What Qualitative Research is NOT

Hello Curious Learner,

This is Maira, owner and principal researcher at Quali Q. You already know that at Quali Q we are passionate about qualitative research, and truly believe in its potential to drive impact. However, not all qualitative research should be called qualitative research. Let me explain…

A few years ago, I attended a seminar where the speaker presented her/his research with oncology patients. It was a clinical trial with a well-defined hypothesis, and many relevant quantitative variables. At the end of the seminar, someone in the audience asked the presenter if he/she was planning to incorporate a qualitative component to her project. She/he responded, without hesitation, that they had a few open-ended questions at the end of one of the designed surveys.

“NO! That is NOT qualitative research!”, my brain screamed, a bit mad people would think that a few open-ended questions are enough to be a qualitative component. Well, it is not enough. You can analyze the answers to your open-ended questions (likely using summative content analysis – check our free Quali Q Guide to Qualitative Content Analysis), and present some very interesting results based on those questions/answers. You may even publish your results, no doubt! But, without a qualitative research paradigm, and the initial intent to understand your participants’ experiences, realities, stories, reasoning process, you should not say you are doing or did qualitative research. If you made this mistake in the past, it is okay, you are here to learn and grow in your qualitative journey.

Talk soon,

Maira