In IS240 on Monday we looked at some of the characteristics of qualitative research methods. such as i) it is inductive, ii) normally interpretivist, and iii) qualitative researchers view constructionist ontological viewpoints. A final characteristic of most qualitative research is that its approach is naturalistic. As the textbook notes:
…qualitative researchers try to minimize the disturbance they cause to the social worlds they study.
We can see the nature of this quality implicitly teased out by Lori Freedman, who discusses some of the research she did for her Master’s degree. Freedman writes about the relationship between abortion and religion (it’s not what you’re expecting) and the time she spent observing in a hospital that performed abortions. Here’s the part related to her research methods:
Claudia [a deeply religious Catholic woman who was having an abortion–JD] told me this story 13 years ago, while I was conducting ethnographic research as a participant-observer in a hospital-based abortion service. I spent considerable time there helping, observing, and intermittently conducting as many interviews as I could with counselors, doctors, and nurses, in order to gain a rich view of abortion clinic life. This study became my master’s thesis, but nothing else. I feared publication might amount to a gratuitous exposé of people I respected dearly. I couldn’t think of any policy or academic imperative that necessitated revealing the intimate dynamics of this particular social world—certainly nothing that could make the potential feelings of betrayal worthwhile. Ultimately, I just tucked it away.
Clouds, Clocks, and Sitting at Tables 