Reply To: Block 4

[Nicholas Hopwood]

Alana

It seems ‘triangulation’ has triggered some really interesting responses among many of you. Alana you’ve picked up on a key tension with what qualitative approaches might be about, though I really like how you took a ‘what is useful for me?’ approach to the reading.

I share your disagreement with that untrusting and rather suspicious approach to participants that Shenton describes. It feels a bit disingenuous to me – I’d rather think that if there are problems with data, it reflects the interaction between the researcher and the interviewee, rather than a lying or deceitful interviewee.

When it comes to plumbness, I’d be inclined to go with your instinct, and if a research question feels an uncomfortable fit for your kind of work, then something more like an area of curiosity might be appropriate. Curiosity has, like RQs, a purpose and aspect of the unknown to it, and can still give you direction. I guess the issue might be: how will you know you have done well in pursuing an area of curiosity (the equivalent, of being able to answer a question).