Blog #6

 Blog #6 Maxwell

"In many qualitative studies, the real interest

is in how participants make sense of what has happened, and how this perspective

informs their actions, rather than determining precisely what took place."(Maxwell, p.231)

This quote expresses the direction I want to take in my Capstone project.    

IMPORTANT POINTS

I distinguish four main components of qualitative methods:

1. The research relationship that you establish with those you study

2. Sampling: what times, settings, or individuals you select to observe or inter-

view, and what other sources of information you decide to use

3. Data collection: how you gather the information you will use

4. Data analysis: what you do with this information to make sense of it

Thus, it is important that you think about the kinds of relationships you want to

have with the people whom you study, and what you need to do to establish such

relationships. I see these as design decisions, not simply as external factors that may

affect your design. Although they are not completely under your control and

cannot be defined precisely in advance, they are still matters that require systematic

planning and reflection if your design is to be as coherent as possible.

It is useful to think of all these components as involving design decisions—key

issues that you should consider in planning your study and that you should rethink

as you are engaged in it.   (Maxwell, p.234)