Cornell and Hartmann, chapter 1: “The puzzles of ethnicity and race”

- How are qualitative and quantitative research different? What different purposes do they serve and what is the value and limitations of each?

- Why are we using qualitative research to study race and ethnicity?

- Why is informed consent important?

Qualitative research is focuses on data that can't be collected and analyzed according to numbers. Qualitative research is often quite in depth, but may use less participants than quantitative research. Quantitative research often uses a wide group of participants and uses numbers to represent different aspects and to analyze the research.
In order to study race and ethnicity, I am using qualitative research. Qualitative research is best for this project because I am looking at my participants views of Africa and where they may have gotten those views from. This way I can look at what my participants really think is important and what kinds of things that they think about Africa without limiting their options. Giving them answers to pick from could also  reinforce those views or create new views for my participants. I used a combination of multiple choice and fill in answers on the questionaire.
Informed consent is important so that the participants will know what they are getting into by completing the questionaire or participating in the research. It will let them know of the risks and will inform them what will be done with the data that is recieved from them. It should be a contract of confidentiality which must be upheld by the researcher. The informed consent is also for legal procedure so that the research can use the information from the participant. Overall, the informed consent is important because it lets the participant know what to expect as they participate.