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91 5 Applying the Qualitative-Quantitative Inter active Continuum This chapter begins with procedures that can be used in critiquing research, with actual examples of research published in the disciplines of education and counseling, contextualizing them within the continuum so that their validity can be evaluated. The process of critiquing each study involves assessing the methods the researchers use; the methods are presented in figure 3. The totality of the “methods” we call the design. When critiquing a published study, one is limited to knowing only what is written in the article about the methods the researcher uses. Full accounting for each activity on the part of the researcher may or may not be included. Our judgments about each of these studies are limited, therefore, as are all critiques of published work. More important than the conclusions we draw about these four studies is the process we suggest. Others may ask somewhat different questions about each study. We are not particularly bothered by that. Our questions here are not uniform from study to study. The bottom line for us is advocating for a critique of published research that seeks to judge whether the research question is consistent with the research methods. Our process is only one of several that can accomplish that goal. Chapter 5 includes • discussion of why utilizing the continuum increases the researcher’s awareness that research is a holistic endeavor • discussion of posing and answering consistency questions across a research study in the areas of purpose and methods, methods and data, purpose and conclusions, and implications and purpose • application of the continuum to a published research study • application of the continuum in planning a research study applying the interactive continuum 92 Procedures to Use in Critiquing Research In evaluating research studies, the researcher can apply the continuum as an assessment scheme. In planning a research study, the researcher can utilize the continuum to assess his or her plans. And, because research is conceptualized as an unbroken continuum, one may enter the continuum and make inquiries for assessment and critiquing purposes at any point. The following steps are a place to begin, especially when one is initiating the research process. In the consistency-questions model, one asks, • What is the question, purpose, or reason for doing the research? • What research methods might one use to address this question, purpose, or reason? • Contingent on the answer to the second question, what are the underlying assumptions of the research method? • What are the findings of the research? • What are the implications of the findings of the research? As illustrated in figure 4, the sequence of questions is linked, implying continuity and consistency. Because of this mapping, a researcher is able to assess the consistency from any point in the loop to the adjacent point: Is there a match between the question or purpose (A) and the methods (B)? Is there a match between the methods (B) and the assumptions (C)? Is there a match between the implications (E) and the purpose of the question (A)? For example, one might carry out research, as in the early-schooleffectiveness studies (Olson, 1986), in which the purpose is to explore what characterizes a school where learning gains are relatively high. To acquire thick descriptive detail, this question dictates the use of qualitative methodology. Following such a study, however, the investigator should not generalize from the descriptions to other schools. Generalization is consistent neither with the purpose of the study nor with the underlying assumptions of the specific research methods. If one were to generalize, the generalization would be criticized as inappropriate and in violation of the assumptions. This consistency-question approach as depicted in figure 4 is a subset of the interactive continuum represented in figures 1 and 2. The continuum assumes that the research question dictates the methodology. applying the interactive continuum 93 If the researcher uses methods consistent with his or her purpose, the conclusions likely will be consistent with the underlying assumptions of those methods. The consistency questions to ask are common to all research studies. Figures 5 and 6 illustrate possible answers to the consistency questions when either the qualitative or the quantitative paradigm is preeminent . The two figures would ideally be depicted in one schematic drawing, which would be more in keeping with the continuum. They have been separated here for illustrative purposes. For example, if a researcher asked question A in figure 5 or 6 (“What is the research question?”), the answer (that the researcher wanted...

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