QUALITATIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN 1
Qualitative Narrative Design
Erica Gibson
School of Business, Liberty University
Author Note
Erica N. Gibson
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Erica N. Gibson
Email: Egibson7@liberty.edu
QUALITATIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN 2
Table of Contents
APA title page……………………............................................................................................... 1
Table of Contents…………………….......................................................................................... 2
Abstract......................................................................................................................................... 3
Case Study………………............................................................................................................ 4
Annotated Bibliographies ............................................................................................................ 7
QUALITATIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN 3
Abstract
Qualitative design forms the bedrock of studies associated with human behavior due to various
factors or rather happenings in the society. Qualitative design is composed of different models all
of which are geared towards addressing human behavior in a study. The model that is largely
used is the narrative model because it deeply addresses the aspects of qualitative design. The
study on retention of online doctoral students has be used as a case study to
examine the problems and how best one can use the narrative model of qualitative design.
Keywords: qualitative design, studies, examine
QUALITATIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN 4
Qualitative Narrative Design
A qualitative design is a broad design that encompasses different models suitable
for specific situations or circumstances concerning human behavior from a participant’s
point of view. These models include the ground method model, the narrative model, the
ethnography model, the case study model, and the historical model. Among these five
models, the narrative model is always the commonly used model because it seeks to bring
out the interaction between people and ideas in a study, and that is what qualitative design
is all about: studying human behavior from a participant’s point of view. The narrative
model very much resembles a story narrative in the sense that subjects are usually taken
at the commencement point, and situations are usually reviewed as opportunities or
obstacles that occur, and it is not done in chronological order. In stories, the narrative
usually allows the researcher to develop strategies for analysis such as thematic analysis
and structural analysis concerned with the presentation of the stories. The narrative
design model is very appropriate in instances where an individual focuses on knowing
how certain factors impact people’s behavior or when detail or life experiences data need
to be captured by the researcher.
Even though the narrative design model is commonly used in qualitative designs
due to its in-depth analysis of details concerning people’s life, some challenges are also
usually associated with it. These challenges emanate from the context of individual life
and are made to fit the narrative context (Crew and Poth, 2018). A participant may give
his or her experience, but since there are many different participants that the study is
focusing on, there might be a misunderstanding or confusion on how their lives are
portrayed, and sometimes it may cause biasness. There is also the issue of information
QUALITATIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN 5
distortion reported to the researcher. The distortion of the data collected usually happens
in instances where the researcher wants the data to fit into the study’s context. To try and
mitigate these challenges and thus develop a stronger analysis, visual-based
methodologies or images are being actively used to capture the experiences of an
individual.
For this study, the retention of online doctoral students is the problem statement.
The study seeks to ascertain the reasons surrounding the huge number of online doctoral
students failing to complete their courses and the actions that can be taken to increase
retention. Studies have indicated that approximately 40-60% of these students never get
to graduate. Qualitative design best captures this study because, it will provide clear and
precise reasons for the problem through interviews. Questions surrounding the preference
of online classes and the key challenges that they experience that may, in some instances,
lead to them dropping out will be the anchor of the interview.
Two qualitative research questions
i. How do you manage to persevere through the hardships of an online doctoral
program?
ii. Have you ever encountered any hardship anywhere prior to enrolling to this
online doctoral program that led to your persistence while completing this
program?
Analysis of the experience patterns of doctoral students’ persistence is the focus of
this qualitative narrative study. The data collected will be from individuals who have
persevered and ultimately graduated and those that have failed to graduate. Through the
QUALITATIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN 6
analysis, the study will recommend the best approach to address the problem and thus
prevent many online students from dropping out.
