Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
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<strong>Qualitative</strong> research <strong>in</strong> practice<br />
have an overview. They didn’t work with cases as a<br />
caseworker. Because it was crisis <strong>in</strong>tervention it had to<br />
be whoever was <strong>the</strong>re. You would respond to what<br />
comes <strong>in</strong>, so <strong>the</strong>y wouldn’t have <strong>the</strong> sense necessarily<br />
of <strong>the</strong> process for any <strong>in</strong>dividual woman, and<br />
I th<strong>in</strong>k sometimes <strong>the</strong>y were so busy, <strong>the</strong>y didn’t use<br />
<strong>the</strong> database as a way of hav<strong>in</strong>g a sense of what is<br />
happen<strong>in</strong>g to this woman over time. They were just<br />
respond<strong>in</strong>g to what was happen<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> immediacy<br />
of <strong>the</strong> situation. O<strong>the</strong>r times when <strong>the</strong>y had less<br />
workload, <strong>the</strong>y were more able to do that. The<br />
workers wouldn’t know whe<strong>the</strong>r any of <strong>the</strong> referrals<br />
<strong>the</strong>y made were taken up, whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y were useful;<br />
and <strong>the</strong>y would probably have most <strong>in</strong>formation on<br />
<strong>the</strong> cases where <strong>the</strong> model worked best, so <strong>the</strong> women<br />
for whom this model worked, who used <strong>the</strong> project,<br />
those would be <strong>the</strong> cases that <strong>the</strong>y would know.<br />
So we had to have feedback from <strong>the</strong> users, but<br />
we also had to have it <strong>in</strong> a way that was manageable<br />
for us and doable, given that <strong>the</strong>re were over 1000<br />
users of this project over three years. The idea of<br />
do<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>-depth <strong>in</strong>terviews with that number is just<br />
impossible, and also you can’t analyse that amount of<br />
data. So <strong>the</strong>re are practicalities <strong>in</strong>volved, and we had<br />
to use a method that didn’t require so much of our<br />
time and didn’t require enormous amounts of time for<br />
analysis, so we used a questionnaire. With<strong>in</strong> that questionnaire<br />
<strong>the</strong>re was a lot of space for qualitative<br />
<strong>in</strong>formation, but not collected <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> traditional way<br />
qualitative data tends to be thought of. There were<br />
very few forced-choice questions, [o<strong>the</strong>r than] did <strong>the</strong><br />
police come, how long did it take <strong>the</strong>m to come, etc.<br />
And <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong>re was a question, how would you<br />
describe <strong>the</strong> responses of <strong>the</strong> police to you—did <strong>the</strong>y<br />
do anyth<strong>in</strong>g that was particularly useful, if so what was<br />
it, did <strong>the</strong>y do someth<strong>in</strong>g that wasn’t helpful, if so<br />
what was it. And <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> same k<strong>in</strong>ds of questions for<br />
<strong>the</strong> support workers . . . When we asked <strong>the</strong>m what<br />
was helpful, and what made a difference to <strong>the</strong>m, it<br />
wasn’t all <strong>the</strong> th<strong>in</strong>gs that people want to measure. It was<br />
really fundamental th<strong>in</strong>gs: that <strong>the</strong> workers named<br />
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