COLLAPSE SUBDISCUSSIONTrent Nguyen Trent Nguyen 8:42amJul 22 at 8:42amManage Discussion Entry Marcus: Good analysis of the two dissertations. Qualitative research digs deep into the phenomenon and...

Trent Nguyen

Marcus:

Good analysis of the two dissertations. Qualitative research digs deep into the phenomenon and that's what makes it interesting. Once we have a rationale for conducting our qualitative research study, the natural next step is to choose the best qualitative method that can help us obtain the answers to the research questions that we have posed. As you can see, qualitative research can be a long and tedious process, so steps should be taken in an elaborate manner and not rushed through. Remember the questions that are asked of participants usually are open-ended in nature, not closed-ended. Also, when posing research questions it's crucial that they provide a little bit of context in order for them to make sense to the participants to a great degree.

Mechelle Du Monde

Week 2/D1: Interviews

The qualitative research process involves three major processes to conduct research: the design cycle, the ethnographic cycle, and the analytic cycle as we noted in the readings last week. We consider interviews this week as a form of data collection in the qualitative research process. Before data can be collected however, the research question(s), literature and theory, conceptual framework, and fieldwork approach which are all components of the design cycle, the initial phase of the qualitative research process, has to be established. The ethnographic cycle, the second segment of the qualitative research process actually involves data collection. During the ethnographic cycle interviews are used to collect data after the research instrument and research participants are first established. In-depth interviews are one-on-one interviews involving an interviewer and an interviewee to obtain information about people’s personal experience, or perception or stories about something including sensitive issues requiring confidentiality. Many employees find it very difficult to discuss racial discriminatory practices committed by their employer, for example. Moreover, understanding the subjectivity of the interviewee is very important. According to Hennink et al, (2011), identifying subjectivity allows researchers to better interpret an interviewee’s particular story (e.g. an interviewee describing workplace discrimination can be better understood if we know they are from a minority group). Other interests to take into consideration when conducting interviews is of course the validity,appropriateness and coherence of the interview questions, in other words are the questions interpretive, adequate to answer the research question and conceptual framework according to the design cycle. Further, establishing rapport, demonstrating empathy, engage active listening and strong interpretation skills are equally important concerns to consider when conducting interviews. The following presents my critique of two interview protocols that I located representative of what I found to be surprising yet beneficial aspects to the interview as well as some certain aspects that warrants some form of improvement:

Article 1: Normalization of Stressors among African American College and Graduate Students: Looking through Cultural Lens by Arthur: Eartha Butler (2017)

The purpose of the study is three-fold: to first capture the African America college students’ definition of stress in a HBCU and PWI second, to define normalization of stressors and to explore the elements of the cultural lens: and lastly, to uncover the obstacles to success among African American college students (Butler, 2017).

In this article, the three aspects I found surprising yet beneficial was that

• Mixed-methods were used in the study (interviews and surveys) and the results of the research were carefully articulated.


• 
  Reliabilitywas established through purposive sampling. The Arthur hand selected specific groups of individuals for her study. I like the idea of selecting more essential individuals for the interview.


• 
  Validitywas also appeasing to me as the author explained her use of stratified random sampling to ensure members of her study were divided according to their commonalities such as age, zip code, etc.,

Article 2: A Qualitative Study of Students from Counties of Persistent Poverty and How Social Capital Impacts Their Decision to Pursue Higher Education by Author: Brown, Ivey (2018).

Brown (2018) posits that the purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how and why the human cultural, and social capital (or lack thereof) of students from rural North Carolina counties of persistent poverty impacted their decision to attend a historically black college or university (HBCU).

In this article, the three aspects I found surprising yet beneficial was that

• 
  Multiple case study design- was used in the study (case studies) and the results of the research were also carefully articulated.


• 
  Theoretical Framework-author use the social capital theory to examine practices impacting population in higher education. This study focused on a section of the population.


• 
  Data Collection-an interview protocol was used with open-ended questions that were simple for the participants to understand.

Items of Improvement

Three aspects found in the articles that warrants some improvement and how are:

1) Starting with the basics-in both studies a stronger attempt to learn more from the interviewers could have been more enlightening for the participants. Asking more about the participants is a good opening to the rest of the interview experience.

2) Beginning with easier questions moving towards more difficult questions-builds a better story by organizing the information into a more logical sequence. Both authors did not hast to ask the more complicated questions.

3) Lengthy interviews-Asking individuals to devote extended time is problematic especially if there is no compensation. Participants could lose interest quickly. Both studies could have been modified to a 1 hour I think.

References

Brown, I. (2018).A qualitative study of students from counties of persistent poverty and how
social capital impacts their decision to pursue higher education

(Order No. 10982858).Available from ProQuest Central. (2162882728).

Butler, E. S. (2017).Normalization of stressors among african american college and graduate
students: Looking through a cultural lens(Order No. 10690965).

Available fromProQuest Central. (2029208434).

Hennink, M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2011).Qualitative research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA:SAGE.