Design of the Study
Qualitative studies aim to look into the quality of relationships, activities, situations, or materials (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009). According to Merriam (2009), the focus of qualitative research is the process, meaning, and understanding, and the researcher plays an important role as the primary instrument of data collection and analysis, which is inductive (p. 266). Moreover, Bogdan and Biklen (2007) describe five characteristics of qualitative research:
• The natural setting is the direct source of data, and the researcher is the key instrument in qualitative research.
• Qualitative data are collected the form of words or pictures rather than numbers.…