Week 10 Discussion 1 – Linda Wells

Respond to at least one of your colleagues’ posts and search the
Internet and/or the Walden Library for a different article related to
trustworthiness and/or quality of qualitative research that offers other
techniques or strategies. Explain how these other techniques or
strategies might further ensure quality, trustworthiness, and
credibility in qualitative research. Finally, evaluate the feasibility
of your colleague’s strategies. Reference the article you found to
support your explanation. Use proper APA format, citations, and
referencing. $5 post

The quality of a research study is a
measure of the study’s ethical soundness. Ravitch and Carl (2016) refer
to research ethics as being relational because it considers the humanity
of all involved, the dynamics of the relationships between the
participants and between the participants and the researchers
themselves. It addresses issues of identity, power, and context and
requires thoughtful self-reflection and willingness to be open with
oneself as well as with others. As Flick (2018) puts it, ”… quality is
seen as a precondition for ethically sound research,” (p. 10). Quality
research is trustworthy and credible. Lincoln and Guba (1985) outlined
the criteria necessary to achieve trustworthiness of a qualitative study
as one that has credibility, transferability, dependability, and
confirmability (Nowell, Norris, White, & Moules, 2017; Shenton,
2004), and Cope (2014) said, “Trustworthiness or truth value of
qualitative research and transparency of the conduct of the study are
crucial to the usefulness and integrity of the findings,” (Connelly,
2016, p. 435). Quality, trustworthiness, and credibility are
interdependent in that all three must exist for any one of them to
exist.

Triangulation of data collection such
as using interviews, focus groups, and observation is a strategy that
improves the credibility of data because the limitations of one approach
are addressed by the strength of a different approach (Shenton, 2004,
p. 65). Site triangulation of data may also be accomplished by using
many sources and then comparing the responses to others. For example, if
I were to use interviews of eight minority business owners to gather
data on their perceptions of police legitimacy, I could compare the
responses across race and ethnicity to identify common themes. Likewise,
if I were to conduct focus groups of the business owners’ spouses or
significant others along the same lines I could lend more credibility to
my data. Peer scrutiny and ongoing reflexive commentary are valuable
tools to increase trustworthiness and therefore credibility and overall
quality (p. 67-68). The most important strategy to improve credibility
is member checks. The participants can read the transcripts of their
interviews to ensure they are accurate and can read the researchers’
inferences that result from the interviews to verify the inferences
comport with what they intended to convey (p. 68). Thematic analysis is a
data analysis method that can be both flexible enough to be used for
the various types of qualitative research and add credibility and trust
to the results by following a six step outline: familiarizing yourself
with your data; generating initial codes; searching for themes;
reviewing themes; defining and naming themes; and then producing the
report (Nowell, Norris, White, & Moules, 2017, p. 4).

Quality, trustworthiness, and
credibility of qualitative research are necessary both internally and
externally for qualitative studies. Internally they bolster the
acceptance of the field of qualitative research as a science and
externally they increase the prospects of funding and the attention of
policy makers (Flick, 2018).

References

Connelly, L. M. (2016). Understanding Research. Trustworthiness in qualitative research. MedSurg Nursing, 25(6),
435-436. Retrieved from
https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org…

Flick, U. (2018). How to manage and assess the quality of qualitative research. In U. Flick, & U. Flick (Ed.), Managing Quality in Qualitative Research (2nd ed., Vol. 10, pp. 1-11). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.

Nowell, L. S.,
Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic
analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16, 1-13. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/16094…

Ravitch, S. M., & Carl, N. M. (2016). Qualitative research: Bridging the onceptual, theoretical, and methodological. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Shenton, A. K. (2004). Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. Education for Information, 22, 63-75.