I agree that the Murphy et al piece is a real tour de force. Elizabeth is now 'reader' probably because people now recognise her invaluable contribution! She also runs a course on qualitative methods here at Nottingham - which could probably be found on the web site - check out Social Sciences.
When that
work was being commissioned I too put in a bid for the contract. When Liz
Murphy got it instead of me, I wrote a book anyway. It is somewhat less
oriented to the concerns of health researchers, more to social research
in general. It is:
Seale CF (1999) The quality of qualitative research. Sage.
Clive Seale
On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, Kath Checkland wrote:
> I suggest you look at the wonderful literature review by Murphy et. al.,
> produced fo r the Health Technology Assessment Programme. Go to their
> website at www.hta.nhsweb.nhs.uk, and look for "Qualitative research methods
> in health technology assessment: a review of the literature." on the
> publications list. If you are in the NHS or an academic institution they
> will send it to you free. it is huge (276 pages!) and is a complete tour de
> force - they trace qualitative methods right back to the Ancient Greeks, go
> into detail about all the epistemological and ontological questions
> surrounding qualitative research, and devote a complete chapter to
> qualitative methods in programme evaluation. The intended audience is NHS
> commissioners of qualitative research - so it is very hot on what
> constitutes "validity" in this context.
>
> Kath Checkland
> GP and MA student
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jacquie Fraser" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: 14 March 2001 17:45
> Subject: Evaluation of qualitative researc
>
>
> > 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
> >
>
Clive Seale
Department of Sociology
Goldsmiths College
Lewisham Way
London SE14 6NW
Phone: 020 7919 7729 (direct)
020 7919 7707 (office)
Fax: 020 7919 7713
|