Katy Gladden
Professor Winter
ED 771, Mod. 4 Discuss. Q. vs Q. and Inquiry
25 June 2013
This Assignment is due Wednesday, June 26th.
Directions: You must post a 750+ word response to the Discussion question(s) by the mid-point of
each unit (which is June 27th at midnight for this unit). These responses must have three facets held
in balance: 1) it must be data driven, citing facts to support your response, 2) it must possess
personal opinion, better described here as analysis and interpretation, and 3) it must connect to
personal experiences and application of the ideas discussed. Be careful not to just tell a story about
something that happened to you; this only addresses one-third of the required content, and your
grade will reflect this oversight. This gives you until the last day of the unit to post a 100+ word
response to at least four of your peers’ posts. If you see that one or more students have fewer
responses than others, I encourage you to respond to theirs-- we all need feedback! Respond with
your insights, observations, ideas they may have overlooked, agreements, or rebuttals. The point is to
“discuss” various ideas, which means we have an opportunity to hear from many people. Feel free to
dialogue back and forth as much as possible-- that’s the point! You are also required to respond to, or
at least acknowledge, any comments made to your post.
1. What data, or insights, does qualitative research offer to your thesis project that
quantitative data cannot fully address?
The purpose of my research will be to investigate school libraries that are experiencing
difficulty in functioning due to lack of financial support. This investigation will explore
and assess the needs and concerns of four different school libraries. This type of action
research better fits the qualitative method and not the quantitative method because:
1. This inquiry addresses a small number of specifically selected libraries. Quantitative
research calls for a large number of randomly selected targets of inquiry.
2. The data collected during the research will be in the form of words. Quantitative
research calls for statistical data to be collected.
3. Open ended questions will be used during the data collection process. Quantitative
data uses an exact means of data collection or closed ended questions.
4. In communicating with the librarians about their libraries, subjectivity is called for in
the research process. In quantitative collection instances, objectivity is essential to the
process.
5. The data analysis is expected to uncover various themes related to school library
financial difficulties. This data is not expected to reveal numerical relationships that
would be present in quantitative analysis.
6. This study will explore the issues associated with school library financial challenges.
After discovering what those issues are, a list of strategies and resources to alleviate these
issues will be compiled. It is not expected that any predictions, typical in quantitative
analysis, will be made from the data gathered.
7. This study has a personal aspect to the data collected. All the librarians of the schools
will be personally interviewed, observed, and surveyed in regard to characteristics of
their particular library. In addition, the librarians will be viewed in their natural
environment and not under controlled conditions as is typical of quantitative analysis.
For the above-mentioned reasons, my research project would be better suited to a
qualitative method of inquiry.
2. How significant would the absence of this qualitative data be to your project, and
how does that influence your decision to use it or not?
If qualitative data were absent from my project, then I would need to develop a
quantitative research design. In this case, I would need to collect quantitative data about
the research questions such as, “What are the needs and concerns of your school library
due to the lack of funding resources?” A large online survey sent to many librarians
across the United States could be used to collect information to answer this question and
others related to the research. The answers to each question would be tallied and a
database program would analyze the answer to each question. The answers would be
translated into statistical findings.
The numerical outcome would be interesting but would it address the subjective aspect of
the research question? I don’t think that there is a way of translating the emotional needs
and concerns of librarians into numbers. In answer to this question, most of the
information received from the librarians in the data collection process would need to be
in word format. For this reason, the qualitative research inquiry method is better suited to
my research project.
3. What type of qualitative "modes of inquiry," such as interviews, questionnaires,
observations, etc., best serve the needs of your project, and why, specifically, for
each of them?
My project is going to be qualitative in nature involving surveys, interviews, and
observation techniques of inquiry. These methods of data collection will be used at four
different school libraries to assess the financial impact of inadequate funding resources.
An email survey will be designed to assess the needs and concerns of the librarians about
their school libraries. Each librarian will be asked the same questions. Some of the
benefits of this type of method of inquiry are:
1. The survey will contain standardized open-ended questions to collect the most
information possible.
2. It is anticipated that this type of questioning will collect a wider range of information
in a shorter amount of time.
3. This form of data collection will allow for the collection objective responses.
4. This type of survey is easy to carryout.
In preparation for the personal interviews, I will develop a set of standardized open-ended
questions to ask the participating librarians. All of the librarians will be asked to respond
to the same questions. This method of inquiry offers several strengths.
1. A personal interview can also provide different points of view on the same issues.
2. With an interview, the interviewer can guide the path of the discussion.
3. The ability to probe for more in-depth answers.
4. An interview can provide a relaxed atmosphere during which information is gathered.
5. The ability to note the special responses of the informants such as body language, etc.
6. Some individuals respond more in a one-to-one situation
Observations will be performed at all four libraries for the purpose of collecting
information relative to this research project. An observation form will be developed to
gather information from each of the librarians at their individual schools. Some of the
advantages of using this data collection technique are:
1. The ability to collect information about each library during different times of the day.
2. This method of data collection provides a way of closely learning about a situation.
3. Authentic data will be gathered.
4. The ability to collect data in the natural environment.
After reviewing and analyzing the answers contained in the surveys, interviews, and
observations, I will follow-up with any additional questions as needed to clarify any of
the responses. In addition, I will also constantly assess my own work methods on this
project for quality control purposes and ask the librarians for their feedback on the
inquiry process as well.
The thought behind using three different qualitative sampling methods of the same group
of individuals to gather information is purposeful. The issues concerning library financial
challenges will be explored using a variety of collection methods. These three different
modes of inquiry will help to validate and cross reference the information obtained
during the research process.
When investigating a research question, utilizing more than one method of data collection
is important. In a past library work experience, another librarian and I observed students
behaving in a very distracted manner right before lunch. We used observations, surveys,
and interviews to gather information as to why the students were misbehaving. Through
these data collection methods, we discovered that the students were missing their
breakfasts and consequently could not focus on their studies. In this case, many different
perspectives helped to validate our research findings.