Qualitative Research Methods Peer-graded Assignment Solutions

Get Qualitative Research Methods Peer-graded Assignment Solutions

In this course you will be introduced to the basic ideas behind the qualitative research in social science. You will learn about data collection, description, analysis and interpretation in qualitative research. Qualitative research often involves an iterative process. We will focus on the ingredients required for this process: data collection and analysis.

You won’t learn how to use qualitative methods by just watching video’s, so we put much stress on collecting data through observation and interviewing and on analysing and interpreting the collected data in other assignments.

Obviously, the most important concepts in qualitative research will be discussed, just as we will discuss quality criteria, good practices, ethics, writing some methods of analysis, and mixing methods. We hope to take away some prejudice, and enthuse many students for qualitative research.

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Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment A: Is Silverman right? Instruction

In Lesson 2 on How to Never Emerge from the Library Again? I explained what David Silverman (2006) argues on the use of abstract philosophical concepts in qualitative research. His claim is that this ‘philosophical’ work is unnecessary with the empirical task at hand.

The question we try to answer for this assignment is: “Is David Silverman right with his claim that in many social scientific qualitative research articles, authors unnecessarily adhere to philosophical positions?”

What do you think?

Find one social-scientific article (published in a scientific journal) using a qualitative methodology for empirical research.

a) Give a short (200 words maximum) summary of the article (do not copy and paste the abstract). In the summary you write about the topic, the data-collection methods used and the analytical approach.

b) Which of the following philosophical concepts do the authors use in the article? How do they use it?

• Ontology
• Epistemology
• Hermeneutics
• Phenomenology
• Pragmatism
• None of these?

c) Write a short argumentation (max 200 words) why the author(s) do or do not need these philosophical concepts.

The assignment should take about 3 hours to complete. For suggestions on articles and websites to find articles, please see:

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment A: Is Silverman right? Solution

PROMPT

Give the reference to the article you’ve chosen. Use a citation style (reference format)
commonly used in your field, such as APA or Harvard.
Marwell, N. P. (2004). Privatizing the welfare state: Nonprofit community-based organizations as
political actors. American sociological review, 69(2), 265-291

PROMPT

Give a short (200 words maximum) summary of the article (do not copy and paste the
abstract). In the summary you write about the topic, the data-collection methods used and the
analytical approach.
The researcher examines supportive service provision through Community Based Organization
(CBOs). In USA privatization and devolution policies have led to bestow private non-profit
organizations as the primary providers of social services to local poor residents. The researcher
analyzed how CBOs function led to the causation of Service provision, community building and
electoral politics.

The researcher analyze the basic function of community based organizations
through models where the organizations functioned to bind local residents to the organization and
produce reliable voting constituencies for local elected officials. The researcher analyzed this
process on the ground through research method of ethnographic research.

She collected the data
through a long term field work where she worked as participant observer and also taken interviews.
Her participant observation enabled her to analyze this situation where the higher officials further
utilize such electoral constituencies to steer government resources and favor certain COBs.

It is through the creation of triadic relations among CBOs, high government officials and the local
residents that influence local resident abilities to avail such services.

PROMPT

Which of the following philosophical concepts do the authors use in the article? How do they
use it?

• Ontology
• Epistemology
• Hermeneutics
• Phenomenology
• Pragmatism
• None of these concepts?

The researcher did not explicitly used any of these concept in her paper but her understanding of
research problem is based on the knowledge of ontological, Hermeneutics, phenomenological and
Pragmatism concepts. Without understanding such concepts or background training in these
concepts she would not be able to understand the research problem.

PROMPT

Write a short argumentation (max 200 words) why the author(s) do or do not need these
philosophical concepts.

Philosophy is essential for social scientists. In this paper it is the researcher philosophical
understanding (knowledge of ontology, epistemology, hermeneutic, Phenomenology and
pragmatism) that enable her to look on the ground and analyze that what are multiple realities out
there behind the function of Community Based Organization (CBOs) and how such realities can be
grasped.

Without philosophical knowledge she would not be able to explore the third causation
factors by CBOs (electoral politics) where this factor is missing in the previous sociological theories.
She used phenomenological approach in the sense that she used qualitative research methods to
grasp the hidden reality and the structure beneath CBOs functions. In participant observation the
researcher grasp the meaning consciously by using experience and senses.

The researcher would not be able for understanding social complications if she did not have the background knowledge and skills in philosophy of science. She would not be able to grasp meaning from the CBOS activities and the hidden meaning from the interaction activities between CBOs and the recipients of both reciprocal and non-reciprocal activities. In qualitative research the use of the philosophy of science and philosophical concept especially phenomenological methods is very important for exploring social reality.

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment B: Observing on waiting around the world: Privatising Public Space Instruction

Assignment

Find and describe a place where people are waiting (e.g. in queues at stores, at public transport stations etc.) Observe in this place for at least 15 minutes.

Describe in detail three of the actors and their activities at this place (focusing on waiting behaviour). For assignment D you will be asked to present the fragments on the three actors separately, so it would be smart to consider this while writing your description. Try to use less than 1500 words, but more than 500 words.

Do not come up with new names of waiting styles yet. We will do that in assignment D. Try to resist using more abstract concepts, such as Loflands principles. Just describe in detail what you see.

Please consider ethical issues, such as privacy (make people unidentifiable, so do not publish names and other information known).

Save the description on your own device for later use in assignment D (you will be asked to paste the description in this assignment).

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment B: Observing on waiting around the world: Privatising Public Space Solution

PROMPT

Find and describe a place where people are waiting (e.g. in queues at stores, at public
transport stations etc.) Observe in this place for at least 15 minutes.
Describe in detail three of the actors and their activities at this place (focusing on waiting
behaviour). Try to use less than 1500 words, but more than 500 words.
Do not come up with new names of waiting styles yet. Try to resist using more abstract concepts,
such as Loflands principles. Just describe in detail what you see.
Please consider ethical issues, such as privacy (make people unidentifiable, so do not publish
names and other information known).

Save the description on your own device for later use in assignment D (you will be asked to paste
the description in this assignment).
Atmosphere is the essential determinant of agricultural productivity. Issues over the potential
impacts of long term climatic change on agriculture has influenced a considerable group of research
over the previous decade. Weather and Soil data predicting technique plays vital role in
meteorology. Raining and increased temperature are randomly affects agriculture.

The decision support for agriculture is still having several problems, because every area soil, climate and other factors are different. Initially, An improved soil prediction data model is used to estimate the
parameters at different locations. The model involves multiple regression equation, chi-square test
and Kmeans clustering techniques. ISPDM model predicts accurate information about soil data.
Improved K-means clustering model were developed to forecast weather data based on
meteorological analysis in Coimbatore region In order to analyze the weather and soil data,
Bioinspired K-Nearest Neighbor classification algorithm (BKNA) is developed and compared with
existing FP Growth techniques. The result obtained from the BKNA model showed that, the BKNA
used to predict accurate soil and weather analysis in different conditions to develop agriculture in the
region.

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment C Interviewing about Happiness around the world Instruction

Feeling happy is a universal emotion. At the same time, what it means to be happy might be less universal. Besides, what we call happiness in the English language is probably hard to translate to other languages. So what does happiness mean around the world?

Scholars differ also on what they define as happiness. Some distinguish objective from subjective measures of happiness, or distinguish life satisfaction from the emotion. In the UN World Happiness Report 2015 the Cantrill Ladder is used in order to a single question to answer the question how people “evaluate the quality of their current lives on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 represents the worst possible life for them, and 10 the best” (Helliwell, Wang & Huang, 2015: 13). Now is this happiness? Or should it be enhanced with experiences or descriptions of emotions that people felt yesterday? Scholars doing surveys pose these questions, but probably we all have ideas about what happiness means. And so do your acquaintances.

Therefore we think that it would be interesting to gather interview material with which we can say something about the varieties of meanings of happiness people share in interviews.  

The interview is to be set up by yourself, with an acquaintance, but not someone you are too familiar with (in order to keep some distance). 

Prepare an interview guide in your own language with several topics (think about rapport and topic/question order). Make sure your topic guide contains the following questions in this order: 

1. What makes you happy? 
This is an introductory question to the topic of happiness. Its goal is to make the interviewee at ease, make him or her talk, and to find “red lights” (the unsual words, strong intonations and interesting parts of the interviewees talk (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2015: 191)).
2. What does the word happiness mean to you? (If you would have to define happiness in your own words, how would you define it?) 
The objective of this question is to find how the interviewee talks about happiness.
3. Could you tell me about the last time you experienced happiness (felt/were happy)? 
Use the verb and noun the interviewee uses in order to follow his or her own description. The goal of this question is to get the interviewee to tell you a story.

Record the interview using an audio device in order to be able to transcribe it.

Transcribe the audio recording. Transcribing an interview of 30 minutes usually takes up three hours, so keep in mind that this is a time consuming task. However transcribing is indispensable for analysis (see for instance Bird, 2005).

Write a reflection after the transcription in which you evaluate your interview technique (max 500 words). 

Please consider ethical issues, such as privacy (do not publish names, and make people unidentifiable).

a) How did the interview go? 
Reflect on your interviewer behaviour in terms of both person oriented and task oriented interview behaviour.

b) Discuss two fragments with examples on how you used good interviewing behaviour.

c) Discuss three fragments with examples in which you made mistakes, for instance:

1. You could have probed better
2. You were too directive
3. You were too suggestive
4. You were missing parts of the answers
5. You were not keen enough on rapport
6. You were too keen on rapport

d) What vision of the interview did you have? Explain shortly.

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment C Interviewing about Happiness around the world Solution

PROMPT

What is most strange or remarkable that you have observed?

Agriculture field is one of the back-bone of Indian economy. The basic need of the human being and
animals is fulfilled by the agriculture sector. The productivity of agriculture depends on geographical
conditions and season. Yield of the agriculture, gives one of the measurable parameters that
contribute towards the real income of the country. Analysis of huge agriculture database is done

through data mining techniques. The data mining algorithms are used to extract information from the
dataset. The soils of Coimbatore Region are predominantly of red loamy and black types. It is
estimated that 82 percent of the area is of red soil and 18 percent of the area is a black soil. Weather
directly depends upon the air molecules which can absorb high frequency sunrays. The air
molecules data is collected by the system periodically after every one hour.

The Weka tool uses these raw data to bound large information to find the “Structural weather Database”. Then the collected weather dataset are classified main database into four regions that are grouped according to the direction of wind flow over the year. Data mining involves the use of erudite data analysis tools to discover previously unidentified, suitable patterns and relationships in large data sets. Data mining tools can include statistical models, machine learning methods such as neural networks or decision trees, and mathematical algorithms. However, the proposed soil and weather data analysis model predicts exact results than other model; also the proposed models are compared with exiting techniques in this research.

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment D: Analysis of Privatising Public Space around the world Instruction

In assignment B you observed waiting behaviour at a public place. You wrote a description of the place, of three social actors, and their activities. You’ve received feedback and you gave feedback. But you did not do much interpretation.

The objective of this assignment is to learn how to code and interpret in practice. We are not doing this using dedicated software for qualitative analysis, but instead we’ll use Coursera’s peer review tool. You’ll have to interpret and code 5 assignments of your peers using the peer review tool. The actual grading bit is rather small, and one can only fail the assignment if he or she does not meet the formal and ethical standards. The learning lies in the reviewing, rather than in the assignment.

In this assignment we are going to use the descriptions from assignment B in a slightly reworked way. You’ll be asked to reconsider your earlier description, based on the feedback you’ve received in the review process of assignment B. You will have to submit the complete description in the first part of the assignment. You will also be asked to interpret that description in terms of Symbolic Transformation. You will have to copy and paste the three fragments on each of the three actors in the latter parts of the assignment, and then also interpret and code them.

Your complete description and these three fragments on the three different actors will be interpreted and coded your peers in the review part.

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment D: Analysis of Privatising Public Space around the world Solution

PROMPT

How did the interview go? Reflect on your interviewer behaviour in terms of both
person oriented and task oriented interview behaviour.
The interview went well. Initially my interviewee was only providing short answer, but as the
interview went on he became more comfortable and started to elaborate a little more in his
responses. In order to do this I tried to build rapport with my interviewee by listening and asking
questions to prompt them to elaborate further. I tried to make them as comfortable as possible while
also using that to gain as much insight as I can into their understanding of happiness .

PROMPT
Discuss two fragments with examples on how you used good interviewing
behaviour.
I used good interviewing behaviour when I commented on his replies to build a rapport. When he
was talking about things that made him happy, I commented that wow yes that does sound like fun
which made him more comfortable to elaborate a little more on why he found what he did enjoyable.
I also used good interviewing behaviour by not being to suggestive with my questions. I would try to

be native on the answers in order to have the most honest genuine answer from my interviewee. An
example of this is when he answered the second question on what the word happiness means to
him and he answered very scientifically. I wasn’t really looking for a scientific answer but rather if the
word has any special meaning to him so in response I asked him about the importance of happiness
in his life instead of asking if he believes it is important or strives to be happy.

PROMPT

Discuss three fragments with examples in which you made mistakes, for
instance:

 You could have probed better
 You were too directive
 Your questions were suggestive
 You were missing parts of the answers
 You were not keen enough on rapport
 You were too keen on rapport

Argue why you see this as a mistake and how you could have done better.
I was a little too keen on rapport at times. As it was difficult to get my interviewee to speak up more, I
tried to keep the conversation going and sometimes it would go off onto a slight tangent. There was
one point where we were discussing what makes my interviewee happy and he mentioned cooking
because he enjoyed learning and I probed further to ask if there was anything particular in learning
about looking or did he find joy in all kinds of learning and then we ended up talking about learning
for a bit longer than I would have killed as it doesn’t directly relate to the theme of happiness.

I would miss parts of answers by moving on to the next topic too quickly and also could have probed better. At the start of the interview I asked what made my interviewee happy and he replied playing games with his friends. And I was satisfied with that answer and moved on to the next question too quickly when I could have probed about how that made him feel or what about it made him happy to more easily move on to the next question of happiness. I later went back to the first question after he was more comfortable and he gave a more thought out answer though I think I initially could have
phrased it better.

Finally, I could have used better question order. I would jump around topics or go
back to previous questions because I realized I didn’t receive enough elaboration. For example, after
he answered the last question about the last time he experienced happiness he mentioned other
things that made him happy so I jumped back to the first question.

PROMPT

What vision of the interview did you have? Write a short argumentation (max 200 words)
on what vision you have used on the interview.
My vision for the interview was to have an understanding of what happiness meant to my
interviewee and be able to compare it to my own sense of happiness. My vision was to see how
someone else values happiness in their life, how often they take note of it, and what they need to
feel happy. I feel that different people in different environments have different ideas on what
they need in order to be happy and I wanted to understand why they felt they may need those
things if they be physical things, experiences, or events.

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment E: Writing about Happiness around the world instruction

In many forms of analysis, such as Framework analysis and Narrative analysis, summarising is an important analytical and interpretative task. In summarising, selections are based on many grounds, such as relevance, salience, and theoretical and personal focus. These selections thus require interpretation, description, and accounting for your work. In this assignment you will have to write a short summary, in which you focus on the meanings given to Happiness in the interview.

Before writing the summary, consider ethical issues, such as privacy (do not publish names, and make people unidentifiable).

a. Summarise the part of the interview on the meaning of happiness (maximum 500 words). Use some direct quotes or translations, in order to give a lively description. A great accessible resource for writing summaries of interviews is the work by Irving Seidman (2013) on Interview profiles.

b. While summarising, think and make notes about the analytic task you do. Answer at least two of the following questions after you’ve written the summary in a short reflection (maximum 500 words).

a. How did you go about? Were you coding and then summarising, based on the codes? Or were you writing a narrative? What writing method did you use?

b. Are you describing the interaction or are you describing the ideas of the interviewee, or a combination of both?

c. Did you ran into issues of representation, did you feel you could or could not properly represent the interview? If so, how did you solve this?

d. Did you write a realist, confessional or an impressionist tale? Please explain shortly.

Peer-graded Assignment: Assignment E: Writing about Happiness around the world Solution

PROMPT
Reconsider the description you wrote for assignment B, based on the feedback you’ve
received in the review. (So probably you will add some detail, or make some parts more
clear.) If the description was already outstanding, then just copy and paste. Please submit
the complete description below.
Again, please consider ethical issues, such as privacy (make people unidentifiable, so do not
publish names and other information known).
Paste the description here:
In a supermarket queue The first couple I spot is clearly having an argument. They try to keep their
voices low but the clear annoyance on one of their faces is obvious. One carries the shopping in a
basket, apples, chicken fillets, biscuits and razors. A random assortment of items. They attempt to
swing the basket around and try to disarm the situation by trying to make the other laugh, but it is
ineffective. They sigh outwardly as the other one continues to scold the other. The ‘scolder’,
attempts to keep their tone low but the overactive hand movements give them away. As they unload
the shopping with downward force, the other pulls out their phone to try and distract from the
situation and hope that when they look up all will be well again in their relationship. The other glares
as they unload the shopping basket. It is a very private moment in a very public place. The phone is
put back in the pocket and the wallet comes out of the other, possibly a show of good faith of their
part, to pay for the shopping, which seems to please the other. After they pay, the pack their
shopping at the back of the store and I notice a tender moment between them where they hug and
seem to forget about everything. The mood lifts between them and they exit the store hand in hand.
The next person is alone with earphones in. They survey the queues at each till, trying to ascertain
which queue will be the quickest. They shuffle from foot to foot as they try to decide, but in the end,

they stay where they are. They pull items out of the shopping basket and read the ingredients on the
packaging, a way to pass time in a seemingly endless queue of people. After a thorough reading of
their shopping the phone comes out and a new song is selected. They tap their foot and attempt not
to dance in the supermarket queue, that would make them a social pariah right there on the Lidl
checkout. They look around trying to focus on something to distract their attention while they wait.
They go into a world of their own as when there called upon, they snap back to reality and quickly
skip forward to the cashier, taking out one earphone so as not to appear rude. They pick up and put
down two or three items while there shopping is scanned and then carefully count their coins before
handing it over reluctantly to the cashier. They frantically put the shopping in the bags, thank the
cashier and leave the store. The final person I observe is alone just with a few items in their hands.
Quite a young person who seems to be unfamiliar with this shopping process and is like a deer in
headlights. Perhaps they are new to the city? They pull out there shopping list twice, three times to
make doubly sure they grabbed all the supplies they needed. Then the phone comes out as they try
to distract from the real world and try to connect with the online world, aimlessly scrolling through
Instagram and Facebook. As they move up the queue, they seem to get more nervous, more fidgety
as their time ‘on the stage’ draws nearer. As they unload the shopping onto the belt, they seem to try
to add up the cost on their hands and have the money ready as soon as requested. They are
informed of the cost and thrust the money into the cashier’s hands with a half-smile. They request a
bag, pack their belongings and leave the store

PROMPT
In assignment B you’ve already described three actors. In order to have your peers coding
them, you will have to copy them from the description and paste them below.
Select the fragment describing the first actor and paste the fragment here:
The first couple I spot is clearly having an argument. They try to keep their voices low but the clear
annoyance on one of their faces is obvious. One carries the shopping in a basket, apples, chicken
fillets, biscuits and razors. A random assortment of items. They attempt to swing the basket around
and try to disarm the situation by trying to make the other laugh, but it is ineffective. They sigh
outwardly as the other one continues to scold the other. The ‘scolder’, attempts to keep their tone
low but the overactive hand movements give them away. As they unload the shopping with
downward force, the other pulls out their phone to try and distract from the situation and hope that
when they look up all will be well again in their relationship. The other glares as they unload the
shopping basket. It is a very private moment in a very public place. The phone is put back in the
pocket and the wallet comes out of the other, possibly a show of good faith of their part, to pay for
the shopping, which seems to please the other. After they pay, the pack their shopping at the back of

the store and I notice a tender moment between them where they hug and seem to forget about
everything. The mood lifts between them and they exit the store hand in hand.

PROMPT
Select the fragment describing the second actor and paste the fragment here:
The next person is alone with earphones in. They survey the queues at each till, trying to ascertain
which queue will be the quickest. They shuffle from foot to foot as they try to decide, but in the end,
they stay where they are. They pull items out of the shopping basket and read the ingredients on the
packaging, a way to pass time in a seemingly endless queue of people. After a thorough reading of
their shopping the phone comes out and a new song is selected. They tap their foot and attempt not
to dance in the supermarket queue, that would make them a social pariah right there on the Lidl
checkout. They look around trying to focus on something to distract their attention while they wait.
They go into a world of their own as when there called upon, they snap back to reality and quickly
skip forward to the cashier, taking out one earphone so as not to appear rude. They pick up and put
down two or three items while there shopping is scanned and then carefully count their coins before
handing it over reluctantly to the cashier. They frantically put the shopping in the bags, thank the
cashier and leave the store.

PROMPT
Select the fragment describing the third actor and paste the fragment here:
The final person I observe is alone just with a few items in their hands. Quite a young person who
seems to be unfamiliar with this shopping process and is like a deer in headlights. Perhaps they are
new to the city? They pull out there shopping list twice, three times to make doubly sure they
grabbed all the supplies they needed. Then the phone comes out as they try to distract from the real
world and try to connect with the online world, aimlessly scrolling through Instagram and Facebook.
As they move up the queue, they seem to get more nervous, more fidgety as their time ‘on the stage’
draws nearer. As they unload the shopping onto the belt, they seem to try to add up the cost on their
hands and have the money ready as soon as requested. They are informed of the cost and thrust

the money into the cashier’s hands with a half-smile. They request a bag, pack their belongings and
leave the store.

PROMPT
Step 1. Interpret the fragment on the first actor in terms of waiting. Say in only a few
sentences what is going on in this fragment.
Step 2. Compare the fragment and your interpretation with the different waiting styles (by
Lofland or others at the Forum).
Step 3. Which waiting style could you link to the fragment?
The fragment describes a couple which is having a  private moment in a public place i.e. an
argument. It could be described as Loflands theory of the leader and  the follower of the waiting
room. In which one surveys  and assesses the situation and leads the other.

PROMPT
Step 1. Interpret the fragment on the second actor in terms of waiting. Say in only a few
sentences what is going on in this fragment.
Step 2. Compare the fragment and your interpretation with the different waiting styles (by
Lofland or others at the Forum).
Step 3. Which waiting style could you link to the fragment?
The second fragment is the ‘ distractor ‘ as Lofland  describes. The person who searches for items
and signs  to read that aren’t particularly interesting in order to  pass the time.

PROMPT
Step 1. Interpret the fragment on the third actor in terms of waiting. Say in only a few
sentences what is going on in this fragment.
Step 2. Compare the fragment and your interpretation with the different waiting styles (by
Lofland or others at the Forum).

Step 3. Which waiting style could you link to the fragment?
This author is the one who attempts to shield  themselves from the outside world, they will not talk to
anyone and no one will talk to them. They use their  phone or other methods to deter those from
speaking to them and create there own private ‘ bubble ‘.

PROMPT
Step 1. Interpret your description in terms of principles of symbolic transformation.
Step 2. Compare your description and your interpretation with the different principles of
symbolic transformation.
Step 3. Which principle(s) could you link to your description?
The factors take on roles and symbolic transform the  space around them in the super market in
order to create private bubbles around them.

Conclusion:

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