Monrovia and the county requires a 4WD-built vehicle and could take up to a day or two, based on the road conditions and the time of the year. It sometimes takes longer than a day or two when traveling with commercial vehicles. Other sites in the county require additional travel on foot, or by motorcycle. The climate in the research area is wet and tropical. The main ethnic group residing in the area is Krahn . The absence of written materials about their history and culture means that a researcher must rely heavily on oral traditions, which could vary, based on both locality and the researcher’s ability to elicit stories. This remoteness, in effect, tells how much the area is neglected. The level of education in the communities is low. …show more content…
Throughout this research, participants’ direct locations, names, villages, and towns are withheld in order to maintain the researcher’s confidentiality promise.
3.2 Figure 1.1: Map of Study Area
3.3 Research Methodology
This qualitative study is based on the Grounded Theory methodology, a design of inquiry from a sociological perspective in which a researcher derives a general abstract theory of a process or interaction grounded in the views of participants in a study to analyze the data. This theory has two unique concepts: the constant comparison of data with emerging categories and a theoretical sampling of different groups to maximize the similarities and differences of information (Creswell, 2009, p. 13). The basic concept of this research method is to choose research participants who have lived through the phenomenon that you want to study. This meant that participants are experts of the phenomenon that the researcher sought to understand (Auerbach and Silverstein, 2003). These techniques involve a): filtering texts, which means explicitly stating your research concerns and theoretical concerns and selecting the relevant text from your interviews, which is done by reading through the transcripts one-by-one with step one in mind and highlighting relevant codes; b): listening to the transcripts for relevant information, which involves recording repeating ideas by grouping together related passages of your
It is essential that robust methods are used in qualitative research as maintaining confidentiality is critical. Confidentiality issues must be addressed by the researcher in relation to individual participants as well as to the sites in which the research is conducted. With regard to individual participants, researchers may need to address confidentiality by using not only pseudonyms --non-identifying names in all written records, but also to be selective when describing defining characteristics of participants which could reveal their identity (Polit & Beck
Qualitative method is using open-ended questioning, non-statistical research techniques, or value-based observations. In this research, three main methodologies are adopted as focus group, distributing questionnaires and conducting personal interviews simultaneously. Methods are all appropriate and contributed to a comprehensive research. The reason is that aim of this research is to acquire an in-depth understanding of
‘Employing a qualitative methodology, underpinned by a constructivist world view, has provided the means to generate rich, deep and contextualised understandings of the research issue, and an appreciation of the socially constructed and experienced realities of the participants.’ (Highfield 2012)
The type of study is stated within the title of the article as well as within the abstract. Measurements of the study included interviews that posed structured questions to the participants either in focus groups or individually, as well as observations of the actual process of transitions. This qualitative study used grounded dimensional analysis (GDA) which provided an end product that involved a conceptual model. Observations and in-depth interviews aided in the creation of this model that expresses consequences of poor communication during the transition period. Using this method for a qualitative study was appropriate since this type of study revolves around exploratory research. Conducting a qualitative research study provides ideas as to why a problem may be occurring and helps determine possible interventions to resolve future issues within specific
This article is an excellent example of work that is based on grounded theory and demonstrates the ways in which qualitative research provides the kind of rich data that are often lacking when a quantitative study is used. This is not to say that either qualitative or quantitative studies are better than each other. Rather, these different types of studies provide different types of data, and these different types of data provide answers to different types of questions.
While both the grounded theory approach and ethnography find similarities between groups of participants, there are several differences between these two research methods. Ethnography involves the observation of a culture through immersion into the group that is being studied. Unlike some research methods that involved the manipulation of a variable, this method seeks to collect data regarding a specific culture in its natural form, which requires the researcher to immerse themselves in the culture without interfering. However, it is important for them to directly interact with the participants to gain a thorough understanding of the culture. On the other hand, grounded theory involves observing a group and linking various observations to conceptual
This study will not be anonymous as it requires us to collect names for the purpose of completing this research. For the purpose of this study, information will remain confidential. To ensure confidentiality, Non-involving persons or agencies will not have access to information collected to ensure confidentiality.
Bowen, Glenn A. (2006)“Grounded Theory and Sensitizing Concepts”. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 5 (3): 12-23 (11p).
Researchers who uses qualitative study for addressing a problem they are interested in are most often confronted with enormous background knowledge they could use to make their research more successful. (Flick, 2007)
The Glaser and Strauss (1967) method of grounded theory will be used in the analysis of the study. Grounded theory is a methodology that is systematic and involves constructing theory by analyzing data. Grounded theory starts with a question and researchers review the data collected over and over to look for repeated ideas or concepts using doces to group the theories into categories and possibly into new theories (Broadhed, 1983). There are five steps when using grounded theory(p.87:.
Following a critical overview of the literature, this chapter outlines the research methodology. It will provide a justification for a qualitative methodological approach and specification of methods employed. Highlighting the appropriateness of interviews and focus groups in relation to the methodology and overall research. It will also provide recognition of their relative strengths and limitations.
As grounded theory was employed by Carroll, data analysis and findings were based on the categorisation of themes. Although Carroll’s data analysis methodology has been deemed appropriate to qualitative research (Strauss, 1997, p. 180), the reader questions whether majority perspectives were favoured over individual for analysis, potentially distorting eventual findings.
This is important in order to gain data that is qualitative, that should give an account of views and emotions. The grounded theory approach also involves theoretical sampling which investigates incidents, and populations, therefore this tells us that the method used was relevant to this study. A theory should then that stem from the data, this concept was correct in this case, as several themes emerged from the results. The data is analysed as it is collected using interviews, or observations (Punch 1998 cited in Bell 2008). The researcher’s methods related to the grounded theory approach, as indicated.
Qualitative research is conducted in a natural setting and attempts to understand a human problem by developing a holistic narrative and reporting detailed views of informants about the culture of a problem. It forms a report with pictures and words. One of the most important distinctions that sets qualitative research apart from more traditional types of research is that qualitative research is holistic in that researchers study phenomena in their entirety rather than narrowing the focus to specific defined variables” (p. 93). Similarly, Cresswell (1984) indicated that qualitative research “is defined as an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants, and conducted in a natural setting” (p. 2). Cresswell’s definition clearly delineates the major characteristics of qualitative research. Pg. 50 (Smith & Davis, 2010).
When utilizing a qualitative approach, the task becomes one of determining the qualitative method to be used. Additionally, Stake (2010) used purpose, research design, and methodical data techniques as a way of classifying types of qualitative research. Similarly, Cresswell & Cresswell (2007) spoke of five practices of qualitative research. These five practices consist of biography, phenomenological study, grounded theory study, ethnography, and case study. This researcher chose a phenomenological study for this research project.