Ethnography typically involves lengthy participation or immersion in the everyday life of a chosen or natural setting.

James Comparison of Qualitative Research Designs Qualitative research involves varieties of theoretical and philosophical traditions that, in general, stem from an interpretivist view of the world. This discussion focuses on ethnographic and phenomenological research designs. Ethnography is a qualitative research design that focuses on direct observation of a particular social group or culture through talking to members of the group and looking at documents. In ethnographic research, the researcher is the research instrument and is trying to understand the happenings in a particular setting. Ethnography typically involves lengthy participation or immersion in the everyday life of a chosen or natural setting. This method requires patience and time since it often depends on waiting for things to happen. For instance, many health researchers have used ethnographic methods to explore what happens in medical settings such as conversational exchanges between doctors and patients in health clinics and how this affects understandings and experiences of health. The data being collected through words or actions are typically recorded in field notes, or it may be audio and/or videotaped (Howson, 2021, para 1). On the contrary, phenomenological research design focuses on studying affective, emotional, and often intense human experiences. Phenomenology is the study of people’s conscious experience of their lifeworld that is, their everyday life and social action. This type of research focuses on the assumption that there exists an essence or essences to shared experience. These essences are the core meanings mutually understood through a phenomenon commonly experienced and experiences of different people are bracketed, analyzed, and compared to identify the essences of phenomenon such as essence of being a participant in a certain program (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p.22). In phenomenological design, the researcher uses purposive or theoretical sampling to identify informants who can illuminate the phenomenon of interest and can communicate their experiences. The researcher begins with a full description of his or her experience with the phenomenon to be examined which is often documented in the form of field notes or memos. The data is usually collected through detailed interviewing, sometimes augmented by the participant observation (Klenke, 2016, p.212).

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