, they always have in mind a group of people they want to study. These people, whoever they may be, are known as the target population and are, in effect, everyone in a particular group you would like to research.


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Positionality

Justify


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Whenever a sociologist starts a piece of research, they always have in mind a group of people they want to study. These people, whoever they may be, are known as the target population and are, in effect, everyone in a particular group you would like to research.

Your target population might, for example, be a small group (perhaps 10 or 12 people in all) who seem to meet regularly in your local park.

On the other hand, your target population might be the 70,000 football fans who attend Manchester United’s home games at Old Trafford.


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If you think about these examples, it might be fairly easy to do some research on the first group, since the target population is small. Whether this research involves observing the group from a distance, asking them questions, participating in their behaviour or whatever, the size of the group makes it relatively easy to manage your research.


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With the second example, however, things might be more difficult, since its size is going to make it very hard for you to personally observe or question everyone in it. This, therefore, is where the concept of sampling comes into its own...


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As a general "rule of thumb" when doing sociological research you should try to make your sample representative of your target population. However, there are times when you might deliberately choose not to study a representative sample.

For example, in some types of social research you might not want to make generalisations about a very large group of people based only on a very small group.

You might, for example, simply be interested in the sociological characteristics of the group itself, rather than what they may or may not represent.


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Considerations:

Legal reasons.A school, for example, is unlikely to give

an outside researcher access to their registers.

Confidentiality.A business organisation is unlikely to

give an outside researcher access to their payroll records.

Secrecy.Some religious groups, political parties

and so forth do not want outside researchers to study their activities.


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Generating positive relationships Knowing the area Emancipatory attitude

voice Control to informants From subjects to informants Establishing ground rules Identifying sensitive issues


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ObservationAs we have seen, sociologists who adopt the

method of Participant Observation for their research aim to discover nature of social reality by understanding the actor's perception / understanding / interpretation of the social world. In this respect, Participant Observation is sometimes called a "naturalistic" method that involves the researcher,

"Telling it like it is"

or, if you prefer,

"Really understanding what is going on in any given situation".


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The participant observer, therefore, tries to take advantage of the human ability to "empathise", which in simple terms involves our ability to see a situation from someone else's point-of-view - to put yourself in "their" shoes to experience the world as "they" experience it.


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The main idea, in this respect, is to participate in a social group whilst, at the same time, employing the insights and understanding of a trained sociological observer (whatever they might be when they're at home and sleeping in your bed...). The point, therefore, is to observe and experience the world as a participant, whilst retaining an observer's eye for understanding, analysis and explanation.


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As you might expect, Participant Observation is a method of data collection that attempts to understand the motives and meanings involved in people's behavior from the point-of-view of the participant. Sociologically, this method tends to be associated with the interactionists perspective and this means that the methodology is primarily "interpretive" (that is , concerned with the attempt to express the quality of people's behaviour by interpreting such behavior from a sociological viewpoint)


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Having said this, some form of quantification measurement may be used by participant observers, although the reasons for quantifying behavior tend to be somewhat different to those used by non-Integrationists. We can look at the example of "suicide" to briefly demonstrate this idea.


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For a sociologist such as Emile Durkheim (working within a broadly structuralist perspective), suicide was considered to be a "social fact" whose existence could be deduced from the study of patterns of suicide taken from the analysis of official statistics. The emphasis, in this respect, was placed upon trying to explain why different societies had different suicide rates. Durkheim, therefore, considered suicide statistics to be "facts" - hard evidence about people's behavior - that could be used in the explanation of that behavior.


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One of the classic studies conducted using Participant Observation was carried-out by Erving Goffman ("Asylums", 1968). Goffman worked in an asylum for the mentally ill as an Assistant Athletic Director. His research was mainly covert (the inmates /patients and hospital authorities did not know he was doing research), with overt elements (a couple of the staff knew he was a researcher).


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Goffman attempted to discover "unofficial reality" of mental institutions, to:

a. Answer the question "what is really going on here?"

b. To attempt to discover the "sense" in a place of insanity and, in particular, to analyze how patients coped with both their labeling as "mentally ill" and the "abnormal social situation" in which they found themselves.


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For example, patients were:

Closely observed and had little privacy.

They were highly disciplined and regimented by the staff.

They're personal possessions were taken away and, according to Goffman's interpretation, they were "treated like children".


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In above respect, the "hidden and closed" world that Goffman had penetrated was both "bizarre" and "abnormal" in terms of our usual understanding of the social world - yet through his research, Goffman claimed to have discovered the "tricks and strategies" employed by staff and patients in order to cope with their situation. He discovered, in short, how people made sense of an apparently senseless situation; how:

a. The Staff and the patients came to terms with it as best they could.

b. What looked abnormal (in terms of norms of behaviour) to the outsider, was normal to those on the inside.


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Many writers have sought to justify their adoption of Participant Observation as their main research method, and we can look briefly at how a few of these writers have justified their use of this research method.


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Howard Parker: "...because by visiting the deviants in prison, borstal and other 'human zoos' or by cornering them in classrooms to answer questionnaires, the sociologist misses meeting them as people in their normal society".

David Downes and Paul Rock ("Understanding Deviance"). "It is a theoretical commitment that drives the sociologist into Participant Observation. The claim is made that social behavior cannot be understood unless it is personally experienced...Sociologists who lean on external accounts and objective evidence can have no appreciation of why people act. Neither can they understand environments and history as their subjects do...Symbolic Interactionists and others who elevate meaning to a central place contend that participation is indispensable to the interpretation of human conduct."

Cicourel: This study of juvenile delinquency involved a four-year observation of proceedings in juvenile courts in America. One of Cicoural's aims was to understand the "interpretive procedures" used by court officials in their routine interactions (that is, how they made sense of the behaviour around them).


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Whether or not overt or covert Participant Observation is the best form of Participant Observation to use is a question that has produced heated arguments amongst Interactionist sociologists. Noted below are two opposing views...


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1. Polsky ("Hustlers, Beats and Others", 1971): Overt Participant Observation.

"You damned well better not pretend to be 'one of them', because they will test this claim out and one of two things will happen: either you will...get sucked into 'participant' observation of the sort you would rather not undertake, or you will be exposed, with still grater negative consequences. You must let the criminals know who you are and if it is done properly it does not sabotage the research".


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2. Laud Humphreys ("Tea Room Trade", 1970): Covert Participant Observation.

"From the beginning, my decision was to continue the practice of the field study in passing as a deviant...there are good reasons for following this method of Participant Observation.

In the first place, I am convinced there is only one way to watch highly discreditable behaviour and that is to pretend to be in the same boat with those engaging in it. To wear a button [badge] saying 'I am a watchbird, watching you' into a tea room would instantly eliminate all action except the flushing of toilets and the exiting of all present.


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It seems to be a reasonable assumption that, in our society, we do not like to be stared at (or closely observed). Part of the reason for not liking to be closely observed is "self-consciousness".


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For the most part, everyday behaviour such as eating, drinking and so forth, is something we do so often and so regularly that it becomes almost automatic - we do it without thinking (consciously) about why and how we do it.

When we are aware of someone watching us, however, we assume (rightly or wrongly) that they are doing so for a purpose. As human beings living in a social environment, we take note of other's behaviour towards us as part-and-parcel of understanding "what's going on" in any process of interaction - it gives us clues and cues about expected forms of behaviour and so forth.


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Anthony Giddens ("Sociology")

"Goffman managed to see the asylum from the patients' point of view rather than in terms of the medical categories applied to them by psychiatrists. 'It is my belief', he wrote, 'that any group of persons, primitives, pilots or patients, develop a life of their own that becomes meaningful, reasonable and normal once you get close to it'. Goffman's work indicates that what looks "insane" to an outside observer is not quite so irrational when seen in the context of the hospital. Asylums involve forms of discipline, dress and behaviour that make it almost impossible for inmates to behave like people in the outside world.".


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We can summarise the advantages and disadvantages with this method of social research in the following terms:

Some advantages of Participant Observation:

1. It represents a rich source of high-quality information.

2. The researcher can understand the social pressures / influences / group norms etc, that may create particular forms of behaviour. This gives a researcher insights into individual and group behaviour and it may allow researcher to formulate hypotheses that explain such behaviour.

3. It is a very flexible approach, since the researcher does not pre-judge the issue by deciding in advance what is / is not important when studying social behaviour. In this respect, the researcher can react to events / ideas, follow leads, pursue avenues of research that had not occurred to him / her before their involvement with a group.


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4. The researcher is able to formulate and test hypotheses and may be able to redefine possible personal pre-conceptions in the light of experience within the group.

5. This type of research produces a depth of detailed information about all aspects of a group's behaviour.


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Some disadvantages of Participant Observation:

1. A researcher has to learn the culture of a group if they are to participate - this may not always be easy / possible.

2. Most research is restricted to small-scale studies carried out over a long period and the group being studied is unlikely to be representative other social groups. It's unlikely a researcher will be able to generalise their findings from one study to the next (is Goffman's study applicable to all mental institutions?).

3. There may be problems of access to all levels of a group (although this can be over-come, to some extent, by the type of Participant Observation being used - this is usually a problem of covert, rather than overt, Participant Observation).

4. This method of data collection requires great deal of skill and commitment from the researcher (the ability to fit-in with the people being studied, the ability to communicate with groups members on their level and terms, tact, observation, etc.).


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Carrying out and recording observations Memory work….. Research diary Reflections Notes Recording

Negotiate with informant/role of supervisor


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The Underlife of a Public Institution’ is a chapter in Asylums, which outlines adjustments that inmates adopt through primary and secondary methods for coping with their situation within the institution. Primary adjustments are ways inmates conform to what is expected of him/her in order to cope better in the institution:

“When an individual co-operatively contributes required activity to an

organisation and under required conditions…he is transformed into a

co-operator; he becomes a ‘normal’, programmed; or built in member.”

(Goffman, E, 1991, p172)


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Secondary adjustments are employed by the inmate to escape or make his situation more enjoyable; this is usually through unauthorised means in order to get around the organisation’s restraints set by rules sustained through surveillance. In looking at Central Hospital, Goffman identifies ways in which patients escape surveillance:

“The inmate may smile derisively by half-turning away, chew on food

without signs of jaw motion when eating is forbidden, cup a lighted cigarette

in the hand when smoking is not permitted, and use a hand to conceal

cigarette chips during a ward poker game when the supervising nurse

passes through the ward” (Goffman, E, 1991, p205)


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Goffman identifies ‘free places’ as places where surveillance is reduced. ‘Free places’ in Central Hospital were often used to carry out tabooed activities such as drinking and poker games, one could also be on their own in a free place as one can escape from the noise and stress of the ward, free places give a sense of freedom to the patient. The staff at Central Hospital did not know these places existed, or they where aware of these places but did not enter them. Patients were able to interact and become part of the outside world in free places. Goffman uses the example of the hospital shop where a selected few patients worked along with shop attendants. The patients and shop attendants would often sit around gossiping as the shop attendants informed the patients of the goings on in the outside world:

“In addition to being a free place, this area had the added function of being

the town pump, that is, an information centre of informational exchange.”

(Goffman, E, 1991, p208)


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“The practice of reserving something of oneself from the clutch of

an institution is very visible in mental hospitals and prisons but can

be found in more benign and less totalistic institutions, too…we always

find the individual; employing methods to keep some distance, some

elbowroom, between himself and that with which others assume he should

be identified.” (Goffman, E, 1991,

p279)


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GeertzWhat the cockfight says, it says in a

vocabulary of sentiment-the thrill of risk, the despair of loss, the pleasure of triumph. Yet what it says is not merely that risk is exciting, loss depressing, or triumph gratifying, banal tautologies of affect, but that it is of these emotions, thus exampled, that society is built and individuals put together. ... it is a kind of sentimental education... (Geertz, p. 6)


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What he learns there is what his culture’s ethos and his private sensibility (or, anyway, certain aspects of them) look alike when spelled externally in a collective text; that the two are near enough alike to be articulated in the symbolics of a single such text; and the disquieting part-that the text in which this revelation is accomplished consists of a chicken hacking another to mindless bits (Geertz, p. 6)


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