Different Types of Qualitative

Research
1.Ethnography
2.Phenomenology
3.Grounded Theory
4.Case Study
5.Narrative
6.Historical
Qualitative Research Designs-
are good at answering “How?’
and ‘What?’ questions (in
contrast to the ‘Whether’ or ‘If’
queries commonly addressed by
quantitative research.
Ethnography- is the direct
description of a group,
culture or community
--a method within the
social anthropological
tradition
Ethnography
The research methods are as follows:
 Immerse themselves in the culture or
subculture they study and try to see the
world from a cultural member’s point of
view. Data are collected during fieldwork
through participant observation and
interviews with the key informants as well
as through documents. Researchers observe
the rules and rituals in the culture and try
to understand the meaning and
interpretation that informants give them.
 They compare these with their
own ethnic view and explore
the differences between the
two.
 Field notes are written
throughout the fieldwork
about events and behavior in
the setting.
 Ethnographers describe,
analyze and interpret the
culture and the local, ethnic
perspective of its members
while making their own ethnic
interpretations.
 The main evaluative criterion
is the way in which the study
presents the culture as
experienced by its members.
Example
Turgo, Nelson. (2012) carried out
an ethnographic study of a
fishing community in the
Philippines in the context of a
dwindling fisheries resource and
in relation to the community’s
contemporary social and
political structure, values and
local issues.
Example
It considers the everyday life of the
fishing community; the realms of
power; gender and economic
relations; and how these relations
are played out among and between
fishers and their wives, fish vendors,
dealers and brokers as the
community experiences dramatic
changes in the local economy.
Example
While the study focuses on a very local orientation, it
takes cognizance of the community’s enrollment in a
bigger polity: national and global economic and
political spaces. Thus, the study focuses upon what
local life means and exemplifies in the epoch of
globalization and how local practices are instantiated
amidst talk of a fast globalizing world. It highlights
the enduring importance of the local linked in this
case to the people in the fishing community’s relative
immobility and marginal position in the sphere of the
Philippine economy in particular and the global
economy in general.
Research Titles:
 A ‘Balikbayan’ in the field: Scaling (Re)
producing insider’s identity in a Philippines
fishing community.
 The Kinship of Everyday Need: Relatedness
and Survival in a Philippine Fishing
Community
 Bagong Silang Community: An Ethnographic
Study of Strategies of Survival
 A Story of High School Inclusion: An
Ethnographic Case Study
Grounded Theory (GT)
-an approach that generates and modifies a
theory
-has become ‘a global phenomenon’
-an approach to collecting and analyzing data
-finished product is also called a GT—it is a
development of theory directly based and
grounded in the data collected by the
researcher
-data are usually collected through non-
standardized interviews and participant
observation but also by access to other data
sources.
-data collection and analysis interact
-researchers code and categorize transcripts from
interviews or field notes
-researcher has a dialogue with the literature
when discussing categories
-constant comparison and theoretical sampling
takes place
-memos-theoretical notes-provide the researcher
with developing theoretical ideas
-theory that is generated has ‘exploratory power’
and is grounded in the data
Example
Ilagan, Perla R. (2011) acquired an in depth understanding of the
meaning of intimate partner violence from the perceptions of
Filipino men and women.

A sample consisted of 37 Filipino women and 2 Filipino men

who were recruited from a Barangay Center (Health Center) in
Manila, Philippines. Data were collected through semi-structured
interviews. The interviews were open-ended, in-depth, and
audio-taped. The description of the study participants was
provided by quantitative-descriptive data. Constant comparison
method was used in categorizing the narrative data and in
examining the data for examples of similar cases and themes.
The narratives revealed a rich and contextualized overview that
lay a foundation for understanding the perceptions and
experiences of Filipino women and men living with intimate
partner violence. The data point to recurrent themes of poverty,
gambling, alcohol and drug use, poor communication skills,
jealousy and philandering. Violation of the dignity of a person
that brought with it children as victims was implicated in the cycle
of violence.

In addition, value formation was cited as an integral aspect of

rehabilitation programs. The qualitative data in this grounded
theory research illustrate the complexity of intimate partner
violence in Filipino homes. The need for education about spousal
violence and the presence of a support system for protection,
counseling and rehabilitation are prominent keys in reducing
violence in Filipino homes.
Research titles
Perceptions of Filipino Women and Men
on Intimate Partner Violence
Becoming Selfless: A Grounded Theory of
Commitment to Service
From person to father: A Grounded
Theory of Male Gender Identity
Formation
Investigating Food Development in an
Area of the Philippines: An Explorative
Study Using a Grounded Theory
Approach
Narrative Inquiry includes stories that reflect on people’s
experience and the meaning that this experience has for them.
Narrative research is a useful way of gaining access to feelings,
thoughts and experience in order to analyze them. For many
decades, health research had focused on the decision-making and
thought of professionals and their measurement of the treatment
outcomes, while the feelings and ideas of the patient, the ‘insider’
tended to be neglected. The perspectives of patients are
uncovered through their stories.

Narratives are tales of experience or imagination and come

naturally to human beings. Narratives are rarely simple or linear,
and they often consist of many different stories rather than of a
clearly defined tale. Illness narratives are expressions of illness,
suffering and pain. Narratives are often tales of identity.
Health professionals gain knowledge of the
illness experience from their patients who
assists in understanding the condition and
the person. There are a number of different
ways of analyzing narrative data, and all
are legitimate.

In narrative inquiry the final story is

constructed by participant, researcher ad
reader. Illness and professional narratives
are always located in the socio-cultural.
Example
Viernes, Sr. Ramona M. and De Guzman Allan B. (2005)
explored a narrative-biographical research of Teachers’
Experiences of Supportive Relationships with
Colleagues. A total of fifty (50) public and private
elementary and secondary school teachers in the central
part of the Philippines were purposively selected as
respondents. The study yielded four significant themes
that describe how Filipino teachers as relational people
experience and interpret supportive relationships in the
social setting. These include : supportive relationships as
(1) a life-giving force; (2) an extension of one’s family;
(3) a reciprocal process; and (4) a work still in progress
Research Titles

Enhancing the transparency of

Accounting Research: The Case of
Narrative Analysis
The Narrative Research Trail: Values of
Ambiguity and Relationships
Narrative Inquiry: Approaches to
Language and Literacy Research
Through the Looking Glass Space to New
Ways of Knowing: A Personal Research
Narrative
Phenomenology is a 20th century school of
philosophy rooted in philosophy and
psychology which focuses on the subjective
experience of the individual and seeks to
understand the essence or structure of a
phenomenon from the perspective of those
who have experienced it.
Writers developed different
conceptual formulations, (very
broadly) descriptive (Husserl),
interpretive (Heidegger) and
ontological-existential (Sartre)
which have been adapted as
methods of inquiry by
researchers.
Researchers who use
phenomenological methods have
formulated various methods of data
analysis.

The approach should not be

mechanical but insightful and
illuminate the phenomenon under
study and capture its essence.
Example
Vapor, Victor Rey Cui (2009) explored a new
Philippine phenomenon that emerged involving
Filipino physicians who went back to school to
take up nursing in the Philippines in order to
migrate to foreign countries to work as nurses.
The purpose of his study was to describe and to
interpret the lived experiences of Filipino
physician-turned nurses in the United States.
Phenomenology was used as research design,
with data obtained from a purposive sample of
eight (8) self-identified physician-turned nurses in
Las Vegas, Nevada. Participants were interviewed
using a single, open-ended central question. The audio
taped responses that described their lived experiences
were eventually transcribed verbatim. To interpret their
experiences, clusters of themes were then generated
using the Colaizzi’s (1978) method of
Phenomenological Inquiry. The results of the study
revealed that the experiences of Filipino physician-
turned nurses involved multidimensional issues, both in
the contexts of emigration and a professional shift from
physician to nurse. Being the first of its kind, this study
will enlighten the society of the lived experiences of
Filipino physicians, who compromise professional
integrity by working as nurses just to emigrate to the
United States. Furthermore, this research study will
contribute to the existing literature on cross-cultural
adaptation, particularly involving role compromise in
an unfamiliar social and cultural context.

Research titles
 Social Futures of Global Climate Change: A Structural
Phenomenology
 The Importance of Feeling Awkward: A Dialogical
Narrative Phenomenology of Socially Awkward
Situations
 Social Responsibility: A Phenomenology of
perceived-successful student leadership experience
 Emotions in the flesh: A Phenomenology of
Emotions in the lived body
Case Study is a bounded system, a single entity,
a unit around which there are boundaries. It
has a definite quality (time, space, and/or
components comprising the case). It has “no
particular method for data collection or data
analysis.” A case study uses an interpretative
research. It is chosen precisely because
researchers are interested in insight, and
discover rather than the testing of a
hypothesis. Yin defines a case study as an
empirical enquiry that investigates a
contemporary phenomenon within its real-life
context, especially when the boundaries
between phenomenon and context are not
clearly evident.
Example

Protacio, Maria Selena and Sarroub, Loukia K. (2013)

describe the reading practices in a public and high-
achieving 6th grade English classroom in the Philippines.
By utilizing a four resources model, they discuss the
different roles that students assume in this classroom.
Students in this class are mainly code breakers and text
users and have limited opportunities to assume the
other two roles of the four resources model. This case
study provides a different view of reading, specifically
a view of a culture of reading where in higher status is
given to oral reading performance rather than
comprehension. We describe the way a high-achieving
6th grade Philippine classroom perceives reading.
Through this case study, both authors would like to
Contribute to the research literature on Philippine
education and increase our knowledge of reading
practices as they are conceived and practice in this
particular classroom.

Research titles
 Internationalizing the Basic Education Curriculum: A
Philippine Case Study
 School Viability: A Case Study of Victoria Heights
School in Manila
 Entrepreneurial University: A Case Study of De la
Salle- Araneta University, Philippines
 Team Effectiveness in an Academic School
Organization: A Multiple Case Study