The Issue of Validity in Qualitative Research in Education Essay

The Issue of Validity in Qualitative Research in Education - Essay Example Research methods appeared to be applied in the field of education only in recent times. Among these methods we can also notice the qualitative research method though even now its application remains limited. Many researches like Johnson /1995, p.5/ believe that â€Å"qualitative techniques are powerful tools for intensifying our understanding of teaching and learning†. He also agrees to the fact that these methodologies received ever growing popularity and acceptance over the last years. Yet it should be mentioned that although qualitative methods are very useful still many researches know little of them and the usage of these methods present great difficulties to them /Stallings, 1995, p.31/. Scholars believe that the main benefit in usage qualitative methods in education is more complete description of a phenomenon. The final objective of usage of qualitative method is better understanding of the information through giving additional details and appealing to the reader’s experience / Stake, 1978, p.5/. Qualitative research is used in the education process for several reasons. First of all qualitative research assist in understanding new of badly investigated phenomenon /Strauss & Corbin, 1990, p.42/. Secondly, qualitative research helps to comprehend new details about the phenomenon, which is already investigated. And finally qualitative research provides more deep and profound information which can’t be done by quantitative methods / Hoepfl/. Still the benefit of the qualitative method to the education can not be fully and explicitly defined. For example, Lancy believes that â€Å"...topic, theory, and methodology are usually closely interrelated in qualitative research† /Lancy, 1993, p.18/. Other researchers like Glesne and Peshkin claim that qualitative research covers many â€Å"philosophical orientations to interpretive research† and deals with a bride range of disciplines like educational criticism, ethnography, case