The keynote speech by Dr Sharon Bong (Monash University) at the 9th QRAM National Seminar 2012 at UM on March 31, 2012.

1. Refining Qualitative Data
QRAM 9th National
Seminar 2012

2. Consistency-questions model
 What are questions or purposes of the
research?
 What then are the research methods?
 What are the underlying assumptions?
 What are the findings?
 What are the implications from the findings?

3. Qualitative method & methodology
Research
‘Hypothesis’
design
Theory Data
building generation
Data
analyses

4. Design validity criteria
 Viable data
 Reliable method
 Generalisable analyses
  truth value (credibility)

5. Viable data
 Objectivity
 Prolonged engagement on-site
 Triangulation
 Member checking
 Structural relationships

6. Reliable method
 Interviewing as method of generating data
 Ethics in researching (MUHREC)
 Theoretical sampling
 Data analyses (CAQDAS)—ATLAS.ti

7. Generalisable analyses
 Applicability
 Context limited (transferability)
 Replicability (consistency)
 Leaving an audit trail

8. Sense of qualitative methods
 Preference for qualitative data
 Preference for naturally occurring data
 Preference for meanings
 Preference for inductive research
(hypothesis-generating)

9. Quan-Qual continuum
 Qualitative  Quantitative
 Data  theory  Theory  data
 Grounded theory  Hypothesis testing
 Empirical  conceptual  Conceptual 
 Inductive (theory- empirical
building)  Deductive (theory
testing)
 Political (value-laden)  Apolitical (value free)

10. Interviewing
 ‘purposeful conversation’
 Method of generating data (interview
transcript as non-extant text)
 Semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face
 ‘paradigmatic feminist method’
 Emancipatory paradigm: ‘praxis,
empowerment/ reciprocity

11. Interviewer-interviewee
 Locating self in research
 Being transparent & accountable
 Epistemic privilege (who knows)
 Reciprocal reflexivity: Knower/ known 
knower-known
 Theoretical sampling (Grounded Theory
Methodlogy)  generalisability of analyses
 Elite interviewing

12. Ethics in interviewing
 Monash University Human Research Ethics
Committee (MUHREC)
 High risk/ low risk research :
 Participants
 Types of activities
 Informed Consent (≠ implied consent)
 Collection, use and disclosure of information

13. Explanatory Statement
 Sampling (how & why)
 Research aims
 Benefits
 Method of generating data
 Time involved
 Inconvenience/ discomfort
 Withdrawal from research
 Confidentiality
 Data storage (data for other purpose)

14. Consent Form
 Data as information
  Agree to be interviewed
  Agree to allow interviewed to be recorded
  Agree to make myself available for follow-
up interviews
 Data as potential information
  Use of data for future research projects
(optional)

15. Sensitive topic
 ‘one that potentially poses for those involved
a substantial threat, the emergence of which
renders problematic for the researcher
and/or researched the collection, holding,
and/ or dissemination of research data’
(Renzetti and Lee 199: 5)
 Researcher: stewardship of data

16. Grounded Theory Methdology
 Data as source of theory (hypothesis-
building)
 ‘Theory’: relationship among categories that
is inductively generated from ‘units of
meaning’ (Kelle 1997)
 ‘Hypothesis’: tentative and imprecise
conjecture about possible relationships
between two domains of interest (Kelle 1997)

17. Data analyses using CAQDAS
 CAQDAS: Computer-assisted Qualitative Data
Analysis Software (ALTAS.ti)
 Data: interview transcript
 Data analyses: data management & interpretation 
coding (code-and-retrieve)
 Codes: heuristic devices (units of meaning) 
theory-building
 Coding: De-contextualise (data reduction) & re-
contextualise
  Fine-grained hermeneutic analysis