Qualitative Methods
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Analysing, Interpreting and Using Educational
Research (Research Methodology)
D
University
of Durham
Dr Robert Coe
University of Durham School of Education
Tel: (+44 / 0) 191 334 4184
Fax: (+44 / 0) 191 334 4180
E-mail: r.j.coe@dur.ac.uk
http://www.dur.ac.uk/r.j.coe
What is qualitative research?
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Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates
the observer in the world. It consists of a set of
interpretive, material practices that make the world
visible. These practices transform the world. They turn
the world into a series of representations, including
field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs,
recordings and memos to the self. At this level,
qualitative research involves an interpretive,
naturalistic approach to the world. This means that
qualitative researchers study things in their natural
settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret,
phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to
them … It is understood, however, that each practice
makes the world visible in a different way.
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
(Denzin and Lincoln, 2000, p3)
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Features of Ethnography
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Natural contexts
Observation / informal conversations
Unstructured, not predetermined
Small number of cases
Interpretation of meanings / functions
Hammersley, 1998
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
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Principles of qualitative /
ethnographic research
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Naturalism
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Understandings
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Direct observation of ‘natural’ settings
Minimise effects of researcher
Importance of context
Humans interpret and construct (hence different view of
‘causality’)
Need to understand views of those studied
Discovery
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Inductive (open minded), not hypothesis testing
Minimal assumptions
Research focus develops / changes
Theory emerges
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
Hammersley, 1998
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Strengths / weaknesses
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Criticisms of quantitative approaches:
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Ignores humanity
Artificial contexts
Emphasis on measurable / observable
Ignores meaning
Reifies phenomena by measurement
Criticisms of qualitative approaches:
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Impressionistic / vague
Subjective (biased, unreliable)
Not generalisable
Can’t establish causality
Can’t be replicated
Hammersley, 1998
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
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Validity in qualitative research
(Hammersley, 1998)
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Validity = Truth
But, Truth  Certainty
Three questions:
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Is the claim plausible?
Are the methods credible?
What evidence is provided?
Judgement is made within a scientific
community with three principles:
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All members seek to resolve differences
All open to persuasion
Anyone can participate (given 1 & 2)
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
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Do reliability and validity matter in
qualitative work?
“Qualitative researchers, especially in sociology and
anthropology, are more likely to be concerned with the
kinds of questions I raised in the body of my paper:
whether data are accurate, in the sense of being
based on close observation of what is being talked
about or only on remote indicators; whether data are
precise, in the sense of being close to the thing
discussed and thus being ready to take account of
matters not anticipated in the original formulation of
the problem; whether an analysis is full or broad, in
the sense of knowing about a wide range of matters
that impinge on the question under study, rather than
just a relatively few variables.”
Becker (1996)
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
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Grounded Theory
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Glaser and Strauss (1967)
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Defence of qualitative analysis in a positivistic world
Key ideas
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Emergence – theory and methods
Constant comparison
Coding – categories and properties
Memoing
Theoretical sampling
Saturation
Literature as data
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
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Grounded Theory (cont.)
… the aim of theorizing is to develop useful
theories. So, any technology, whether
qualitative or quantitative, is only a means for
accomplishing that aim. We do not believe in
the primacy of either mode of doing research …
An instrument is an instrument, not an end in
itself. The issue is not primacy but rather when
and how each mode might be useful to
theorizing
Strauss and Corbin (1998)
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
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Crystal, not triangle
…the central imaginary for “validity” for postmodernist texts is
not the triangle, a rigid, fixed, two-dimensional object. Rather
the central imaginary is the crystal, which combines symmetry
and substance with an infinite variety of shapes, substances,
transmutations, multidimensionalities, and angles of approach.
Crystals grow, change, alter, but are not amorphous. Crystals
are prisms that reflect externalities and refract within
themselves, creating different colors, patterns, arrays, casting
off in different directions. What we see depends on our angle
of repose. Not triangulation, crystallization. In postmodernist
mixed-genre texts, we have moved from plane geometry to
light theory, where light can be both waves and particles.
Richardson, 1997
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
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Words can quantify too
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‘most’, ‘many’, ‘none’, ‘all’
‘frequently’, ‘generally’, ‘often’, ‘typically’
Miles and Huberman (1984) ‘Qualitative Data
Analysis’ is full of quantification
Znaniecki (1934) arguing against quantification:
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“Whenever the statistical method definitely gains
the ascendancy, the number of students of high
intellectual levels who are attracted to sociology
tends to fall off considerably”
which is “a statistical proof for the deplorable
effects of statistics.” (Lundberg, 1964)
© 2003 Robert Coe, University of Durham
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