Qualitative Research: Analysis, Interpretation,

Credibility, Ethics, and Case Studies

November 22, 2012“Be the change that you want to see, just like Ghandi”

Glaser

“What a man in the know does not want is to be told what he already knows. What he wants is to be told how to handle what he knows with some increase in control and understanding of his area of action” (p. 13, 1978)(as cited in Miles & Huberman, 1994, p.305)

Group Activity

Chart paper - what we know about• Analysis• Interpretation• Credibility• Ethics• Case Study

Analysis and Interpretation

• Rigor and depth (Ellingson, 2011)

• Multiple methods /Crystallization (Ellingson)

• Creativity (Barbour & Barbour, 2003)

• Describe the process• Practice reflexivity(Altheide & Johnson, 2011; Barbour & Barbour, 2003; Ellingson, 2011; Lapadat, 2000; Miles & Huberman, 1994)

Process of Analysis & Reporting

Describe choices when • Selecting• Condensing• Transforming• Displaying• Concluding

• Transcribing & choosing conventions (Lapadat, 2000, p.204)

Describe choices of• Variables• Categories• Paradigm• Cases• Context• Narrative/story(Miles & Huberman, 1994)

Interpretation

Goals, Purpose, and Audience• Multiple perspectives• Reflexivity• Multiple representations• Creative• Describe decisions• Truth• Fictionalized, protect privacy, alternate

interpretations, • Voice of other, self or other and self

My Anticipated Process of Analysis and Interpretation

• Survey – quantitative• Statistical approach,

mostly descriptive, some factor analysis, ANOVA for comparing differences

• Creatively questioning and approaching #s

• Interview data from focus groups and individual interview to create cases of each family; families will create cases of each school.

• Coding, recoding, discovering patterns and divergence.

Credibility

• Techniques and methods –rigor & explain• Researcher-the ‘instrument’ must reveal personal

and professional information, funding, health, perspective, experience, interaction and effect, connection (close but not too close), change experienced, biases, integrity, methodological competence, creativity, perseverance and insight (Patton, 2002, p.566)

• Belief in Qualitative research (strengths and meaningfulness

Credibility

Scientific: validity, inter-coder reliability, rigor

procedures and sampling

Social Constructionist: rigor, depth of analysis, reflexivity,

audience, goals

Artistic: aesthetic, evocative, truthful, learning about self or others, (Ellingson, 2011)

Patton: Judging quality (p. 542-550)

• Traditional scientific-OBJECTIVITY-rigor, validity reliability• Social construction and constructivist-PERSPECTIVES AND

PRAXIS credibility, transferability, confirmability, trustworthiness, reflexivity-authenticity; multiple perspectives, praxis,

• Artistic/Evocative; aesthetics, creativity, INTERPRETATION, expressive voice

• Critical change; EMPOWERMENT activist stance, social consequences of its use, raise consciousness, change power balance

• Evaluation; UTILITY truth and utility, ethical, accurate, respectful, feasibility, propriety

Credibility

Questions, Purpose and Audience• Different nature-broadening, generating data, producing

more questions or hypotheses (Barbour & Barbour, 2003)

• Welcome questions and challenges/rival explanations and divergence

• Answers the question(s) & ‘interpenetrated’ frame and data within text (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p.308)

Utility: Accurate, purposeful (Altheide & Johnson, 2011; Ellingson, 2011;

Ellis) and appropriate for the audience (Patton, 2002)

Substantive, consistent, increased understanding, confirmatory, innovative

Credibility

Reflexivity; reveal all you can about:Decisions and choices • Collection, analysis, representations, multiple

perspectives, transcription decisions (conventions), assumptions ,interpretations, reporting

(Altheide & Johnson, 2011; Barbour & Barbour, 2003; Ellingson, 2011;

Lapadat, 2000; Miles & Huberman, 1994)

Credibility

TRIANGULATION of methods, sources, analysts and theories/perspectives• less vulnerable to errors, data ANALYSIS-

strengthened, confidence in conclusions (Patton, p.556)

Humility

Extrapolation and Transferability versus Generalization

• Keep findings in context (Patton, 2002, p. 563)

• Extrapolation: “ modest speculations on the likely applicability of findings to other situations under similar, but not identical, conditions” (Patton, p. 584)

My Credibility

• Novice; training in methods• Team of expert support• Social constructionist and traditional influence• Bias in favor of French• Reveal personal connection to context• Approached focus group as a learner meeting

with the experts, little interaction• Triangulation of methods, sources (public vs.

private), analysts, theories

My Questions

1) What are the experiences and beliefs of non-francophone parents who choose francophone schools for their children?(2) To what degree are non-francophone parents involved in the education of their children; and (3) What barriers to parental involvement exist and how can they be addressed?

My Purpose, Audience

• Improved understanding / convergence - divergence/degrees of difference or patterns (parents, school staff, school boards, policy-makers)

• Create positive change/ respond to barriers (NF parents and students and schools) • Approach-purposive sampling, small #, neutrally

empathic, conscious and reflexive awareness throughout focus group/ transcriptions (Lapadat, 2000)

EthicsValue-free social science code of ethics• Informed consent• Deception• Privacy and confidentiality• AccuracyIRB Institutional Review Boards• Respect for persons• Beneficence• JusticeFeminist communitarianism – community of free and

equal rational beings; worldview integrating humanity with moral order (Christians, 2011)

TCPS2

• Ethical design, inclusion and exclusion• Vulnerable populations• Risks and benefits (proportionate approach)• Recruitment• Withdrawal• Data management• Dissemination/ identification / effects• Report unanticipated issues

Ethics

Oral history- law & custom give narrator, not researcher, enormous control over his or her story

(Shopes, 2011, p.454)

Copyright & Defamation (Shopes, 2011, p. 461)

Testimonio – rights of scholarship and importance of informed consent (Tierney, 2000)

Tierney –courage to reveal oneself, testimonio-reflexivity means position of strength

Ethics

Interactions cause effectsPower of the interviewer -not faceless & invisible, hierarchical relations, – Topics & wording; listening; transcribing &

editing; writing (Devault, 1990)

– Interpreting, condensing, excerpting & polishing --hermeneutics of vulnerability ( K&

D, 2011) strength is in revealing all.

Ethics

The interviewer/Researcher?Priority 1.Participants 2.Study 3.Ourselves &

1. Informed consent 2. Right to privacy 3. Protection from harm for the participant(Fontana & Frey, 2000. p. 662-663)

Plan for mental Health of qualitative researcher (K & D, 2011; Patton, p.406-409; Tilleczek)

Ethics Checklist• Explaining purpose of the interview• Promises and reciprocity• Risk assessment• Confidentiality • Informed consent• Data access and ownership• Interviewer mental health• Advice; confidant & counsellor• Data collection boundaries• Ethical vs. legal (Patton, 2002, p. 408-409)

Qualitatively Different

Emergent means methods may change and risks may not be anticipated, clarify

Sensitive issues – prepare to have counsellors

Ethics Recommendations

Reflexivity- Reveal all, awareness of membership and potential power and hierarchical relations Gender, Sexuality, Race, Class, Ethnicity, Age Acknowledge interaction and transformation of

both interviewer and interviewee Voice and viewpoints of participants

Co-creating or jointly constructing ‘polyvocal texts’ decenter the role of researcher

(Christians, 2011; Kamberelis & Dimitrialis, 2011)

Journal/Share

New or relevant information learned about:• analysis • interpretation• credibility• ethics

Case Studies

Answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ inquiries for improved understanding (Barbour &Barbour, 2003) Case- item or object of study (phenomenon, situation, program, boundaries-scope of focus)Process or method Unit of analysis Product In-depth, thick, rich, holistic , contextualized description of the nature, setting, participants, and the historical and political aspects

Case Studies

• Case data - diverse forms of data collected about ‘case’

• Case record – condensed enormous amount of raw data (Patton, 2002, p.449)

• Case study for analyzing/sharing/ interpreting /cross case analysis/ patterns and divergent cases/ triangulating/ alternative views

• Case study narrative or report – descriptive story

Case Study….Options

Ethnographic, scholarly, evaluation, historical, individual, …• Exploratory• Descriptive• Multiple-case studies (differences within/between)• Intrinsic (understand)• Instrumental (insight for issue or theory)• Collective (multiple) (Barbour & Barbour, 2003)

• Single case with embedded units

My Case Study• Smallest case unit - parent /2 parents/family• Larger case - school with embedded units of

separate parents/family

• Hoping to understand a complex social situation from multiple perspectives, new information, understanding, and improved practice and policy

• Not generalizable but may be extrapolated

Case: One School With Embedded Units

Family 1•Experience•Beliefs•Involvement

Family 2•Experience•Beliefs•Involvement

Family3•Experience•Beliefs•Involvement

Case: Schools

Family1Family 2Family 3

Family1Family 2Family 3

Family1Family 2Family 3

WHEW!

Mary M. MacPheeNovember 22, 2012