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

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Mix<strong>in</strong>g methods<br />

violence; that <strong>the</strong>y were really clear that it wasn’t <strong>the</strong><br />

women’s fault; be<strong>in</strong>g confronted with <strong>the</strong> fact that<br />

men chose to be violent, which wasn’t <strong>the</strong> explanation<br />

that <strong>the</strong> women were currently us<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong>mselves ...<br />

What I th<strong>in</strong>k is <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g about that was that we<br />

wouldn’t have found that out it if we hadn’t had <strong>the</strong><br />

open-ended questions <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> questionnaire, but also, I<br />

th<strong>in</strong>k it wouldn’t have been as powerful if we had<br />

done 20 or 30 <strong>in</strong>-depth <strong>in</strong>terviews. What we had was<br />

230 questionnaires where a really significant proportion<br />

of respondents were say<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> same th<strong>in</strong>g.<br />

Liz also commented generally on <strong>the</strong> use of mixed methods at <strong>the</strong><br />

Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit.<br />

Liz:<br />

I began as a qualitative researcher and <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> second<br />

research grant we got here was to do an exploratory<br />

prevalence study of sexual abuse. That obviously had<br />

to be a quantitative study on some level and so we<br />

needed a staff member who had that expertise<br />

because I didn’t, and that person, L<strong>in</strong>da Regan, has<br />

been here ever s<strong>in</strong>ce, and so <strong>in</strong> a way it’s <strong>the</strong> l<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g<br />

of both our skills.<br />

But equally, I th<strong>in</strong>k it’s about her understand<strong>in</strong>g<br />

<strong>the</strong> importance of mean<strong>in</strong>g, and me understand<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong><br />

importance of numbers if you are talk<strong>in</strong>g about <strong>in</strong>fluenc<strong>in</strong>g<br />

policy-makers. But also, <strong>the</strong> importance of be<strong>in</strong>g<br />

able to ascerta<strong>in</strong> whe<strong>the</strong>r th<strong>in</strong>gs really are <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> data<br />

or not, because while I absolutely accept that we<br />

br<strong>in</strong>g our subjectivity and subjective mean<strong>in</strong>gs to<br />

<strong>the</strong> work that we are do<strong>in</strong>g, at <strong>the</strong> same time I th<strong>in</strong>k<br />

we need to be rigorous about whe<strong>the</strong>r th<strong>in</strong>gs are <strong>the</strong>re<br />

or not. We had this really <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g experience <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

prevalence study where three of us coded 1244 questionnaires<br />

and we ended up with perceptions about<br />

what we thought was <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> data and actually it wasn’t<br />

<strong>the</strong>re to <strong>the</strong> extent that we thought it was. We thought<br />

that <strong>the</strong>re was much more abuse by bro<strong>the</strong>rs and we<br />

didn’t th<strong>in</strong>k <strong>the</strong>re was as much abuse by uncles—it<br />

was about what we noticed, what resonated with us,<br />

and actually that isn’t always [what <strong>the</strong> data are<br />

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