Debating Structured vs. Unstructured Methods This Week,

Debating Structured vs. Unstructured Methods

This week, you have learned about the characteristics of structured and unstructured approaches in qualitative research. For this assignment, you will compare the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and discuss the merits of each.

To prepare for this assignment:

Consider what you have learned in your research courses about planning out the methodology for a research design. As you may recall, a structured or predetermined approach has been advocated in most, if not all, of your research textbooks up to this point.

Review Chapter 5 in Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach. In this chapter, Maxwell mentions the differences between a structured and an unstructured approach to qualitative methods. To what extent do you agree with the point-of-view that an unstructured approach to qualitative methods can be desirable? Under what circumstances might this be true?

With these thoughts in mind:

Write a response of 2 -- 3 paragraphs comprising your position in this debate of the merits of structured vs. unstructured methods for qualitative research. Be sure to include direct references to Maxwell and/or Miles & Huberman either to indicate agreement with or refutation of a stance.

Be sure to support your response with specific references to the reading(s) and/or video program(s), using APA format.

My Response:

The merits of structured vs. unstructured methods for qualitative research

One of the accusations leveled at qualitative research is that it is relatively unstructured and does not lend itself to rigorous approaches of analysis like quantitative research. However, some of the approaches to qualitative research such as the grounded theory approach and the case study approach have a fairly specific methodological component which parallels that of quantitative research in their systematization. Other qualitative researchers believe that the conventional qualitative paradigms are too structured and do not allow for enough of an inductive approach in chronicling experience. On one hand, structured research can be valuable because it allows for various aspects of the research to be more effectively compared with one another as well as compared with previous studies. On the other hand, unstructured research allows the specific aspects of the phenomenon to completely inform the approach at every juncture, without any need to conform to a specific theory (Maxwell 2005). Advocates of structured qualitative research believe that because the qualitative method does not entail a formal hypothesis and controls this is all the more reason to have some kind of a structure to the data collection while other researchers believe that it is impossible to fully reap the benefits of qualitative research without being completely unfettered by a structured methodology.