In qualitative research, the quality of a piece of research only becomes assessable on the basis of the report about it:
The research report with its presentation of and reflection on the methodological proceedings, with all its narratives about access to and the activities in the field, with its documentation of various materials, with
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its transcribed observations and conversations, interpretations and theoretical inferences is the only basis for answering the question of the quality of the investigation. (Lüders, 1995, p. 325)
If we take this seriously, the question of dissemination of research and its find- ings will become relevant for judging the quality of qualitative research in three respects, which again will influence the design of a study or a project.
Transparency
In writing about our research, we should make transparent how we proceeded and how we arrived at our findings and conclusions. This is a suggestion repeatedly made for increasing the quality of qualitative research. To take it seriously means to present the project and the results in a way that allows the reader to understand how decisions (about methods, about types in typology, etc.) have been taken, how the researchers worked with deviant cases, how the analysis led to more gen- eral patterns and the like. A transparent presentation of a piece of qualitative research will not be limited to the results, but will allow the reader to develop a feeling for how the process advanced, how ideas were developed, which ideas were pursued and which were left aside. Readers should be given enough infor- mation to decide whether they would have done the same and arrived at the same conclusions as the researchers or not.
Feedback and member checks
A second feature of good practice in this context is whether the researcher has sought feedback from the field in two respects. One is the field under study. Here, steps like communicative validation, feedback loops or member checks can give important information for checking the accuracy and adequacy of the research.
The second is the field of science. Did the researchers look for feedback from their colleagues? Have preliminary results been made public in conferences or journal papers? How were the reactions to them taken into account in the further research? This can also be understood as a way to manage diversity in the quali- tative research project, in this case by taking outside perspectives into account (see Flick, 2007, chap. 3).
Audiencing the presentations
This is a relevant issue already for planning the research. Who are the audiences to be addressed by the results and by the research in general? How should a report or an article be written so that it will reach its audience and be accessible for its readers? If we write for academic audiences, our style will be different from when we write for readers in a practice context, who want to draw conclusions on a practical level from our results. Finally, if our research aims at having an impact on political decision processes, we need a different style of writing again. In the
latter case, we need to write in a brief style with clear indications of the most important findings and their meaning, without confusing our readers with too many details. In the first case, it is more the details that are important for classi- fying the results and for assessing their relevance.
On the level of disseminating the results beyond the research project and con- text, three issues are relevant: that you make your research transparent; that you carefully reflect if and how you transport your results back to the field and then what you do with the response from the field; and finally, that you reflect how to write for specific audiences and in general so that you reach the audience you want to address with your results and reports.
Conclusion
Quality issues become relevant for designing qualitative research on three levels, which are interlinked. If you understand qualitative research design as a reflexive planning of what you want to do in the field, what you expect to find there and how to analyze it, these three levels will influence your decisions in the planning phase.
Key points
• Quality in qualitative research is the result of efforts in planning, con- ducting and reporting qualitative research.
• All three steps become relevant for designing qualitative research.
• In designing qualitative research, you should know why and how you would do what you plan.
• In conducting the research, quality will be developed in the context of three tensional fields.
• Dissemination of research is important as the step that connects your results back to the field, to audiences and readers in general.
Further reading
These three books will give you some more information about how to address issues of quality in qualitative research:
Flick, U. (2007) Managing Quality in Qualitative Research(Book 8 of The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit). London: Sage.
Patton, M.Q. (2002) Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (3rd ed.).
London: Sage.
Seale, C. (1999) The Quality of Qualitative Research. London: Sage.
Quality in qualitative research
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