Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad

Mixing methods
obtained through one method were not used in the development of
another. We talk to Liz later in this chapter about her use of mixed
methods in this study and, more generally, in the Child and Woman
Abuse Studies Unit at the University of North London.
Mixing qualitative data collection approaches
Just as it is possible to combine quantitative and qualitative methods
in order to more thoroughly investigate a research problem, a more
thorough understanding of an issue or problem can often be gained
from combining a number of qualitative data collection approaches.
As with quantitative/qualitative designs, the different approaches
may sit side by side or be iterative, with the analysis from one phase
forming the basis for the next phase of data collection.
In a study of child welfare workers’ understandings of child
abuse, Darlington, Osmond and Peile (2001) conducted two rounds
of in-depth interviews, followed by focus groups, with twelve child
protection workers from the Queensland Department of Families.
The study was designed in such a way that each stage was
dependent on the previous stage.
In the first interview participants were asked to select and briefly
describe a case in which intrafamilial physical abuse was a major
issue. The interview then focused on eliciting explanations about
how and why the abuse happened, at the case-specific level.
Following the first interview, the research team compiled lists of all
the explanations that each worker had identified in the first interview,
both explicitly and implicitly. Each worker’s explanations
were presented to them during the second interview and used as a
basis for broader discussion of reasons why physical child abuse
occurs. The workers were asked to consider a range of alternative
contingencies—for example, would the explanation change (and
how) if: the mother/father was the identified abuser; the child was
younger/older; only one/more children in the family had been
abused; there had/had not been other forms of abuse identified;
there had/had not been a previous history of abuse, etc. They were
also asked to identify any connections or associations between the
explanations they had provided. Thus while the first interview
concerned a specific case, the second interview encompassed the
full range of types of cases with which the worker was involved. In
the focus groups the discussion moved to an even more general
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