Qualitative Research and Interpretive Frameworks

Qualitative Research and Interpretive Frameworks

     I found the readings to be a fascinating blend of creativity and scholarship.  One certainly would not choose to do qualitative research because it is easy.  A friend of mine who did a qualitative paper spent more time coding than  researching.  The extensive coding methods were a surprise.  Also of great interest were some of the methods of presentation, including movies, videos, and plays.
     Because I am a painter, the quote from our text caught my eye.  What is "the way art should be?".  How often have my associates stood with me in front of an abstract painting and said, "What is it supposed to be?"
Since they did not have the benefit (and perhaps never desired to) of my training, I have so far managed not to say the words begging for release.  The best thing I could come up with is, "Let the painting talk to you and tell you what it means."  Indeed, that has to be one of the best approaches to many works created by humans.  I was particularly happy to see this approach in the world of research.  I am familiar with single subject and quantitative research methods. It was charming to hear of a method of research that began, not with a "topic" (I have always hated topics), but really with no clear idea of exactly where it should go. The author actually said that the hope was that we would have fun.  One can imagine a very well educated person, in the midst of a situation, in a state of perfect subjectivity/objectivity, waiting for the scene to unfold and reveal itself.  What a marvelous way to view and possibly affect the human condition!
     It was also satisfying to learn  that there is no one best way to conduct qualitative research.  Hooray for something in academia that is not nailed down. I realized some of the excitement that anthropological research and documentaries can  induce.  There are indeed so many ways to interpret reality, and the manner or organization of the data and the vehicle usedto  create the credibility of the research. Natural settings and observation can be conducted anywhere.
     There are still surprises, as I have observed in quantitative research, when all the data are correlated, both in qualitative and quantitative research.  Patterns emerge, with the difference that the humans being experimented upon emerge as numbers in quantitative research, while the humans involved in qualitative research become even more human as their voices are heard.
     The idea of mixed methods is very intriguing to me. When I did a meta-analysis on the subject of post-secondary students with Attention Deficit Disorder, I used a combination of  quantitative and qualitative research.  There was not a plethora of quantitative data available.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when the qualitative outcomes painted a much more complete picture, I felt, than statistics alone would have.  Immediately, the idea of mixed methods becomes appealing, especially, when someone else has done the research, data analysis, and coding!
     It was even intriguing that there are those outstanding questions in the minds of qualitative researchers about what is good, what analysis is, and what the role of theory is.  As we used to say in sensitivity training out in California,  "live in the question."  I think that is a good state of affairs for scholarship everywhere.  We should never become satisfied.  I'm sure qualitative researchers sit around in Starbuck's asking questions about constructivism, positivism, advocacy/participatory, and pragmatism. Pragmatism seems so logical and all-encompassing.  It suits many of my personal beliefs, and I was happy to see it all in print.  I thought that our text (Creswell, 2007) did a clear explanation of the various paradigms, or worldviews, as they were called.  But each one had its own contribution to make to the sum total of human knowledge. The section on interpretative communities had a touching and intriguing bent toward creating social justice and changing society for the better, in many unusual ways. I would like to study more about how the basic philosophical functions of qualitative research relate to ontology, epistemology, axiology, rhetoric, and methodology. I know a smattering about some of these, but wish to know more.  And I have a feeling that we will.