La persona como complejidad ordenada depende de la costumbre

As explained by Denzin and Lincoln (2000), a qualitative approach has been used for many years in studies involving human life in different disciplines, including the social sciences, communication, psychology and education. This approach entails a multitude of different techniques of interpretive and naturalistic methods used to investigate the subject, such as personal experiences, case studies, life stories, observations, and interviews. The objective is to derive meaning from the occurrences or events being studied (ibid.). Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest and Namey (2005) explain that the” strength of qualitative research is its ability to provide complex textual descriptions of how people experience a given research issue. It provides information about the “human” side of an issue – this is often contradictory behaviors, beliefs, opinions, emotions and relationships of individuals. Qualitative methods are also effective in identifying intangible factors, such as social norms, socioeconomic status, gender roles” (p.1). Hoepfl (1997) summarises the features of qualitative research or naturalistic research as follows:

Qualitative research uses the natural setting as the source of data. The researcher attempts to observe, describe and interpret settings as they are, maintaining what Patton calls an “empathic neutrality”; (2) The researcher acts as the “human instrument” of data collection; (3) Qualitative researchers predominantly use inductive data analysis; (4) Qualitative research reports are descriptive, incorporating expressive language and the “presence of voice in the text”; (5) Qualitative research has an interpretive character, aimed at discovering the meaning events have for the individuals who experience them, and the interpretations of those meanings by the researcher; (6) Qualitative researchers pay attention to the idiosyncratic as well as the pervasive, seeking the uniqueness of each case; (7) Qualitative research has an emergent as opposed to predetermined design, and researchers focus on this emerging process as well as the outcomes or product of the research; (8) Qualitative research is judged using special criteria for trustworthiness. (p. 49)

Corbin and Strauss (2008) stress that the complex nature of understanding social occurrences, events, people’s behaviour and experiences needs to be considered when choosing the most appropriate methodology. There are two main methodologies: quantitative and qualitative.

As noted by Mouton and Muller (1998) these two methodologies differ in their ways and techniques and also in the aims, constituents of the knowledge and the features of the study that are investigated. These facts are represented in Table 4.1, adapted from Castellan (2010), which illustrates the differences between selected components of quantitative and qualitative research approaches.

Table 4.1 Methodology component comparison

Components of Research Approaches Quantitative Qualitative Philosophical Assumptions

Positivist perspective, objective reality, researcher is independent of that which is researched

Post- Positivist perspective, naturalistic, social, multiple & subjective reality where researcher interacts with that being researched

Method/Types of Research

Experimental, quasi-experimental, single subject and descriptive, comparative, correlational, expost facto

Phenomenology, case study, ethnography, grounded theory, cultural studies

Purpose/Goal of Research Generalizability, explanation, prediction

Understanding, insight, contextualization and Interpretation Questions or Hypothesis Hypothesis is informed; guess or

prediction

Question is evolving, general and flexible

Those Being Researched Randomly selected sample, proportionally representative of population

Usually a small number of non-representative cases Those

Conducting the Research

Etic (outsider’s point of view); objective, neutral, detached and impartial

Emic (insider’s point of view); personal involvement and partiality

Data Questionnaires, surveys, tests in the form of numbers and statistics

Written documents from field work, interviews, pictures, observations, objects. Data Analysis Deductive process, statistical procedures Inductive process: codes,

themes, patterns to theory Source: Castellan (2010, p. 7)

Creswell (1994) has differentiated the two methodologies. He notes that qualitative study is an inquiry that draws on understanding a problem that is social or human in nature and normally conducted in a natural environment that employs words to try to explain the problem. On the other hand, quantitative research deals with quantitative measures that include the testing of theories using variables drawn from numbers that are then used with statistical procedures to derive meaning (Creswell, 1994). In the same context, Queirós, Faria and Almeida (2017) make it clear that each of the research methods, whether qualitative or quantitative, contains strengths and weaknesses, but each approach can achieve the desired goals based on the nature of the research questions. Accordingly, a study’s research questions determine the type of methodology that will be selected by the researcher. Krueger and Casey (2014) note that when selecting the methodology to be used, the researcher has to consider the participants involved and the audience targetted. In this study, a qualitative methodology is favoured.

The adoption of a qualtitative approach does not mean that a quantitative approach cannot be used for this kind of research. I deemed that the qualitative approach was better suited to understand positions, feelings, opinions and experiences of the participants about the current role of social media in the field of special education in KSA, especially in early intervention. Given that this is the first study that addresses the issue of social media and early intervention services in Saudi Arabia in such depth, a quantitative approach would not have provided the same deep insight into the topic. Quantitative surveys require that the researcher has a great knowledge of the subject so that he/she is able to develop variables that can be studied through quantitative methods such as surveys. The subjects and concepts that emerge from this qualitative study can subsequently be examined; thus, variables can be formed for later investigations. The various opinions expressed and the questions raised by the participants in this study, the stakeholders and service providers of the children with DS, can be analysed in later interviews and questionnaires through a quantitative approach in future research. The section below will provide further details on the rationale for choosing the qualtitative approach which has provided detailed and complex information on the current topic.