Evaluating Rigor in Qualitative Methodology and Research Dissemination

Abstract

Despite previous and successful attempts to outline general criteria for rigor, researchers in special education have debated the application of rigor criteria, the significance or importance of small n research, the purpose of interpretivist approaches, and the generalizability of qualitative empirical results. Adding to these complications, the breadth of qualitative research methods makes a single set of universally applicable criteria difficult to identify and use. Based on input from qualitative researchers across the social sciences, we augment and expand the oft-cited criteria for rigor established in special education, thus broadening the potential application and contribution of qualitative research in the areas of disability and education. We identify exemplars from special education research and use these to illustrate ways qualitative research can push the field to strengthen the theoretical foundations of empirical work, as well as to acknowledge more forthrightly the roles of the researcher in the research endeavor.

Community Conversation as a Method of Gathering and Analyzing Qualitative Data

“…Qualitative research is inclusive of a range of paradigms and methodologies with a high tolerance for variation in application, opening the door for considering its confluence with community conversation. At the same time, there are indicators, what Trainor and Graue (2013) referred to as "touchstones" (p. 7), signaling parameters for identifying distinguishing characteristics and sound design and implementation decisions. Two touchstones of common across interpretivistic designs that present opportunities for a more research-oriented implementation of community conversation are the focused exploration, documentation, and analysis of context and the documented examination of researcher-reflexivity.…”

Influencia de las experiencias vivenciadas por el alumnado en el desempeño de futuras competencias docentes

“…Se quiere indagar en los pensamientos que tiene cada profesor sobre la metodología empleada y el aprendizaje generado, profundizando en su propia perspectiva interna (Trainor y Graue, 2014). Para aplicar la entrevista se partió de una estructura inicial en la que se demandaban cuestiones relacionadas directamente con los objetivos de la investigación.…”

Research Design Options for Intervention Studies

“…Measures to report and evaluate the quality of research using these designs have been developed. 4–6 …”