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

Qualitative research in practice
individuals actually said be disguised. In such cases it may be wiser
to rely on aggregate comments at a higher level of generality than
to make liberal use of direct quotes.
Structuring qualitative findings
Inevitably, decisions have to be made about how to order the data
in the written report. Where the research has focused on a social
setting, say a child protection office, it may lend itself to being
reported according to particular aspects of the setting (worker–client
interviews, court work, staff meetings or informal staff interactions),
different stages of assessment and intervention, or the perspectives
of different participants (parents, children, child protection workers,
managers, or professionals from other agencies).
Where there are several equally plausible and effective ways of
structuring the report, the purpose and overall framing of the study
will help in making the choice. If a study was, for example, about
emotional experiences in marriage, the report may lend itself to
being structured according to a range of emotions. If the study was
a comparison of emotional experiences across a range of relationships,
then the report may be equally well structured according to
emotions or to different types of relationships.
Ultimately, the decision rests with the researcher as to which
structure is going to provide the most effective vehicle for the
findings. What is the message and how can it best be got across?
Remember, though, the simpler the better—the structure should
never become so complex or cluttered that it gets in the way of the
content. Yvonne Darlington structured her study of women who
had been sexually abused as children (1996) into three broad topic
areas: impact on self, impact on relationships with others and experiences
of professional intervention, healing and recovery. This
provided a manageable structure for reporting a huge array of data.
Becker’s position is that there is no ‘one right way’ to organise
written research reports. He understood that his thesis on schoolteachers’
evaluations of their relationships with students, parents,
the principal and other teachers could be organised around kinds of
schools or kinds of work relations.
Whichever way I chose, I would have to describe teachers and
working-class kids, teachers and slum school colleagues, teachers and
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