Summarize the following:
A good research question needs to be clear, specific, and manageable. To do qualitative research, your question should explore reasons for why people do things or believe in something. The research questions is one of the most important pieces of your research design. It determines what you want to learn or understand and also helps to focus the study, since you can't investigate everything at once. Your research question will also shape how you conduct your study since different questions require different methods of inquiry. You should start with a burning question and then narrow it down more to make it manageable enough to be researched effectively. For example, "what is the meaning of teachers' work to teachers" is too broad for a single research endeavor, but if that's what you're interested you could narrow it by limiting the type of teacher or focusing on one level of education. For example, "what is the meaning of teachers' work to second career teachers?" or "what is the meaning of teachers' work to junior high teachers?" A literature review is a process of studying what others have written about your research question and particular topic. You read widely on the larger field and examine studies that relate to your topic. You then draw up an analytical report that synthesizes and integrates the existing research (rather than simply presents a short summary of each study in chronological order. In other words, you are "researching the research." For example, if your research question focuses on how second career teachers attribute meaning to their work, you would want to examine the literature on second career teaching - what motivates people to turn to teaching as a second career? How many teachers are in their second career? Where do most second career teachers work? Doing this reading and review of existing literature and research will help you refine your question and give you the base you need for your own research. It will also give you a sense of the variables that might impact your research (e.g., age, gender, class, etc.) and that you will need to take into consideration in your own study. A literature review will also help you to determine whether you are really interested and committed to the topic and research question and that there is a gap in the existing research that you want to fill by conducting your own investigation. Qualitative methods are useful when a question cannot be answered by a simple 'yes' or no' hypothesis. Often qualitative research is especially useful for answering "how" or "what" questions. They are also useful when budgetary decisions have to be taken into account. Qualitative research methods don't rely as heavily on large sample sizes as quantitative methods, but they can still yield important insights and findings. For instance, since it's unlikely that you have the funding to be able to study all second teachers everywhere in the United States, perhaps you choose to narrow your study to a major urban area (like New York) or schools within 200km of where you live. Consider the possible outcomes. Because qualitative methodologies are generally quite broad, there is almost always the possibility that some useful data will come out of the research. This is different than in a quantitative experiment, where an unproven hypothesis can mean that a lot of time has been wasted. Your research budget and available financial resources should also be considered. Qualitative research is often cheaper and easier to plan and execute. For example, it is usually easier and cost-saving to gather a small number of people for interviews than it is to purchase a computer program that can do statistical analysis and hire the appropriate statisticians. The design of qualitative research is the most flexible of all the experimental techniques, so there are a number of accepted methodologies available to you. Action Research Action research focuses on solving an immediate problem or working with others to solve problem and address particular issues. Ethnography Ethnography is the study of human interaction in communities through direct participation and observation within the community you wish to study. Ethnographic research comes from the discipline of social and cultural anthropology but is now becoming more widely used. Phenomenology Phenomenology is the study of the subjective experiences of others. It researches the world through the eyes of another person by discovering how they interpret their experiences. Grounded Theory The purpose of grounded theory is to develop theory based on the data systematically collected and analyzed. It looks at specific information and derives theories and reasons for the phenomena. Case Study Research This method of qualitative study is an in-depth study of a specific individual or phenomena in its existing context.
Decide on a question you want to study. Do a literature review. Evaluate whether qualitative research is the right fit for your research question. Consider your ideal sampling size. Choose a qualitative research methodology.