Qualitative
Journal Research Methods
Research methods
in qualitative journals will be briefly reviewed in this article. As the name
implies, qualitative research emphasizes the quality of the entity under study.
Qualitative research can be descriptive and analytical. Denzin and Lincoln in the "Qualitative Research" describe
that qualitative research emphasizes aspects of the social construction of
reality. The qualitative research process focuses on the disclosure of the
social meaning of a phenomenon built by the participants or research subjects.
Qualitative research seeks to answer how human socio-cultural experiences are
shaped and given meaning.
Why do
qualitative research?
As mentioned
earlier, the qualitative research method seeks to uncover the socio-cultural
meaning and experience of the research subject to a phenomenon that cannot be
easily measured using numbers or numerics. Some social phenomena cannot be
revealed by mathematical calculations. For example, research that seeks to reveal
the resilience of people living around volcanoes. Some people do not want to be
evacuated when a mountain will erupt. Mountains are part of their daily lives
and have meanings that may be different from other communities. Qualitative
research is able to provide answers to why they refused to be evacuated and how
the meaning of 'mountain', 'disaster', 'life' and so on for them. Qualitative
research is carried out to reveal the quality of the entity under study. What
are the characteristics of qualitative research methods?
qualitative
research methods
Characteristics
of qualitative research methods
Quellen Berg in
"Qualitative Research Methods for the International Journal of Social Sciences" describes the
characteristics of qualitative research based on three main elements: research
design, data collection process, and data analysis. According to him, the three
elements are the basis for forming the main character of qualitative research
so that it is different from quantitative research.
♦ Based
on the design, qualitative research is naturalistic, that is, research is
conducted in accordance with what happens in the field. That is, researchers
are open to whatever phenomena that occur in the field during research.
Qualitative research can also be emergent, ie researchers adapt to the social
environment under study. Qualitative research also aims at the subject, that
is, the people, groups, communities, or communities that are the subject of
research become suber information. Sampling is done based on the subject's
knowledge of the phenomenon, instead of making generalizations taken from the
sample to be applied to the population.
♦ Based
on the data collection process, qualitative research collects narrative data in
depth (thick description). The experience of researchers in conducting research
is very important because researchers are one of the research instruments.
In-depth interviews are a data collection process that is often done.
♦ Based
on the analysis of the data, qualitative research always involves an inductive
process, where observational data is used as a basis for finding patterns and
research themes. The process starts from observing and exploring phenomena,
then informs findings guided by the principle of flexible analysis. Qualitative
research is also very sensitive to the social context. Qualitative research
findings are inherent in the social and historical context. Researchers are
very open to the possibility of changing findings if the context in the field
changes.
What are the
advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research?
All research
methodologies have their advantages and disadvantages.
Qualitative
research methods have the following advantages:
Descriptive data
is more detailed and in-depth.
Data illustrates
a realistic view of the social world experienced by research subjects that
cannot be measured numerically.
Give participants
the opportunity to describe their perspectives on the phenomenon under study.
The process of
collecting data is done flexibly according to dynamics in the field.
Interaction is carried
out with participants' everyday language, with the specific terminology they
use.
The focus of
research always responds to changes that occur during the research process, not
to impose the views of researchers previously arranged on the table.
Qualitative
research also has the following shortcomings:
The strong
subjectivity element risks reducing the objectivity of research results.
The character of
the researcher is very influential on the results of the study, the same
information can lead to different conclusions because of the different
character of the researcher.
Research designs
are difficult to replicate for research in other locations.
Difficult to
analyze the causal relationship of a social phenomenon.
The researcher's
experience is needed to obtain the most representative participants.
Weak in
generalizing research results.
Basic framework
for qualitative research methods
Qualitative
research is not experimental research or positive research. There are various
variations of qualitative research designs. In general, qualitative research
seeks to describe and interpret human social behavior based on narratives
expressed by participants. Some basic components need to be involved in a
qualitative research framework. Joseph A. Maxwell in "Designing a
Qualitative Study" outlines five main components of a qualitative research
framework. Here is the description:
Purpose
In this component
or section, the researcher describes what issues are raised, why the chosen
theme is important, why the study of the theme or issue is necessary and why
the reader needs to pay attention to the issues raised. The purpose of the
study outlined to attract the attention of readers on the theme under study
Conceptual
framework
In this section
the researcher explains the settings, and the people who will be the research
subjects. The theory used and the choice of theory also need to be clearly
explained. Furthermore, what literature is used is also written in this
section. It should be noted that the element of subjectivity of the researcher
is also important in qualitative research. Thus, personal experience that
underlies interest in the issue under study will be a plus. Researchers can
describe the motivation for choosing research themes related to personal
experience in this section.
Formulation of
the problem
The formulation
of the problem is a research question raised. Usually, the research problem is
described in detail in advance. The formulation of this problem will later be
directly connected to the research method chosen. Variants of qualitative
methods are very diverse, answers to questions can only be found with certain
methods that are appropriate. Therefore, caution is needed in describing the
research problem and the research method used.
Method
Researchers in
this section describe the method used. In social research, the same phenomenon
can be investigated by a variety of methods with varying results. Looking back
on research that has been done before is very useful for determining the
method. The researcher needs to ask himself what will be done in this study,
especially during the data collection process.
Validity
The validity
aspect is very important in research. Qualitative research must consider
threats to validity that can come at any time during the research. To maintain
validity, researchers must rely on facts from observations to make the argument
that alternative explanations do not make sense. Alternative explanations
outside the conclusions written are always a threat to validity. Researchers
must pay attention to this.
Conclusion
The last part
that is no less important is the conclusion. Researchers must conclude the
results of their studies. In this section, the research objectives are briefly
displayed again. Discussions about research findings with findings in the
literature used are described in this section. It should also be noted,
limitations of research must be written as a basis for future research
recommendations. If the qualitative research carried out is policy research,
then recommendations can also be described in the conclusions section.
Data collection
technique
Data collection
techniques in social research there are various kinds. Basically, quantitative
research is different from qualitative research in the process of collecting
data. Data collection techniques are generally done not just one, but a
combination of several ways. This is done to support the quality of research.
However, that
does not mean the more data collection techniques are applied, the more quality
research. Quantitative research, for example, collects data using commonly
available data sets. This does not mean that the data collected by the researchers
themselves are of higher quality; buying data sets owned by credible
institutions certainly shows the quality itself.
In qualitative
research, data collection techniques are usually more diverse. Interviews and
observations are the two main techniques that are often done. This paper will
review a number of techniques for collecting social research and sociology data
both qualitative and quantitative.
Some examples of
data collection techniques
Observation
Observation
techniques are commonplace done by researchers both in social research.
Qualitative research more often applies observation rather than quantitative.
Observation is the process of observing social phenomena carefully to find
interesting social phenomena. The social phenomenon that is captured has the
potential to be an important social problem to be studied. Observations were
made by researchers as "outsiders" who made observations. Researchers
can use tools such as gadgets or notebooks to record what social symptoms they
see. The research notes are empirical observations.
Participatory
observation
Participatory
observation is observation in more detail and depth. Deep means that the
researcher becomes part of the community being studied. Participatory
observation techniques are generally applied in qualitative research. For
example, a researcher who studies environmental communities that are growing up
among urban young people, joins in carrying out community activities in the
context of participatory observation. Researchers join the activity of the
community as other community members. Research ethics recommends that
observational activities be carried out with the knowledge of management or
community members. However, if the issue under study is sensitive, researchers
can carry out clandestinely while maintaining the privacy and identity of the members
being investigated.
Online
observation
In essence,
online observations are the same as other observations. The debate about online
observation revolves around the issue of researchers' physical presence that is
considered different from their presence in cyberspace. The validity of online
observations is very dependent on the theme of social research conducted. For
example, research on Korean drama fan forums on Facebook, using online
observation is a must.
Interview
method of data
collection This technique is commonly carried out in qualitative and
quantitative research. Quantitative research can use interviews but is usually
not exhaustive. Qualitative research interviews are conducted in depth because
the data in the form of narrative is primary data that determines the quality
of qualitative research. To conduct interviews, a number of preparations are
needed, among others: researchers compile interview guides, prepare notes or
recording tools, arrange interviews with potential interviewees or informants.
Interview trials are needed before researchers interview further interviewees.
Usually the first one or two interviewees are interviewed as a trial interview
guide. The researcher notes what the interview guide lacks during the trial
interview, then completes it. Notification to interviewees about the identity
of researchers and the research conducted is needed as part of research ethics.
Online interview
Online interviews
were conducted with digital media. Before online interviews, there is a term known
as telephone interview. The quality of online interviews certainly depends on
the research topic under study. The advantage of online interviews is the cost
and time efficiency of researchers. The drawback, of course, is that the
researcher cannot capture the whole gesture that looks like a conventional
interview. Again, the urgency of data collection techniques through digital
media depends on the research theme and problem.
Survey
Surveys as a data
collection technique are mostly done in quantitative research and mixed
methods. The survey was conducted with a questionnaire that had been prepared
previously. As with interview techniques, researchers should test the
questionnaire first with one or two informants before conducting further
surveys. Research ethics also needs to be considered by researchers during the
survey. The survey process is very dependent on the structure and content of
the questionnaires distributed.
Online survey
Basically online
surveys are the same as conventional surveys. Only the medium is different.
Online surveys using a digital platform and questionnaires distributed online.
At present several sites and applications support online survey platforms. One
application that is often used is Survey Monkey, Google Form, and so on.
Polling
Polling is a
simplified version of the survey. Polling data is also not as complete or
detailed as survey results. Research on people's political preferences is
mostly done through polling. Currently some social media applications have a
polling feature that can be used for research.
Study of
literature
Research is
cumulative, meaning that the research to be conducted should have a reference
to the research conducted before. Data collection techniques with literature
studies determine the quality of research. The more complete the previous
research involved in the research design, the stronger the credibility of the
research proposal. Very rarely social research is entirely new research.
Usually there are studies that have been conducted even with different
locations and focus. Novelty in social research is in the findings, not in
general issues. Literature can be divided into two, namely primary literature
and secondary literature. Primary literature is the main literature used.
Whereas the secondary literature is used only as a support for the main
literature.