Disadvantages Of Qualitative Research Studies

The foundation of this project is built on the empirical data we have constructed through inter-views with three third year gymnasium students. Our choice to conduct qualitative research origi-nates from a thorough discussion, within the group and supervisor, where both advantages and disadvantages have been discussed and evaluated. The aim with this project is to comprehend some of the factors that may have had a motivational effect on our three interviewees’ choice to apply for university - to comprehend these different elements, we will attempt to ‘make sense’ of the interviewees’ world by paying close attention to how they articulate and reflect upon their own experiences .

According to Zoltán Dörneyei and Ema Ushioda, qualitative research involves “data collec-tion procedures that result primarily in open-ended, non-numerical data which are then analysed primarily by non-statistical methods” (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011, p. 203). We have performed three interviews, transcribed the audio-files and lastly analysed the individual interview by examining the final written data.

Qualitative research is often utilised by studying a few cases as this type of research is not de-pended on former empirical findings - and is also considered useful when the researcher is trying to make sense of complex situations (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011, p. 204)

Qualitative research is, by some, criticised because of the “small participant samples the most qualitative studies investigate” (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011, p. 205), which can provoke the question of whether or not the findings are actually representative. As a group we have confi-dence that our choice to conduct qualitative research coincides with the purpose of this project, which is to comprehe...

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...ote becomes clearer and easier to grasp, after applying mean-ing condensation.

We have chosen that each of the pairs should analyse another interview than the one they con-ducted, as we believe this will help us discover ‘new’ nuances in the interviews. After several thor-ough readings of the interviews, we discovered three general themes: ‘background’, ‘education versus the labour market’ and ‘cultural liberation versus insecurities’, which we have divided the three analyses into.

As the analyses of the interviews have been carried out in pairs, they have inevitably been influenced by the individuals’ academic viewpoints and dispositions, which in turn has resulted in the inclusion and exclusion of certain aspects. Thusly, when we regard the interviewer’s asked question to contribute to the outcome of the answer, we have chosen to include it in the analysis.