9
Jan

Interpret Qualitative Research; Don’t Analyze It

   Posted by: Jeffrey Keefer   in Autoethnography & Reflective Practice, Research

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I heard a great statement today, though I do not recall exactly who said it (I think it was an autoethnographic mailing list I follow), but I have been thinking about this all day:

We don’t analyze qualitative research, we interpret it. Only quantitative data can be analyzed.

That is one of the reasons I am so much fonder of qualitative work–interpretations can be very rich and can be done from a variety of perspectives. After all, how many interpretations have there been of the Bible or Shakespeare or even the Tarot? So much depends on experiences and assumptions, among other factors, that interpretation itself can even be interpreted.

Try doing that with quantitative research!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Autoethnography & Reflective Practice, Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 comments so far

Chris L
 1 

Right– with quantitative research you instead get to analyze the researcher, their assumptions, and the creation of the research questions :)

[Reply]

January 9th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Jeffrey Keefer
 2 

or we can even pretend the assumptions of the researcher do not influence his or her own quantitative research!

[Reply]

January 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Mary L
 3 

I am new to autoethnography and working on a project using this method. May I include this in my references? Thanks!

[Reply]

September 14th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Jeffrey Keefer
 4 

@Mary L

I am thrilled you want to use my work in your research. Please use and cite me away!

[Reply]

September 14th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Mary L
 5 

Hi Jeffrey, it is great to revisit your site. I am working on my autoethnography writing now. I don’t have a website like you do, instead, I am putting stuff on my MSN space. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Reply]

October 12th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Jeffrey Keefer
 6 

@Mary L

Mary, can you speak about your writing you are working on now, or perhaps share how and where you are engaging in it?

[Reply]

October 26th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Mary L
 7 

Title: Finding my way home-Narrative and the Immigrant Experience

It is a “pain and gain” game to reflect on my own 4 years of immigrant life in Canada…

Note: HOME here indicates a status of being in the comfort zone, a kind of “feeling at home”

Still in progress…

[Reply]

October 26th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Jeffrey Keefer
 8 

@Mary L

This sounds really interesting. Is this for a class, your own work, a project, or what? Hope to hear more about the progress, reasons for your creation of it, and who your intended audience is.

[Reply]

October 26th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Mary L
 9 

This is the project toward my Master degree…which should have been in my pocket long ago but not yet until now, due to the immigrant “ups and downs”, mostly struggles…

[Reply]

October 27th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Jeffrey Keefer
 10 

Sounds wonderful. How far along on it are you?

[Reply]

October 27th, 2008 at 11:23 pm

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