Subjectivity, reliability and validity

According to Wolcott, there is no ethnography without the ethnographer.  So....can we live with foreshadowed problems, or do we insist on removing the personal influence of researcher from the mix? We will spend some time exploring these concepts based on readings and internet assignments.  It is particularly important to concentrate on the work of Maxwell, Peshkin, Eisenhart and Howe, and LeCompte and Goertz.
 
 
 

Subjectivity (from Jansen & Peshkin)

  Some ironic problems

•    reality versus truth

•    subjectivity versus objectivity

•    meaning versus positivism

  Some constant questions

•  Does constancy substitute for objectivity?
•  Does interpretation overcome the distinction between the subjective and the objective?
•  What is objectivity in the qualitative sense?

  Subjectivity and method

•  Disciplined subjectivity
•  Regulative ideals (Eisner)

Reliability-  searching for qualities in data of consistency

•     similarity

•     consistency

•     recursive pattern

Validity

•  Conventional definitions

•  Adaptations

•  Issues specific to qualitative research

•   Reactivity and the researcher

•   Reactivity and methods

•   Construct validity - Some global standards

  Authenticity

  Trustworthiness

  Disconfirmation

•  Strategies

  Analytic induction

  Construct validation

  Conceptual coherence

  Credibility

  Discovery of meaning (internal view)

 Specific standards

•     Fit of question with methods

•     Effective technique

•    Awareness of prior knowledge

•    Value constraint

    external
    internal

•    Comprehensiveness

 
return to the course schedule