Conduction of Qualitative Research
The steps for conduction, design and methodology in a qualitative research are as follows for any qualitative of study.
- The first step in conducting a qualitative study on any topic you should have a clear question pinned down.
- There can be a typical thorough literature review to understand other researcher’s work. The library and internet can be fascinating sources.
- There are four qualitative research methodologies as given in the following.
(1)Ethnography: The study of interaction between individuals and communities through direct interaction, participation and observation with those individuals and communities.
(2) Phenomenology: This method allows you to think and view the world the way other people do.
(3) Grounded Theory: The data is collected and based on specific information, theories and reasons are derived
(4)Case study research: This method allows to study a person, organization or a phenomenon and devise solutions or approach conclusions.
- Data collection is done by observation, participation, interview conduction, surveys and focus on groups of specialized professionals and individuals.
- Finally the data is analyzed and report is prepared (Research, n.d.).
Environmental awareness and action
Industrial revolution is largely is blamed for the environmental devastation of our planet. This revolution is behind the raised living standards of people dwelling in industrial countries. Several years after that it was observed by many scientists that the complete environment of the world was at stake in the form of industrial waste, deforestation, global warming and huge weather shifts.
A few years back the environmental awareness has increased rapidly among all social groups. This is happening only in the developed countries where the media is very strong and scientific information and latest research is shared to a very large extent. This awareness is severely lacking in under developed and poor countries. In these countries most of the population is not even equipped with the basic education and if they have access to media, the environmental issues are suppressed to fulfill the demands of people who like to be entertained in their spare time rather than watching a documentary on the environment. The developed nations have the majority of students that study environment related subjects are inspired from their past feelings and memories of being close to nature. On the other hand, the media is a very huge source of their awareness on global environmental issues. It happens to be that any sort of adjacent relationship with nature may take them to work or contribute in environmental protection (Nelson.wisc.edu, 2014).
In the case of environmental studies, Phenomenology method can be effectively employed. The online qualitative research can be very useful. One can go to Department of environmental studies and interview students on how they became interested in various kinds of environmental studies.
In the following the qualitative method of phenomenology has been illustrated that one can employ to help heal the environment.
- There are growing number of companies that are making goods that have recyclable containers and packages. The consumers should only buy products which are recyclable or are packaged in recyclable containers. The packaging of a large number of these products are now being built with biodegradable materials. Whenever it is possible recycle paper, plastic, newspaper, glass and aluminum cans.
- Consumers have to cut down their energy usage which includes air conditioning and heat consumption.
- Always buy energy efficient products.
- Keep all your appliances turned off when you are not using them.
- Do gardening. Gardening is very good for health and the environment.
- Encourage others to be conservative. If your school and work place does not have an active environmental awareness programs, consider starting one (West, 2014).
Becoming a Public Organizer for a sustainable company
Public organization jobs sometimes can be very challenging. These jobs are filled with rich social experiences. A public organizer must have certain talents and interpersonal skills even as a startup. He must have a good communication skills, people skills and should have optimistic attitude towards other people.
As a future public organizer one should ask a question why does he or she wants to become a public organizer. One should also research and construct a complete list of the responsibilities. A public organizer should have a very good idea of this profession before looking for work.
If you want to compete in the environment a Bachelors and a Master degree can give you a competitive advantage in a job interview. If you are not willing to invest so much time and money a diploma or a certificate are options that one cannot rule out.
Understanding your mind set and socialization skills and talents to persuade and influence other people cannot be undermined. On the contrary you must accurately study the requirements and demands of your work visiting job portals and company websites.
After all that make up a strong mind that this is what you want to do in your life. You start by looking for websites of sustainable companies. Go to companies and personally meet their HR executives or HR managers. You can go for other job sources such as recruitment agencies and head hunters.
Obesity
In order to understand Obesity one can approach a medical consultant or a doctor. One can first do a preliminary study to understand obesity at a certain level before gaining a professional help. One must avoid any self-medication at all cost. To visit a public library or an authentic websites can like WebMD.com will give you very useful information which can facilitate your conversation with a medical professional to better understand your condition. Obesity has a direct connection with your life style. Everybody knows the basic formula that unbalanced, diet that has excessive fat. Lack of exercise is the number one cause of weight gain and Obesity that can lead to other more severe problems and complications such as cardiovascular and heart problems. The qualitative research method of “case study method” can be applied. This method allows us to do an in depth research of an individual, organization or phenomenon. In our case the individual is an obese person and the phenomenon is obesity.
Marketing and Public relations
When one is interested in public relations and has a requirement to design flyers, banners and other marketing and advertising material. It is advisable to take classes related with computer graphics designing, Internet marketing and social media management.
These skills are very useful but in this age of media explosion you can take advantage of online paid video trainings of various courses. When you print flyers and banners to reach people it might be affective but it is also an expensive type of communication.
You can employ the power of “internet marketing” or as it is called “online marketing”. It includes several methods to reach your audience. A good online marketing course includes the following Online marketing, Search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimization, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, web analytics and online public relations.
The above course when taken online or offline combined with graphics designing will give you a plethora of skills that will be invaluable allowing you to reach audience at a huge scale.
You can download the latest e-books or order physical books from famous ecommerce websites like amazon. It has to be noted that the above described disciplines are related with Information Technology and they are changing and evolving very fast. If you go to a public library, you might be disappointed. You can also make good use of e-libraries to get the type of reading you need.
Banjo History Research
You can interview Banjo craftsmen and other Banjo experts but the knowledge gained from a person doing a handy work will have a highly personalized and inaccurate knowledge in most cases. You will be much better off to learn about Banjo history if you go to a scholar, researcher or a historian because Banjo history is an academic subject. Similarly a selection of good keywords starting with “Banjo history” on an Internet search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.
There is no doubt that if you sought after history of banjo, you will find it in the forms of books in libraries. The online resources such as reputable blogs and authentic e-books will also help a great deal in this type of research. It is extremely useful to join online and offline communities that specialize in Banjo or Banjo history can help a great deal. Joining such communities can provide you a source of inspiration and motivation. You can easily alleviate feelings of boringness that may lead to fillings of neglect and abandonment.
Contributions and Challenges of Qualitative methods of research
Contributions: In the validation stage also the contribution of qualitative research can be of great value. Certain phenomena or subjects are just not amenable to quantitative research. Here qualitative research can be extremely useful (Dunne, 2004).
(Hoepfl 1997) is one of the most prominent advocates of Qualitative research and argues that Qualitative research is more advantageous to Quantitative research. In the form of Technology education and research. Qualitative research is not oriented towards mathematics or similar subjects related with measurement. Mathematics only provides a systematic procedures to reach conclusions. Moreover, the quantitative data acquired for statistical calculation is also not reliable to a significant extent (Choosing Qualitative Research: A Primer for Technology Education Researchers, 1997).
Janet Foley Orosz also has a very huge contribution to Qualitative research. Here contribution revolves around the application of Qualitative research to Public Administrations.Her work points out that the deficiencies of the Public administration sector is due to the lack of Qualitative research. This research also claims that many self-claimed expert are in national conferences. She also pointed out organizations like NASPAA dealing in academic credentials for the Pubic administration and emphasized the importance of Qualitative research (Thayer, 1998).
The future of Qualitative research is very bright. It will vastly contribute to the development a great deal of knowledge in the sphere of public administration and public policy (Orosz & Mckenna et al., 1997).
Challenges: A grounded theory analysis revealed that researchers can face a number of challenges while undertaking qualitative research. These include issues relating to rapport development, use of researcher self-disclosure, listening to untold stories, feelings of guilt and vulnerability, leaving the research relationship and researcher exhaustion (Dickson-Swift and James et al., 2007, pp. 327-353).
It is argued that without careful study of statements within the Congressional Record, a "Quantitative" analysis would produce a misleading problems or at the very least an inadequate, understanding of the federal government's reaction to California's fiscal problems. It is also known that the conventions of policy determination produces restricted policy solutions that hide underlying social problems through their stress on technical rationality (Orosz & Mckenna et al., 1997).
Strengths and Limitations of Qualitative research
Strengths:
- Issues can be examined in detail and in depth.
- Interviews can have flexible questions and can control them in real time.
- The flexibility in research framework and direction can be revised fast as new information develops and becomes available.
- The data collected pertaining to human experience that is gathered has more strength and sometimes more convincing than the data obtained by quantitative research (Anderson, 2010).
Limitations:
- Research quality is based on the individual skills of the researcher and more easily influenced by the researcher's personal biases and habits.
- Thoroughness and consistency is more challenging to sustain, judge, and revealed.
- The volume of data makes examination and understanding more time consuming.
- It is sometimes not as well acknowledged as quantitative research within the scientific community.
- The researcher's attendance during data gathering process, which is often mandatory in qualitative research, can affect the subjects' output.
- Issues of privacy and confidentiality can create problems when the research is presented.
- Findings can be harder and may cost more time to be illustrated in a visual way (Anderson, 2010).
Ethnography of a public place
A Few years back I was in Dubai doing a project for a company. I was alone in a hotel room. One day I came to my room after my office work. After bathing and having a dinner I went down the beautiful avenues of the New York of the Middle East as they call Dubai. During my walk I discovered a Star Bucks café. I decided to have some dessert and coffee to enjoy some time alone on a single table while I conduct my research. I walked towards the Star Bucks café with iPad in my hand to type down my research. Having the iPad tablet I considered myself fully equipped to do my Qualitative research (ethnographic). As I walked in to the Starbuck café the environment was completely different. The surrounding was filled with the beautiful aroma of coffee and other sweet and delicious goods. I made a sweeping look around the surrounding as the café was moderately filed and there was plenty of room to sit and enjoy my snack with my favorite coffee. I order a large and filling piece of cheesecake and one cappuccino. The cashier politely took cash from me and asked me to sit. I took a single seat and started to wait for my serving. As I was waiting for my order I took out my tablet from its pouch having a scanning sight around the environment. Dubai is a metropolitan city and people from different countries and cultures come here. They belong to different races, different backgrounds and different religions. Dubai is one of the fastest growing city in the world at the time of this writing. Many people which include celebrities and members from elite class buying properties here. Professionals from all around the world are flocking to live and work in Dubai. They have residency status and others are locals who can be easily distinguished with their generic white colored, fine long robes with a turban tied to their heads. The major languages of this region are Arabic and English.
I gaze around to keenly observe the situation in the surrounding. I had frequent eye contacts every now and then as people around me were eating and drinking cold drinks and sipping away their hot coffees. One of the greatest mysteries that always bothered me was that when I am in a public place and I start to stare at a person present there, the person after some time responds with an eye contact in return. The question is that how the person being watched realize or finds out that someone is looking at him or her and their mind instantly gives an eye contact. I have done some research and studied this phenomenon. I came to this hypothesis that it is spiritual effect and the eye contact is due to the interaction of aura that is found around the human body. Some people have a big and strong aura field around their body and others have a weak and small.
As I was studying the behavior of many people who seemed to be from the west were very open, they sat close to each other, and they did not seem to mind any casual physical contact. They talked more openly and expressively. Their jesters and facial expression were also different. Most of them had white skin or highly distinguishable tan along with a freedom of revealed clothes. Some western men were wearing suites and other were wearing jeans and shirts like me. The western females were also were recognizable with their skirts and jeans and blouses. I also saw some Indians women in the coffee shop wearing their traditional dresses like sari and shalwar qamiz as they call it. The local women of UAE wore black veil with only their face reveled. The most noticeable difference that I recognized at such an ethnically diverse pubic place was that the western individuals were very intimate and the eastern majority was very shy and bashful. The people from Eastern nations were not comfortable with touching each other while they talk in usual cases. This is my observed fact that the situation was very different with men and women born, raised or studied in western institution or had western upbringing. I typed in all my observations in my iPad. I finished my food and started to look around to socialize further.
It was a big café with people sitting alone and some of the people formed groups. I was interested in a group that was multicultural. After looking around I saw some young boys and girls sitting in a group. I went to them with greetings. I asked for permission to sit on an empty berth with them. One of the girls in them shook her head saying “yes” and I sat down. I introduced them about myself. I told them that I am doing some research about people and their culture. They told me that they were student at the Halls Middlessex University in the knowledge village (nearby Area in Dubai where there are university and college campuses).
The University students told me that they are each other’s friends and live nearby. It was Sunday today so they decided to hang out and enjoy with each other. They were two girls and three boys.
One of them had a laptop in front of him he was continuously typing. He was wearing glasses. One of girls in the batch told me that this kid is a computer genius. This was a very interesting comment for me to hear about a geeky boy because they are typically very reclusive and they do not like socialize and they are not sensitive about their appearance specially clothing. I said hello to him he raised his head up and politely and softly said “hi”. I tried to engage him in a conversation and he answered me very well. This is also unusual among nerds. They are usually to the point in answering questions. As a reply to one of my question he told me that he was studying MBA in Marketing. To my amazement I also felt that he was very good at socializing outside the boundaries of social media like Facebook and twitter. This was very interesting for me because smart people like geeks are very rare who can socialize well. I saw these youngsters from different social backgrounds are meeting and coming close to each other and sharing their cultures and values and this is always a catalyst for change in a society. People from different culture unite and form new cultures and traditions. This is certainly happening from the dawn of humanity. Suddenly, a question flashed in my mind “Are we moving towards a global culture, a single culture of the world facilitated by the ever advancing communication technologies”. My research experience says “Yes” as socialization is moving beyond boundaries and boarders, new and different cultures will emerge as the world is coming close together.
References
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