"Qualitative research is multimethod in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variey of empirical materials; case study, personal experience, instropective, life story, interview, observational, historical, interactions and visual text; the described routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals' lives" (N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln, 1984, Handbook of Qualitative Research, Newbury Park: Sage Publications, p.2).
Key Words:
- interpretive / make sense - meanings people bring
- naturalistic / natural settings - moments and meanings in a person's life
Firestone (1987), suggested that qualitative and quantitative research differ on 4 dimensions:
Your Quantitative Qualitative
1) Assumptions: Reality through Facts Reality Socially Constructed
2) Purpose Looking for Causes Seeking to Understand
3) Approach Experimental /correlation Ethnography
4) Role (Researcher) Detached Immersed
[Meaning in method: The rhetoric of qualitative and quantitative research. Educational Researcher. 16: 16-21]
Generally, it may be argued that the the quantiative paradigm is rooted in positivism while the qualitative paradigm is rooted in naturalism. In other words, a researcher who subscribes to positivism assumes that there is a common reality across individuals while the researcher who subscribes to naturalism assumes mutiple realities and that reality is socially constructed. The quantitative aims to test a theory or hypothesis while the qualitative approach aims to develop a theory based on what is observed.
How did the qualitative approach evolve?
In the 50s and 60s, research in education was very much dominated by behaviourism which emphasised the scientific method in studying animal behaviour which was later generalised in understanding human learning. So the quantitaive tradition continued to maintain a stronghold until 1962 when Thomas Kuhn wrote a book titled The Structure of Scientific Revolutions which had a significant impact in shifting scientific thinking. He conceptualised the notion of "paradigms" which was recognised as the "universally recognised scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners" (Kuhn, 1970, p.viii).
He argued that when the present paradigm does not explain adequately phenomena, a "paradigm shift" should occur which can co-exist with the prevailing paradigm. When the existing paradigm affects research methods and how researchers view the world a paradigm shift may provide another way in which researchers view the world using another set of research tools.
At the same time, the 60s was a period of turmoil in the United States and Europe when society was undergoing radical changes. Issues such as racial integration, poverty, women's rights, the Cold War (threat of Russia) led to questioning the quantitative approach in explaining social and organisational phenomena. With regards to the school system, interest was shifting towards better understanding "culture of schools" leading to the emergence of an ethnographic or anthropological approach in studying classroom practices and processes. It was beginning to be felt that quantitative methods were not adequately explaining in depth what was happening in the classroom and to individual subjects.
Qualitative researchers were willing to sacrifice validity and reliability of methods to be able to inquire into the minds of subjects; they were also willing to trade-of generalisability of findings (which is an important aims of quantitative research) in order to understand and interpret what was going on, which they felt was much more useful. For example, if it was found that only 37% of teachers in Malaysian secondary schools are against streaming students according to academic performance; does it mean that streaming should continue and ignore their position. We are not sure of the strength of feeling of the teachers who were against streaming nor why they hold such a view. It might be that they feel it demoralises academically weak students; it only makes teaching easier for teacher or they might prefer a different method of handling students with varying academic abilities. Indeed until we find out more detail why these teachers hold such an opinion, a range of possibilties can be imagined for policy and practice.
Quantitative-Qualitative Approaches: A Dichotomy
The shift in focus from quantitative methods towards qualitative research methods in education has led to kind of "war" between the two philosophies. Numerous books, articles and conference presentation have extolled the virtues of qualitative research over quantitative research and vice-versa. Intense debate has ensued such as:
which is more scientific, quantitative or qualitative?
can the results of qualitative research be generalised?
can it be scientific if values creep in?
is scientific research really value free?
To make matters worse, graduate students in education are taught to be either involved in quantitative research or qualitative research and those interested in the latter is growing. In some schools of education, increasingly researchers are shifting to the qualitative paradigm and 'abandoning' the quantitiative tradition, to the extent that "that those subscribing to the quantitative paradigm are facing extinction".
Deductive Approach - Quantitative Paradigm
Inductive Approach - Qualitative Paradigm
Sharan B. Merriam in her book Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education (1999), San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; characterises qualitative research:
as understanding the meaning people have constructed
in which he researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis
as usually involving fieldwork
as primarily employing an inductive research strategy
as focussing on process, meaning and understanding resulting in a richly descriptive product.
Key words:
- meaning - inductive approach
- researcher is the instrument - thick and rich description
- involves fieldwork
Qualitative research is an effort to understand situations in their uniqueness as part of a particular context and the interactions there. This understanding is an end in itself, so that is not attempting to predict what may happen in the future necessarily, but to understand the nature of that setting; what it means for participants to be in that setting, what their lives are like, what's going on for them, what their meanings are, what the world looks like in that particular setting; and in the analysis to be able to communicate that faithfully to others who are interested in that setting ...The analysis strives for depth of understanding" (Patton, 1985, p.1).
Key words:
- understand situations - depth of understanding
- particular context - nature of that setting
- not attempting to predict
Quantitative-Qualitative Approaches: A Continuum
Carolyn Benx and Isadore Newman in their book The Qualitative-
Quantitative Research Methodology: Exploring the Interactive Continuum (1998) do not agree with the dichotomy and "believe that conceptualizing the dichotomy (using separate and distinct catergories of qualitative and quantitative research) is not consistent with a coherent philosophy of science and, further, that the notion of a continuum is the only construct that fits what we know in a scientific sense" (p.9).
Quantitative research begins with a theory from which hypotheses are generated (see figure above). These hypotheses are tested through data collection (or observations) and analysed to confirm or disconfirm the hypotheses.
Qualitative research data (or observations) are collected and interpreted to detemine patterns and conclusions (see figure above). From these conclusions, hyptheses are created which lead to the development of a theory which is the goal of the research question.
Firestone (1987), suggested that qualitative and quantitative research differ on 4 dimensions:
