Denzin & Lincoln Introduction to Qualitative Research

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2003). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Strategies of qualitative inquiry (2nd Ed.) (pp. 1 - 45). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Definitional Issues

• Historical periods in qualitative research:
  • Traditional 1900 - 1950
  • Modernist/Golden Age 1950 - 1970
  • Blurred Genres 1970 - 1986
  • Crisis of Representation 1986 - 1990 
  • Postmodern/Period of Experimental and New Ethnographies 1990 - 1995
  • Postexperimental Inquiry 1995 - 2000
  • Future 2000 - Present

• The Qualitative Researcher as Bricoleur and Quilt Maker
  • "Triangulation is the display of multiple, refracted realities simultaneously (p. 8)."
  • "The interpretive bricoleur understands that research is an interactive process shaped by his or her personal history, biography, gender, social class, race, and ethnicity, and by those of the people in the setting (p. 9)."
  • "The product of the interpretive bricoleur's labor is a complex, quilt-like bricolage, a reflexive collage or montage - a set of fluid, interconnected images and representations (p. 9)."

• Qualitative Research as a Site of Multiple Interpretive Practices
• Resistances to Qualitative Studies
  • "To summarize: Qualitative research is many things to many people. Its essence is twofold: a commitment to some version of the naturalistic, interpretive approach to its subject matter and an ongoing critique of the politics and methods of postpositivism (p. 13)."

• Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research
  • "Qualitative researchers stress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry (p. 13)."
  • Research Styles: Doing the Same Things Differently?
    • Research is about capturing reality; qualitative research and quantitative research are different ways to do so.
    • Acceptance of Postmodern Sensibilities
    • Capturing the Individual's Point of View
    • Examining the Constraints of Everyday Life
      • ""Qualitative researchers, on the other hand, are committed to an emic, idiographic, case-based position, which directs their attention to the specifics of particular cases (p. 16)."

• Securing Rich Descriptions

• Tensions Within Qualitative Research

The History of Qualitative Research

The Seven Moments of Qualitative Research

• The Traditional Period
• Modernist Phase
• Blurred Genres
• Crisis of Representation
• A Triple Crisis
  • (MY THOUGHTS - Does this debate occur quantitative research because surely quantitative research has drawbacks/flaws or are those flaws simply acknowledged and accepted because the data are numbers?)

• Reading History

Qualitative Research as Process

The Other as Research Subject

• Phase 1: The Researcher
• Phase 2: Interpretive Paradigms
  • "All research is interpretive; it is guided by a set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied (p. 33)."
  • (MY THOUGHTS - WHERE I SITUATE MYSELF PRESENTLY): "The constructivist paradigm assumes a relativist ontology (there are multiple realities), a subjectivist epistemology (knower and respondent cocreate understandings), and a naturalistic (in the natural world) set of methodological procedures (p. 35)."

• Phase 3: Strategies of Inquiry and Interpretive Paradigms
  • "A research design describes a flexible set of guidelines that connect theoretical paradigms first to strategies of inquiry and second to methods for collecting empirical material (p. 36)."

• Phase 4: Methods of Collecting and Analyzing Empirical Materials
• Phase 5: The Art and Politics of Interpretation and Evaluation
  • Analysis is artistic and political.

Bridging the Historical Moments: What Comes Next?