Reflective Reading Log #1

Creswell (Ch. 5)

Entry 1
Summary of Chapter 5
Chapter five of Creswell’s Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design focused on five articles that served as research examples of the five different approaches examined throughout chapters 1 through 4. Each case presented offered the reader an opportunity to understand the type of data explored, how the data was collected and analyzed, and the final product or report that ensued. The first study illustrated a biographical narrative approach as the author focused on the life history of a single individual, Vonnie Lee Hargrett, a man with mental retardation who defined his life by the hour and a half bus ride to his place of work. Data collection consisted of the conversations and observations of the individual that were later reconstructed as chronological stories, thereby giving them meaning through the researcher’s interpretations and presence in the study. The second study illustrated a phenomenological approach as the authors explored AIDS patients and the images or cognitive ways that these patients thought of their disease. Multiple interviews were conducted and transcripts were analyzed such that significant themes, statements, and meaning of the experiences were identified and a description of the central phenomenon emerged. A Grounded theory approach was illustrated in the third study where authors explored how 11 women survived and coped with their experiences of childhood sexual abuse. Data collection consisted of one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. Researchers took the information provided to them, constructed a visual model, systematically relating categories that formed, and identified factors causing a central phenomenon. An ethnographic approach was used in the fourth study as researchers explored the core values of a culture-shaping group known as straight edges or sXers. The focus of the analysis was on the group itself and the values, beliefs, and behavioral patterns of participants within the group. The development of themes helped to define how the grouped worked and the complex multi-layers of sub-cultural resistance emerged and was presented in the conclusion. The fifth and final study utilized a case study approach. A campus reaction to a gunman incident was the identified case and through an extensive, multiple source data collection, meaning was derived and a plan for future was developed.

Chapter five further explored how each of these approaches differed in terms of focus. Creswell explains to the reader how the focus of a narrative is on a single individual whereas the focus of a phenomenological study is on a concept or phenomenon. Furthermore, phenomenology might focus on the meaning of people’s experiences toward a phenomenon but the objective of grounded theory is to generate a theory as a way to explain a process or central phenomenon. Finally, if a researcher wants to explore the values or behaviors of a culture-sharing group, they would use an ethnographic design, but if they want to provide an in-depth picture of an event, program, or case with in a specific context, they would use a case study approach. At the conclusion of chapter 5, one has a far better understanding of each approach and the value that each brings to the nature of qualitative research.

Entry 2
Reflections and Analysis
As I think about my past and experience and reading this text so far, I’m afraid that I only have some level of clarity in understanding qualitative research. I realize with time these concepts will become clearer and I will come to better understand the process. However, I must say that reading chapter 5 cleared up quite a few things for me. It was the most helpful in terms of understanding and differentiating among the five different approaches to qualitative research. Up to this chapter I understood, on a cursory level, how each approach is different, but in practice I struggled in identifying when to use one over another. In fact with my own research interests, I was uncertain as to which approach, a phenomenological approach, a grounded theory approach, or a case study approach, was more appropriate. Reading through each of the articles in the back of the book, those presented and summarized in chapter five, enabled me to hone in on why one approach was more appropriate over another.

Back in chapter two, Creswell discusses philosophical assumptions and worldviews that researchers bring to their studies. As I think about the ontological assumption I was reminded of my Nature of Inquiry course when we were challenged to think about our own epistemology in terms of influences. I remember thinking about the nature of reality and now I see how this shapes qualitative research, much more so than quantitative research. Different ways of viewing the world shape different ways of researching the world. “If the world is viewed as a social construct, we have to study the actors within the society to understand the world” (Crotty, 1998). For example, diversity and an awareness of cultural diversity by default changes how knowledge is acquired. For me this cultural bias impacts my every thought about the world and about truth because what may be truth for me may not be truth for someone else. Truth and knowledge become relative terms that interpretivists then seek to explain. Interpretivism is the idea that different approaches are required to understand the different realms of the social world (Crotty, 1998). This epistemological approach looks for “culturally derived and historically situated interpretations of the social-life world”(Crotty, 1998). This to me illustrates qualitative research.

As I think about my own research, I begin to recognize how my epistemology and way of knowing is further defined by my experiences as well as my desire to understand the field of participants that I choose to research. In this case, I know I want to understand graduating senior college students from a 4-year private institution. I unfortunately came up with a question first instead of letting the questions evolve from a selected approach. It has been challenging to go back and fit an approach in to what I want to learn about this particular population. I have had to step back, reread some chapters, and try to look more broadly at my design. In doing so, I discovered the social constructivist nature of my curiosity.

In chapter three, Creswell outlines the characteristics of qualitative analysis, when to use qualitative research, and the general structure of a plan or proposal. This was helpful in determining a direction for my study and what to expect from the process. Stepping back and taking a broader look at my research interests enabled me to see how and if it could be shaped into each of the five approaches. Immediately, I knew I was not conducting a narrative study or an ethnographic study. In wanting to know what factors influence a student’s perception of preparedness for graduation, I looked towards a phenomenological approach in that I could identify several students who have experienced the phenomenon of not feeling prepared for life after college. But I realized that this is merely an experience and as chapter four outlines, this does not constitute a universally experienced event, there is no universal essence behind anticipating graduation, students have not graduated yet. I then explored a case study approach and while my research, or case, is bound by time and setting, there really does not exist a descriptive case or event in which I can draw conclusions from and analyze. The assumptions about preparedness for graduation need to be constructed by understanding the individual experiences of graduating seniors. As I learn more about their different experiences and accounts, a theory or explanation could then be generated, thus leading me to a grounded theory approach.

Reading how each approached was used in chapter five further validated my findings that a grounded theory approach is the likely approach to use in terms of focus, population, data collection, analysis, and the final product or written report for my research topic. I look forward to reading subsequent chapters to fine tune the procedures for conducting grounded theory research.

References:
Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research process. London: Sage.