Question

List 3 questions to consider when critiquing the role of the researcher in a qualitative study.

Answer 1

The role of the researcher in qualitative research is to attempt to access the thoughts and feelings of study participants. ... However the data are being collected, a primary responsibility of the researcher is to safeguard participants and their data.

• Apply qualitative standards of credibility, dependability, and transferability to the processes of:
  • Monitoring and reducing bias,
  • Developing competence in one's methods,
  • Collecting the data,
  • Analyzing the data, and
  • Presenting the findings.

Integrity of the Research is the Issue

Recall from other qualitative courses that qualitative researchers are as concerned about the integrity of their research as quantitative researchers, but they face different challenges. Before examining how the researcher is key to research integrity in qualitative research, let's note some terminology differences between the methodologies. The below provides them at a glance. These are terms related to research integrity:

In Quantitative: designs, validity, reliability, and generalizability (or external validity) are based on the integrity of the design, and of the methods, and instruments used, and only to a lesser extent to the person of the researcher.

In Qualitative: on the other hand, credibility, dependability, and transferability rely on the person and performance of the researcher.

This is why we talk about the role of the researcher in qualitative research.

The Integrity of the Research Equals The Integrity of the Researcher

Of course, this is true of both quantitative and qualitative research. Researchers make errors, and these threaten the validity, reliability, and utility of their studies.

Qualitative researchers, however, lack many of the protections against errors that the statistical methods, standardized measures, and classical designs afford. They must rely on their own competence, openness, and honesty. That is, on their person. Thus, their role, the role of the researcher is more open to scrutiny.

Role of Researcher: Monitoring and Reducing Bias

Bias is a source of error. When a quantitative researcher administers a standardized test, bias is less a problem than when a qualitative researcher has a conversation with a participant. Why?

The researcher's ideas—about the study, her knowledge, about the topic from the literature review, hopes for the study, and simply human distractibility—crop up constantly and can distort what she hears. Confirmation bias—(the name for this) afflicts quantitative researchers, too, but more often when they are analyzing data and seeing what they are disposed to see. Qualitative researchers, whose human brains are trained to find meaning in everything, encounter confirmation bias in every interaction with both participants and data.

Therefore, monitoring and reducing one's disposition to interpret too quickly is an essential part of the researcher's role. Qualitative researchers have evolved a variety of methods for this, such as the famous phenomenological reduction and epoché, but every design within qualitative methodology requires an explicit description of how the researcher will remain conscious of his or her previous knowledge and dispositions and how he or she will control the intrusion of bias.

For example, many qualitative researchers practice mindfulness meditation as a means to become aware when their thoughts are about previous knowledge rather than open and receptive to the information from the participant.

Role of Researcher: Developing Competence in Methods

Many novice researchers think they are competent to do qualitative research. Unfortunately, they are usually wrong.

Qualitative methods, like quantitative methods, require implementing specialized skills correctly. Competence in these skills is required at all these points:

• Explaining the study without biasing the potential participants.
• Conducting interviews properly, according to the design.
• Making appropriate field observations.
• Selecting appropriate artifacts, images, journal portions, and so on.
• Handling data per design.
• Analyzing and interpreting the data per the design.

This competence is not taught in most methods courses; novice researchers are often expected to obtain training and practice on their own. What should they do?

Role of Researcher: Developing Competence in Methods

Here are some ideas, although they are not prescriptions and you may find many other ways to develop competence.

The first step: is to self-assess your competence. Assume you do not have competence in each of the skill areas unless you have demonstrated it to someone who knows. If you perform interviews of clients, for example, but have never been taught to do interviews for research, assume you do not have the competence until a researcher who uses interviews tells you that you do.

The next step: is to talk with your mentor— about a plan to get training. For example, many learners who need to demonstrate competence in qualitative interviews do a few practice interviews and ask their mentors to critique their technique. The coaching not only amounts to a kind of training, but the mentor can then attest to the researcher's baseline competence. Another common plan is to attend training workshops in the actual design—such as grounded theory—conducted in research organizations or universities.

For each skill set your design requires you to have, including practicing the analysis methods, create a training plan that includes demonstrating competence to someone.

Is this more work? Maybe so, maybe not. If you were conducting a multiple regression analysis and did not know how to do that, you'd have to learn it, practice it, and demonstrate your competence to someone. So, it's all a matter of perspective.

Role of Researcher: Collecting and Analyzing Data

There are far too many complications in collecting and analyzing qualitative data to cover in this presentation. Have you ever:

• Wired someone with a microphone and inadvertently touched a sensitive body part?
• Sat in a schoolyard to make field observations amid the chaos and swirl of 200 hundred children at recess and known where to start?
• Been confronted with 500 pages of a single-spaced transcript and, known where to start?
• Brought a straying interviewee back to the topic in a way that not only did not offend but actually improved rapport?
• Asked questions that didn't betray what you think the answer should be?
• Sorted through 10,000 sentences or 500 pictures to identify which ones should be retained as data and which ones could be discarded?
• Recognized when you have an actual finding. In other words, can you spot a finding in qualitative analysis?

These are but a few of the challenges that the qualitative researcher faces. Are you ready? Probably not. What should you do?

• Acknowledge that you are a novice. A dissertation is an apprenticeship or internship in research. No one expects the apprentice or intern to be a master.
• Ask for help from your:
  • Mentor.
  • Committee members.
  • Other dissertators, those in your mentor's courseroom, but also others around the world. Read similar dissertations and write to their authors asking for tips and tricks. Authors love knowing that someone is reading their work.
  • Professional researchers. These professionals are scholars, and they will help, at least many of them will. Two or three e-mails that yield excellent advice—and perhaps an ongoing relationship—are well worth the investment of anxiety and time.

Role of Researcher: Presenting the Findings

Most of us present findings in writing. While a few will also present their findings in posters and oral presentations, everyone in Track 3 will at least present them in writing.

Develop and demonstrate competence in writing!

Dr. James Meredith of the Capella Writing Program points out that you have to write your way out of the doctoral program.

Capella makes an extraordinary effort to provide support and instruction in scholarly writing, primarily through the Capella Writing Program and the Online Writing Center. Failing to take advantage of all these resources will result in your findings being sent back to you for revision. Why waste the time? Right now, you can and should start to make use of:

• The Scholarly Communications Guide; it's available in the Dissertation Research Seminar courseroom for you.
• Review and get familiar with the Dissertation Chapter Four Guide (qualitative or quantitative); this too is available in the Dissertation Milestone Resources area on iGuide. It offers a conventional way to structure the findings chapter of the dissertation. By learning it now, you'll have in mind a set of ideas about what sort of competence in writing and in analyzing your data you'll need at this point in the project.
• Resources for writing in the Capella Writing Program; these are broad and deep—you will be ignoring a treasure that would help you succeed if you fail to take advantage of these.
• And, perhaps most important, read dissertations and articles; read dozens in your specific methodology and design (for example, phenomenology or grounded theory). Get to know what other novice researchers are doing and how well they are doing it. Open your mind to learning from them, and remain critical of their errors and foibles: we all have them. Make it your goal to absorb the style and conventions of writers using your methodology and design.
• Learn APA style; again, Dr. Meredith reminds us that the correct use of APA format and style is an automatic claim to credibility! Remember that the converse is also true: APA errors, or even ignoring the format and style rules, automatically deprive your writing of credibility and trustworthiness.

Conclusion

We've covered the importance of evaluating your own role as the researcher, in the various elements of a qualitative study:

• Monitoring and reducing bias.
• Developing competence in one's methods.
• Collecting the data.
• Analyzing the data.
• Presenting the findings.