Who You Are Matters

Maxine and Jonathan sit down for their first meeting. Like many of his health department colleagues, Jonathan studied, and has experience with, quantitative research. Before getting into the “nuts and bolts” of qualitative research, Maxine asks Jonathan to tell her about himself, including his background, family, education, and values.

In qualitative research, who you are matters. Qualitative researchers are often the ones in the field, interacting with study participants, and collecting data. They are immersed in the study and topic of interest. Therefore, it is important for qualitative researchers to reflect on their own demographics (such as age, gender, and race/ethnicity) and background (including, but not limited to, education, work experience, family life, languages spoken, interpersonal relationship, etc.) and consider how those factors may influence or affect the research. For example, will female study participants be more comfortable being interviewed on sensitive topics by a female researcher or not? Does the researcher speak the same language as the study participants or is an interpreter needed? Has the researcher gone through a similar experience as the study participants—does this increase empathy for the participant or lead to bias in interpreting data stemming from the researcher’s own feelings?

A good qualitative researcher possesses the following characteristics (Marshall and Rossman, 2006):

• Views social phenomena holistically
• Reflects systematically on who is in the inquiry
• Is sensitive to his/her personal biography and how it shapes the study
• Uses complex reasoning that is multifaceted and iterative

Maxine encourages Jonathan to think more about his background and to reflect on how he can develop the characteristics of a good qualitative researcher as they continue their discussion.