Notes from Linda

Qualitative Research Methods

EDER 603.16

Notes on Case #6

Case Study

-most social research is positivist- its actual research practices treat the phenomenon of interest as a ‘thing’, separate and apart from the observer

-ethnographic studies (viewed as interpretive) are positivist when they use informants, cultural variables and cultural context as a resource to explain phenomena

Some qualitative studies show that they understand reflecting on social phenomena and show this by their descriptions of the interaction of the phenomena and why they exist

-this case study is looking for whether or not the ‘reflexivity’ in the concepts and methods of the qualitative research is present or not

The Narrative (from the case study): demonstrates that the student must be aware what culture means, the ideas around it, and school performance (how is this defined?) What are the realities of these, do they actually exist? Is there even a relationship between them?

-shows how assumptions can enter into research and so must open up these assumptions and think about them

Themes: “seeing the world in patterns in order to make sense of it; we wouldn’t be able to deal with the daily onslaught of people and objects if we couldn’t predict a lot about them and feel that we know who and what they are” p.5 of case study

“Generalizations, while capturing similarities, obscure differences.” p. 5

- in reference to gender…”pretending that women and men are the same hurts women, because the ways they are treated are based on the norms for men. It also hurts men who, with good intentions, speak to women as they would to men, and are nonplussed when their words don’t work as they expected, or even spark resentment and anger.” P.5)

“Looking for truth in all the wrong places” – paper examining how we may have been misguided in research

the problem: a positivistic paradigm? The most evident problem is that it mistakes social phenomena for things in the world with an existence independent and apart from people’s reflexive determination of those things. It treats culture as a ‘thing’ in the scientific sense of the word (p. 7)

-in this study, assumptions are made (see p. 8)…Brazilian Indians do not share information without sensing a practical and personal purpose to the other’s knowing it…however, within the research, the reader is not told where this rule comes from

-this study is seen to view culture as a ‘thing’

-problem with research reviewed- when looking at ‘culture’ see it as an ‘object’ in people’s collective subconscious which controls their behaviour which is a problem because: “I think this is a problem because no matter where we look for this thing called culture we will only find people saying and doing things with each other. And that is not the solution to the problem of culture which these researchers hope to find” p. 10

see 5 key points of how the research can be characterized p. 10

Themes emerging from the reading: assumptions (i.e. seeing the world in patterns, making generalizations), social phenomena as a ‘thing’ –separate from the observer

The Solution: -two senses of culture found in the studies examined…commonsense one and a social scientific one- author feels they are both the SAME and both WRONG

Wrong & Same: “they misconstrue the way culture exists and are the same because they explain people’s behaviour by using the same commonsense observations that tell us that people of different cultures are different and that when we know about these differences we can explain people’s thought and action for all practical purposes…they use what everyone knows about cultural identify to justify their findings” p. 10

Quote from Harvey Sacks on Culture (p. 11)

“A culture is an apparatus for generating recognizable actions; if the same procedures are used for generating as for detecting, that is perhaps as simple a solution to the problem of recognizability as is formulatable”

-culture is not a resource for explaining behaviour…culture exists as and in the everyday practices of members doing the mundane work of living in society with others showing their membership through what they say and do p. 11

-Sacks’ analysis explains that are way of understanding a description of people and relationships depends on our knowledge…of membership, categorization- but this knowledge depends on encounters we have had with others…

-in this approach culture is not a thing available t analysts, but is located in members’ actions and descriptions of the world and their ways of holding each other accountable for the adequacy of those actions and descriptions (p. 12)

-need to ask “what counts as culture” p. 12

-see 7 principles on p. 12 to describe the ‘benefits’ of viewing culture in this way

Last Section of case study: p. 15 supports the notion that “social activities are observable; you can see them all around you, and you can write them down…If you think you can see it, that means we can build an observational study, and we can build a natural study”

Pose some questions for our presentation:

Who are we as citizens in this world and how do we interpret qualitative research?

Introductions: each group member will share our interpretations/beliefs about qualitative research….meaning making of this…

-connecting themes and threads…need to identify them….culture, assumptions, gender, identity, reflexive

• words have power, language has power (dialogue)
• seeking the truth … What is truth?
• Dissonance/discourse/tension; knowing how to live with uncertainty
• What is good quality work? P.380
• You don’t have to be concerned with the philosophical foundation
• Themes: assumptions, reflexivity, dissonance
• Bring out the voices of silence
• Silent conversation (pose Qs around the room and ask Ss to comment on each-