Formulating a Strategy for Data Collection: Qualitative Research Designs and Data Collection Process

Data Collection Processes for Qualitative Research Designs

Describe the Formulate a Strategy for Data Collection During Weeks 3 and 4, you learned about various qualitative research designs. This week, you will build on this knowledge. Select two of the five research designs. Define and explain the features of each design using the resources provided and three other quality resources. Next, develop data collection processes for each of the selected designs that include discussions of sample size, sampling technique, data collection materials, and instrumentation. You can include diagrams if you would like. You are already familiar with the types of instruments used in quantitative data collection, but these are distinctly different from what is useful in qualitative studies. Qualitative instruments must be structured so that you are collecting deep and broad data to fully understand the research question. In most cases, you must design an instrument to extract specific experiential information from your participants.

Data collection can occur through face-to-face interviews, focus groups, or observation; there are also other ways to select qualitative data. When constructing your data collection plan, it must be clear and it must contain all the steps that you will take when collecting information from your participants. You will have to include any secondary data that you will collect. Secondary data can include documents or other evidence that can contribute to understanding the central phenomenon under study. How will you ensure a data saturation? Remember, practices like member checking, follow-up interviews, or transcript review are used by qualitative researchers to ensure data saturation.

    The problem statement is a description of the problem to be investigated throughout the research.  The researcher is responsible for stating the problem statement so that the reader and/or intended audience is able to understand why the research was conducted.  According to Almahameed & Alajalein (2021),” However, in-depth analysis and overview of the problem is needed, in the sense that the researcher is required to state more details with examples about the nature of problems in translation in order to enhance the understanding of the reader” (pg. 21).  

Not only is it important to write a concise problem statement it is important to provide citations to support it. It is also important to include the problem and why it is considered a problem within the problem statement along with ways of solving the problem. Another way to think of a problem statement is as a claim.  The researcher will need to make the claim of the issue to be researched and provided detailed information in regard to the claim by providing insight and credible sources that have made the same claim in prior studies and/or research.  A problem statement and/or a claim can also demonstrate a disadvantageous gap.

    There are five main qualitative research designs.  According to Renjith, Yesodharan, Noronha, Ladd, & George (2021),” The major types of qualitative research designs are narrative research, phenomenological research, grounded theory research, ethnographic research, historical research, and case study research” (pg. 2).  These research designs help researchers organize knowledge in way that the reader will be able to better comprehend.  However, a researcher is not obligated to just utilizing one of the qualitative research designs.  There is the ability to use multiple designs including qualitative and quantitative research designs or what is known as mixed-methods in which qualitative and quantitative designs are used in research.

The Problem Statement and its Importance

 There may be topics that are easier to explain and elaborated upon by using both a qualitative and quantitative research designs. These qualitative research designs help the researcher to organize information, ideas, and context of the research considering that the information is based on things other than numerical values.

The qualitative research designs help researchers to draw an analysis based on thoughts in contrast to quantitative design methods in which thoughts and/or the answer to the problem statement are demonstrated by analysis drawn from data pulled through various methods such as questionnaires. It is critical to not only be familiar with the five qualitative research designs in qualitative methods but to also understand which research design will accommodate the researcher in providing the reader with the necessary facts and analysis of the information to support the solution to the problem statement.

    The narrative qualitative research design is that is easily identifiable by the name, “narrative”. It is a research design in qualitative research that presents to the researcher in the form of a story. Researchers may utilize the narrative qualitative research method when a major point, concept, and/or the explanation of the purpose of the study is unambiguously understood by providing a chain of events narrated by the researcher. According to Anja et al. (2019),”

The narration process involves participants recounting their experiences, reflecting upon these to make meaning of their experiences, and in so doing, possibly arriving at future narratives depicting their past intentions and future aspirations” (pg. 5). Narrative research is able to demonstrate the participants insight by reciting the keys experiences with the goal of providing the reader with details by utilizing the occurrence of events and elaboration.

The narrative research design allows for a deeper evaluation of the problem statement in a manner to were the readers is able to easily interpret the main points, ideas, and ultimately the direction standpoint of the research. Narration is an outstanding way to provide thorough information with an organization that can help to guide the reader and reduce confusion or misunderstanding that may result from the failure of knowing the beginning, middle, and the ending of occurrences experienced by participants ethical background of topic of choice to which the researcher presents in the problem statement. According to Rashid, Hodgson, & Luig (2019), “Ethnography differs from other qualitative methods because of its use of participant observation to understand shared meanings and practices” (pg. 1).

Ethical conclusion is drawn by the researcher considering there is common ground. Rashid, Hodgson, & Luig (2019) provides additional insight on ethnographic research design by stating, “Ethnographers aim to familiarize themselves with the culture by actively participating, learning the language, and living alongside local people” (pg. 2). Researchers that utilize ethnographic research design are able to provide insight due to being somewhat of an actual participant as the researcher. It allows for a more ethical perspective of the topic being researched.