A Common Reason for

Conducting Qualitative Research

A common reason for conducting qualitative research is to explore the context surrounding the research issues. There are many types of contexts – for example, the personal or community context in which participants live, the socio-cultural context of the study population, and broader political, economic or historical contexts that shape a research issue. Although qualitative researchers pay much attention to exploring contextual issues during data collection, reporting context can sometimes be overlooked when writing the study findings.

When writing qualitative research you can convey context throughout the research report in many different ways.

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By Monique Hennink, Inge Hutter, Ajay Bailey

Reflecting context in writing

• Subject context. Describe the nature of the research topic (e.g. demographic patterns, political context, historical issues).
• Theoretical context. Describe relevant theory on the study topic (e.g. underlying theory influencing the design of the study).
• Cultural context. Describe the socio-cultural characteristics of the study population (e.g. beliefs, behaviors, norms that influence the study topic).

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Reflecting context in writing

• Physical context. Describe the physical characteristics of the study site(s) (e.g. physical layout, characteristics, services, amenities, proximity to facilities, towns, roads). Photographs can also effectively show the physical context.
• Methodological context. Describe the setting of the interview or group discussion (e.g. where and when conducted, who conducted, how conducted, language, time of day, problems or challenges). Describe the background characteristics of the researchers (e.g. professional or personal characteristics, experience with the study topic).
• Context of issues. Reflect on the context of issues raised in the data (e.g. physical road conditions may underlie access issues; gender structure may influence autonomy; political policy may underlie lack of facilities). Quotations can often reflect the context of participant’s issues.
• Context of implications. Reflect context in the study recommendations (e.g. religious, social, cultural, political, financial).

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Click here to answer the guide questions for Part 1.

Click here to answer the online quiz 3 for Part 2

References

Hennink, Monique, Hutter, Inge, Bailey, Ajay (2011). Qualitative Research Methods. Retrieved from

https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=rmJdyLc8YW4C&pg=PA288&dq=reasons+for+conducting+the+qualitative+research&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizvKGMnpLYAhXCJpQKHS9VCygQ6AEIMTAC#v=onepage&q=reasons%20for%20conducting%20the%20qualitative%20research&f=false on December 18, 2017

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Online Slide Presentation

Prepared by:

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GEORGE P. LUMAYAG

SST III / SHS Practical Research 1 Teacher

https://georgelumayag.weebly.com/

https://sites.google.com/deped.gov.ph/research1

http://dnhs6022.weebly.com/

george.lumayag@deped.gov.ph

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