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[Instructor] Hi, this is the first part

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of the two-part qualitative
research lecture.

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Hello, everyone.

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This is the lecture for
qualitative research.

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It's sort of a flyover
of a number of methods,

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including the first
two that we'll be doing

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as part of our research project in class,

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building on our lit review.

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The next two are
observation and interviews,

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and this is sort of a
flyover on how to do it

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and some of the key considerations
of qualitative research.

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By way of overview,

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we're going to talk about
how qualitative research

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is part of mixed methods,

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the balance between the insider

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and the outsider view, grounded theory,

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which is a way to develop
theory from your data,

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we'll talk about the interview
and question structure,

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some of the options that you have,

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some pros and cons and guidelines,

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we'll talk about
semi-structured interviews,

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which is maybe the most
common type, and finally,

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the strengths and weaknesses
of qualitative research,

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as well as a bit on
how to provide evidence

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of rigor in your work.

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Qualitative methods often fit very well

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into the kind of mixed methods approach

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that we will be doing in this class.

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A tried and true way is,
to start off as we will,

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with a lit review where you bring yourself

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up to date on what we
already know and try to build

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on what's already been done,

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identifying a research gap

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and using mixed methods
to fill in that gap.

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Next, we use qualitative to
sort of get our mind around it,

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to understand what are the big issues

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that we are dealing with,

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and as well as to gain an understanding

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of what key stakeholders,

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what our research subjects
think and believe,

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to allow them to express
it in their own words

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so you can really get a sense

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and a feel of what are
the big issues out there,

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and then in the third step,

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you can use quantitative

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to see how often do those
themes that we identified

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in part two arise, sort
of count and correlate,

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so count how many of a larger
sample feel the same way,

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as well as to start to
look at correlations

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between answers of how likely
of someone who feels strongly

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about one part of it

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may or may not feel
strongly about another.

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By way of intro to qualitative research,

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we all do this every day.

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We look at what, we do observations,

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we do informal interviews,
we talk to people,

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we try to understand things,

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and so this is a process that most of us

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are at least somewhat familiar with.

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We ask people things

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and we get their answers
in their own words

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and try to understand how they
think and feel about things.

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Qualitative research generally deals

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with what are the perspectives
of our research subjects?

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What are the perspectives
of people who are engaged

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in the issue that we are studying?

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We generally tend to look

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at things like attitudes,
behaviors, beliefs, opinions,

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so our goal here is to really understand,

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how are people experiencing the phenomenon

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that we are studying?

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There are considerations
that must be made that,

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since you are in the middle
of the action so to speak,

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that you're not doing
a survey from far away.

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When you're doing
observations or interviews,

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you are right there.

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So there's many ways in which
you could potentially bias

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or upset the process.

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If you're doing an observation,

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you don't wanna make it obvious

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that you're doing an
observation and looking

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over the person's shoulder
and staring at them

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and making notes when
you are doing interviews,

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that you don't wanna sort of lead them on

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and have them answer the question

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in ways that they think you
wanna hear or will please you

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or will make them look good,

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that you really want them

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to behave and to answer sort
of truthfully and naturally,

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and we'll talk about some

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of the strategies that
you can do to do that.

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One way of thinking about it
is two sorts of perspective:

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the emic perspective and
the etic perspective.

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So the emic perspective is
when you are truly immersed

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and you really try to see it

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from the point of view of the person,

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so you sort of become an insider,

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and you really try to immerse
yourself in their experience

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and try to understand it
from their point of view,

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and that's sort of the
most valid perspective

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and get the most valid information

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because you're really immersing

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and really understanding
what they think is true

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and how they experience things

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versus the etic perspective
where you are more

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of an outsider and you wanna see

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whether their perspectives would hold true

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in other contexts and that therefore,

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have a more reliable view,

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and when we do observation,

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I'm gonna speak about this a bit more.

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Note that, in my view,
objectivity is a direction,

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it's not a destination,

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that I believe that it is impossible

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to be completely objective,

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especially about any sort of
complex social phenomenon,

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but we can do our best
to judge what they say

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on their own merits,

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use the reflexivity sort of approach

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that we talked about a few classes ago,

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and one thing that is important, again,

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is how involved to be.

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To what extent should you contradict

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or, you know, say, "Well,
actually, that's not right,"

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versus just sort of
understand what they think

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and be sort of dispassionate about it?

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And this makes me think of
an experience that I had.

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So I was not a qualitative
researcher at the time,

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but I was a Peace Corps
volunteer in the 1990s.

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Some of you may know that.

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I was in Senegal, West
Africa, and one day,

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I was sitting there and talking

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to my family and, well, I
did on a number of occasions,

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and two things emerged
that it really shows

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that what you believe to
be true is really grounded

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in your own experiences
and your background.

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So the first photo on
top here that you see is

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of an amulet, or of a juju,

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it's like a charm,

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and it's a leather pouch that
they wear around their arms,

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and it has a little bit

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of the Quran written on
it in a piece of paper,

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and they believe that
there are amulets such

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that if you wear them,
that you cannot be stabbed,

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that it would stop a knife
point from entering you,

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that it would make you safe.

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On the other hand, I was talking
one night with my family,

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we were outside looking at
the beautiful stars and moon,

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as with very little light pollution there

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the skies were amazing,
and was talking about, oh,

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there have been humans on the moon.

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In fact, many years ago,
people from my country, the US,

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went up in a spaceship,

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that they didn't really
know what that meant

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so I said something like an airplane,

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and walked on the moon,

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and they were like, "No way.

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Like, there's no way that that happened."

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Like, they thought that I
was completely full of crap,

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and it's really interesting that,

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I'm imagining that most

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of you would probably see
the world much like I do

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because many of us were
born in the same nation,

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were raised under the same basic culture,

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and I know that I think that

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that amulet probably would
not stop a knife blade,

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and indeed that there were lunar landings

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and that humans did walk on the moon,

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but folks who lived

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in another nation that
grew up under another set

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of knowledge and culture
thought the complete opposite,

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and so my point here is that
your job, in many cases,

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is not to hear the amulet story or the man

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on the moon story and think,

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these folks are so dumb,

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these folks are so backwards,

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but to really understand,

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what do they believe and why,

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and to to get a deep
understanding of what they think

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and judge it as data
rather than judging it on,

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(Instructor scoffing)

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"Boy, aren't they dumb?"

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Once you've collected the data,

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then you can start to think

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about how you will be analyzing it,

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and we go back to a few classes ago,

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the difference between
deduction and induction.

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So deduction, again, is
this top down where we start

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with some preexisting theory or hypothesis

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and we see, do the data match

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what we would deduce would,

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our theory would suggest

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would be the case, but more commonly,

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we use induction where we start

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with the data and see what
sort of patterns emerge

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and then base it on that,

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build hypotheses and theories,

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and this process of induction
and developing a theory based

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on the data is called grounded theory.

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So grounded theory, I think
it's something of a misnomer,

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but I don't really love that term,

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nobody asked me about it be
before they started to use it,

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but it's the idea that we use induction

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and we create theory based

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on ongoing analysis of qualitative data,

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so we get data, we compare
numerous incidents,

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we see it from multiple viewpoints,

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we step back and we reflect,

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we try to find the relationships

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among the themes and
patterns within our data,

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and try to come up with a theory

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that is then grounded in the data.

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So this method of induction

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and finding a theory that is based on

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the results of our research
is called grounded theory.

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This is the end

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of part one of the
qualitative research lecture,

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so please go watch part two now.

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Thank you.