Week 7: Qualitative Research Designs

Sculptors have been known to say that whatever they created was always there in the stone, marble, or clay that they began with. The sculptor might say his or her work was to help the final form emerge from the stone.

Qualitative research can also be emerging in nature—there are many tools and techniques available to shape this approach to research, some dependent on circumstances, but like a sculpture, the varied tools and techniques needed to reveal the best approach for realizing the finished product require thoughtful consideration.

This week, you will continue to expand your understanding of a research framework in the context of qualitative research by analyzing and evaluating research questions in qualitative studies. You will also continue to analyze the interrelated elements of a research study making the connection among theory, problem, purpose and, now, qualitative research questions and design.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Evaluate qualitative research questions in research studies published in peer-reviewed journals
• Identify qualitative approaches in research studies published in peer-reviewed journals and explain how the researchers implemented the approach
• Explain use of qualitative designs in research studies published in peer-reviewed journals
• Analyze alignment among theory, problem, purpose, research questions, and design in qualitative research studies published in peer-reviewed journal articles
• Apply APA Style to writing

Photo Credit: Thorsten Henn/Cultura/Getty Images

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Babbie, E. (2017). Basics of social research (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

• Chapter 10, “Qualitative Field Research”

Document: Journal Articles (Word Document)

For the Discussion, download this document, refer to the assigned journal articles for your program, and find these articles in the Walden Library.

Document: Research Questions and Hypotheses Checklist (PDF)

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Overview of qualitative research methods [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2009c). Qualitative methods: An example [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 11 minutes.

Accessible player [–Downloads– /]

Discussion: Evaluating ResearchQuestions and Qualitative Research Designs

Just as in quantitative research, when researchers set out to design a qualitative research study, they are guided by its purpose, and their research questions align with their selected approach and the data that will be collected.

As you learned in previous weeks, alignment means that a research study possesses clear and logical connections among all of its various components. In addition to considering alignment, qualitative researchers must also consider the ethical implications of their design choice, including, for example, what their choice means for participant recruitment, procedures, and privacy.

For this Discussion, you will evaluate qualitative research questions in assigned journal articles in your discipline and consider the alignment of theory, problem, purpose, research questions, and design. You will also identify the type of qualitative research design the authors used and explain how it was implemented.

With these thoughts in mind, refer to the Journal Articles document for your assigned articles for this Discussion. If your last name starts with A through I, use Article A. If your last name starts with J through R, use Article B. If your last name starts with S through Z, use Article C.

By Day 4

Post a critique of the research study in which you:

• Evaluate the research questions using the Research Questions and Hypotheses Checklist as a guide
• Identify the type of qualitative research approach used and explain how the researchers implemented the design
• Analyze alignment among the theoretical or conceptual framework, problem, purpose, research questions, and design

Be sure to support your Main Issue Post and Response Post with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA Style.

Read a selection of your classmates’ postings.

By Day 6

Respond to a classmate who was assigned a different article than you by further supporting his or her critique or respectfully offering a differing perspective.

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

prof instruction- week 7

You have made it past the halfway point and are now ready to venture into the world of qualitative research.  When I went to attend Dr. John Creswell’s seminar and training, I witnessed how he articulated about the misconceptions about qualitative research.  When he went to lecture on qualitative research in different countries, many students were asking him about quantitative and statistical concepts rather than ideas like phenomenology and triangulation, which are some of the fundamentals of qualitative research.  I want you to pay attention to what are the critical elements of qualitative research is this week.  When you critically analyze these articles, please observe if they are addressing open-ended questions and exploratory verbs.  Furthermore, Dr. Sarkar articulates how mental health topics like suicide and alcohol and drug abuse rates were unreasonably high in Sri Lanka and India.  The research that she described focused on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological development framework.  Please make sure to provide your primary post by day 4 and responses by day 6.

Ph. D