Customer\'s Source] States That There Are Various

¶ … customer's source] states that there are various types of qualitative approaches to research including the education filed approaches which includes the ecological psychology approach, the holistic ethnography approach, the cognitive anthropology approach, the ethnography of communication approach and symbolic interactionism. In the field of nursing, qualitative approaches to research are inclusive of phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and historical research. Also used in the field of education are anthropological perspectives, sociological perspectives, biological perspectives, case studies, personal accounts, cognitive studies and historical inquiries. In the field of sociology and nursing the grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology, life histories, and conversational analysis are used. In the field of nursing used are phenomenology, ethnography, ethnoscience, and grounded theory. (Ibid, nd, p.7)

Research design that is qualitative is reported to begin with "philosophical assumptions that the inquirers make in deciding to undertake a qualitative study." (Ibid, nd, p.7) Researchers are reported to "bring their own worldviews, paradigms, or sets of beliefs to the research project, and these inform the conduct and the writing of the qualitative study." (Ibid, nd, p.7) The researchers in qualitative research utilize interpretive as well as theoretical frameworks in developing the study. (Ibid, nd paraphrased)

It is reported that five philosophical assumptions lead to an individual's choice of qualitative research including those of; (1) ontology; (2) epistemology; (3) axiology; (4) rhetorical; and (5) methodological. (Ibid, nd, p.15) The qualitative researcher is reported to choose a "stance on each of thee assumptions" and as such the choice the researcher makes has implications that are practical in nature for the design and conduction of the research study. The paradigms of the research are such that evolve over time as the research progresses. There are reported to be four paradigms that are brought to qualitative research study including those of: (1) postpositivism; (2) constructivism; (3) advocacy/participatory; and (4) pragmatism. (Ibid, nd, p.15) Each of these are representative of paradigms that are different in stating claims concerning knowledge and each of these have characteristics that distinguish them from one another. (Ibid, nd, paraphrased)

There are five approaches to qualitative inquiry and one of these is narrative research, which comes in many forms and makes use of various practices in analysis and as well "is rooted in different social and humanities disciplines." 9 p.53) Narrative is a term that may be relative to any text or discourse and may even be text that is utilized within the qualitative research inquiry. When research is focused on stories told by individuals this can also be considered a narrative. Narrative is noted by Pinnegar and Daynes (2006) to be the phenomenon of study as well as a method of study.

The biographic study is also a form of narrative involving the researcher recording and writing the experiences of another individual's life. Included are autobiographies, life histories, and oral histories. Narrative research is conducted through determination of the research problem or question, selection of the individuals with stories to relate, collection of information about the stories and their contexts, and analysis of the stories and a recantation of the stories into a sense-making framework. (Ibid, nd, paraphrased)

Phenomenological research is a study that seeks meaning for several individuals in terms of their experiences with a concept or phenomenon. The phenomenologist emphasizes what the individuals in the study have in common in their experience of the phenomenon. There are two approaches to phenomenology including: (1) hermeneutic phenomenology; and (2) empirical, transcendental, or psychological phenomenology. (Ibid, nd, p.59) Phenomenological research includes the determination of the research problem and its appropriateness for phenomenological research, the phenomenon of interest to study, acknowledgement, and specification of the broad philosophical assumptions, collection of data, two broad and general questions posed by the participants, and analysis of the data. (Ibid, nd, p.61)

Grounded theory research has two approaches; (1) systematical procedures; and (2) constructivist approach. (Ibid, nd, p.64) This type of research involves collection and analysis of observations and opens coding of the data to note major categories of information. The constructivist writing approach is such that is purely interpretive in nature.