Reflection on theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

I enjoyed reading the articles this week, and in particular my case study article. As case studies generally are hands on and easy to grasp it made it easy to understand the idea of the studies and the methods used during the conversations we had during the seminar, as well as when reading peer blog posts.  

It feels like we discussed the qualitative research methods a lot during the quantitative theme, so it was interesting to read one of those papers, and to see the difference in the output. In my case study paper which was partly based on interviews, I felt like I got to “meet” the test subjects and hear their opinions and struggles which made it very personal. This was partly due to the fact that the topic was for them to reflect on their own learning experiences and motivations.

I learned this week that the classification and coding process of the interview answers is an important and complex process. It seems as the researchers (at least in my article) go through a lot of work and several iterations to get these comments classified in a true and non-biased way, but the way this was  handled was difficult to follow in the paper.  

As my case study article was based on qualitative research it was a great opportunity for me to read two different qualitative research methods. They were very different, and the case study gave a lot more information, background and depth to their research. It was really interesting for me to see the quality difference and how much more it is possible to with a well-prepared and thought through method and analysis.   

We had an interesting discussion about the pros and cons of focus groups in our first seminar this week. I guess you could consider the seminar group a focus group as well, and I learned that this is a great way to get more creative and to reach further than you would individually. As it often is the case, there is no one great answer to what type of quality method to use when collecting your data; it all has to be adapted to the particular case you are working on. It takes a lot of effort and planning not to “disturb” the answers you get. Reading all the peer blog posts this week it was interesting to see what the researchers had done to get the test subjects to feel at ease, ranging from hiring an “expert interviewer”, to having a moderator and an observer during focus groups sessions, and even stating that they deliberately were not trying to act so authorial and trying to be at easy-going.  

To wrap up this course I have learned a lot about different research methods, and what to think about when conducting research. I have learned about the importance of how to ask your questions, and where to ask them (or not to) in order to try to get a wider audience for your survey base. I have also learned a lot about how to critically review a research paper, and how different it can be perceived by even among us students who are in many ways rather similar. 

I thought the blogs worked well in this class and I learned a lot from my peers reading their reflections, ideas and comments, as well as the comments on what I had written myself.