Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): An Innovative Approach for Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

Educational research has long used quantitative and qualitative analysis. Quantitative analysis is the process of quantifying things through the use of numbers, which represent quantifiable characteristics of things such as scale, speed, and degree, as well as the spatial arrangement of their constituents (Yang, 1995). Qualitative analysis is the polar opposite, i.e., evaluating things on the basis of their quality rather than their quantity. A thing's quality refers to its normative nature, which distinguishes it from other things (Li, 1997). Simply put, quantitative analysis focuses on the "what" and employs numerical expressions to depict a given reality, whereas qualitative analysis aims to comprehend the "why" and investigates how we describe something.