ABSTRACT
Qualitative and quantitative approaches are not alternatives, but simply different aspects of our search for knowledge and understanding. However quantitative the research design, it must still face up to criticism from the qualitative perspective, and vice versa. Suppose researcher A collected a huge amount of numerical data, measuring children with all possible precision and doing a lot of ‘correct’ statistical sums with the best available software. The conclusions would be of little value if they showed no awareness of the meaning of their data and refused to listen to criticisms about the influence on their results of the social context in which children operated. On the other hand, suppose researcher B became deeply involved in an observational case study, collected enormous amounts of notes and meticulously analysed them before constructing theories based on them. The conclusions would be hopelessly wrong, if they showed no awareness of the quantitative perspective and the fact that one case study provides no evidence of anything other than what happens in that one case.
