Paper instructions:

Selecting an Approach for a Qualitative Research Plan

This week, you are studying the five major approaches to qualitative research (case studies, narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, and ethnography). For this Discussion activity, you will review and critically reflect on each of the approaches presented, and then select the approach that you believe will best suit the research problem, purpose, and questions you developed last week.

To prepare for this Discussion:

Consider looking ahead to this week’s Application assignment as it asks you to analyze the five approaches and draft a problem, purpose, and research questions for each one. Beginning that assignment may assist you with thinking about this Discussion.

Review the reading for this week in Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Analyze the five approaches presented by Creswell. What kinds of research questions seem to fit with each approach?

Review the research questions you developed in the Week 2 Discussion.

Of the five approaches presented in Creswell this week, which is the best fit for the research questions you developed? How does the approach fit your research questions? Which approach is the next best fit? Why did you choose one approach over the other?

Write 3 paragraphs in which you present your research questions, select the qualitative approach that best fits the questions, and defend your selection. Include an explanation of which approach would be the next best choice for your research questions, and explain how you decided between the two approaches to find the best fit.