Practical Reseach 1 Module 5

Qualitative Research Design
and Sampling Techniques

At the end of this module, you are expected
to:
• a. determine the different qualitative research
designs;
• b. describe the sampling procedures;
• c. choose appropriate qualitative research
design for one’s study;
• d. write the methodology section of one’s
research study; and
• e. appreciate the relevance of research.
• Qualitative researches are designed to provide
the researcher a means of understanding
phenomenon either concepts, opinions, or
experiences by observing or interacting with
the participants of the study (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2008).
• Therefore, qualitative researcher’s concern is
on exploring and/or explaining phenomenon
as they occur in the natural setting.
Types of Qualitative Research Design
• Ethnographical Research. Ethnographic research
is probably the most popular and applicable
type of qualitative research. In ethnography,
you engage yourself in the target participants'
environment to understand the behavior,
cultures, challenges, motivations, and themes
that occur.
• Purpose: To describe a culture's character
• Outcome: Description of culture
Case study
• involves an in-depth examination of a single person or
single individual or single institution/organization. The
goal of a case study is to provide an accurate and
complete description of the case; the principal benefit of a
case study is that it can expand our knowledge about the
human behavior or attitude.
• Purpose: To give an in-depth description of the experience
of one person, family, group, community, or institution
• Outcome: In-depth description of the experience

• Case studies can be explanatory, exploratory,
or descriptive.
Phenomenological Research
• When you want to describe an event, activity,
or phenomenon, the phenomenological study
is an appropriate qualitative method. In a
phenomenological study, you use a
combination of methods, such as conducting
interviews, reading documents, watching
videos, or visiting places and events, to
understand the meaning that participants
place on whatever is being examined.
• Purpose: To describe experiences as people
lived (e.g., examines uniqueness of individual’s
lived situations)
• Outcomes:
Findings described from subject’s point-of-view
Researcher identifies themes.
Structural explanation of findings is developed.
Grounded Theory
• While a phenomenological study looks to describe
the essence of an activity or event, grounded theory
looks to provide an explanation or theory behind the
events.
• is “methodologically dynamic” which provides a
means of constructing methods to better
understand situations that humans find themselves
in. This means that you primarily use interviews and
existing documents to build a theory based on the
data.
• Purpose: To develop a theory
• Outcome: Theory supported by examples from
data
Narrative/Historical Research Design
• A synonym of the term ‘narrative’ is ‘story’ or

‘history’ (Kramp, 2004).
• Narratives are related with life stories.
• it as “a story that tells a sequence of events
that is significant for the narrator or audience
or her/his audience”.
• Purpose: To describe and examine events of
the past to understand the present and
anticipate potential future effects
• Outcomes: Select means of presentation—
biography, chronology, issue paper
Sampling Techniques
• The primary purpose of sampling is the
selection of suitable participants to enable the
focus of the study to be appropriately
researched.
Types of Sampling
• Sampling in qualitative research is termed
non-probability sampling.
• Unlike probability sampling used in
quantitative research, non-probability
sampling does not involve randomization.
1. Convenience Sampling
• This is the most common form of qualitative
sampling, and it occurs when people are
invited to participate in the study because
they are conveniently (opportunistically)
available with regard to access, location, time,
and willingness.
2. Purposive Sampling
• is a popular approach in qualitative research.
Participants are recruited according to pre-
selected criteria relevant to the research
aims/questions of a given study.
• Purposive sampling is designed to provide
information-rich cases as participants are
those who have the required status,
experience, or knowledge of interest to the
researcher.
Purposive sampling; quota sampling and
maximum variation sampling
• Quota sampling, the researcher decides on
both the number of participants required and
the characteristics of interest. These may be
age, gender, profession, diagnosis, ethnicity,
and so forth.
• Maximum phenomena variation sampling is
an approach used to ensure that the full range
and extent of the phenomena are represented
—such as ensuring people who are
experiencing mild symptoms in relation to a
particular condition are included as well as
those experiencing severe symptoms (and all
those in-between).
3. Snowball Sampling
• Also known as ‘chain referral’ or ‘networking’
sampling, snowball sampling occurs when the
researcher starts gathering information from
one or a small number of people and then
requests to put the researcher in touch with
others who may be friends, relatives,
colleagues, or other significant contacts.
• This type of sampling is especially useful in
recruiting ‘hidden populations’, for example,
marginalized or stigmatized individuals, where
those individuals are not easily accessible to
researchers, such as drug- users, prostitutes,
or those not registered with a medical practice
(Babbie 2014).
4. Theoretical Sampling
• This form of sampling is mostly used in
grounded theory studies but is increasingly
being used to gather data for the purpose of
theory generation.
• The research starts from a homogeneous
(small) sample and moves to a heterogeneous
(larger) sample (Babbie 2014). Sampling occurs
sequentially and alongside data analysis.

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Practical Reseach 1 Module 5

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Qualitative Research Design

and Sampling Techniques

• Outcome: In-depth description of the experience

• A synonym of the term ‘narrative’ is ‘story’ or

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