[Xmca-l] Re: The Science of Qualitative Research 2ed

[Martin John Packer]

Agreed, Michael

Martin




On Dec 17, 2017, at 8:39 PM, Wolff-Michael Roth <wolffmichael.roth@gmail.com<mailto:wolffmichael.roth@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hi Martin,
the term quantitative is a misnomer in the sense that qualitative
researchers are counting, and this does not mean that they do the kind of
research that generally is referred to as quantitative. There are forms of
statistical inference and experimental research that people use, which are
distinct from observations in ethnographic research.

Kadriye Ercikan (statistician) and I (statistician turned "qualitative" and
mixed methods researcher) once edited a book with some of the leading U.S.
scholars concerning method of all types. The consensus was that the
distinction quantitative/qualitative does not make much sense. Here the
book:
Ercikan, K., & Roth, W.-M. (Eds.). (2008). Generalizing from educational
research: Beyond qualitative and quantitative polarization. New York, NY:
Routledge.

Kadriye and I also wrote a couple of articles on the topic, and in the
first one (2006) argue that it doesn't make much sense to polarize
research.
Ercikan, K., & Roth, W.-M. (2014). Limits of generalizing in education
research: Why criteria for research generalization should include
population heterogeneity and users of knowledge claims. Teachers College
Record, 116(5), 1–28
Ercikan, K., & Roth, W.-M. (2006). What good is polarizing research into
qualitative and quantitative? Educational Researcher, 35 (5), 14-23.

You also know that Vygotsky not only rejects the "scientific psychology"
(quantitative?!) but also the "interpret(at)ive psychology" (qualitative?!).

Michael









Wolff-Michael Roth, Lansdowne Professor

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Applied Cognitive Science
MacLaurin Building A567
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2
http://web.uvic.ca/~mroth <http://education2.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/>

New book: *The Mathematics of Mathematics
<https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/new-directions-in-mathematics-and-science-education/the-mathematics-of-mathematics/>*

On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 5:12 PM, Martin John Packer <mpacker@uniandes.edu.co<mailto:mpacker@uniandes.edu.co>
wrote:

Hi Huw,

In the field of research methodology in the social sciences the labels
“quantitative” and “qualitative” are somewhat misleading; the issues at
stake are better viewed as paradigmatic ones, rather than whether or not
one uses numbers.

The position I develop in the book is that the logical positivists’
attempt to define a single scientific method has been a disaster for
psychology, in particular. Positivism has led to the view that the ‘gold
standard’ for research is a randomized clinical trial, in which one seeks a
causal explanation of a phenomenon through testing a hypothesis, by
defining and manipulating variables, and by measuring outcomes. This
approach is what has come to be called “quantitative” research, and it is
what is taught in most research methods classes. It is an approach that
assumes that all explanation is causal, when in fact many explanations are
constitutive. It assumes that causes are invisible and must be inferred:
they are not, much of science involves making causal processes visible. And
it assumes that measurement is an objective process: it is not, it always
involves theory and interpretation.

I have nothing against numbers, and have no quarrel with mathematics. I
studied math and physics as an undergraduate until specializing in
psychology (which was considered a natural science) in the final year. But
understanding what people do has always struck me as requiring something
more than this. My book explores the ‘what more?’

Martin

On Dec 17, 2017, at 4:29 AM, Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com<mailto:huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>>
wrote:

Hi Martin,

Do you define quality? And if not can you tell me why, from your
perspective, QR avoids defining it?

Thanks,
Huw

On 17 December 2017 at 01:15, Martin John Packer <
mpacker@uniandes.edu.co<mailto:mpacker@uniandes.edu.co>>
wrote:

Hi Helen,

It’s not a how-to book, but rather an exploration of the roots of
qualitative research — phenomenology, hermeneutics, critical theory -
and
an examination of the logic underlying interviews, ethnographic
fieldwork,
and analysis of interaction. That might be too theoretical for your
class.
I continue to work away at a book on how to do qualitative research,
which
I have taught many times. In case it’s useful I’ve attached the syllabus
from the last time I taught the course in English. You’ll see I assigned
only selected chapters from the first edition.

But of course you should still buy a copy for each of your friends!  :)


On Dec 16, 2017, at 7:15 PM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com<mailto:helenaworthen@gmail.com>>
wrote:

Martin, I’ve just been given the go-head to teach a social science
research methods class to undergraduates at Ton Duc Thang U. in Ho Chi
Minh
City, VN. This sounds like a humane book - do you think it could be used
for undergraduates?

The undergrads are in the Faculty of Labor Relations and Trade Unions
so
the sites of their research will be workplaces.

H

Helena Worthen
helenaworthen@gmail.com<mailto:helenaworthen@gmail.com>
Berkeley, CA 94707 510-828-2745
Blog US/ Viet Nam:
helenaworthen.wordpress.com<http://helenaworthen.wordpress.com>
skype: helena.worthen1







On Dec 16, 2017, at 2:19 PM, Martin John Packer <
mpacker@uniandes.edu.co<mailto:mpacker@uniandes.edu.co>> wrote:

Cambridge University Press, in their infinite wisdom, have just
published an expanded second edition of my book The Science of
Qualitative
Research. It will be a perfect holiday gift for a loved one!  :)

The book continues to make the case that a common view of qualitative
research — that it amounts to a set of techniques for describing
people’s
subjective experience — is mistaken. I propose that in fact qualitative
research can take us beyond the taken for granted ontological dualisms
of
subjectivity/objectivity, mind/world, and appearance/reality. Human
beings
have created the worlds, the cultures, in which we live, and we are
products of these worlds. Qualitative research can be the study of the
‘ontological complicity’ that people have with the social reality in
which
they live, and the ‘constitution’ in which specific ways of being human
are
formed. The constituents of qualitative research — and in the book I
focus
on three: interviews, analysis of interaction, and ethnographic field
work
— can be combined and aligned to focus on ontology, in a scientific
study
of the constitution of human beings. This science is centrally a matter
of
interpretation, of hermeneutics, not of coding.

The new material includes a discussion of the centrality of
constitution (not only causation) in every scientific discipline --
think
of Watson and Crick discovering how DNA is constituted -- in Chapter 1.
Discussion of Bruno Latour’s work has been included in several chapters:
there are treatments of his book Laboratory Life, of actor-network
theory,
and of his Inquiry into Modes of Existence.

In addition, a new final chapter presents as an example and case study
the research conducted by Löic Wacquant with boxers in south Chicago.
Wacquant joined the gym, learned to box, and came to be on familiar
terms
with the men who were becoming constituted as boxers. His ethnographic
fieldwork focused on the bodily practices of the boxing life, while his
interviews illustrated how the boxer’s ontological complicity with this
life builds a way of understanding the gym, and the body. Wacquant
helps us
to see the ideals and morality that are inherent in a boxer’s way of
human
being, of being human. His research illustrates the potential of
qualitative research to enable us to recognize the diverse ways in which
people make themselves into particular kinds of person, so we can better
understand the ethical freedom that is key to being human. This, in my
view, is what makes this kind of scientific investigation both exciting
and
important.

CUP:
<http://www.cambridge.org/co/academic/subjects/social-
science-research-methods/qualitative-methods/science-
qualitative-research-2nd-edition?format=HB&isbn=9781108404501>

Amazon:
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=
qs&keywords=9781108417129>

Facebook author’s page:
<https://www.facebook.com/pg/The-Science-of-Qualitative-
Research-2e-1851273521851365/posts/?ref=page_internal>

Martin