Post on 12-May-2015
Are we there yet? Growing maturity in qualitative tools and methods
Christopher Thorn
Assistant Scientist and Director of Technical ServicesWisconsin Center for Education Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Are we really in the back seat?
How would we know?
• The qualitative research SIG in AERA is celebrating its 20th anniversary this spring. It’s also bigger than two of the divisions
• Take a look at the long history of CAQDAS, a long list of software, and the level of the discussion on the related listserves
• The criticism of tools as distancing from data is a decade out of date
Maturity of the tools
Basic Functionality of CAQDAS Tools
• CAQDAS Networking Project– Structure of work – The Project– Closeness to data and interactivity– Exploring the data– Code and Retrieve functionality– Project Management and Data
Organization– Searching and interrogating the database– Writing tools– Output
Maturity of Evaluation & Review
• AERA Standards for Reporting on Research Methods – guidelines that discuss the underpinnings of quality
• The Qualitative Report’s Quality in Qualitative Research References provides a 22 page list of scholarly references
• Journal and grant proposal reviewers are requiring explicit discussion about the links between questions and methods used
Maturity of Literature
• Early 90’s - Pulling it all together• Specialization of the late 1990s
– Organizational Studies – Mental Health– Program Evaluation– Social Policy Reform– Education
• Reintegration of the mid-00’s– Cross-cutting issues of quality and rigor
Maturity of Training• Exploration
– The rise of artisans– Teach me the basics– You are not alone
• Specialization– The rise of guilds– Training widely
available, but often narrow
• Reintegration– Scope and sequence
Maturity of Infrastructure• Availability of
Archives• Standards for
Storing & Transmitting Data
• Standards for Secondary Use
• Scholarly Discourse on Secondary Use
Maturity of Desire• Transfer data and analytical coding from
one tool to another – leverage different strengths
• Storage and transmission standard– Ability to share primary data– Ability to share journals and memos– Ability to share coding and coding frameworks
• Real-time simultaneous access for coding and searching
Maturity of the Market• Desktop vs Teams
– QSR is using technologies that would allow web services and multi-user
• Enterprise services– Atlas services are already
there, this a is a place QSR could head as well – discovery inside the enterprise
• Real Easy vs Real Research– Market segmentation
Trends• Social Network
Analysis– Visualization of groups
and processes– New notions of mixed
methods
• Tools for federation of data and analysis– Search and storage
• Web 2.0 tools overlapping with collaborative qualitative analysis
Is it the right metaphor?• I think I got out of
the back seat a while ago
• Maybe I don’t have the right vehicle?– Hybrid– Landau– Nascar– Horseless carriage
• Maybe another picture be better?
A New Era of Collaboration• The tenor of the new
AERA publication guidelines should provide a platform for high-level dialogue and professional engagement
• It’s time to get out of the car and work together
A few other “there yet?” images