Delving Deeper

1. Delving Deeper I really want to understand what’s going on here O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

2. The Desire to Delve Deeper • Delving deeper can involve exploring the interactions, processes, lived experiences, and belief systems that can be found within individuals, institutions, cultural groups, and the everyday O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

3. Working Towards Credibility • Methods that allow researchers to ‘delve deeper’, often involve parameters not likely to lend themselves to assessment by ‘positivist’ criteria, i.e.) • non-random samples • generating mainly qualitative data • natural settings • searching for holistic meaning • managing the inherent biases of the researcher • emergent design and inductive analysis • idiographic interpretation • and even the possibility of negotiated outcomes O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

4. Credibility Strategies • In studies that ‘delve deeper’, strategies for achieving credibility include: • working towards thoroughness • i.e.) saturation, crystallization, prolonged engagement, persistent observation, broad representation and peer review • seeking confirmation • i.e.) triangulation, member checking, and full explication of method O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

5. Exploring Bounded Systems • The exploration of bounded systems, or case studies, involves studying elements of the social through comprehensive description and analysis of a single situation or case • While not technically a methodology, the implication of studying cases does bring some unity to their investigation O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

6. Case Studies • Case studies concentrate research efforts on one site • While not necessarily representative, they can add to new knowledge through their ability to debunk theory, generate theory, and support existing theory O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

7. Conducting Case Studies • The process of doing case studies involves: • defining a case • selecting a case or cases for study • being open to a range of methodological approaches that can draw out meaning O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

8. Ethnography • Exploring a cultural group by: • discovering • understanding • describing and • interpreting a way of life from the point of view of its participants O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

9. Ethnography • Ethnographic studies offer: • thick descriptions of cultural groups • a methodological approach for exploring cultures, symbols, and norms • an acceptance of multiple realities • However, they often involve ‘immersion’, and all the problems thereof • Ethnographic researchers also need to manage their own subjectivities when understanding from the perspective of the researched O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

10. Conducting an Ethnographic Study • Ethnographic studies involve: • the selection of a cultural group • data collection through multiple methods that often demand prolonged engagement and persistent observation • analysis that demands a high level of reflexivity O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

11. Phenomenology • Exploring phenomena involves generating description of lived phenomena as they present themselves in direct experience O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

12. Phenomenology • Phenomenology offers a way to study phenomena, something often neglected in the social science research • However, the literature on phenomenology can be thick, divergent, and not ‘methods’ oriented O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

13. Conducting a Phenomenological Study • Studying a phenomenon involves gathering, making sense of, and writing rich phenomenological descriptions • Descriptions are drawn from individuals through a dialogic process, and are then synthesised to offer a range of distinct possibilities for the experience of a particular phenomenon O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

14. Ethnomethodology • Investigating the everyday involves exploring the methods that individuals use to make sense of their social world and accomplish their daily actions O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

15. Ethnomethodology • Ethnomethodology: • recognises the interpretive work of the individual • offers a method for exploring ‘how’ questions • allows comparisons of divergent cultural norms • and allows exploration of specific forms of interaction • However, it can be critiqued for not addressing ‘significant’ questions, and being too focused on verbal aspects of communication O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine

16. Conducting an Ethnomethodological Study • Doing ethnomethodology involves a search for the collaborative and constantly emerging nature of interaction or conversation • This can be done through: • breaching experiments • the exploration and deconstruction of building shared interpretations • and exploration of interpretative miscues O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Nine