Notes

Natural environment (natural setting). Qualitative researchers collect field data at the locations where participants experience the problem or issue to be studied. Qualitative researchers do not change the environmental settings and activities of the participants. Information is gathered by talking directly to people and seeing them act directly in a natural context.

2. Researcher as a key instrument (researcher as key instrument). Qualitative researchers generally collect their own research data through participant observation, documentation, or direct interviews with participants. These researchers generally do not use instruments or questionnaires made by other researchers, because they are the only key to the study.

3. Multiple sources of data. Qualitative researchers generally choose to collect the required data from various sources such as interviews, documentation, and observations, rather than relying only on one source data.

4. Inductive data analysis. Qualitative researchers build categories, patterns and themes from the ground up (inductive) or from separate data into a complete conclusion.

5. The meaning of the participants (participant’s meaning). In the entire research process, the researcher must focus on studying the meaning obtained from the participants about the issue or research problem, not the meaning conveyed by other authors or researchers in certain literatures.

6. Design that develops (emergent design). Qualitative researchers argue that qualitative research is always evolving and dynamic. This can mean that the initial plan is not a standard that must be adhered to, all stages of research may change after the researcher goes into the field and collects data. Provided that these changes are still in line in achieving the research objectives, namely obtaining information about the problem or research issue.

7. Theoretical perspective (theoritical lens). Qualitative researchers often use certain perspectives in conducting research such as ethnography, cultural concepts, gender differences, race and others.

8. Interpretive. Qualitative researchers make an interpretation of what they see, hear and what they understand. Usually there are differences in interpretation between researchers and readers and participants, so it appears that qualitative research offers different views on a content or problem.

9. A holistic account. Qualitative researchers usually try to make a complex picture of a research issue or problem. Researchers describe the perspectives and factors associated with the problem as a whole.