Hi,
Sorry for the basic question. I am from a technical background who undertook a qualitative study. I prepared a qualitative interview guide(open-ended questions) to identify problems in school transport inside a particular council in UK. I have interviewed around 35 stakeholders. I audio recorded the interviews, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis method (deductive). My question is, how should i call it; a qualitative survey or a qualitative case study?
Edit: I have also collected the accident statics and traffic commissioner report of the council.
Dear Manoharan,
I would say that this is more of a survey than a case study as it sounds like you are sampling from a larger population and only collecting data in one format. If it was a case study you would want to look at additional forms of data on school transport inside this council.
Many thanks for your answer to my post. To add details to the question, i have also collected national accident statistics and traffic commissioner report. The data for that particular council is not available but it comes under the East region. So is it still a survey?
I'm not sure! Perhaps it is both. The point is to understand what a survey and a case study are and to make a decision about what you call your research which you can justify:
- A survey is a systematic collection of information from a sample of people from a larger population
- A case study is a systematic attempt to account for the complexity and depth of a single example
Surveys generally rely on closed-ended questions to produce numerical results. If you used primarily open-ended questions then that was a qualitative interview.
Doing a thematic analysis is a also a qualitative method, as opposed to more quantitative methods of content analysis that involve systematically counting codes to, again, produce numerical results.
So, it sounds like you have done qualitative content analysis. But I'm not sure why you wouldn't just want to call it a thematic analysis. I have attached an article that compares those two methods.
As for your data on accidents etc., the key question is how you use that information. If it is just descriptive information, then that doesn't really matter. Alternatively, it would make a difference if you, for instance, used it to sort your cases into high and low on some variable, and then interpreted your qualitative data in terms of that sorting.
I agree with David Morgan and additionally I think it would be well worth reading research articles and reports that use a range of methods as I think this will build your understanding of the different approaches.
You did a Qualitative study. Used interviews as your main technique to collect your data. And your method is a case study.
it is basically common in ANALYSIS and discussion. However, survey means collecting demographic datas based on empirical datacollections, but in case study in the qualitative perspective is relatively bit more in description and in depth analysis comparatively
Dear Ramachandran,
In my opinion, you have already got most of the information through your method. Questions here is ? Can you term it as a "Case Study" and use the method "Content Analysis" based on the suggestions provided by Prof. L. Morgan. I personally agree with Prof. L. Morgan, here you have open ended questions, which gives wider and thicker option for the participants to give you the information you require, in detail. Also, it opens the avenues which is appropriate for content analysis method rather than approaching for thematic analysis (which you might not have coined the themes initially). Meanwhile, you can also use some additional information on the statistics and some productive insights from the commissioner. I personally feel, you should consider this as an case study (in case study, you can increase number of participants until and unless you reach the saturation level, make your argument strong to prove your increasing numbers). Finally, In terms of authenticity (you have narrative of Commissioner and for transparency; you have statistics) which are sufficient to coin them under triangulation which means you can add more reliable approach in your method applied.
Hope it helps, all the very best !
Karun Rawat (MSc)
This sounds like you may be moving towards a mixed method study with both qualitative elements (the interviews) and quantitative (traffic data). The key with case study versus other methods is that you are studying a phenomena in context, the boundaries between phenomena and context are not easily separated and you want to collect a variety of data types. Just be careful to clearly define your "case", if you proceed with this approach. I'd recommend reading Yin's book Case Study Research: Design and Methods for additional information (especially since you come from a technical background.) Yin explores other methods and will help you decide if you do indeed want to do case study as opposed to a survey or other.
Kent
It is a qualitative study using thematic analysis method. It's not a survey or case study. When conducting research, you can conduct a qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods study, each with specific methods. A survey is generally for a quantitative study.
Please have a look:
Jansen, H. (2010). The logic of qualitative survey research and its position in the field of social research methods. Forum : Qualitative Social Research, 11(2) Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/docview/869901313?accountid=12528
i think you can just call it an investigation of/intot/ and then say you will used various methods qualitative and quantitative. if you fell you must call it something-call it a mixed methods study.
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