Questions to ask yourself before you engage in a qualitative research study

Students sometimes chose to engage in a qualitative research project for the wrong reasons:1. They are afraid of statistics and think qual is "easier."2. They think the use of a qualitative methodology will get them through the thesis/dissertation process sooner.

Qual is not "easier." Data collection and analysis are much more time consuming than most quantitative studies.

Being afraid of statistics is no reason to default to qual.

THE METHODOLOGY USED FOR YOUR THESIS/DISSERTATION SHOULD BE DETERMINED BY THE PURPOSE OF YOUR STUDY/RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Are you investigating a process? Is the process more important than the outcome? (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998).

2. Are you wanting to delve more deeply into participants' experiences that involve collecting rich, thick descriptive data?

3. Are you willing to use an inductive research strategy where there are no formal hypotheses to confirm? In qualitative research, the concepts and hypotheses emerge from the data (Patton, 1990).

4. Does the question you are investigating require a more flexible paradigm?

If so, a qualitative methodology may be for you.

A good book that gives you a quick overview of qualitative research, data collection and analysis is:

Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education (Rev ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

It's in paperback. You may be able to obtain a used copy from amazon.com or some other online book store.