Silverman Interpreting Qualitative Data Fourth Edition SAGE 2011

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I. THEORY AND METHOD IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 1. 1 What is qualitative research? LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • understand what is meant by qualitative research • link your research topic to an appropriate methodology • recognise the advantages and disadvantages of both qualitative and quantitative methods • understand the diverse approaches underlying contemporary qualitative research. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 2

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KEY POINTS • When we compare quantitative and qualitative research, we generally find, at best, different emphases between ‘schools’ which themselves contain many internal differences. • Qualitative researchers should celebrate rather than criticise quantitative researchers’ aim to assemble and sift their data critically. • Reliability and validity are key ways of evaluating research. • A dependence on purely quantitative methods may neglect the social and cultural construction of the ‘variables’ which quantitative research seeks to correlate. • Qualitative research should not limit itself to the study of perceptions or subjective meanings. Qualitative research has a unique ability to focus on behaviour in naturally occurring situations. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 20

1. 2 Designing a Research project LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • recognise the challenges that arise in organising a qualitative research • project and know about simple solutions to these problems • understand the terms used by researchers to describe their research designs • generate an interesting research topic • know what a good literature review is and what you can learn from it • understand the main methods used in qualitative research. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 21

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KEY POINTS • The biggest mistake that beginning researchers can make is to attempt too ambitious a research project. • In both science and everyday life, the facts never speak for themselves. This is because all knowledge is theoretically impregnated. • Theory provides a framework for critically understanding phenomena and a basis for considering how what is unknown might be organised. • Research problems are distinct from social problems. • We can generate valuable research problems by employing three types of sensitivity: historical, political and contextual. • There are four major methods used by qualitative researchers: observation; analysing texts, documents and images; interviews; recording and transcribing naturally occurring interaction. • There is a broader, societal context in which research methods are located and deployed. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 31

1. 3 Data Analysis LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: • feel confident as you first confront your data • be familiar with three ways of analysing qualitative data: content analysis, • grounded theory and narrative analysis • know what is shared by all effective methods for analysing data. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 32

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KEY POINTS • Get down to analysis as early as possible and avoid ‘busy’ work. • Try out different theoretical approaches; see what works for you (and for your data). • The theoretical basis of qualitative content analysis is at best unclear and this means that, unfortunately, its conclusions can often seem trite. • Grounded theory involves coding through memo-writing, theoretical sampling and generating theories grounded in your data, • Narrative analysis usually adopts a constructionist framework and uses an appropriate narrative vocabulary; consider the way a segment of data is organised (and why) and examine the local context in which the data arise. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 45

1. 4 Research Ethics LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • understand why ethics matter • recognise the pitfalls that confront the ethical researcher • understand key guidelines to ethical practice • recognise the limits of these guidelines in the varying contexts of social research. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 46

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KEY POINTS • At every stage of the research process, from study design to data gathering to data analysis and writing your report, you need to be aware of ethical issues. • Ethical guidelines are usually available from your university department and from the professional associations that recruit within your discipline. • The varying social contexts of action mean that such guidelines cannot cover every situation that will arise. This means that you should always be alert to emerging ethical issues and confront them as best you can. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 53

II. METHODS 2. 1 Ethnographic observation LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • understand the meanings and aims of ethnography, observation and fieldwork • recognise the methodological choices that face the ethnographer • locate the different theoretical positions that animate ethnographic work • understand the basics of analysing field data including how to make fieldnotes. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 54

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KEY POINTS There are three crucial aspects of observational research: • the focus of the study • methodological decisions • theoretical choices. Naturalism, constructionism and ethnomethodology provide very different ways of defining observational research. Each offers a ‘toolbox’ providing a set ofconcepts and methods to select appropriate data and to illuminate data analysis. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 70

2. 2 Interviews LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • distinguish the different kinds of interview • understand what skills are used in doing an interview • recognise the various theoretical bases of interview research • conduct a simple analysis of interview data in a way which is appropriate to your research problem. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 71

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KEY POINTS • There are three different models relevant to interview data: positivism, emotionalism and constructionism. • Each model provides different answers to questions about whether we should gather interview data and, if so, how to analyse these data. • Unlike the other models, constructionism allows us to see the local, interactional work carried out by both interviewer and interviewee, without losing sight of the cultural resources which they draw upon. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 85

2. 3 Focus groups LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • understand what focus groups are, how they are organised and what they are used for • recognise the different ways you can analyse focus group data • identify the advantages and disadvantages of content analysis, thematic analysis and constructionist analysis • recognise how focus group data may be used to contribute to our understanding of social problems. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 86

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KEY POINTS • Focus groups are a deceptively simple method which usually involves recruiting a small group of people who usually share a particular characteristic and encouraging an informal group discussion (or discussions) ‘focused’ around a particular topic or set of issues. • Quantitative content analysis involves counting instances of categories established by the researcher. • In qualitative thematic analysis, we seek to understand focus group participants’ meanings and illustrate our findings by extracts which depict certain themes. • Constructionist analysis of focus groups pays attention to how particular utterances are always positioned within an unfolding sequence of a focus group discussion. It reveals participants’ own understandings as displayed directly in their talk. • Content and thematic analyses appear to have more to say about substantive topics. However, on closer inspection, constructionist analysis can make a sophisticated and vital contribution to issues of substance. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 96

2. 4 Texts LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • understand how you can analyse blogs, e-mails, official documents, lonely • hearts advertisements and other texts • treat texts as representations of reality rather than as simply true or false • learn about comparative key-word analysis • appreciate the questions that ethnographers ask about texts • analyse how people use categorisation devices to make sense of texts. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 97

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KEY POINTS • Texts provide rich, naturally occurring, accessible data which have real effects in the world. • I considered three ways in which textual researchers have analysed how texts represent reality: comparative keyword analysis, ethnography and Membership Categorisation Device analysis • From a constructionist perspective, the role of textual researchers is not to criticise or to assess particular texts in terms of apparently ‘objective’ standards. It is rather to treat them as representations and to analyse their effects. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 112

2. 5 Naturally Occurring Talk LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • recognise the advantages of analysing naturally occurring talk • see why it is important to record talk and to transcribe it using standardised conventions • understand the basic principles of conversation analysis (CA) and discourse analysis (DA) • recognise the similarities, as well as the differences, between them and realise the contribution that both can make to understanding the world around us. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 113

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KEY POINTS • If we can study what people are actually doing in naturally occurring situations, why should we ever want to work with researcher-provoked data? • Tapes and transcripts have three clear advantages compared with other kinds of qualitative data: tapes are a public record; they can be replayed and transcripts improved; and they preserve sequences of talk. • CA attempts to describe people’s methods for producing orderly social interaction; it identifies these methods in the sequential organisation of talk-in-interaction. • DA studies discourse as texts and talk in social practices; it is particularly concerned with rhetorical or argumentative organisation. • The differences between CA and DA are becoming smaller. • Both CA and DA are not simply technical exercises; they have much to contribute to our understanding of how the world is organised including the social problems around us. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 122

2. 6 Visual Images LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • identify the different kinds of visual data • understand how analysis of visual images relates to a research strategy • recognise three different ways of collecting and analysing visual data. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 123

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KEY POINTS • The aim of researching visual images is to examine the ‘work’ that they do and to understand how they do that work. • Content analysis counts the occurrence in images of the pre-established categories. • Semiotics is the science of ‘signs’. It shows how signs relate to one another in order to create and exclude particular meanings. • Workplace studies inspect videos to show participants actually attend to visual elements in their environment, for example the bodily presence and gaze of others and/or the technologies through which people communicate. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 135

III. RESEARCH PRACTICE 3. 1 Credible qualitative research LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • assess whether qualitative research studies are credible • distinguish sound and unsound claims to credibility • recognise what it means to describe a study as ‘scientific’ • understand the nature and basis of ‘reliability’ • see how ‘validity’ may be achieved. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 136

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KEY POINTS • Social science is credible to the extent that it uses appropriate methods and is rigorous, critical and objective in its handling of data. • Qualitative research can be made credible if we make every effort to falsify our initial assumptions about our data. • High reliability in qualitative research is associated with what Seale (1999: 148) calls low-inference descriptors. • Appropriate methods for validating studies based largely or entirely upon qualitative data include: analytic induction, the constant comparative method, deviant-case analysis, comprehensive data treatment and the use of appropriate tabulations. • Generalising from case studies is less of a problem than is usually assumed. • The generalisability of a piece of qualitative research can be increased by purposive sampling guided by time and resources and theoretical sampling ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 150

3. 2 Writing your report LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • recognise that being scared about ‘writing up’ is very common • understand that the earlier you attempt to write, the easier your task will be • know what your teachers are looking for in your report and be able to tailor it accordingly • understand the organisational features that characterise a successful research report. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 151

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KEY POINTS • Most students find that the act of writing a report very threatening. • If you delay your writing, you are asking for trouble. • Writing is the prime way of developing focus for your research. • Good research reports are well structured and argued. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 161

IV. IMPLICATIONS 4. 1 The Relevance of Qualitative Research LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • distinguish and critically assess three different roles available to the researcher who enters the public realm • recognise the nature and needs of three different audiences for qualitative research • understand what research can contribute to each of these audiences. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 162

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KEY POINTS • Although no neutral or value-free position is possible in social science, this does not mean that ‘anything goes’. • Researchers can be strongly partisan but still rigorous in their data analysis. • The wider audience for qualitative research includes policy-makers, practitioners and the general public – each will have different expectations. • Qualitative researchers can attempt to satisfy these expectations by: participating in debates about public policy; providing new opportunities for people to make their own choices; and by offering a new perspective to practitioners. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 168

4. 2 The Potential of Qualitative Research: Eight Reminders LESSON OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • appreciate the underlying themes of this book • understand better how the constructionist model can be used in qualitative research. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 169

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KEY POINTS This chapter draws together the arguments present in the rest of my book. These arguments are offered not as self-evident truths but as one voice in a debate that I believe matters both to social scientists and to our audiences. To this end, I provided eight reminders: 1 Take advantage of naturally occurring data. 2 Avoid treating the actor’s point of view as an explanation. 3 Study the interrelationships between elements. 4 Attempt theoretically fertile research. 5 Address wider audiences. 6 Begin with ‘how’ questions; then ask ‘why? ’ 7 Study ‘hyphenated’ phenomena. 8 Treat qualitative research as different from journalism. ©Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data, Fourth Edition (SAGE, 2011) 171

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