An evaluation model: interview as method

 Excerpts from Systems of Care,  and Maxwell, Designing a Qualitative Study (215-232)

I'm glad that we took Maxwell's Designing a Qualitative Study in sections because it was a lot to read and take in. There are a couple of things I am beginning to understand more in depth:

1. Qualitative research is not highly respected amongst certain crowds of people. Which I find interesting when you take into consideration that the willingness to change more often comes from an emotional connection, feeling of inspiration and/or togetherness. Seeing and touching have a higher motivational imprint, therefore, as a researcher, if the purpose of your research was to inspire change based on new information, qualitative research would be more effective than quantitative.

I have experienced times when groups asked me for quantitative data, and while I complied they seemed uninterested or inspired by it. At the same time, strictly stories and experiences being shared were also dismissed as an individual experience, rather than a representation of a common issue. This is why I try to use both; to tug at the heart strings while backing up my stories with numerical facts. I would like to understand how to use these tools more effectively towards inspiring change.

2. The planning and set up for any study requires a lot of work but qualitative needs to be more fluid and flexible. When reading Maxwells introduction where he spoke about 2 models of design, the first question that arose for me was, do these 2 models of design require/allow for changing of the research question/s? I understand that the research question/s changing is common in qualitative research but he goes on to say, "Neither of these models adequately represents the logic and process of qualitative research". Just curious if research questions changing is more common in qualitative v. quantitative research.

Maxell makes qualitative research sound exhausting, change is exhausting and that's all he seems to speak about even while explaining design and presenting on different models and factors to consider in design. Its over whelming to think that you can spend a lot of time and effort designing a research study and still need to change multiple aspects of it in order to conduct an authentic and equitable study.