Jacquie,
Contemporary issues of evaluation in qualitative research are dealt with
most thoroughly in Denzin N. K. and Lincoln Y. S. (eds). 2000. Handbook of
Qualitative research. 2nd edn. Thousand oaks, California: Sage Publications,
Inc. The text moves the debate beyond, and in critique of, the
positivist/post-postivitist evaluation assumptions that you describe.
Hope this is helpful.
Alec Grant
Madness is when other people stop trying to understand you.
Rufus May
Dr Alec Grant
INaM
University of Brighton
Robert Dodd Building
49 Darley Road
Eastbourne
East Sussex BN20 7UR
(Tel: 01273-643100
Fax: 01273-643857)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jacquie Fraser [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 14 March 2001 17:46
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Evaluation of qualitative research
>
> I'm about to teach an evaluation course in public health. When I taught
> the
> course before we looked exclusively at quantitative research and used
> threats to
> internal validity as the main basis of determining 'success' of a program.
> This
> time I would like to include evaluation of qualitative research but I'm
> not sure
> just how to go about it or maybe even if I'm asking the right questions.
> Is
> 'success' in qualitative research primarily about theory generation? Is
> it
> about two or more researchers looking at the same transcripts and pulling
> out
> the same themes? Am I really trying to get at apples and oranges here,
> quantitative evaluation measuring program success in terms (for public
> health)
> of behaviour change, qualitative research looking at data-gathering to
> enhance
> program design and/or implementation but not program outcomes?
>
> I may be just getting to a place of thinking about this that many of you
> have
> been for awhile now so I would appreciate your thoughts on this or ways to
> decipher my, as yet, fuzzy thinking.
>
> Books that I've examined so far do not explicitly address evaluation of
> qualitative research (some have discussed using qualitative methods to
> enhance
> quantitative methods of assessment) so any resources would also be
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Jacquie Fraser, PhD
> Department of Health Science
> Armstrong Atlantic State University
> Savannah, Georgia USA << File: Card for Jacquie Fraser >>
