Qualitative methods Flashcards
(36 cards)
name the 3 research paradigms
- ontology - what can be known about reality
- epistemology - relationship between researcher and what can be known
- methodology - how to go about studying what can be known
Key principles of interpretism
- meaning cannot be understood without context
- requires empathy - Researcher needs to immerse themselves within the community in order to learn and interpret
- listen, look, question, interpret
- self reflection
How is knowledge socially constructed
- Knowledge is ever-changing
- Power systems are in play
- language is not neutral
for example homosexuality
How does homosexuality lead to different ways of acting
- sick - seek professional help
- devient - conceal, feel shame
- personal choice - pride, advocate agency
- natural - enjoy and be open
Similarities of social constructionism vs interpretism
- concerned with meaning
- interested how people make sense of the world
- thick description
- events occurring in the naturalistic environment
- what is it like to
- not interested in cause and effect
- not interested in generalizing
Interpretive understanding language
- vehicle for getting the facts
- route for underlying realities
- window to access facts/ experiences/ reality
social constructionism understanding language
- not neutral
- constructs reality
- must be the object of study
- concerned with the broader patterns of social meaning
- e.g. the word rainbow
Qualitative frameworks and approaches
- Post-colonial methodologies - dominant and segregation
- Participatory action research (PAR) - produces knowledge
- Ethnography - culture
- Discourse analysis - language
- Narrative approaches - stories in larger context
- Feminist research - theoretical and political analysis
How is research never neutral
- topic being chosen
2. topics being published
How is research political
- advances in agenda
- silences topics
- promotes interest
Questions to ask around research/ politics behind
- Who evaluates?
- Who benefits?
- Findings?
- Funding?
- who’s values are promoted?
- Who is publishing?
Power in research enterprise
- mainly white, working-class males - even in feminist research
- sample = disadvantaged and marginalized populations meaning over-repusentation of the poor and marginalized
The research context
macro (historical, political discourses in place) vs micro (researchers anxieties, personality thoughts etc)
Interviewer- participant relationship
researcher relationship -> data collected
Three central premises to standpoint methodologies
- Seeks to uncover/ critique hidden power dynamics, by conducting research at a deep level rather than surface level
- Working in the interests of the oppressed, disempowered and disadvantaged
- Aims to produce change
4 phases of standpoint methodologies
- Disillusionment - contestation of colonization of black experience by white researchers
- Reative engagement - Criticizing white research assumption
- Constructive self definition - advocating on African world view (cultural norms and traditions) = African presence in research
- Development of emancipatory discourse - promotion and respect of African values - e.g. respect of traditional healers
what does African scholarship prioritize over scientific objectivity?
African humanism
Key premises of African scholarship
- benefits the masses and not for individual gain
- research is a communal process - participant action research would be applicable
- Problematizes the construction of race and the relationship of race to economic and discriminatory practices
- Socially relevant research
- traditional healers
- cultural appropriateness
- intersectional later of the oppressed
The politics of racial identity
whiteness and blackness do not exist outside the colonial encounter - they are mutually dependent
- superiority of whiteness requires systematic devaluation of Blacks
- blackness is predicted on the fact of not being white
What is feminism?
- both theory and practice
- the study of gender relations and woman oppression
- form of collective action with the aim of unseating oppressive (gendered) power relations
What are the different types of feminism? (5)
- liberal feminism - equal rights and opportunities for women
- marxist feminism - argues that women’s oppressions are rooted in capitalist economic system making them economically dependent on men
- radical feminism - gay rights movement. Women’s oppression stems from system of patriarchy making women’s subordination in maintained
- poststructural feminism
- African feminism - argues that the experiences of black women cannot be understood by traditional white feminism
Poststructuralist feminism
- uses post structuralist theories of language theories and subjectivity to theories gender relations
- deconstructs the ‘fixedness’ of the category woman
- goals include developing understandings that are historically, socially and culturally specific and are related to changing the oppressive gender relations
- challenges the idea of a ‘fixed identity’ - they are fluid and changing
- resisting dominant discourses
- the body = a site for inscription of masculinity/ femininity
The difference between (1) gendered (2) sexed (3) sexualized
- sexed - presumed biological difference
- gendered - presumptions about dress, roles, behavior
- sexualized - named heterosexual/ homosexual based on presumed sexual desires
Feminist waves
1st wave = feminism empiricism (late 1800’s and early 1900’s) - LIBERAL
- women’s suffrage
- property rights
2nd wave = feminist standpoint (1960’s and 1970s) - RADICAL
- overthrowing patriarchy
- gender public and political issue
3rd wave = feminism relativism (postmodern 1990’s onwards)
- feminist post-modern (post-structural)
- critique of scientific enquiry
- multiple identities and subjectivities (African feminism)