Ray's qualifications of his argument are helpful. I find much with which I
agree. He certainly has a strong record of supporting qualitative analysis
software and it is for that reason that I found his position surprising.
Perhaps some of the difference in our approaches are based on circumstances.
I think Ray's argument is that when a researcher needs a project done in a
fixed amount of time with a modest budget, it may well be faster and easier
in some cases to do simple counting of responses with a spreadsheet to
produce a quick result with minimal learning. His point there is "Usually
they are only looking to count, which quantitative software is built to do."
I'm not sure I agree even in this circumstance. Quantitative programs do
count. However, they count fixed categories. They don't recognize and do
nothing to help the researcher deal with the many ways of saying the same
thing. They don't recognize logical relationships, hierarchical or
otherwise, among codes. Quantitative programs do the easy part...they count
occurrences of a word or phrase. It is left to the researcher to find
meaningful ways to summarize and generalize those words or phrases. So even
in this very restrictive context, I'm not convinced quantitative programs
are a better solution than qualitative ones.
On the other hand, I most often work with graduate M.A. and Ph.D. students
in the social sciences and our focus is as much on preparing them for future
careers as it is in completing the project at hand. I'm always encouraging
them to think more broadly and to take advantage of the university
environment to learn tools they will need later in academic or business
careers. I know Ray and his group spend countless hours working with such
researchers and training them in the use of a number of qualitative analysis
programs. For these researchers, I think we both agree, an investment in
learning a qualitative program is a wise one.
Edward Brent, Ph.D.
President, Idea Works, Inc.
100 West Briarwood
Columbia, Missouri 65203 USA
(573) 445-4554
(573) 446-2199 (fax)
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www.ideaworks.com
www.qualrus.com
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