UNIT II: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH AND

ITS IMPORTANCE IN DAILY LIFE

LESSON 3 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 DEFINITION
 CHARACTERISTICS
 TYPES
 ADVANTAGES
 DISADVANTAGES
 OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

A. analyze the use of an unfamiliar term in a sentence to know its
meaning;
B. obtain a thorough or in-depth knowledge of qualitative research;
C. define qualitative research;
D. explain the elements or characteristics of qualitative research;
E. compare and contrast the types of qualitative research;
F. give the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research; and
G. match a given research topic with the right research type.
 ACTIVITY 1

Recall whatever previous knowledge you have about the following words to know their
meanings. Get clues also from how they were used in the sentence.

 Premium
Which you must put a premium on, good reputation or material wealth?
 Emanating
Feelings that are emanating from the orphan reflect his social indifference.
 Constantly
Pray constantly as if it was an act of breathing and eating.
 Fixated
Don’t allow yourself to be fixated on such line of thinking.
 Abound
Cultivate an area abound with earthworms for hamburger production.
 ACTIVITY 1

 Vision
He has a vision in life that makes him see himself sitting in a palace.
 Gear
To whom will he gear such ironical line, to Brutus or Augustus Caesar?
 Yield
Watering it daily will make that tree yield fruits.
 Diverse
You may choose one from those diverse Chinese products.
 Indispensable
In general, Rice is indispensable to Filipinos like pizza is to Italians.
 ACTIVITY 2 AND ACTIVITY 3

ACTIVITY 2
Directions: GROUP WORK. Form a triad. Exchange ideas with one another about
the hottest issue in town. Use the newly learned words in your
conversation.

ACTIVITY 3
Directions: How knowledgeable are you about your surroundings? How can you
know more about people, places, and things in this world? Share with
your classmates some ways and techniques you know about becoming
knowledgeable about a lot of things in this world such as those within
your own world, among your friends, schoolmates, loved ones, and so
on. What do you know about qualitative research as a method of
understanding your surroundings better?
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 A research type that puts premium or high value on people’s thinking or

point of view conditioned by their personal traits.

 It is a research that usually takes place in soft sciences like social

sciences, politics, economics, humanities, education, psychology,
nursing, and all business-related subjects.
 NOTE:

 Subjectivity in qualitative research is true, not only for an individual or

group under study, but also for you, the researcher, because of your
personal involvement in every stage of your research. (Coghan 2014)

 In a qualitative research, the reality is conditioned by society and

people’s intentions are involved in explaining cause-effect relationships.
Things are studied in their natural setting, enough for you to conclude
that qualitative research is an act of inquiry or investigation of real
events. (Silverman 2013; Litchman 2013; Walliman 2014; Suter 2012)
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 HUMAN UNDERSTANDING AND INTERPRETATION

Through people’s world views, you come to know what kind of
human being he or she is, including his or her values, beliefs, likes, and
dislikes.

 ACTIVE, POWERFUL, AND FORCEFUL

You are nor fixated to a certain plan. Rather, you are inclined to
discover your qualitative research design as your study gradually
unfolds or reveals itself in accordance with your research objectives.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 MULTIPLE RESEARCH APPROACHES AND METHODS

Qualitative research allows you to approach or plan your study in
varied ways. You are free to combine this with quantitative research
and use all gathered data and analysis techniques.

 SPECIFICITY TO GENERALIZATION
It follows an inductive or scientific method of thinking where you
start thinking of particular or specific concept that will eventually lead
you to more complex ideas such as generalizations or conclusions.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 CONTEXTUALIZATION
Your goal is to understand human behavior. Thus, it is crucial for
you to examine the situation of an individual’s life – the who, what,
why, how, and other circumstances – affecting his or her way of life.

 DIVERSIFIED DATA IN REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS

A qualitative researcher prefers collecting data in a natural setting
like observing people as they live and work and looking at classrooms
unchanged or adjusted to people’s intentional observations.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 ABOUNDS WITH WORDS AND VISUALS

Data gathering through interviews or library reading, as well as
the presentation of data analysis results, is done verbally. Likewise,
presenting people’s world views through visual presentation are
significantly use in a qualitative research.

 DIVERSIFIED DATA IN REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS

Here, you examine the data yielded by the internal traits of the
subject individuals (i.e., emotional, mental, spiritual characteristics).
You study people’s perception or views about your topic, not the effect
of their physical existence on your study.
 TYPES OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 CASE STUDY
This involves a long-time study of a person, group, organization or
situation. It seeks to find answers to why such thing occurs to the
subject. Finding the reason/s behind such occurrence drives you to also
delve into relationships of people related to the case under study.

 ETHNOGRAPHY
Ethnography is the study of a particular cultural group to get a
clear understanding of its organizational set-up, internal operation,
and lifestyle.
 TYPES OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 PHENOMENOLOGY
Coming from the word “phenomenon,” which means something
known through sensory experience, phenomenology refers to the study
of how people find their experiences meaningful.

 CONTENT AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Content analysis is a method of quantitative research that requires
an analysis or examination of the substance or content of the mode of
communication (letters, books, journals, photos, video recordings, SMS,
online messages, emails, audio-visual materials, etc.) used by a person,
group, organization or any institution in communicating.
 TYPES OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
Central to this qualitative research method is the examination of
primary documents to make you understand the connection of past
events to the present time. The results of your content analysis will help
you specify phenomenological changes in unchanged aspects of society
through the years.
 GROUNDED THEORY
Grounded theory takes place when you discover a new theory to
underlie your study at the time of data collection and analysis. Through
your observation on your subjects, you will happen to find a theory
that applied to your current study.
ADVANTAGES OR STRENGTHS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 It adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject matter, which means that those
involve in the research understand things based on what they find meaningful.
 It promotes a full understanding of human behavior or personality traits in
their natural setting.
 It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
 It engenders respect for people’s individuality as it demands the researcher’s
careful and attentive stand toward people’s word views.
 It is a way of understanding and interpreting social interactions.
 It increases the researcher’s interest in the study as it includes the researcher’s
experience or background knowledge in interpreting verbal and visual data.
 It offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining knowledge about
something.
DISADVANTAGES OR WEAKNESSES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

 It involves a lot of researcher’s subjectivity in data analysis.

 It is hard to know the validity or reliability of the data.
 Its open-ended questions yield “data overload” that requires long-time
analysis.
 It is time-consuming.
 It involves several processes, which results greatly depend on the
researcher’s views or interpretations.
 ACTIVITY 4

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned by answering the following
questions.
1. What comes to your mind the moment you hear qualitative research?
2. If you want to conduct a research study about your favorite restaurant in town, what method of
qualitative research is appropriate for your study? Explain your choice.
3. Differentiate subjectivity from objectivity.
4. Explain the connection between subjectivity/ objectivity and your research.
5. How is grounded theory different from other qualitative research methods?
6. Is the researcher himself the data gathering instrument? Why? Why not?
7. Can all research methods be used in one research study? Give reasons for your answers.
8. Pretend you are the subject of a phenomenological study, how will the researcher obtain data
through you?
9. Given the chance to research, would you right away choose qualitative research? Give reasons for
your answers.
10. If you will do a qualitative research about the area in which your house is situated, what could be
your research problem or topic?"
 ACTIVITY 5

Directions: Name the type of qualitative research best suited for the following topics.

1. The Mangyan’s Burial Practices

2. Relatives of Typhoon Victims
3. The Effectiveness of the K-12 Curriculum
4. Spiderman: The Very First Film in the 21st Century
5. Philippines Political Party System: Then and Now
6. Filipino Caregivers in Japan
7. Travails of Senior Citizens at the LRT/MRT Stations
8. The Lone Grade VI Speed Reader of UST High School
9. Grade II Science Textbook
10. Student Activation Since the Marcos Era"
Prepared by: