UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative Research Methods



Professor Douglas Ewbank
  • Preliminary Outline of Lecture on Qualitative Research Methods, Douglas Ewbank

  • Introduction to Use of Qualitative Research in Demography

  • General Concepts in Interviewing

  • Types of Qualitative Research

  • Types of Group Interviews - Focus Groups, Small Group Interviewing, Consensus Groups

  • Analysis of Qualitative Interviews - Linked to Knodel Reading

  • Content Analysis - Based on Bender and Ewbank

  • Coding and Meaning - Based on Wilms

  • The Importance of Triangulation

  • Use of Qualitative Interviews in Cognitive Research on Questionnaire Design. Often brie test questionnaire followed by interview on how the respondent produced answers.

    Assigned Readings

    Knodel. Conducting comparative focus-group research: cautionary comments from a coordinator. Health Trans. Rev. 4(1) 1994:99-104.

    Yoder, P. Stanley. Examining ethnomedical diagnoses and treatment choices for diarrheal disorders in Lubumbashi Swahili. Medical Anthropology. 16:211-247. 1995.

    Bender, D and Ewbank, D. The focus group as a tool for health research: issues in design and analysis. Health Transition Review. 4(1): 63-80. 1994.

    Willms, D.G., Best, J.A., Taylor, D.W., et al. A systematic approach for using qualitative methods in primary prevention research. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 4(4), 1990: 391-409.

    Lindenbaum, Shirley, Chakraborty, Manisha, and Mohammed Elias. The influence of maternal education on infant and child mortality in Bangladesh. Chapter 6 in John C. Caldwell and Gigi Santow (editors) Selected Readings in the Cultural, Social, and Behavioural Determinants of Health. Health Transition Series No. 1. Canberra: Health Transition Centre, The Australian National University. 1989

    Suggested Readings

    Weiss, Robert S. Learning from Strangers. New York: The Free Press. 1994

    Weller and Romney. Systematic Data Collection. Sage Qual. #10

    Biernacki and Waldorf. Snowball Sampling: Problems and Techniques of chain referral sampling

    Morgan, David L. Designing focus group research. In M. Stewart, et al. (eds.) Tools for

    Primary Care Research. Newbury Park, CA, Sage Publications. 1992: 177-193.

    Coreil, Jeannine. Group interview methods in community health research. Medical Anthropologic 16:193- 210. 1995.

    Bernard, H. Russell. Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology. Newbury Park, Cal.: Sage Publications . 1988.

    Krueger, Richard A. Analyzing focus group results. In Focus Groups - A Practical Guide for Applied Research, Sage Publications. Pp. 106-121.

    Bryman, Alan. The debate about quantitative and qualitative research: a question of method or epistemology? British J. Sociology. 35:75-92. 1984.


    Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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