Challenges and Practical Issues

Qualitative Methods in Education Research

In this course, Professor Liz Atkins (University of Derby) explores qualitative research methods and their application to education. In the first lecture, we consider some challenges and practical issues associated with qualitative research, notably around ensuring that it is rigorous. In the second lecture, we look at literature reviews, their importance, and how they are conducted. In the third lecture, we examine ethical issues in qualitative research. Next, we explore how to construct a sample and negotiate access to participants. In the fifth lecture, we survey key qualitative data-collection methods, including interviews and observations. In the sixth lecture, we look at questionnaires. In the seventh and final lecture, we conclude with a discussion of how to analyse qualitative data and ensure that research reports are clear and engaging.

Challenges and Practical Issues

In this lecture, we think about some challenges and practical issues associated with qualitative research, focusing in particular on: (i) what qualitative research is, particularly in relation to quantitative research; (ii) the importance of ethnographic methods to qualitative research; (iii) some central issues, notably those linked to ethics, which arise when undertaking qualitative research; (iv) the greater difficulty in qualitative research, as compared with quantitative, of ensuring that research is rigorous, and three ways of doing this – triangulation, conducting a literature review, and reflexivity.