Merits of Qualitative Methods - Essay Example

?Merits of Qualitative Methods Merits of Qualitative Methods This paper seeks to address a scenario where I am examining two groups with similar educational deficiencies as a chief researcher for the state Department of Education. In this scenario, one group is rural-based, ethnically defined, and aboriginal with a high rate of health issues including diabetes, vision impairment, and heart disease. The other group is also a rural-based living on family-owned farms facing adverse environmental conditions that include decreasing rainfall and drought. Notably, both groups exhibit achievement test scores that are more than one standard deviation below the mean at all grade levels and have excessive high school dropout rates. In addressing this scenario, I will consider the merits of applying ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, narrative inquiry, and case study. In this context, the research will examine the shared levels of education and the rate of school dropouts in the two groups. Ideally, a case study is one of the qualitative methods that I will apply in this scenario. The case study will be significant in providing complete details of each group within the defined boundaries of a physical, historical, social, and economic setting (Berkwits & Inui, 1998). As such, the case study will provide relevant information on the physical, historical, social, and economic factors that lead to variant levels of education and school dropouts in the two groups. More so, I will use the historical inquiry to examine the two groups, which have similar educational deficiencies. The historical inquiry will be significant in exploring the past facts and their interpretation in the context of this research. Indeed, in understanding the present education situation of the two groups, I will need to focus on the background of the two groups. Most assuredly, the historical inquiry will derive significant information relating to the groups’ past social, economic, and cultural factors that influenced their present educational status. Ideally, this information will seek to explain how the past facts lead to variant levels of education and school dropouts in the two groups. Additionally, I will use ethnography research method in examining the two groups. This research method will explore the entire cultural phenomena of the two groups. Indeed, ethnography research method will address the social behaviors, social activities, social interactions, and social perceptions of the two groups. In doing this, I will seek first-hand information from the respondents via surveys, interviews, and observations. As such, the research method will present an unbiased opinion of the two groups, which will not include my personal opinion (TESOL International Association, 2011). Notably, this research method will derive relevant information relating to the climate, habitat, geography, and brief history of where the two groups reside. Moreover, ethnography will derive information that will help me to understand the social life of the two groups. As such, the derived information will generate the social meanings, the decisions, and ordinary activities of the entire groups in the context of their natural environment (TESOL International Association, 2011). This information will relevantly help me to understand the cultural phenomena of the two groups, which leads to the present variant levels of education and school dropouts in the two groups. Moreover, I will use the phenomenology research method. This research method will seek explore the lived experiences of different individuals in relation to educational deficiencies in the two groups. The research method will provide information which will highlight the individuals in the two groups perceive their respective phenomena. In carrying out this research approach, I will use interviews, observations, discussions, and personal reports to establish participants' descriptions of their experience in this scenario (Waters, 2013). The experience may refer to physical surroundings, social relationships, social activities, time reference, and outcomes of educational deficiencies between the two groups. Most specifically, this research method will gather information relating to the participants’ feelings, memories, and thoughts on their personal experiences (Waters, 2013). Ideally, the gathered information will relevantly challenge the structural or normative assumptions that relate to the research project. Furthermore, I will use the grounded theory to examine educational deficiencies in the two groups. The grounded theory method will seemingly operate in reverse to other research methods used here in. through this method, I will collect data using various methods and then mark the key points of the collected data using codes. Then I will group the codes into similar concepts to derive categories of the collected data (Borgatti, n.y). As such, the information that I will gather for this scenario using the grounded theory method will reflect my assumption of the integration of the two groups where their variables interact to address the educational deficiencies in the two groups (Borgatti, n.y). This will explore the integral social relationships and the social behaviour of the two groups. Moreover, the gathered information will explain the phenomenon, causal conditions, context, intervening conditions, action strategies, and consequences of the educational deficiencies in the two groups. Notably, the potential utility and scientific merit of the information gathered by the named qualitative research methods in this scenario varies. For instance, the historical inquiry method will significantly enable me to learn how past facts contributed to the present educational deficiencies in the two groups. Indeed, they will supply knowledge and understanding about the past facts, which relate to the present educational deficiencies. However, this method relies on human opinion and interpretation and is thus subject to scrutiny. More so, the method is not scientific and therefore cannot satisfy the scientific merit expected in completing the research project. On the other hand, the case study research method will be significant in providing complete details of each group within the defined boundaries of a physical, historical, social, and economic setting (Berkwits & Inui, 1998). Therefore, the utility of this method is fundamental in examining the educational deficiencies in the two groups. Moreover, a case study method would encompass the use of scientific method to establish the relevant factors, which lead to the present educational deficiencies in the two groups. Indeed, the case study method would satisfy the utility and scientific merit expected from completing the research project. At the same time, the ethnography research method would have a significant utility level as it relies on first-hand information to address the cultural phenomena of the two groups. Additionally, it uses relevant scientific methods to offer an unbiased opinion of the two groups (TESOL International Association, 2011). It will seek to use the derived cultural phenomena to explain the present educational deficiencies in the two groups. However, the ethnography research method emphasizes on a particular social phenomenon rather testing its hypotheses (TESOL International Association, 2011). Additionally, it investigates only small cases and uses “unstructured data” which is subject to manipulation. Furthermore, to establish a personal interaction with the participants, I might have to relocate to where the participants reside. These factors might limit the utility of this research method. However, an ethnographer will only draw their conclusion from the collected data after analyzing and researching through several different resources thus adding merit to this research method. The phenomenology research method also has variant potential utility and scientific merit of the information gathered. This method presents the live experience of the participants that challenges the structural or normative assumptions that relate to the research project (Waters, 2013). However, such information depends on the remembrance, honesty, and their cognitive abilities of the participant. As such, such information is subject to bias and is in fact not scientific. On the other hand, the grounded theory forms the foundation for ethnography and phenomenology research methods. Notably, grounded theory is the most scientific research method, which abhors theoretical sampling and iterative study design. Indeed, the research method uses data codes to derive categories of the collected data (Borgatti, n.y). Because of its high utility, it is the most popular research designs in the world. It satisfies the utility and scientific merit expected from completing the study. However, this method is seemingly difficult to understand as it is seemingly in reverse to other research methods. Ideally, because of the above named potential gains in both utility and scientific merit expected from completing the study, the grounded theory and case study qualitative methods would be best suited to this scenario. The two methods would significantly address the research project through the potential gains in both utility and scientific merit expected from completing the study. References Berkwits, M. & Inui, T. (1998). Making Use of Qualitative Research Techniques. Journal of Borgatti, S. (n.y). Introduction to Grounded Theory. Retrieved from: http://www.analytictech.com/mb870/introtogt.htm General Internal Medicine, 13(3): 195-199. TESOL International Association. (2011). Qualitative Research: (Critical) Ethnography Guidelines. Retrieved from: http://www.tesol.org/read-and-publish/journals/tesol-quarterly/tesol-quarterly-research-guidelines/qualitative-research-(critical)-ethnography-guidelines Waters, J. (2013). Phenomenological Research Guidelines. Retrieved from: http://www.capilanou.ca/psychology/student-resources/research-guidelines/Phenomenological-Research-Guidelines/ Read More