Main Criticisms of Qualitative Research

1
Main Criticisms of Qualitative Research

• Subjectivity leads to procedural problems
• Replicability is very difficult
• Unreliable
• Researcher bias is built in and unavoidable
• In-depth, comprehensive approach to data
  gathering limits scope
• Labor intensive
• Time consuming
• Expensive
• Very unreliable
• (See Haralambos Methodology Chapter)

2
Changes in the Socio-Political System (GLOBAL)

• Marketization and global capitalism
• Problems of Gender identities
• Unjust social relations - class
• Problems of National identities
• Imposed knowledge
• The oppression of minorities
• organized violence
• The hegemonic ranslational institutions and the
  control of nation states and social actors
• Global surveillance, issues of privacy and the
  manipulation of identities and social practices
  through global information and communication
  technologies
• Incivility

3
Changes in the Socio-Political System
(GLOBAL)/Intellectual and Academic

• 1980s Postmodernism
• Representations it was understood that
  researchers/people created reality through their
  representational, textual and interpretive
  practices the emergence of the discourse turn
  (text, action, sounds, images) associated with
  Foucault and Derrida
• How to (Re)present information The merging of
  social science and the humanities
• Politics of doing research
• Ethics and doing funded research
• Purpose What is the purpose of the social
  sciences?

4
Changes in the Socio-Political System (GLOBAL)

• Need for deeper and rich understanding of social
  and political life
• Need for in-depth Examination of Phenomena
  (greater insights and depth) - Provide thick
  descriptions of a phenomena
• Extracts meaning from data
• Examine and answer complex questions that can be
  impossible with quantitative methods
• Need for a tool which explore new areas of social
  and political life
• Need for a holistic approach understanding/interpr
  eting and explaining social life build new
  theories new association between variables and
  deconstruct existing ones.

5
Changes/Revolutions in the nature of Qualitative
Research

• The emergence of new theories
• Hermeneutics
• Critical Inquiry
• Feminism
• Postmodernism

6
Changes/Revolutions in the nature of Qualitative
Research

• The emergence of new methodologies
• Grounded theory
• Heuristic inquiry
• Action research
• Discourse analysis/Critical Discourse Analysis
• Feminist/Critical/Postcolonial and Postmodern
  Ethnography

7
Changes in the nature of Qualitative Research

• The emergence of new data collection and data
  analysis tools to verify and make possible the
  reproduction of a research project
  trustworthiness
• Trustworthiness includes elements such as
  credibility, confirmability, transferability/Repli
  cability (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).
• Reflexivity

8
Trustworthiness
Naturalistic terms
credibility
Transferability/ Replicability
dependability
confirmability
9
Credibility

• Prolonged Engagement
• Persistent Observation
• Conduct peer consultations with colleagues get
  their
• interpretations of the data
• Discuss issues such as the theoretical and
  accessible population, sampling frame and the
  actual sample, methodology, methods, the
  theoretical framework and the framing of the
  study
• Use data (methods) triangulation
• use of multiple methods
• Use different data sources to study a phenomena
• Member Checks

10
Transferability and DependabilityCan the
research be replicated else where (is it
reliable)?

• Transferability or replicability is concerned
  with the readiness of both researchers and users
  of research findings to optimize the utilization
  of research elsewhere.
• Such an undertaking is dependent on "solid
  descriptive data," or "thick description" (See
  Gertz Photocopy - docuspot) which the interview
  procedure for this study provided.
• This was also facilitated through the use of the
  Audit Trail where the researcher thus establishes
  a trackable and documentable process (Lincoln and
  Guba, 1985).
• Replicability was enhanced through the use of a
  Case Study Protocol and the Case Study Database
  (Refer to docuspot photocopy).

11
Confirmability Are the findings a product of the
focus of the inquiry and not the biases of the
researcher?

• Track data to their sources
• Audit Trail