This chapter written by Marshall and Rossman (2011)
from Design Qualitative Research intends to categorize qualitative research
genres and approaches and gives brief introduction to each genre and some
derivations. Basically, there are two big categories including 3 major genres
and 8 critical genres. They are ethnographic approaches, phenomenological
approaches, sociolinguistic approaches, narrative analysis, action research,
cultural studies, virtual ethnography, critical ethnography, feminist theories
and methodologies, critical race theory, and queer theory and analysis. These
different genres and approaches cover different research fields and topics. As
a result, the appropriate methodology that is supposed to be used should be
decided according to different types of research questions. For example,
phenomenology focuses on individual participant’s perspectives, which is also
called the lived experience. So, asking the questions about lived experience indicates
that the researcher is going to use phenomenological approaches.
Based on the differences among different qualitative
research genres, I also assumed that a variety of research methods——for example, interview,
text analysis, observation and so on——
should
have nuanced applications in each genre.
In addition, it is interesting to notice that the
authors mentioned the relationship between the researchers and participants.
Normally, the researchers take dominant roles in studies and they may influence
the perspectives of the participants, which should be taken into concern. And
also, as researchers participate in the study, their bias is also a major
methodological concern. I think minimizing the bias is also very important to
make the research meaningful. However, these might be an exception——action research.
According to the authors, “action research blurs the distinctions between
researcher and participants, creating a democratic inquiry process” (p. 23),
does this mean that the researchers’ role and bias are not influencing factors
that need to be concerned any more?
I found a statement particular interesting in this article - "research involves issues of power and that traditionally conducted social science research has silenced many marginalized and oppressed group in society by making them the passive objects of inquiry". It is surprising and yet understandable, and reminded me of the questions in last week's class "whose voice is important, researcher or participants?" As researchers, we need to be mindful about not having our own views get in the way of informations we collect and interpret.
ReplyDeleteDear Yuxi. I found the details you outlined about the article really interesting. As in regards to action research, I was intrigued by that sort of approach on my last reading. I learned that individuals research their own practice when conducting this type of research. The question you asked in an interesting one, and I wonder how can a researcher refrain from having his ideas influence when he has to actively investigate and participate in the research itself.
ReplyDelete