Evaluating qualitative research

An informal workshop that addresses some of the challenging issues around how qualitative research should be (or can be) evaluated

This informal and discursive event will draw directly from Karen O’Reilly’s book, Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone, Chapter 2. It argues that qualitative research should be evaluated on its own terms not using criteria imported from other approaches. We begin with a reminder of the strengths and limitations of qualitative research – what it can and cannot do. We then consider some key tests that could be applied to qualitative research and what these might look like in practice. Topics:

· Validity: does the research do what it set out to do?

· Transparency: Is it transparent, rigorous and reflexive?

· Usefulness: Is the research potentially useful or applicable?

· Representativeness: what does this mean for qualitative research?

· Is it meaningful?

· Does it develop general themes and typologies?

· Does it evoke shared meanings? Is it evocative and believable?

· Does it enable transference?

· Does it generalise through theory and concepts

· Hopefulness: does it give us some hope?

Qualitative Research is designed to understand and interpret people’s meanings, feelings and emotions, as these are shaped by experiences, and as they shape actions. Findings take the shape of insights and understandings, presented as themes, patterns, processes or stories, that respect the complexity and diversity of human lived life. These help us understand what people do and what they might do, so that we have the confidence to develop policies or interventions that lead to better outcomes. Qualitative research can identify the needs of diverse and seldom heard people and help overcome unconscious bias, in research and in policy, by giving participants a voice. Qualitative research is more likely to be truthful or of value because it understands complexity and context, and practice. Qualitative research achieves representativeness through being broadly meaningful, developing themes and typologies, evoking shared meanings; enabling transference; or by using theory and concepts. Qualitative research can give us hope.

The event is designed for students, academics, researchers, and practitioners working in diverse settings such as nursing and charity work.

The workshop is not for those who know little about qualitative research yet want to learn how to evaluate it, because I strongly believe that you should fully understand qualitative research aims and objectives, strengths and limitations before you attempt to evaluate it.