Quality in Qualitative Research: Reflections from the SRA Webinar  

Karen O’Reilly opened the webinar by noting that it is easy to get drawn into a defensive starting point when thinking about what quality means in qualitative research and to measure it against concepts applicable to other methods such as discussing sample sizes. She suggested an alternative approach is to explain qualitative research. Drawing on Martin Parr, Karen proposed  to ask where quality can be found in qualitative research. It may lie in surprising findings that challenge stereotypes, in capturing the complexity of respondents’ lives, in its depth and richness and in challenges to the researcher and the audience. Quality is also in the hearing, understanding seeing and sharing of respondents’ views and experiences. Finally, quality is in giving space to voices or topics that have not been heard before, perhaps because they are difficult to access or understand. Finally, Qquality is also in placing the findings in their context and taking the reader to the place of the respondents.   

Quality matters!  

Jonah Bury followed this presentation by sharing his views on  why quality in qualitative research matters. He explained that qualitative research does not only help to describe and capture the social world, it also  “participates in constructing it”.  Qualitative research becomes part of the evidence that informs policy and funding decisions, e.g. about whether particular programmes get scaled up or closed down and, thus, shapes our lives. Drawing on examples from evaluation of school interventions for the Education Endowment Foundation, Jonah went on to discuss sincerity and credibility in social research with sincerity referring to being transparent, self-critical and honest about the limitations of a piece of research. Credibility can be established through grounding claims in evidence, using the appropriate methods, analysing data collaboratively and including diverse participants and perspectives. He closed his presentation by emphasising that quality in qualitative research has both a methodological and an ethical component.   
 
Discussion: The discussion following the two presentations  question and answer session then raised a whole bunch of interesting points, such as:  

Having to advocate for qualitative research  - Participants asked how to advocate for qualitative approaches in settings unfamiliar with qualitative research. The speakers suggested emphasising the unique insights qualitative work provides -depth, context, lived experience - and demonstrating quality through transparency of process and clear communication.  

Managing consent when formal processes feel inappropriate  - Researchers often face ethics requirements from their local ethics committees to ask respondents to read and sign long information and consent forms that may not be suitable in their context. Karen highlighted the importance of engaging with ethics committees and for the approval process to become a dialogue rather than a hurdle to get over but also to regard consent as an ongoing question that should be repeated at different stages of the data collection.   

Balancing sincerity with realistic expectations  - How do we communicate the value of participants’ contributions while being honest about limited influence over policy decisions? This is a tricky question and iIt is important to be clear about the role research plays in policy-making, i.e. that it is not a linear process. However, I want to add my own answer here. A number of studies over the years have highlighted that civil servants tend to mostly read their own reports. This means that a piece of research may or may not have direct influence on policy-making at the time. However, it is likely to be read by researchers and summarised for policy-makers for a long time to come and may well shape mindsets and actual policy design at a later stage.   

Working with commissioners who want to shape topic guides  - Commissioners’ involvement in research design and developing the topic guide can be helpful, but qualitative research requires flexibility and space to explore topics fully with respondents rather than galloping through a large set of topics. Both speakers suggested explaining the role and strength of qualitative research lying in the in-depth exploration of topics, which requires space within the interview. Potentially there are other ways of collecting some of the data that colleagues are interested in, e.g. if it is a mixed-methods project, which includes a survey.    

Checklists for qualitative research projects   -  A  number of publications include principles and guidelines – see references below! These can be particularly helpful when managing larger and more complex qualitative research projects but are also generally good practice.   

A stronger voice for qualitative researchers in interdisciplinary spaces  - This theme came through quite strongly in the questions, namely the need to explain qualitative research to research colleagues and policy-makers.  It goes back to Karen’s opening point: The need to  to focus on explaining the strengths and unique insights that come from qualitative research rather than defending why qualitative research does not meet the quality criteria developed for quantitative research.   

The hour was up  

The webinar could have continued for much longer, there were many more interesting questions in the chat. We will continue the discussion in the members hub and, also, arrange another webinar in the autumn on this subject. For now, I would like to end the same way as Karen ended her presentation, namely with a quote from Les Black (2021):  

”Our work may be of value precisely because it documents remarkable things that are not remarked upon and in so doing creates an archive of emergent alternatives, directions or possibilities... As scholars the attentiveness we pay to the world is part of hope’s work.”