Ashford University Understanding the Value of Qualitative Research
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 9: Qualitative Methods, watch the Week 3 Assignment video,
and read the following resources on Dr. Loïc Wacquant’s research:
- “Habitus as Topic and Tool: Reflections on Becoming a Prizefighter”
- “A Fleshpeddler at Work: Power, Pain, and Profit in the Prizefighting Economy”
- “Whores, Slaves, and Stallions: Languages of Exploitation and Accommodation Among Professional Boxers”
- “UC’s ‘boxing sociologist’ / Combative French Professor Spent 3 Years in Ring (Links to an external site.)”
- A Professor Who Refuses To Pull His Punches (Links to an external site.)
- Boxing Proves a Hit for French Sociologist (Links to an external site.)
An important part of analyzing research approaches includes understanding the positive and negative aspects of varied forms of social research. Ethnography as an approach allows a researcher to immerse in a unique social world in order to experience the lives of those who live there. The most intriguing aspects of this type of qualitative research is how the researcher maintains an ethical and neutral stance, how the experience can impact them, and how they use the experience for positive social change.
In your paper, you will present the benefits of ethnographical research in terms of understanding a unique social world, as well as understanding the qualitative researcher’s role in performing and reporting on ethnographic research. You will do this through the resources provided, your own research of immersive ethnographical approaches, and also through critiquing Dr. Loïc Wacquant’s work.
In your paper, include the following sections/components:
Role of Researcher (One to two pages)
- Explain the researcher’s role in qualitative research in general and specifically in an ethnographic approach.
- Discuss the unique issues that researchers should be concerned about in qualitative research.
- Explain the challenges researchers face in ethnographical research.
- Discuss specific actions researchers can take to ensure they retain their ethical and neutral stance in performing qualitative research and reporting their qualitative research results.
Loïc Wacquant’s Research (One to two pages)
- Summarize what Loïc Wacquant’s research was about.
- Determine whether or not Wacquant maintained an ethical and neutral stance.
- Justify the research approach Wacquant chose to take.
- Explain whether or not this could have been possible with a quantitative research study.
Impact of Research (One page)
- Discuss how qualitative research and, in particular, ethnographic research, can inform our understanding of unique social worlds.
- Describe the potential impact of research in supporting positive social change through public policy.
The Value of Qualitative Research paper
- Must be five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
- Must include a separate title page with the following:
- Title of paper
- Student’s name
- Course name and number
- Instructor’s name
- Date submitted
For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
- Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
- Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
- For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
- Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
- The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
- Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
- Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.
Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.
