Wolcott: The Three Components Of Qualitative Research

Wolcott explains about the three primary ingredients of qualitative research; “Description”, “Analysis” and “Interpretation” in this chapter. The margins between these three terms are not clear among researchers and their definitions are often used interchangeably during managing the qualitative data. Moreover, the process is not linear to go through these three categories and it is a process of moving around during data handling and presentation. Therefore, some researchers often combine these terms such as descriptive analysis and interpretative data. Being a Professor Emeritus in Anthropology and focuses his research on anthropology and education, cultural acquisition and the nature of ethnographic research, Wolcott used quotes about the …show more content…
He encourages the novice qualitative researchers to do personal engagement in the research during describing their data because research is a creative art work and we are presenting our work to the readers. Such a personal engagement also facilitates the readers to “know what the researcher want to point” and “focus narrowly on the relevant and appropriate findings”. During the initial phase of writing research report in which data are still being sorted, writing details about illustrations, protocols and questionable relevance is helpful for the researcher to achieve the best analytical and interpretative processes. I also learnt that descriptive adequacy is important to invite the readers unfamiliar with setting to act as critical reviewers. Wolcott also suggests to adjust the descriptive narratives like zoom lens according to the purposes of the research by sharing his experiences in a study of computer use in the classroom. Quantitative research overviews the whole process objectively whereas the qualitative research needs to learn a particular detail to attain the purposes of a study. Therefore purposes of the research and the motives of the researcher to these particular purposes will decide what is necessary to describe and the level of descriptions. Among all the ways to organise and present description suggested by Wolcott, the “Rashomon Effect” is quite …show more content…
It is more subtle than analysis and under influence of the social contexts. Wolcott advised the researcher to avoid the over-interpretation by going beyond the descriptive account. On the other hand, he mentioned that students and novice qualitative researchers, who had laid their great efforts in descriptive accounts, are always criticized for their interpretative shortcomings. The author concluded that perfect balancing to allocate effort among description, analysis and interpretation mainly depends on the purpose of the research. Though, these three processes cannot be separated each other and we cannot do one after another like a formal procedure during data management. The author suggests the perfect balancing among these three ingredients with the example of N-P-K formula (plant food). Likewise the needs of the nutrients of the plants depends on the growing stage of plant, the ratio of D-A-I (Description, Analysis and Interpretation) should be adjusted on the particular purpose of the research. Too little content will lead to deficiency and too much will have toxic effects in balancing these three ingredients. As qualitative research is the art work with personal engagement, the researcher should focus on the purposes and positionality to the research work, not too emphasising on the readers, to decide the contents of the