Percepciones de los propios profesionales sobre los recursos

Complete truth about reality is hardly known. The purpose of research is to better understand reality through developing, improving or testing theory. Research is a process designed by the researcher to achieve better understanding of what is going on. Research strategies and methods of data collection, analysis and reporting are influenced by the researcher’s philosophical stance about the nature of reality to be understood. Quantitative research tends to adopt pre-designed methodologies and methods that have been tested and verified by other researchers. Qualitative research design is contextual considering the multiplicity of realities embedded in phenomena.

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There are as many research designs as phenomena about the reality being investigated. Hence, there cannot be one ‘right’ approach and the adopted research design could be flawed. Validity threats indicate how research designs could render research outcomes to be invalid and unreliable.

Qualitative research approach has often been viewed by quantitative researchers as lacking rigor in establishing whether the instruments used accurately capture reality and whether outcomes can be consistent. Winter (2000) cites Hammersley (1987) as stating that, "An account is valid or true if it represents accurately those features of the phenomena that it is intended to describe, explain or theorise." Maxwell (2012) maintains that qualitative research approach seeks to understand processes in situated contexts, while quantitative approach is interested in variations from static expectations in phenomena. Lincoln and Guba (1985) translate internal validity to credibility, external validity to transferability, reliability to dependability, and objectivity to confirmability. Mishler (1990) argues that extending quantitative validity concepts to inquiry-guided qualitative research is misleading. Some aspects of validity and reliability quantitative such as generalisability and repeatability respectively are not consistent with qualitative research philosophy.

Maxwell (1992) asserts that qualitative researchers agree that not all possible accounts of some individual situations, phenomena, activity, institutions or programs are equally useful, credible, or legitimate. Validity in a broad sense pertains to the relationship between accounts and the phenomena the accounts are about, and not the internal coherence, elegance or plausibility of the accounts themselves. He identifies three broad validity concerns in qualitative research:

descriptive validity – the factual accuracy of accounts, interpretive validity – providing valid description of physical objects, events or behaviour in a setting of the study, and theoretical validity – the account’s validity as a theory of phenomena, that is, the validity of the concepts as they are applied to phenomena and the validity of the postulated relationships among concepts.

5.6.1 Descriptive validity:

Descriptive validity is important to qualitative research because description is critical to credibility and defensibility of this research approach. This validity threat occurs in data collection. It refers to the accuracy in reporting descriptive information (Johnson, 1997). The threat relates to the primary understanding of specific situation or event for instance whether action is a physical or behaviour event, whether the respondent had actual experienced or the account is simply hear-say, and the inference of statements for instance what intensity of recurrence does ‘frequent’ imply.

Maxwell (1992) highlights two forms of descriptive validity. Primary descriptive validity relates to the factual accuracy of what the researcher observed (saw, heard or experienced). Secondary

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descriptive validity refers to validity of accounts that were inferred from other data (accounts) that the researcher did not actually observe, but could in principle be observed. Possible threats to trustworthiness and credibility of accounts arise from relying on participant’s views without alternative evidence of the accounts.

Ethnomethodology strategy principally involves interviews and audio-visual recordings to establish the participant’s contingencies. The use of problem-centred interviews in place of audio-visual recordings is a potential source of secondary descriptive validity. The researcher’s description of the participant’s accounts of the problem context could influence the factual accuracy of the accounts presented in the interview. Primary descriptive validity threat was addressed by capturing respondents’ accounts using high definition digital audio recording, and the researcher manually transcribing the recorded interviews in-vivo.

5.6.2 Interpretive validity

Qualitative researchers assume that qualified, and competent observers can, with objectivity, clarity and precision, report on their own observations of the social world, as well as experiences of others (See Berg and Berg, 2001). Researchers hold a belief in the real subject, the real individual who is present in the world and able, in some way, to report on his or her experience (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011). It is the researcher’s responsibility to search for the properties and dimensions of phenomena (social interaction) as well as linkages between conditions, (inter)action, and consequences (Corbin and Strauss, 1990). Using theoretical thematic analysis could influence the researcher to focus on and interpret themes derived from literature overlooking or completely missing on emerging themes that may not have been identified in previous research.

5.6.3 Theoretical validity

Maxwell (1992) describes theoretical understanding as an account’s function as an explanation as well as a description or interpretation of phenomena. Sampling criteria for the research are sufficient to understand how participants’ social networks could explain their selection of search strategies and its influence on search duration. There is a threat that participants drawn from the researchers’ personal contacts and referrals may not be easily replicable in other settings to generate a plausible and authentic theory.

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