• Home
• Education
  • Academic Employment
  • Graduate Education
    • Introduction
    • Choosing a Program
    • Financing Your Degree
    • Getting into Grad School
    • Support Networks
    • Surviving & Flourishing
    • Teaching Assistants
  • Teach Online
    • Best Practices
    • Course Evaluation
    • CATs
    • Instructional Design
    • Learning Outcomes
    • Mult Choice Questions
    • Online Learners
    • Online Quizzes
    • Online Tools
    • Pedagogy
    • Role Shift
    • Student Assessment
    • Your Teaching Plan
  • Writing Centre
    • Bibliographic Tools
    • Citation Styles
    • Copyright
    • Integrity/Plagiarism
    • Style Guides
• Research
  • My Research
    • Contents
    • Bobbi's Dissertation
      • Table of Contents
      • Title Page
      • Abstract
      • Tables
      • Figures
      • Acknowledgements
      • Dedication
      • Desideratum
      • Prelude
      • Ch 1 Introduction
      • Ch 2 Literature Review
      • Ch 3 Methodology
      • Ch 4 The PhD Experience
        • 1 Introduction
        • 2 Demographics
        • 3 The Women
        • 4 Motivations, Aspirations
        • 5 Preconceptions
        • 6 Choice of Program
        • 7 Admissions Process
        • 8 Ph.D. Course Work
        • 9 Other Role Demands
        • 10 Candidacy Exams
        • 11 Advisor Relationships
        • 12 Dissertation Committee
        • 13 The Dissertation Phase
        • 14 The Final Defense
        • 15 Post-Degree Experience
        • 16 Women's Reflections
      • Ch 5 Women's Persistence
      • Epilogue
      • Appendices
      • References
    • Genealogy
  • QSR NUD.IST4 Guide
  • Qualitative Research
    • Introduction
    • What is Research?
    • The Research Problem
    • Information Gathering
    • The Role of Theory
    • Interpreting & Presenting
    • Research Proposals
    • Course Syllabi
    • Discussion Groups
    • Research Ethics
    • Research Glossaries
    • Research Software
  • Qualitative Bibliography
    • About the Bibliography
    • General References
    • Credibility
      • Rigor in Qual Research
      • Inter-Rater Reliability
      • Researcher Relationships
      • Sampling Issues
      • Subjectivity
    • Conceptual Frameworks
      • Research Paradigms
      • General References
      • Critical Theory
      • Feminist Theory
      • Grounded Theory
      • Hermeneutics
      • Humanism
      • Phenomenology
    • Internet Research
    • Planning Research
    • Dealing with Data
    • Methods
      • Action Research
      • Auto/Biography
      • Case Study Research
      • Critical Incident Technique
      • Ethnography
        • Auto-Ethnography
        • Ethnography
        • Photo-Ethnography
      • Focus Groups
      • Journaling/Field Notes
      • Mixed Methods
      • Narrative
        • Teachers' Lives
        • Interviewing
        • Interviewing Children
        • Non-Verbal Communication
        • Oral History
        • Critical Oral History
    • Analysis
      • CAQDA
      • Content Analysis
      • Data Analysis
      • Discourse Analysis
    • Qual Psych Research
  • Quant Corner
• Technology
  • Cyberculture
  • Web Design
• Eriador Dobermans
• Site Awards
• Email Bobbi Kerlin

RIGOR IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Beck, C.T. (1993). Qualitative research: the evaluation of its credibility, fittingness, and auditability. Western Journal of Nursing Research. 15(2), 263-266.

Generalizability and Transferability
Another great site from the Colorado State University Writing Center

House, E. R., Mathison, S. & McTaggart, R. (1989). Validity and teacher inference. Educational Researcher, 18(7), 11-15.

Johnson, R.B. (1997). Examining the validity structure of qualitative research. Education, vol 118(2), 282-292.

Abstract
Three types of validity in qualitative research are discussed. First, descriptive validity refers to the factual accuracy of the account as reported by the qualitative researcher. Second, interpretive validity is obtained to the degree that the participants' viewpoints, thoughts, intentions, and experiences are accurately understood and reported by the qualitative researcher. Third, theoretical validity is obtained to the degree that a theory or theoretical explanation developed from a research study fits the data and is, therefore, credible and defensible. The two types of validity that are typical of quantitative research, internal and external validity, are also discussed for qualitative research. Twelve strategies used to promote research validity in qualitative research are discussed.

This article builds on Maxwell's qualitative validities and Cook and Campbell's quantitative validities. It also summarizes a number of strategies from numerous sources.

Burke Johnson
BJOHNSON@usamail.usouthal.edu
College of Education
University of South Alabama

Krefting, Laura. (1991). Rigor in Qualitative Research: The Assessment of Trustworthiness. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 45, 214-222. American Occupational Therapy Assoc., Inc.

Lather, P. (1986). Issues of validity in openly ideological research: Between a rock and a soft place. Interchange, 17. 63-84.

Lather, P. (1993). Fertile obsession: Validity after poststructuralism. Sociological Quarterly, 34(4), 673-693.

Lather, Patti (1995). The validity of angels: Interpretive and textual strategies in researching the lives of women with HIV/AIDS. Qualitative Inquiry, 1(1), 41-68.

Maxwell, Joseph A. (1992). Understanding and Validity in Qualitative Research. Harvard Educational Review, 62(3), 279-300.

Merriam, S. B. (1995). What can you tell from an N of 1?: Issues of validity and reliability in qualitative research. PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, 4, 51-60.

Overview: Validity and Reliability
A comprehensive site from the Colorado State University Writing Center

Sandelowski, M. (1994). Rigor or rigor mortis: The problem of rigor in qualitative research revisited. Advances in Nursing Science, 16, 1-8.

Sin of Omission-Punishable by Death to Internal Validity, The
An Argument for Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods to Strengthen Internal Validity by Kathryn A. Bowen.

Triangulation: Establishing the Validity of Qualitative Studies
Lisa A. Guion

Wolcott, H. (1997). Validating Reba: a commentary on "Teaching about validity." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 10(2).