Please help me find the appropriate sampling technique name.
It is a pure qualitative study which aims to explore the perspectives of school leaders and Social Studies teachers with the help of conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews. There are 2 interview schedules: one for the school leaders and one for the Social Studies teachers. So the design is phenomenology. An inclusion criterion here is class 4 and 5 Social Studies teachers having 5 years teaching experience of the same subject. Other than that, classroom observations of same teachers will also be done with the help of a checklist. It is also qualitative in nature. Furthermore, content analysis of class 4 and 5 social studies textbooks will also be done with the help of a checklist, It is also qualitative in nature. Data is collected from Primary schools of my city which is divided into 7 districts. There are 2123 primary schools in my city in total but of course it is impossible to visit all. Therefore, permission is taken from the Education office of my city to visit schools for classroom observations and interviews. I only got the permission to visit 10 schools from 1 district and 10 from another district. A list of specific school is given to me. So data will be conducted by visiting these 20 schools only due to the limitation. Gender ratio will be equal for classroom observations as well as interviews.
Now the question is:
Are classroom observations and interviews part of phenomenology?
What exactly do we call the sampling technique here?
P.S It is a pure qualitative research only.
Michael Patton offers a great framework for sampling. You're convenience sampling and purposive/purposeful. You have some criteria, but you're hardly representative.
Can you observe in phenomenology? Certainly. Observations, interviews, and artifacts are all helpful.
David Coker , if I try to get permission for other schools too, what do you think should be my sampling technique to be representative in qualitative research? Is systematic sampling quantitative only?
What's your purpose? Homogeneous sample? Maximum variance? Representative of the district? Some other criteria, which could lead to stratified?
Perhaps more important than inclusionary is exclusionary--what do you not want?
Convenience sampling is the norm in education. Glesne and Peshkin call it "backyard research." Pragmatics mean you do what you can and report limitations. Maximize the potential, but realize sometimes you do what you can.
David Coker Yes, you are right. I was wondering if keeping the gender ratio equal will be stratified sampling in qualitative? Yes or no?
Besides reading Michael Patton, examine the following article:
Robinson, O. C. (2014). Sampling in interview-based qualitative research: A theoretical and practical guide. Qualitative research in psychology, 11(1), 25-41.
Phenomenology usually involves highly focused in-depth interviews with a small number of participants, so I do not think that fits with what you are doing.
It sounds you may have been overly influenced by some source that does not include systematic observation as a method.
You could use purposive sampling but since you are looking for gender parity in your sample, you may want to consider purposive stratified sampling. Also, you could use institutional ethnography instead of phenomenology, because you are likely to have a large sample size. Assuming that you are even recruiting one participant from the all the 20 schools, tou will have 20 participants already. Phenomenology is not suitable with very large sample sizes as your intent is to explore in-depth the lived experiences of the participants.
David Morgan is right about phenomenology. Homogeneity is common. Yet, I think you need to cycle back to your purpose first. I'm not sure you know it, hence phenomenology can be questioned. Still, phenomenology can and has been done pragmatically with heterogeneous samples, but it is far less common. Find your aim first!
Very good inputs, especially knowing your aim. Convenient, purposive stratified sampling is good. Your work should address limitations at the end which may include the narrow scope allowed for you to conduct the interviews or observations.
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