Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches.

Abstract

My primary intent in this book is to examine five different approaches to qualitative inquiry—narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case studies—and put them side-byside so that we can see their differences. These differences can be most vividly displayed by exploring their use throughout the process of research, including the introduction to a study through its purpose and research questions; data collection; data analysis; report writing; and standards of validation and evaluation. For example, by studying qualitative articles in journals we can see that research questions framed from grounded theory look different than questions framed from a phenomenological study