Qualitative_data_analysis

WHAT IS QUALITATIVE DATA? 15
‘richer’ and ‘more valid’ than quantitative data. On the other hand, it is often
dismissed as ‘too subjective’ because assessments are not made in terms of
established standards. In practice, this implies an unnecessary polarization between
the different types of data. We have to consider the reliability and validity of whatever
measures we choose. But as is often the case, the existence of a dichotomy has
tended to polarize not only thinking but people (Galtung 1967:23). Qualitative
data has become narrowly associated with research approaches emphasizing
unstructured methods of obtaining data.
Qualitative research has become a fashionable term to use for any method other
than the survey: participant (and non-participant) observation, unstructured
interviewing, group interviews, the collection of documentary materials and the
like. Data produced from such sources may include fieldnotes, interview transcripts,
documents, photographs, sketches, video or tape recordings, and so on. What these
various forms of research often have in common is a rejection of the supposedly
positivist ‘sins’ associated with survey methods of investigation, most particularly
where data are elicited through closed questions using researcher-defined categories.
A grudging exception may be allowed for open questions in a questionnaire survey,
but in practice—for the sake of purity, perhaps—data from this source are often
ignored. The hallmark of qualitative data from this perspective is that it should be a
product of ‘unstructured’ methods of social research.
However, it is not very helpful to see qualitative data simply as the output of
qualitative research. Distinctions between different methods are as hard to draw as
distinctions between types of data! For example, we might contrast the survey as a
method involving the collection and comparison of data across a range of cases, with
the single case study approach more commonly associated with qualitative methods.
However, in recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in ‘multi-case’ (or
‘multi-site’) fieldwork methods, eroding the force of the case study/survey
distinction. Moreover, the survey itself can be used as a data collection instrument
within the context of a case study; for example, we might survey teacher opinion as
part of a case study of a particular school.
Another distinction sometimes drawn between qualitative and quantitative
methods is that the former produce data which are freely defined by the subject rather
than structured in advance by the researcher (Patton 1980). ‘Pre-structured’ data are
taken to involve selection from a limited range of researcher-defined alternatives, for
example in an observation schedule or multiple choice questionnaire. With subjectdefined
data, the length; detail, content and relevance of the data are not
determined by the researcher, but recorded ‘as spoken’ or ‘as it happens’, usually in
the form of notes or tape recordings.
However, it is difficult to draw such a sharp divide between these methods.
Observations may be more or less ‘structured’ without falling clearly into one type or