The Qualitative Research Culture: Reflections from the Field

Abstract

The experiences and the processes of researchers is one of the most fruitful ways to understand the approaches and methods of qualitative research and embody the theoretical aspects of any methodology. This thesis aims to understand the experiences and research practices of researchers regarding qualitative research and explore the particularities of qualitative research culture in the country. Through a comprehensive approach to the entire process of the researches, this study reflects on the various factors that affect the researcher process, and the opinions of the academicians on the difficulties faced by lecturers when teaching qualitative methods, and by students when learning qualitative methods. This thesis focuses mainly on the experiences, perceptions and processes of researchers in academia. However, the research process is subject to change according to different contexts. Therefore, in order to have a richer understanding on the diverse research processes, in-depth interviews were also conducted with the researchers working in private research companies along with the researchers from academia. Fifteen in-depth interviews were carried out using semi-structured interview guideline. This study suggests that even tough qualitative research methods were faced with scrutiny in the past, in the last 30 years, it seems to have an accepted position and it is employed more predominantly. However, there are certain hindrances to the research practices of researchers and these hindrances, in some instances, prevent researchers from conducting studies as they prefer. Furthermore, even though the studies and efforts focused on furthering the methodological discussions on qualitative research are increasing, the interviews suggest that methodological discussions on qualitative research are, to a certain extent, still unheeded.