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INNOVATIVE DATA COLLECTION STRATEGIES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Introduction

Denzin & Lincoln (2005a), illustrate how the nature of qualitative research has changed over time
from Traditional Period to Methodological Contestation and then Methodological Innovation.
Onwuegbuzie, Leech, & Collins ( 2010), has provide a framework call as meta-framework as a
guideline to do qualitative data collection from four major sources that is interviews, focus
group, observations, and documents/material culture.

Interviews

Nonverbal communication plays a vital role in attaining deeper shared meaning. There are
four basic modes of nonverbal (Gorden, 1980) which are proxemics (use of interpersonal
space to communicate attitudes); chronemic (use of pacing speech and length of silence in
conversation); kinesic (body movement) and paralinguistic (all variations in volume, pitch
and quality of voice).

Krauss, Chen, & Chawla (1996) state that nonverbal communication can be conceptualized as
lying on a continuum of lexicalization anchored by adapters and symbolic gestures. Adapters,
which lie at the low end of the lexicalization continuum, refer to nonverbal communication
that tends not to represent meaningful gestures including movement of an object. At the high
lexicalization end of the continuum are symbolic gestures likes hand gesture and facial
expressions that represent specific, conventional, and popularized meanings that are
recognized by a cultural group. Falling between these two extremes of the lexicalization
continuum are conversational gestures.

Ekman (1972) introduced the neurocultural model which comprise of at least six
fundamental emotions that are associated with innate facial expressions and tailored thru
learning that are called display rules which represent norms that guide how emotion is
expressed in various social contexts and which vary within and among cultures (Bull, 2001).
These six emotions are happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise.

McNeills (1992) classification scheme of gestures conceptualized five gesture types: iconics,
metaphorics, beats, deictics, and emblems. Iconics represent gestures that simulate
movements or potray movement or objects while metaphorics gestures primarily are visual in
nature, portray abstract thoughts or ideas. Beats refer to abstract ideas that differentiate words
or phrases from other words/phrases and Deictics represent an abstract level of pointing
specifically, a pointing to ideas and concepts depicted in a metaphorical space. Finally,
emblems represent the traditional notion of gestures that have specific cultural meaning.

Bias can exist at any stage of the research study. There are two types of researcher bias: the
effects of the researcher on the study participants and the effects of the study participants on
the researcher. Onwuegbuzie et al. (2008) present the concept of debriefing the researcher
where the researcher being interviewed by a person who is not involved directly in the study
but this person is someone who understands the research topic. Onwuegbuzie et al. (2008)
also suggest the use of Guba and Lincolns (1989) principles of authenticity criteria which
comprise of fairness, ontological authenticity, educative authenticity, catalytic authenticity,
and tactical authenticity. In addition, Onwuegbuzie et al. (2008) recommend the use of Miles
and Hubermans (1994) framework in documenting and interpreting patterns of the data
collected during the debriefing interviews and providing an audit trail.

Focus Group

Focus group is defined as a method of collecting data, in a safe environment, from more than
one individual at a time, regarding a specified area of interrogation. Some of the benefit of
using focus group are it is economical, interaction among participant can be observed and
have high face validity. (Butler, 1996, Krueger &Casey, 2000, Morgan ,1988).

Some of the criteria of focus group are: conducted for one to two hours, size of the group
between six to twelve, meeting can be met once or multiple times, members can be made up
of people in pre-existing group or can be created by researcher, use of moderator and
assistant moderator and data collected have traditionally included in the text from the
members of the group. In collecting information, it is important to include information
regarding how many members were in agreement and not in agreement with the consensus by
using descriptive counts (Kidd and Marshall, 2000). Data also can be collected thru
nonverbal data where the assistant moderator should focus on the nonverbal behaviour. It is
important to monitor sub-groups as the mix of the members can give impacts to the type of
data that can be collected. The use of Venn diagrams will help the moderators collect data
regarding the interactions of these subgroups (Onwuegbuzie et al. (2009). Another method for
assessing the interaction patterns in a focus group is by keeping track of words/utterances
made by each subgroup and then counting and comparing them.

With the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC), virtual interviewing can be


done where an internet connection is utilized to study either synchronously or synchronously
a situation or phenomenon. Some of the benefits of CMC include decreasing problems with
time, location, space of data collection, less expensive, promoting the ability to include
participants from different locations and ease of transcription (Biddix, 2008).

Observations

There is variety of method to collect visual representation in qualitative research. First, a


geographic information system (GIS), also known as a geospatial information system, allows
researchers to collect and analyze a structured database comprising geographical features
(maps, charts, and models) that are spatially oriented to Earth (Goodchild, Fu, & Rich,
2007;Institute, 2009). Second, the use of self-photographs or self-videos has the potential to
help research participants to express their viewpoints and tell their stories more clearly and
vividly (Hall, Jones, Hall, Richardson, & Hodgson, 2007). Third, the use self-cam can
provides live feedback and video playback. Lastly, CMC tools in promoting the use of
photographs, videos, and drawings/paintings in qualitative research.

Documents and material culture

Documents and material culture are written texts and cultural artifacts that show evidence in
all its forms represent gendered, cultural, social, and political construction, and which cannot
be subjected to an interview or focus group; yet, its interpretation holds a key to the meaning
of the underlying lived cultural group or person. Refworks is a Webbased bibliography and
database manager that can be use in the collection of documents and material culture.
Conclusion

Qualitative researchers have the potential to transcend the era of methodological contestation
and move towards a period of methodological innovation in which qualitative researchers go
beyond the traditional ways of collecting primary and reflexive data.

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