A Classification of Qualitative Research Methods

Abstract

“Qualitative methods” is an umbrella term to cover the methods and techniques which haven’t been able to be “quantitative”. Qualitative research methods have been introduced in social science to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena. This paper is to introduce qualitative methods and investigate philosophical paradigms in researches and it tries to compare qualitative and quantitative research methods in this term. At the final stage, the paper introduces qualitative research process and four main qualitative research strategies.