Transcript of Validity and reliability in Qualitative Research.

hello everyone this is dr elias from the department of education hazara university mansara validity and reliability are important considerations in most research and the same is the case with validity and reliability of the research process in qualitative research in this particular presentation i would like to discuss some of the most important aspects of validity and reliability in qualitative research so let us begin with a general understanding of what validity and reliability actually mean validity and reliability um as we know are essential concepts in in most research undertakings and that actually includes qualitative research generally a research process or outcome without the consideration considerations of validity and reliability may be regarded as useless because a research that is not valid or that is not reliable generally will lead to results now that that will not be authentic um in common sense terms validity actually means that the research process is accurate and the outcomes are authentic in other words the research process the authenticity of the research process and the research outcomes or the research findings will reflect the validity of the particular research process reliability in common sense means a replication replicability or replication of the same research process will lead to so if replica replication or replicability of the same research process leads to similar outcomes that will essentially mean that the research process is reliable and so there is reliability related to this persistence in terms of the outcomes of research now moving on to the main focus of this particular discussion and that is validity in qualitative research in qualitative research generally validity has different connotations than in quantitative research in qualitative research validity has been associated with honesty which actually means the authentic collection of data then the authentic and accurate analysis of the data that has been collected the interpretation and the presentation of data in an authentic way and that is that in collectively would mean honesty is something that's that is very much needed in terms of making the research process and product more valid similarly the richness and scope of data that has been accumulated or has been achieved the the depth of data which actually means detailed data and comprehensive data collection um analysis and analysis and also the triangulation which actually means that the collection and analysis of data through a number of sources and also through a number of of methods in order for the data collection process to be time triangulated and also for the methods that that have been used in the triangulation process so the use of more than one research methods and the data collection methods and the use of more than one sources of information that we collect for the research process will actually mean triangulation and so triangulation will add to the validity of the qualitative research process objectivity or disinter entrustedness has also been identified as one of the factors that act that actually add to the validity of qualitative decide this has also been identified as openness of the researcher which actually means that the researcher is open to all sorts of possibilities in terms of looking at the research of how to achieve the research objectives in terms of the data that or the data sources or the data collection methods so the researcher is open to doing all of these measures in order to make the research process more valid then the focus in qualitative research is basically on understanding rather than validity because validity generally has been more associated with quantitative researches so kohan manian and morrison for example suggested the use of the words and also maxwell 1992 suggests the use of the word understanding rather than validity which is generally associated with quantitative researches and so what does this understanding mean this understanding actually means that the researcher needs to get to real to the real meaning of the data or the information that they are collecting in some cases researchers collect data and but there there might be chances of misinterpretation or lack of understanding on the part of the research that might lead to the misinterpretation of the of the res of the data and as a result the outcomes of research might not be actually representing what that what actually the data is saying and so getting to the real meaning of the data is something that's very important in making the research process more valid then in-depth explanation is also that is something that is very important in developing this broader understanding of the research process and product another term used by academics is transferability so transferability actually means that this particular research research process this particular research project in terms of the methods that have been used and in terms of the outcomes have implications for understanding similar situations so this will also make the qualitative research more valid when it has the quality of transferability which means it it is helpful in understanding similar situations then um now we will discuss some of the ways in which qualitative validity of the qualitative research can be enhanced and so one of the things is in-depth understanding or reading of the research issue quality generally all researchers are expected to have in-depth reading related to the issue that they are that they are exploring but especially qualitative researchers are expected to have in-depth understanding of the issue that they are exploring and so this in-depth understanding will partially come through the readings around the topic that they are exploring but also partially when they are in the process of of data collection and analysis the next thing is that there should be a rigorous process of validation and this will also improve validity in qualitative research rigorous process of validation actually means that the validity process there is peer review of the data collection tools and the in the whole data collection process that there is um also peer review of the transcription process when the data is collected and then there is the the next step is actually especially interview data and observational data there might be the need for transcription then the analysis process and the interpretation processes all should generally and ideally go um go through the peer review process where the researcher takes feedback from peers and if they're like student researchers from their supervisors and from their senior colleagues triangulation is another way that can help in improving the validity of qualitative research and triangulation x actually means that the data collection sources are triangulated so data is corrected from more than one sources then the data collection tools a variety of data collection tools are generally used in order to make the process of qualitative research more valid and by this is meant that for example one can collect data through um interviews and then they can triangulate that with focus groups or with observational data another important thing that one can do to improve the validity of qualitative research is respondent validation this especially the case with with interviews and focus group discussion so when data has been collected through interviews and focus group discussions and once the researcher has transcribed that data and analyze their data and and also add the at the level of interpretation of of the data uh one of the things that they can do is to send back the data to or their interpretation or transcriptions to the respondents for their validation and so to get feedback whether the researchers have correctly transcribed the data correctly analyzed and interpreted the the the information that has come from the respondents so this is also something very important in terms of enhancing the validity of qualitative research and then critical self reflection to counter researcher bias in some cases or in more in most cases researchers qualitative researchers might have certain biases um in terms of finding answers to their research objectives and research questions so critical self reflection uh reflecting on the researchers own thinking reflecting or critically looking at their own analysis and interpretation processes might also be one of one very important ways in which to improve validity in qualitative research now finally reliability in qualitative research reliability in common research sense actually means a replicability of the research process and then the possibility of getting similar outcomes but reliability in qualitative research is a bit different and it carries a bit different meaning is replicability generally in generalizations um are not the aims of or scope of qualitative research so in qualitative researches reliability depends basically on thick description of the research process of the research sites and of the research informants and also of the data collection and analysis and interpretation processes so the qualitative researcher comes up with thick description in order to aid to the reliability of of the research process in the research reporting process so honest reporting is also extremely important whatever shortcomings the researchers faced whatever factors that might have influenced the process of research the process of data analysis the process of data collection and then interpretation must be reported honestly contextual analysis or analysis of the whole process with reference to the context is also important in improving reliability and then comprehensive inclusions of inclusion of findings in discussion interpretation and conclusion in all of these um the the inclusion of the the con the reference to the context is quite important and so the researcher is discussing interpreting and interpreting findings and getting to conclusion with reference to the context and so the context the background is analyzed in depth and so this is this will actually lead to the to more reliability in qualitative research um processes then generally speaking validity and reliability are not exclusive terms there are more inclusive terms in qualitative research so in conclusion we can say that validity and reliability are more inclusive in all lapping concepts in qualitative research um in comparison to into to quantitative research where there might there are generally different procedures processes for establishing validity and reliability um in qualitative research the measures taken to improve um also generally lead to improvement of reliability so when validity is increased that has an effect on the improvement of reliability and vice versa also validity and reliability in qualitative research are more encompassing of the whole research process rather than having a focus on data collection or analysis tools that is generally the case with quantitative researches so generally in quantitative research is the focus of validity and reliability are actually on the data collection tools and in some cases data analysis but in qualitative researches validity and reliability are more encompassing of the whole research process and so the validity and reliability in qualitative research actually means that the whole research process including the the designing of the research process the data collection and analysis process analysis processes and the interpretation of the data the whole research undertaking is actually encompassed is actually included in the process of validation of validity and reliability there are some sources some suggested readings that include these readings that you can go and read for yourself to have further in-depth understanding of these important issues in qualitative research thank you very much for your time and if you have questions and comments please 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