Pluralism in qualitative research: the impact of different researchers and qualitative approaches on the analysis of qualitative data

By N. Frost, Sevasti-Melissa Nolas, B. Brooks-Gordon, C. Esin, A. Holt, L. Mehdizadeh, Pnina Shinebourne. 2010

204 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Qualitative approaches to research in psychology and the social sciences are increasingly used. The variety of approaches incorporates different epistemologies, theoretical traditions and practices with associated analysis techniques spanning a range of theoretical and empirical frameworks. Despite the increase in mixed method approaches it is unusual for qualitative methods to be used in combination with each other. The Pluralism in Qualitative Research project (PQR) was developed in order to investigate the benefits and creative tensions of integrating diverse qualitative approaches. Among other objectives it seeks to interrogate the contributions and impact of researchers and methods on data analysis. The article presents our pluralistic analysis of a single semi-structured interview transcript. Analyses were carried out by different researchers using grounded theory, Foucauldian discourse analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis and narrative analysis. We discuss the variation and agreement in the analysis of the data. The implications of the findings on the conduct, writing and presentation of qualitative research are discussed.

Subfields: Education, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c3ab482d41e3200c107aedc18c4ac6b4b7219804

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Education

1. M. Vaismoradi
2. G. Wiltshire
3. H. Turunen
4. N. Clarke

In Sociology and Political Science

1. J. Sheridan
2. A. Dupuis
3. G. Wiltshire
4. K. Chamberlain
5. H. Turunen
6. Jacqueline Jones
7. Trudie Cain
8. N. Clarke

Citations in the corpus

• Pluralisms in Qualitative Research: From Multiple Methods to Integrated Methods (2011, background): “Analyses across complex data sets, such as Trudie's and Joanna's, provoke a plurality of insights and interpretations, and foster complexity in representing the findings ( Frost et al. 2010 ).”
• Analytical Pluralism in Qualitative Research: A Meta-Study (2015, methodology): “…studies illustrate how analytical pluralism invites and encourages researchers to reflect upon their role in constructing data and subsequent (multiple) interpretations and, as Frost et al. (2010) proposed, may provide a starting point for enhancing transparency and trustworthiness in research.”
• Theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis (2016, background): “If a group of codes are repeated in a patterned way and in multiple situations, they have potential to become a theme.[20, 54] Comparison has the capacity to reveal the link between codes and nominate themes using researchers’ intellectual judgment.”