There is a very large body of literature devoted to thinking about how the “quality” of qualitative research should be assessed. From writing several decades ago in which the concepts of “validity” and “reliability” were redefined and applied to qualitative research (e.g., Goetz & LeCompte, 1983; LeCompte & Goetz, 1992), methodologists have argued for the … Continue reading Assessing “quality” in qualitative research
Month: April 2017
Variations in doing ethnographic research
Qualitative researchers have innovated with ethnographic methods in numerous ways. In this blogpost, Kathy Roulston and Kathleen deMarrais discuss some examples of variations on traditional ethnographies. Traditional ethnographies call for researchers to spend extensive periods of time in a field setting getting to know people and learning about others’ experiences and cultures. Participation is crucial … Continue reading Variations in doing ethnographic research
Memo writing as a way of being a researcher
In teaching qualitative data analysis, I’ve found that students are frequently surprised at the value of “memo writing.” This is perhaps because memo writing is frequently seen as an additional step in the process off data analysis that takes time out from the work of analyzing data. Yet, memo writing can serve an important role … Continue reading Memo writing as a way of being a researcher
Tips for observing and taking field notes in qualitative studies
Kathryn Roulston Recently I was in a field setting observing a classroom. I thought about taking notes on my tablet or laptop, but I thought that might be distracting for those in the classroom. I went old school – I took a pad and hand wrote notes, and began by drawing an organizational map of … Continue reading Tips for observing and taking field notes in qualitative studies
QualPage 