BASIC CONCEPTS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH (An Essay) By Deborah Sitorus One of the ways to gain knowledge is by carrying out some research. As what Zacharia (2012) stated that in daily life most people conduct research to gain knowledge. A research can be carried out qualitatively or quantitatively depends on the research purposes and needs and the type of information the researcher is seeking. My concern in this essay is to briefly share my understandings about basic concepts of qualitative research that I gained from my readings on some books on qualitative research methods as well as from the class discussion with lecturer and colleagues on qualitative research course at the university. The basic concepts of qualitative research that will…show more content…
In quantitative research, the researcher relies on statistical analysis (mathematical analysis) of the data, which is typically in numeric form. In qualitative research, statistics are not used to analyze the data; instead, the inquirer analyzes words (e.g., transcriptions from interviews) or images (e.g., photographs). Rather than relying on statistical procedures, the qualitative researcher analyzes the words to group them into larger meanings of understanding, such as codes, categories, or themes (Creswell, 2012). In addition, both qualitative and quantitative researchers are concerned with the individuals’ point of view. However, qualitative researchers think they can get closer to the actor’s perspective through detailed-interviewing and observation. They argue that quantitative researchers are seldom able to capture their subjects perspective because they have to rely on more remote, inferential empirical methods and materials (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000). Despite all these differences, one of the strengths of qualitative research design is that it often allows for far greater (theoretically informed) flexibility than in most quantitative research designs (Silverman, 2005). The allure of qualitative research also enables the researcher to conduct in-depth studies about a broad array of topics, including the favorites, in plain and everyday terms (Yin, 2011). Furthermore, qualitative research designs tend to work
CONCEPTS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH (An Essay) By Deborah Sitorus One of the ways to gain knowledge is by carrying out some research. As what Zacharia (2012) stated that in daily life most people conduct research to gain knowledge. A research can be carried out qualitatively or quantitatively depends on the research purposes and needs and the type of information the researcher is seeking. My concern in this essay is to briefly share my understandings about basic concepts of qualitative research that