The document outlines and describes various qualitative research techniques including ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, case study, biography, conversation analysis, narrative inquiry, and content analysis. It provides the key questions addressed by each technique, their disciplinary roots, typical data collection and analysis methods, and narrative focus.
4. Ethnomethodology Key Question How do people make sense of their everyday activities so as to behave in socially acceptable ways? Disciplinary roots Sociology
5. Autoethnography Key Question How does my own experience of this culture connect with and offer insights about this culture, situation, event and/or way of life? Disciplinary roots Literary Arts
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7. Reality Testing: Positivist and Realist Approaches Key Question What’s really going on in the real world? What can we establish with some degree of certainty? What are the plausible explanations for verifiable patterns? What’s the truth insofar as we can get at it? How can we study a phenomenon so that our findings correspond, as much as possible, to the real world? Disciplinary roots Philosophy, Social Sciences, and Evaluation
8. Constructionism/Constructivism Key Question How have the people in this setting constructed reality? What are their reported perceptions, “truths”, explanations, beliefs, and worldview? What are the consequences of their constructions for their behaviours and for those with whom they interact? Disciplinary roots Sociology
9. Heuristic Inquiry Key Question What is my experience of this phenomenon and the essential experience of others who also experience this phenomenon intensely? Disciplinary roots Humanistic Psychology
10. Symbolic Interaction Key Question What common set of symbols and understandings have emerged to give meaning to people’s interactions? Disciplinary roots Social Psychology
11. Action Research and Participatory Action Research Key Question X Disciplinary roots X
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15. Conversation Analysis Key Question What is the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction, whether this is institutional (in the school, doctor's surgery, courts or elsewhere) or casual conversation? Disciplinary roots
16. Narrative Inquiry Key Question Can we discuss the situation are a story including setting, complicating action and resolution? Disciplinary roots
17. Content Analysis Key Question Who says what, to whom, why, to what extent and with what effect? Disciplinary roots Social Sciences
18. Q Methodology Key Question What factors can be seen as correlations between subjects across a sample of variables? Disciplinary roots Factor Analysis