Today our topic of discussion is – Re visiting qualitative research
Re visiting qualitative research
According to Babbie (2004), qualitative field research is a form of study where a social phenomenon is observed in its natural habitat. Talking about strategies and practices of qualitative researchers, Denzin and Lincoln (2011) said, “Qualitative researchers deploy a
range of interconnected interpretive practices, hoping always to get a better understanding of the subject matter at hand” (p.4). It focuses primarily on ‘why’ of a phenomenon rather than ‘what’ of it, and depends on the experiences of human beings as the key meaning-making agents in everyday lives.
Accordingly, qualitative analysis includes the study of the use and compilation of a range of analytical materials, case studies, personal experience, introspection, life stories, interviews, objects and cultural texts and creations, as well as observational, historical, interactive and visual texts (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011).
A qualitative research to find meaning in the Bengali children’s language acquisition process focuses on language and communication inquiries. It can help to find the actual development in this field.
The researcher finds it logical that- if age relevant meaning acquisition process of children can be sorted out, children will benefit as they will get proper instrumental as well as developmental help from their surroundings and caregivers. Moreover, linguists working in this area will also have a better chance to explore the overall language development concern of young children.
Qualitative research is interdisciplinary in nature and its key assumption is that the knowledge is subjective and learning can only take place from the research participants from their own meanings of lives (Sutton & Austin 2015).
Scholars from anthropology, sociology, education etc. use it frequently. There are several various investigating methods and approaches that fall within the category of qualitative research, such as case study, politics and ethics, interviewing, participant observation, participatory investigation, visual methods and interpretive analysis (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). In every analysis, researchers follow a daily commitment to use more than one interpretive technique as each practice makes the e nvironment apparent in different way.
An appropriate way to realize what it means to take a qualitative approach to research is to differentiate it from the quantitative research. Some of the key differences are: (a) Qualitative research focuses on words and understandings, whereas quantitative
research primarily focuses on numbers and measurement.
(b) Qualitative research does not require the use of standardized measures to fit people’s experiences/ perspectives to predetermined response categories and assign numbers to them. Quantitative methods are constrained this way.
(c) Qualitative research values openness and flexibility, whereas quantitative research values control.
(d) The researcher is the key instrument tin qualitative -research for the collection and interpretation of data, but quantitative researchers prefer to maintain an objective and detached stance in data collection.
(e) Qualitative- research generally collects data from a small sample that results in a Rich understanding (less generalizability). On the other hand, quantitative research tends to collect data from a large sample and come up with broad generalizable findings (known to be parsimonious).
It is notable that both the methods have their strengths and weaknesses and may perform as alternatives, however, not mutually exclusive research strategies (Dornyei, 2007).
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