What Makes Research ‘Qualitative’?
Robert A. Croker · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · 2009
When we say a piece of research is ‘qualitative’ (as opposed to some other kind of research), what is being described about it? What makes it ‘qualitative’? Think about an instance when someone makes a claim about something, for example, that Arabic is a difficult language to learn. What is that claim based on? On what basis would you agree or disagree with the claim? One key thing that distinguishes a research study from opinion or conjecture is that the study makes clear its limitations. In other words, good research responds to the question, ‘How could this be wrong?’ Thinking specifically about a newspaper account, what are some ways that these accounts might be wrong? What could be some limitations? These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.