Validity of a Qualitative Strategy
Introduction
The essential idea of a qualitative research is the credibility of all the data gathered presented in a narrative or explanatory way for the readers to comprehend or interpret the text and its meaning.
The essential idea to understand is the entire concept of a qualitative research or approach. According to Yin (2015) qualitative research is “doing original research and pursuing three important objectives: transparency, methodicness, and adherence to evidence” (p. 3). Koch Rumrill (2014) had the same perspective towards qualitative as the type of study approach tackles different phenomena. Qualitative research depends on the credibility of the research method and the evidence, facts, information, and resources it generates. One key component of this type of study is keen observation; this is an essential factor of qualitative research because this approach focuses on actual experience as its base for validity. For this review study, we will focus on Panayiotis Angelides, Eleni Antoniou, and Constantia Charalambous’s research entitled, “Making sense of inclusion for leadership and schooling: a case study from Cyprus.” The factors that contributes to this research validity will be further analyzed and the same applies for the threats, main the research setting that focuses on a single school only.
1-a. How valid is this study? Describe what you believe supports the validity of this study.
The findings of this research about “Making sense of inclusion for leadership and schooling: a case study from Cyprus” are accurate mainly because they are generated from analytical observation accompanied by interviews with the participants in the study. Panayiotis Angelides, Eleni Antoniou, and Constantia Charalambous also expanded the scope of the study about leadership in a school by including other participants like families of the students and people from the community of surrounding the school of Lysio in the village of the Larnaca District. However, to be honest the findings of this research is similar to other studies like Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom’s (2004) study about the influence of leadership in student learningexplaining that there is a need for individuals to provide directions and guidance for school administrations and the students, in their study the leaders are the teachers and other members of the school administration. This is actually a good thing because these studies that tackles and reaches similar results increases the validity of a general result stating that leadership is vital for the development of a school and the education system. The result or findings of Angelides, Antoniou, and Charalambous are broken down into specific topics or themes for better understanding. The 1st theme explains the findings of the study regarding the involvement of the teachers, 2nd is Co-teaching or teachers teaming up to enhance their teaching abilities and accuracy, 3rd is collaborative culture which is about providing education to all children no matter their race or culture, 4th talks about love, care, acceptance, and involvement of the children, and lastly 5th involvement of the parents and community in developing the educational system. The main factors that contributed to this study is that the researchers analyzed that data gathered in different perspectives like how will the leadership affect the students, the parents, and the whole school. In a qualitative research like the research studied by Angelides, Antoniou, and Charlambous had three main stages, collection of data, comparison of the data, and the examination of the data from multiple perspectives.
1-b. In addition, indicate the threats to the internal and external validity of the study. Identify what may prevent you from trusting the results and generalizing the findings to other people or situations.
The present and possible threats for this study are changes and this study by Angelides, Antoniou, and Charlambous focused on one school only which is Lysio. Changes for this might be the changes with the teachers, school administration, and students. One weakness of Qualitative research is that its results are not timeless and doesn’t have a universal factor. It is not saying that the study is proven to be wrong, it is more like the findings in this study aren’t timeless and external and internal changes are highly to enter. The study also focuses on Cyprus which is a single nation or island. This study doesn’t support and isn’t applicable to other nations and schools in the world. Most of the results also focuses on positive remarks, in a research it is also ideal to include negative facts to provide balance for the research. In a qualitative research, analyzing the data requires logical and analytical thinking (Creswell, 2013).
1-c. Describe how you could minimize threats to validity in the study you selected.
The validity of this study can be maintained by further studies and active monitoring on the indicated concepts provided by the findings. That way, the study and its accuracy becomes more flexible to changes.
Qualitative research is mainly use for studies about human experience, significant events, and different phenomenon. Qualitative research is able to collect a wide amount of data that expands to all possible factors needed for the completion of the study. Qualitative approach is ideal for specific topics and it is free to design the concept of the study. However, qualitative studies aren’t trusted by many scholars because it is not the ideal approach for generalized knowledge and findings, so in a way, the ability of qualitative to tackle specific topics is both an advantage and disadvantage. There is also the possibility of the researches including bias information just for the completion of their research which is a big restriction in research. Another challenges for qualitative research is the time duration for the entire study. A research may take up years of completion because of changes and new factors emerging, it is true that qualitative research is responsive to changes but it will surely take more time and money. Qualitative research is in need of full focus, relentless observation, and flexibility of the research method to address all possible factors to fill-up all the questions and gaps to achieve the final results.
2-c. How does qualitative research benefit the field of special education? Special Education or education studies can be examined by researchers through observation. It is all about how all the human subjects function in a specific setting for a specific topic. Instead of questionnaires which is also acceptable for qualitative research, researchers tend to resort more into conducting interviews with all the respondents and the researchers can even brief the respondents before the interview to inform them about the desired answers which is not a plan to orchestrate the data but rather help the respondents understand the whole concept of the study which makes the respondent more knowledgeable about the concept of the study therefore providing specific and detailed information. Another thing to consider which makes qualitative research for special education is that special education and its concept changes rapidly with the presence of technology and new trends emerging every day. These are so many methods and strategies to develop education, there is the Data Driven Decision Making which is a new method for addressing the problems in specific schools and universities to fortify the educational system. There are also new technologies and gadgets being introduced to enhance the learning and teaching process inside and outside of the classroom. Like what was mentioned earlier in this paper, qualitative research is responsive to changes which make it a good approach for special education. This statement doesn’t attack the abilities of a quantitative research which is also a great approach for almost every possible topic. This statement simply indicates that qualitative research can generate a huge amount of accurate data by simple method of data gathering like participation observation, open-ended interviews, and natural observation. Data or rather evidences are strong pillars for the validity of a study and are also ideal for cultural studies which is a vital factor for humanity existence and has been studied my millions of researchers worldwide for so many years. So all in all, qualitative research is good for special education studies because it can provide deeper understandings about the past and current situation of special education (Tracy, 2012).
2-d. What challenges are inherent in qualitative approaches to research?
Like what was mentioned before, qualitative researchers can’t easily provide generalized findings which is a limitation because there are so many questions left unanswered these days. Qualitative research isn’t also ideal for technical, scientific, and objective studies that require further research and data gathering methods. There are also remarks stating that qualitative research is a much simpler and easier approach for studies. That is true and false simultaneously, because qualitative research is easy to understand but it is very hard to maintain the productive progress in completing the study. It is also difficult to deal with hypothesis and theories while using qualitative approach. Qualitative focuses more on research questions or the objectives the researchers wants to achieve.
Conclusion
This study conducted by Angelides, Antoniou, and Charalambous (2010) about the inclusion of leadership provides clear and valid findings stating that the role of leadership should not only be applied to head-teachers and school administrative but to everyone involve in the process of learning including the students, the parents of the students, and everyone in the society.
Qualitative research is somehow a narration of a well research story that provides better understanding for specific topics and questions in the world.
References
Angelides, P., Antoniou, E., &Charalambous, C. (2010). Making sense of inclusion for leadership and schooling: a case study from cyprus. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 13:3, 319-334, DOI: 10.1080/13603120902759539
Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4thed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Leithwood, K., Louis, K. S., Anderson, S., &Wahlstrom, K. (2004). Learning from leadership project: How leadership influences student learning. Retrieved from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/school-leadership/key-research/documents/how-leadership-influences-student-learning.pdf.
Tracy, S. (2013). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. Chichester, SXW: Wiley-Blackwell.
Yin, R. (2016). Qualitative research from start to finish (2nded.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
