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Chapter 3 Research Framework
Qualitative research involves several stages, which include orientation and overview
of the phenomenon of interest, a focused exploration of the phenomenon and
confirmation that the findings are trustworthy (Polit, Beck and Hungler, 2001).
Ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, mixed methods, action research and
case study methodologies have been described by Denzin and Lincoln (1994), Patton
(2002), Creswell (2003), Reason and Bradbury (2008) and Yin (2009) as qualitative
methodologies. These will now be discussed.
3.4.1.1 Ethnography
Ethnography is the study of people or cultures. Commonly used by social
anthropologists, it requires the researcher to spend considerable time in the research
field and relies heavily on the analysis of field notes and participant observation
(Patton, 2002).
Denzin and Lincoln (1994) stated that ethnographic approaches have been adopted in
numerous disciplines and applied fields such as social and cultural anthropology,
sociology, human geography, organisation studies, educational research and cultural
studies. According to Patton (2002), ethnographic inquiry takes as its central and
guiding assumption that any human group of people interacting together for a period
of time will evolve a culture. Creswell (2003) supported this by offering that
ethnography directs the researcher to study an intact cultural group in a natural
setting over a prolonged period of time by collecting primarily observational data,
but also using field notes and interviews. It aims to understand from the point of
view of those involved (the emic perspective) rather than explaining from the
outsider’s point of view (the etic perspective) (Denscombe, 2007).
The researcher must acknowledge the role of the “self” in the research and must
present an account of one’s own beliefs, interests and experiences in relation to the
topic being researched. It relies mostly on participant observation, has a strong
emphasis on exploring social phenomena, tends to work with unstructured data,
investigates small numbers of cases or one case in detail, and analysis involves
interpretation of meaning (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994).