Com 473--Baldwin—Communication—Illinois State University
Updated 8/24/09
The Backgrounds of Qualitative Research
COM
473 Notes
Objectives:
Students
will be able to:
v correctly explain the two
primary dimensions on Burrel & Morgan's (1979)
grid
v discuss some strengths and
limitations of the grid and its usual treatment
v differentiate between
important terms in QL research
v explain some of the
criticisms of QL research
v outline six main influences
on qualitative research in comm studies (Lindlof
& Taylor)
Discussion of Assignments
Review the notion of a journal
Talk about Final Project, and
Journal
Overview
of class this week!
Review 4 Paradigms [Burrell & Morgan, in class, but we will
integrate this with a reading of Potter]
Exercise:
Quantitative/Qualitative
Q: Where does Ql
or Qt fit on B&M?
Q: What are some possible
relationships between Ql & Qt?
Q: What are some strengths and
limitations of the grid, either in fact or in
practice?
Assignment: Placing epistemologies
and ontologies [from COM 111]
History of Qualitative Research: Theoretical Influences
& Comm Research [Question to guide your reading
of L&T!]
Describe each of the 6 areas in
terms of the following:
v Key purpose/idea
v Key authors
v Key method(s)
v Key terms
v Where each might fit on
B&M's grid?
[Do this first on your own, though I have attached
my own notes below!]
[
Bring to Class
--handout
of Qualitative/Quantitative Questions
--Burrel & Morgan—handout/overhead(s); bring hard copies
and color crayons
Class Overview:
q Review Paradigms:
q Backgrounds of Interpretive
Research
--from other fields (
--in the field of comm (
q Methods of Interpretive
Research (
Break
q Exercise (in-class)
q Strengths and Limitations of
Qualitative research:
--what can it do or not do?
--how can it be used?
End
early; answer questions
Announcements:
--talk
about your research areas of interest, think about
possible topics and methods
--next
reading:
--written
assignment for next week: Journal Entry #1
I.
Review of Paradigms—Burrell & Morgan revisited
Exercise: Qualitative/Quantitative questions
1. Where does
“qualitative” research fit? (a trick question)
2. What is
meant by the “y” axis? Is “critical” theory objective or subjective?
3. How has
Communication as a discipline traversed this “map”? Key time
periods?
4. What seem
to be the main purposes and foci of interpretive research? What types of things
might it tend to look at? (
Practices and Performances? (
Choice,
value, understanding (Lindlof, p. 27), people’s rationality (p. 57)
Verstehen (L, p. 30); motives
P. 57:
understand & depict. . . (idiographic)
Build
theory (p. 58)
Some clearly stated points:
1. Qualitative
research is a tool: It can be objective or subjective (or in-between)
2. Qualitative
research can be critical or “regulatory”
3. Methods
can be more or less subjective
Comparing
Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Characteristics
of Qualitative Research
“in their own words,
through their own actions”: Uncovering the lifeworld
human as instrument: a breakdown
of the dichotomy of observed/observer
reflection/introspection: self-reflexivity
emergent design
“thrownness”
– Becker terms: contextual (versus analytic);
holistic (versus reductionistic)
production of knowledge, not discovery
prolonged engagement (L, p. 56)
inductive inquiry (L, p. 56)
Dilemmas or Tensions of Qualitative Research
Objective/subjective:
Descriptive/Critique
detachment/involvement Agar: “professional
stranger”
Performance/Practice (explain a single event or comm rules)
Local/Universal realities (e.g., Philipsen’s
new turn)
“Control”/Purposive sampling
Revelation/Respect: (who owns the data?)
Diversity/Discipline (our field of Communication)
Rigor/”softness”
Product/Process
Naivete
(bracketing)/Human-as-Instrument (reading)
2. Criticisms of Qualitative Research
Quantitative Research:
“imposes value assumptions”
(Lindlof, p. 11)
“barrenness of rationalist
and functionalist explanations” (p. 11, from Putnam & Pacanowsky)
Guba & Lincoln (1982, in
Lindlof, p. 19):
“Naturalistic approaches [should] take full
advantage of the not inconsiderable power of the human-as-instrument, providing
a more than adequate trade-off for the presumably more ‘objective’ approach
that characterizes rationalistic inquiry.”
Strengths and
Limitations of Qualitative research:
--what can it do or not do?
--how can it be used?
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH as SOFT (Lindlof & Taylor)
not countable
not complete: not all of the
data—only excerpts
not predictive
not impersonal/separate
not generalizable
not value-free
not relevant
II.
Summarizing some of the assumptions of Qualitative
Research
First, a note on methods:
(Potter, 1996, Chapters 4, 5)
- Ethnography
- Ethnomethodology
- Reception
Study
- Ecological
Psychology
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Cultural
Studies
- Textual
Analysis
- Comparative
Illustrations
Three Facets (of media
research):
- Audience
- Text
- Institution
III. Backgrounds
of Interpretive Research
--from other fields (
--in the field of comm (
- Summarize
some of the key tensions in ontology and axiology from Potter
(1996, Ch. 3):. Note that there is a
close parallel b/t this and Burrell and Morgan’s coverage!
Some questions to guide your
reading!
The Roots of the Debate
Ø Describe the origins and
main notions of empiricism?
Ø What is positivism and what is its
relationship to empiricism?
Ø What are some of the primary
differences between the positivists and the idealists?
Ø What are some of the subtle
differences between the logical positivists and the logical
empiricists, two “middle positions” that arose between the
positivists and the idealists?
Ø Summarize Toulmin’s attempt to bring convergence between the opposing
viewpoints.
Ø In sum, what seems to be
relationship between focus of method (quantitative/qualitative) and the above
approaches?
Some Specific Issues
Some of this section summarizes in other words the
foundational work of Burrell and Morgan (See Chapter
1 and Chapter
3 if you want more reading in this area!).
Ø What are some of the
possible positions one might take in regards to ontology? Epistemology?
Ø Describe the relationship
between ontology and epistemology. How do these, in turn, relate to method?
Return to Methodological Assumptions: The last part of this
chapter returns to some of the same methodological assumptions covered in
Ø Phenemonlogy
Ø Interpretive
Ø Hermeneutic
Ø Naturalistic
Ø Humanistic
·
What does Potter conclude
about the relationship between qualitative research and ontological and
epistemological assumptions?
·
Which has more “latitude”
across the assumptions—qualitative or quantitative research?
B. Philosophical influences on qualitative
research (Lindlof & Taylor, Ch. 2)
Exercise: In groups,
- Each group will describe in 5 minutes or
so, the main area of influence
Key authors
Key terms
- Which of the methods in Potter, Ch. 4
seems to best fit with the influence you’ve drawn? [This will only make
sense, of course, after I introduce them!]
- Draw a “map” on the board of your
influence—draw connections to other areas when appropriate.
Phenomenology (Interpretive Paradigm)
Ø
Verstehen (Dilthey): perception of the world mediated by conceptual
categories
Ø Hermeneutics (Gadamer; Schleirmacher,
etc.): a textual approach (texts & contexts)
1. the hermeneutic cycle/circle
2. impact on social
constructivism: we don’t find knowledge as much as we create it;
3. impact on interpretive turn
(Geertz): cultural meanings encoded in public,
symbolic forms that we “read”
Ø Weber: Ideal types
Ø Husserl:
1. lebenswelt, “natural attitude”
2.
époche
3. bracketing
Ø Schutz:
Ø Intersubjectivity; stock of
knowledge, personal & shared sources
actions/acts, two types of motives
Ethnomethodology
Ø eidictic sciences
Ø Goal: how taken-for-granted
nature of life is accomplished: coordinated
activity
Ø Focus: interactional
practices, not the content
Ø 2 key terms: indexical
expressions; accounts (which contain background expectancies, intersubjective
(not subjective) reality)
Ø Key method: conversation analysis, discourse analysis)
1. Cicourel: interpretive procedures:
consensual rules in communication
Ø Evolving focus: rules, ideology, social structure
Symbolic
Interactionism
Ø Focus: how self &
society mutually define through communication
Ø Pragmatism: how meaning is invoked in practical consequences
1. view of reality:
“indeterminate”
Ø action “defines” knowledge
1. à the
social construction of reality
2. à constructivism (Delia, O’Keefe)
3. à organizational
culture, etc.
4. à structuration
theory (rules/resources and action in circular relationship)
Ø Goal: amelioration of social
problems (think: Chicago School of Sociology: Parks, Dewey
Ø The self per SI: significant
symbols, role-taking, I/me
Ø From whence meaning? from
social interaction
Ethnography of
Communication
Ø Speech performance:
Wittgenstein: language games
Ø sociolinguistics/folklore
Ø Hymes: The ethnography of
speaking: rules, function, speech activity (p. 47)
Ø speech event
Critical Theory (sorry—lost my notes!)
Cultural
Studies
Ø Williams (English)
Ø signification
Ø political meaning, agendas
Ø ideology & discourse
Ø interdisciplinary
Ø intertextuality (& PM)
Ø political critique, cultural
hegemony, ideologies
Ø subjectivities/self
Ø polysemy & negotiated meanings
Ø text study versus reception
study
Feminism (sorry—lost my
notes!)