My Colleague's Choice of Sampling Strategy

I agree with my colleague's choice of purposeful sampling strategy utilized in Yob and Brewer's (n.d.) study. In this study, participants who had taken part in social change and who had an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of interest to the study were recruited into the study after being "identified by their colleagues, teachers, or mentors as active participants in social change activities and possessing an ability and willingness to articulate their understandings in a considered way." Consequently, this sampling approach is known as purposeful referral sampling technique.

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In this sampling approach, identified experts refer to other equally qualified experts (Wang & Reio, 2018). This sampling approach is also called snowball sampling (Grand Canyon University, Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching, 2019; Mulligan & Castaneda, 2017). Also agree that snowball sample is derived from respondent recommendations or referrals (Royse, Thyer, & Padgett, 2015). Even though this sampling technique was appropriate for the study, it has some limitations. Some of these weaknesses include sampling bias and lack of generalizability of the findings (Rubin & Babbie, 2015).

Expanding my Colleague's Ideas Regarding Strategies for Improving Saturation

I agree with my colleague's explanation of saturation and his argument that Yob and Brewer's (n.d.) study achieved saturation. This is because it has been established that to attain saturation, a researcher needs about 12 interviews, especially when the population is relatively homogenous (Cassell, Cunliffe, & Grandy, 2017). In Yob and Brewer's (n.d.) study, the researchers utilized a sample of 30 participants. Consequently, it can be concluded that the researchers conducted 30 interviews and collected data from each of these participants. Because of this, Yob and Brewer (n.d.) met the basic requirements of 12 interviews required for data saturation.

References

Cassell, C., Cunliffe, A. L., & Grandy, G. (2017). The Sage handbook of qualitative business and management research methods. New York, NY: SAGE.

Grand Canyon University, Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching. (2019). Qualitative sampling methods - center for innovation in research and teaching. Retrieved from https://cirt.gcu.edu/research/developmentresources/research_ready/qualitative/sampling

Royse, D., Thyer, B. A., & Padgett, D. K. (2015). Program evaluation: an introduction to an evidence-based approach. Boston, MA: Cengage.

Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. R. (2015). Empowerment series: essential research methods for social work. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Wang, V. C. X., & Reio, T. G. (Eds.). (2018). Handbook of research on innovative techniques, trends, and analysis for optimized research methods. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).