The variety of qualitative research. Part one: introduction to the problem

For a number of reasons qualitative techniques have taken firm root in nursing research generally and are of growing importance in research undertaken by nurse educators. But there is a great deal of confusion about the nature of the data which are produced by qualitative research, the way such data must be handled, and the use to which such data can be put. The confusion often results from a failure to differentiate between several orientations to qualitative data. Positivist research may use qualitative data (something not always recognized). It presupposes that there is some underlying, true, unequivocal reality, and a theory covering this is to be sought by the research. There must be evidence of validity — in the sense of a match between the data and the reality they are supposed to reveal. Non-positivist research is of a number of kinds, despite often being treated as unified. These will be treated in the second part of this paper.