Reply To: Block 4

[Alana West]

Agree
I agree with the overall tone of the paper, where Shenton explores the importance of trustworthiness rather than objectivity in qualitative research. More specifically one of the key points raised by Shenton is frequent debriefing sessions. As a PhD student, regular check-ins with supervisors is important and i’ve incorporated regular debriefs, feedback and guidance from my supervisors into my research design.

Confusing
I found the idea of ‘triangulation’ confusing, and similar to Nick, somewhat antithetical to what I consider qualitative research to be about. Some of what Shenton discusses in that section sounds useful, for example using document analysis to get background info that helps to inform interviews, observation etc but using different methods to find some kind of centre point or ‘truth’ about the research subject seems odd.

Interesting
Nick’s commentary on shifting transferability from application to benefits or usefulness was really interesting to me and hit home. I’m interested in looking into this more and including it in the write up of my research design, as I think broader usefulness rather than direct application is more fitting with my methodology and research aims

Disagree
I disagree with some of Shenton’s framing where he suggests participants are untrustworthy or suggests techniques to expose deceit. To me this feels like Shenton is coming at the research from a position of feeling superior to participants, and if participants were to find out that you considered them untrustworthy they’ll turn that feeling back onto you as the researcher and there goes any hope of useful research outcomes.