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Challenges and Practical Issues
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About the lecture
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.
About the lecturer
Professor Liz Atkins is Professor of Vocational Education and Social Justice at the University of Derby. She has a broad expertise within the field of education, specialising particularly in vocational education and working with low-attaining young people, and she has also written widely on methodological issues within education research. Her publications include Education, Skills and Social Justice in a Polarising World (2022, co-author), Research Methods for Social Justice and Equity in Education (2019, co-author), and Qualitative Research in Education (2012, co-author).
Hello.
00:00:05My name is Professor Liz Atkins, and I'm from the University of Darby,
00:00:06and I'm talking to you today about qualitative research.
00:00:11That's
00:00:16a really huge subject, and it will cover a range of different topics.
00:00:17Challenges some practical issues. Research, literature,
00:00:23research, ethics, which is about doing your research in a moral way,
00:00:27choosing your sample in negotiating access,
00:00:32looking at some qualitative research methods and how
00:00:36to analyse and write up your data.
00:00:40So the first thing to think about when we're
00:00:43talking about qualitative research is what exactly is it?
00:00:46You may have heard of quantitative research as well as qualitative,
00:00:52and these are two very different research paradigms.
00:00:57So essentially quantitative research is associated with numbers
00:01:01usually involves large numbers of participants,
00:01:07and the data that's gathered from those participants
00:01:13is often represented as graphs and charts,
00:01:16for example, so it's very much about numerical data.
00:01:20If we used that to investigate
00:01:25the outcomes of maths, GCSE say, in 2020
00:01:30we would be able to look at those data
00:01:35and determine whether the pass rate was higher or lower than previous years.
00:01:39What different grades, different students got,
00:01:44and so on and so forth However, if we also gathered some qualitative data,
00:01:50we interviewed students and their teachers.
00:01:58Then we would learn about the start of the pandemic.
00:02:01We would find out from those individuals about the fact
00:02:05that there was assessed coursework rather than terminal exams.
00:02:10And we'll also find out how people felt about that,
00:02:15whether they felt it was more or less difficult
00:02:18and whether they felt they got the expected outcomes. So all of a sudden,
00:02:21the qualitative aspect of that study gives us a much more nuanced
00:02:27and complex picture,
00:02:33and that's very much what qualitative research is about. It's about
00:02:35uncovering the complexities
00:02:42and illuminating the sort of dusty corners
00:02:44of
00:02:50issues, problems
00:02:51and so on in education, much educational research.
00:02:54Qualitative research is based on ethnography,
00:02:59and it's about trying to understand the why and the how of issues,
00:03:03as well as what has happened in a particular
00:03:10in relation to particular problem or issue,
00:03:14and the way in which qualitative
00:03:18researchers approach that reflects their epistemology.
00:03:21Qualitative research
00:03:25tends to use a lot of really complex terms, and epistemology is one of those.
00:03:29But essentially all that means is the way in
00:03:36which you understand knowledge and what knowledge means.
00:03:41It's a theory of knowledge,
00:03:47and
00:03:51in that context we know that something exists.
00:03:53But we want to know the why and the How about it
00:03:56in order to explore the why and the
00:04:01how most qualitative researchers draw on ethnographic methods.
00:04:04Ethnography is a branch of qualitative research,
00:04:10which looks at literally the study of people and of societies.
00:04:14And in exploring those things,
00:04:22um, it uses methods such as observation and interview, for example,
00:04:26and the
00:04:33research will go out.
00:04:35Will observe will interview,
00:04:37sometimes as part of the cultural community that they're investigating
00:04:39and that will will then interpret their findings
00:04:43where the researcher is actually part of the study,
00:04:48part of the community that that's being studied,
00:04:52that's often known as a true ethnography.
00:04:56And there are a few really interesting examples of
00:04:59those which have been around now for many years.
00:05:04One example is work by Stephen Ball
00:05:07when he was working in a secondary school that was called beachside Comprehensive.
00:05:13In the book, he wrote about it
00:05:20so
00:05:23in an
00:05:25undertaking, a project like this, which often uses many different methods,
00:05:26different approaches
00:05:33and is concerned with people's experiences and understandings,
00:05:35an awful lot of practical issues can come up.
00:05:40Some of those are quite simple,
00:05:44but some of them can be quite difficult to
00:05:46deal with and all the way through the process.
00:05:49It's important that you're aware of the challenges that can arise and that
00:05:53you're prepared to respond to them in the best possible where you can.
00:05:58And the reason for that is that many of these issues are related to ethics,
00:06:04and it's really important that you have a really rigorous approach to ethics.
00:06:09And so you can claim that research has integrity,
00:06:19that it's honest and that its moral,
00:06:22other issues can arise in relation to particular types of data collection.
00:06:27And I'll talk about those later in this lecture
00:06:33whilst I'm talking about those particular data collection methods.
00:06:35So one of the most important practical issues is
00:06:40how to make sure you qualitative research is rigorous,
00:06:46robust and trustworthy.
00:06:51Now, if you were doing quantitative research, you would make sure that
00:06:54your experiments was replicable, for example,
00:07:00or that somebody else could gain the same results if they went through.
00:07:05The same process is but because you're talking to
00:07:10different people or observing different people at different times.
00:07:13In qualitative research,
00:07:17it becomes more difficult to demonstrate the rigour of your research.
00:07:19And so,
00:07:27in order to do that,
00:07:29we're concerned with qualitative research being systematic
00:07:30so that you go through a process
00:07:35that's very clear that you can describe in how you've done it.
00:07:37And the key strategies for achieving this are the literature review,
00:07:41triangulation
00:07:45and reflectivity.
00:07:47Triangulation, as you might guess from the word,
00:07:50means looking at something from different perspectives.
00:07:54So in order to triangulate, you will normally use multiple methods,
00:07:59certainly more than one.
00:08:05And you will also use the literature review,
00:08:07which will situate your study in what is already known about this particular topic,
00:08:10so that you understand how your outcomes are
00:08:18similar to or different from previous research.
00:08:22And if you've done something which somebody else has
00:08:26previously done and you've got very different findings,
00:08:31are the questions about the rigour of the way you've done your project,
00:08:36or have you uncovered something that this person missed
00:08:41and those would be questions for you to explore
00:08:44and reflexive?
00:08:48Itty simply means to be aware all the time of what is happening in the research,
00:08:50how you feel about it, what kind of impact you're having on it,
00:08:59what kind of impact the research is having on you
00:09:04and thinking about and writing down
00:09:08those issues and considering whether
00:09:10they are influencing the research,
00:09:13the participants and the outcomes of the project.
00:09:16
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Atkins, L. (2022, March 03). Qualitative Methods - Challenges and Practical Issues [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/options/qualitative-methods-605c0efc-1caa-4e06-b629-064128e23f53?auth=0&lesson=5212&option=16772&type=lesson
MLA style
Atkins, L. "Qualitative Methods – Challenges and Practical Issues." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 03 Mar 2022, https://massolit.io/options/qualitative-methods-605c0efc-1caa-4e06-b629-064128e23f53?auth=0&lesson=5212&option=16772&type=lesson