Qualitative Research Genres
The article I read introduces various approaches to conducting qualitative research, which seem to vary by expert, but from the author's perspective can largely be characterized under three genres: 1) society and culture; 2) individual lived experiences; and 3) language and communication. The purpose of the article is to describe the various research approaches (such as ethnography, phenomenology, sociolinguistic, narrative analysis, etc.) , and the emergence of new strands within each approach. The author explains why researchers use qualitative researcher, claiming "(qualitative) researchers value and seek to discover participants perspectives on their world and view inquiry as a process between researchers and participants."
What I especially found interesting about this article is how approaches evolved over time (referred to in the article as emerging strands). It seems that in some cases, approaches evolved because of changes in society - for example, with the advancement of technology and the world wide web, internet/ virtual ethnography emerged from ethnography (which traditionally focused on more physical observations). In other cases, approaches evolved because they were deemed short-sighted, such as sociolinguistic approaches that originally analyzed text and talk more literally to including focus on participants (i.e. who they are and who is included in the research and who is excluded). The evolution of approaches reaffirms that approaches to research is a fluid process, and will change over time. For example, it seems from the article that even today there are debates around internet/ virtual ethnography, where critics believe the approach lacks recognition of different social cues (such as age, race, social status, sex, facial expressions, etc.) However, this debate to me seems essential to continue to evolve how we approach research.
A question that I have is when are new research approaches considered acceptable by the academic community? What characteristics are required for a research approach to be acceptable?
What I especially found interesting about this article is how approaches evolved over time (referred to in the article as emerging strands). It seems that in some cases, approaches evolved because of changes in society - for example, with the advancement of technology and the world wide web, internet/ virtual ethnography emerged from ethnography (which traditionally focused on more physical observations). In other cases, approaches evolved because they were deemed short-sighted, such as sociolinguistic approaches that originally analyzed text and talk more literally to including focus on participants (i.e. who they are and who is included in the research and who is excluded). The evolution of approaches reaffirms that approaches to research is a fluid process, and will change over time. For example, it seems from the article that even today there are debates around internet/ virtual ethnography, where critics believe the approach lacks recognition of different social cues (such as age, race, social status, sex, facial expressions, etc.) However, this debate to me seems essential to continue to evolve how we approach research.
A question that I have is when are new research approaches considered acceptable by the academic community? What characteristics are required for a research approach to be acceptable?
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