ABSTRACT
The goal of qualitative research is to provide a thick description and understanding of people’s behaviors and experiences. Validity is established through triangulation—the use of multiple methods of data collection or different data sources—and by confirmability, member checking, and transferability. Reliability is assessed by intercoder agreement, and trustworthiness is established by maximizing variation across research participants. Qualitative data collection strategies are summarized with a focus on interviewing participants about their experiences, perspectives, and insights. Interview formats can be structured or semi-structured; interview questions are pretested to ensure they will solicit the data needed to address the study’s purpose. Interviewers need to establish rapport with participants and remain interested and non-judgmental throughout the interview process. Interviews are transcribed and divided into meaningful chunks of data that are assigned codes that describe their meaning. Themes are then derived from the coded data and are treated as analytic findings. The researchers also record their thoughts, experiences, and initial coding ideas. Writing and dissemination are reflexive and include the researchers’ account of their role and experiences in the process. For transparency and the illustration of findings, qualitative written reports make extensive use of quotations from participant interviews.
