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Qualitative research

About: Qualitative research is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 39957 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2390470 citations. The topic is also known as: Qualitative method.


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Journal ArticleDOI
Julius Sim1
TL;DR: The effective use of focus groups as a means of gathering qualitative data in nursing research requires due attention to problematic methodological issues such as those explored in this paper.
Abstract: The focus group has gained considerable popularity as a means of gathering qualitative data in nursing research. This paper examines some of the methodological issues raised by the collection and analysis of focus group data. In respect of data collection, the role of the focus group moderator and the method of recording data are crucial considerations. In particular, the moderator's personal skills and attributes have a considerable influence on the nature and quality of the data gathered. When analysing the data, three principal issues arise. First, it is difficult, and probably misguided, to attempt to infer an attitudinal consensus from focus group data. An apparent conformity of view is an emergent property of the group interaction, not a reflection of individual participants' opinions. Second, measuring strength of opinion from focus group data is problematic. The indicators used to measure attitudes in orthodox survey research are largely inapplicable to the context of focus groups. When comparing data from different focus groups, inferences may be drawn as to the presence of absence of certain views or issues across groups, but not in terms of their relative strength. Third, both methodological and epistemological objections can be raised against attempts to generalize from focus group data. Theoretical generalization is likely to be more feasible than empirical generalization, and if the latter is considered fruitful, it is likely to be of a provisional nature. The effective use of focus groups as a means of gathering qualitative data in nursing research requires due attention to problematic methodological issues such as those explored in this paper.

945 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, reflective journals were used in engaging with the notion of creating transparency in the research process, and explore the impact of critical self-reflection on research design, and how reflective journals can have concrete effects on the research design.
Abstract: The problem of bias in qualitative research particularly is still debated in methodology texts and there is a lack of agreement on how much researcher influence is acceptable, whether or not it needs to be "controlled," and how it might be accounted for. Denzin (1994) refers to this as "the interpretive crisis" (p. 501). I chose to make my experiences, opinions, thoughts, and feelings visible and an acknowledged part of the research process through keeping reflective journals and using them in writing up the research. The aim of this paper is to show how reflective journals were used in engaging with the notion of creating transparency in the research process, and explore the impact of critical self-reflection on research design. Key Words: Self-reflection, Qualitative Research, and Research Journals Introduction A reflexive approach to the research process is now widely accepted in much qualitative research. Researchers are urged to talk about themselves, "their presuppositions, choices, experiences, and actions during the research process" (Mruck & Breuer, 2003, p. 3). Reflective practice such as this aims to make visible to the reader the constructed nature of research outcomes, a construction that "originates in the various choices and decisions researchers undertake during the process of researching" (Mruck & Breuer, p. 3). Increasingly qualitative research, particularly that which is situated within feminist, critical, and poststructuralist paradigms is, ... presented in ways that make it clear how the researcher's own experiences, values, and positions of privilege in various hierarchies have influenced their research interests, the way they choose to do their research, and the ways they choose to represent their research findings. (Harrison, MacGibbon, & Morton, 2001, p. 325) Rather than attempting to control researcher values through method or by bracketing assumptions, the aim is to consciously acknowledge those values. Keeping self-reflective journals is a strategy that can facilitate reflexivity, whereby researchers use their journal to examine "personal assumptions and goals" and clarify "individual belief systems and subjectivities" (Ahern as cited in Russell & Kelly, 2002, p. 2). Whilst keeping a reflective journal is a common practice in qualitative research, particularly reflexive research (Etherington, 2004), there is relatively little literature on the use of reflective journals in the research process, and limited guidance for novice researchers as to the purposes of keeping a reflective journal from a methodological perspective and how to use their reflections as an integral part of the research process. This aim of this paper is to show the reader how reflective journals were used in engaging with the notion of creating transparency in the research process, and how keeping a reflective journal can have concrete effects on the research design. The goal is to provide a research "trail" of gradually altering methodologies and reshaping analysis. My target audience is novice researchers, perhaps doctoral students, who have been advised to keep a research journal, but are not sure about the purpose of keeping such a journal or how they might use it in their research. The purpose is to share my experiences with, and uses of, reflective research journals so that novice researchers can more consciously engage in journaling and make it part of their research from the beginning, and also, to illustrate in a descriptive way how journals might be written and how they might be used. The project in which I used reflective journals was a doctoral research study that explored how tertiary supervisors understand and practise assessment of the early childhood practicum. Participants were tertiary supervisors who supervised and assessed students enrolled in pre-service early childhood education courses offered by universities and/or institutes of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in Australia. …

941 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines translation dilemmas in qualitative research and explores three questions: whether methodologically it matters if the act of translation matters, and whether it is worth the effort of translation.
Abstract: The focus of this article is an examination of translation dilemmas in qualitative research. Specifically it explores three questions: whether methodologically it matters if the act of translation ...

937 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Evaluation of the feasibility of synthesising qualitative research using qualitative methodology including a formative evaluation of criteria for assessing the research to be synthesised confirmed that meta-ethnography can lead to a synthesis and extension of qualitative research in a defined field of study.

936 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: Loads of the qualitative research in health care book catalogues in this site are found as the choice of you visiting this page.
Abstract: Find loads of the qualitative research in health care book catalogues in this site as the choice of you visiting this page. You can also join to the website book library that will show you numerous books from any types. Literature, science, politics, and many more catalogues are presented to offer you the best book to find. The book that really makes you feels satisfied. Or that's the book that will save you from your job deadline.

934 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20242
20236,582
202213,526
20213,149
20202,696
20192,694