What is the rationale of choosing the most appropriate research design for your research topic?

Once you decide to conduct a qualitative study for your doctoral dissertation, it is time to consider which qualitative research design you will use. The type of research design you choose is important because it provides a basis for future decisions related to your writing your research plan, from the setting and participants to the analysis and representation of the dissertation research findings. Some doctoral students decide on a research design based on the courses they have taken or a specific research study. This process makes sense, but it can lead to forcing an approach instead of designing a dissertation study to address the research problem. Intentionally grounding your research design decisions based on an alignment of key features between your study and a research design is critical for constructing a solid research plan.

While many qualitative research designs exist (many of which now have been positioned as research methodologies), I focus on the traditional view of qualitative research designs. To illustrate choosing a design, I present three research designs I see Ph.D. students choose most often: interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), case study, and narrative. 

Get started now by downloading our free worksheet on how to choose a qualitative research design.

Three steps for choosing an appropriate qualitative research design:  

Step 1: Identify key research ideas. Start with identifying the specific components of the problem and purpose statements. Within your problem statement, choose a sentence that succinctly describes the problem and what you hope to learn through your dissertation research. Then, state who the participants will be and describe the scope or depth of knowledge. Here is one example:

• Problem: Despite district and school-level strategies, there is a high rate of teacher turnover in the XYZ District. 
• Want to know: What experiences are contributing to teachers’ desires to remain or leave the school/district?
• Participants: New and veteran teachers from one school district
• Depth of knowledge: I am looking at one district, so I want representation from every school in the district

Step 2: Identify key research design features. Knowing the key research design features is a critical step in choosing a design that matches your research plan. It is important to keep in mind that each research design is complex and varied, with many researchers adding to and refining the designs. For the purposes of this blog post, I focus on three key features: the primary aim of a design, the sample size, and the data collection methods. 

• An IPA design is appropriate if the researcher focuses on detailing the meaning individuals ascribe to an experience, and then the researcher interprets what these meanings entail for the participants. This double-focus in IPA designs requires the researcher to focus on detail, resulting in small sample sizes (e.g., 1 – 10). Semi-structured interviews are the primary means of collecting data for your doctoral dissertation.
• A case study design is appropriate if the researcher focuses on one of two main aims: (a) understanding individual participants’ perspectives and experiences related to a phenomenon, or (b) understanding a phenomenon based on a group of participants’ perspectives and experiences with the phenomenon. A critical feature of case study design is the idea of case boundaries, which brings attention to context and its role in people’s meaning making. Small sample sizes (e.g., 1 – 10) are typical because of multiple data collection methods, including interviews, observations, and artifacts/documents.
• A narrative design is appropriate if the dissertation researcher explores peoples’ lived narratives related to a phenomenon or event, or researchers use narrative analysis methods on a data set. No matter the narrative focus, narrative researchers search for storied experiences that include (a) personal and social perspectives; (b) inherent histories, present experience, and future possibilities; and (c) the situations (the places) associated with the experiences. Due to the nature of stories and representing data in a narrative format, sample sizes are typically small (e.g., 1 – 6). In this case, data collection for your doctoral dissertation is in-depth and includes interviews, observations, and artifacts/documents. 

Step 3: Match research ideas with a research design. After reviewing the key design features of several research designs, it should be clear which design is most appropriate for your research. In the example provided in Step 1, I believe a case study design would be the most appropriate based on the key research ideas because:

• the problem can be addressed at multiple levels—district level or school level—which fits well for bounding the cases as a single case with embedded units of analysis (district level) or a multiple case design (school level);
• exploring one district’s new and veteran teachers’ experiences contributing to their decisions regarding remaining or leaving a school/district fits case study with attention to the context; and
• wanting to explore teacher’s experiences in-depth, I will seek at least one teacher from every school. Having two from every school—one new and one veteran teacher would be ideal.

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Author: Veronica Richard, PhD