For some time now qualitative researchers have been debating the implications of the cri sis of representation in social and educational research. The untenability of any notion of absolute truth has left us with the problem of determining the status of research findings. Considerable attention has been devoted to finding criteria that will enable judgments to be made between competing research claims. However, this leads to a second, equally intractable problem: How can we determine which set of putative criteria to adopt? This article analyzes the nature of criteria in qualitative research from a hermeneutical per spective, arguing that criteria can only be located in the interaction between research findings and the critical reader of those findings. It is suggested that it is both illogical and pointless to attempt to predetermine a definitive set of criteria against which all qualitative research should be judged.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alexander, J. (1987). The centrality of the classics. In A. Giddens & J. Turner (Eds.), Social theory today (pp. 11-57). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
Altheide, D., & Johnson, J. (1994). Criteria for assessing interpretive validity in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 485-499). London: Sage.
3.
Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands/la fronteraSan Francisco: Aunt Lute.
4.
Barthes, R. (1967). Writing degree zero. London : Jonathan Cape.
5.
Betti, E. (1980). Hermeneutics as the general methodology of the geisteswissenschaften. In J. Bleicher (Ed.), Contemporary Hermeneutics (pp. 51-94). London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
6.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste. London: Routledge.
7.
Bourdieu, P. (1988). Homo academicus. Cambridge, MA: Polity.
8.
Butler, J. (1991). Contingent foundations: Feminism and the question of "postmodernism." Praxis International, 11(2), 150-165.
9.
Caputo, J.D. (1987). Radical hermeneutics: Repetition, deconstruction, and the hermeneutic project. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
10.
Clough, P. (1994). Feminist thought: Desire, power and academic discourse . Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
11.
Collins, P.H. (1991). Black feminist thought. New York: Routledge.
12.
Denzin, N. (1989). Interpretive biography, qualitative research methods series, 17. London: Sage.
13.
Denzin, N. (1997). Interpretive ethnography: Ethnographic practices for the 21st century. London: Sage .
Derrida, J. (1989). Of spirit: Heidegger and the question. (G. Bemmington & R. Bowlby, Trans.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
16.
Derrida, J. (1994). Spectres of Marx (P. Kamuf, Trans.). London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
17.
Donmoyer, R. (1996). Juxtaposing articles/posing questions: An introduction and an invitation. Educational Researcher, 25(3), 4.
18.
Dreyfus, H. L., & Rabinow, P. (Eds.). (1983). Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics (2nd. ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
19.
Escobar, A. (1993). The limits of reflexivity: Politics in anthropology's post-writing culture era. Journal of Anthropological Research , 49, 377-391.
20.
Foucault, M. (1980). Truth and power. In C. Gordon (Ed.), Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977. Brighton, England: Harvester.
21.
Gadamer, H.-G. (1960). Wahreit und methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen hermeneutik. Tübingen, Germany: J.C.B. Mohr.
22.
Gadamer, H.-G. (1979). Truth and method (2nd. ed.). London: Sheed and Ward .
23.
Gadamer, H.-G. (1986). On the scope and function of hermeneutical reflection . In B. Wachterhauser (Ed.), Hermeneutics and modern philosophy (pp. 277-299). Albany, NY : State University of NewYork Press.
24.
Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
25.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge, MA: Polity.
26.
Guba, E. G. (Ed.). (1990). The paradigm dialog. London: Sage.
Gwaltney, J.L. (1980). Drylongso, a self-portrait of Black America. New York: Vintage.
29.
Habermas, J. (1986). A review of Gadamer's Truth and Method. In B. Wachterhauser (Ed.), Hermeneutics and modern philosophy (pp. 243-276). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
30.
Harding, S. (1996). From feminist empiricism to feminist standpoint epistemologies. In L. Cahoone (Ed.), From modernism to post-modernism: An Anthology. Oxford , UK: Basil Blackwell.
31.
Hammersley, M. (1992). What's wrong with ethnography? London: Routledge.
32.
Hammersley, M. (1995). The politics of social research. London: Sage.
33.
Hammersley, M. (1997). Educational research and teaching: A response to David Hargreaves' TTA lecture. British Educational Research Journal, 23(2), 141-162.
34.
Hargreaves, D. (1996). Teaching as a research-based profession: Possibilities and prospects. Paper presented at the Teacher Training Agency Annual Lecture, London.
35.
Hargreaves, D. (1997). In defence of research for evidence-based teaching: A rejoinder to Martyn Hammersley. British Journal of Educational Research, 23(4), 405-420.
36.
Hirsch, E. (1967). Validity in interpretation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
37.
Hodkinson, P., & Sparkes, A.C. (1997). Careership: A sociological theory of career decision making. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 18(1), 29-44.
38.
Huber, J. (1995). Centennial essay: Institutional perspectives on sociology. American Journal of Sociology, 101, 798-800.
39.
Kuhn, T.S. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions (2nd. ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
40.
Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewingLondon: Sage.
41.
Lather, P. (1993). Fertile obsession: Validity after poststructuralism . The Sociological Quarterly, 34, 673-693.
42.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge . Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
43.
MacLure, M., & Stronach, I. (1993). Jack in two boxes: A postmodern perspective on the transformation of persons into portraits. Interchange , 24(4), 353-380.
44.
Miles, M.B., & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd. Ed.). London: Sage.
45.
Palmer, R.E. (1969). HermeneuticsEvanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
46.
Peters, M. (1995). Education and the postmodern condition: Revisiting Jean-François Lyotard. Journal of Philosophy of Education , 29(3), 387-400.
47.
Polanyi, M. (1958). Personal knowledge. London : Routledge Kegan Paul.
48.
Polanyi, M. (1966). The tacit dimension. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
49.
Richardson, L. (1990). Writing strategies: Reaching diverse audiences . London: Sage.
50.
Richardson, L. (1994). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 516-529). London: Sage.
51.
Ricoeur, P. (1981). Hermeneutics and the human sciences (J. B. Thompson, Ed. and Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
52.
Rorty, R. (1985). Solidarity or objectivity? In J. Tajchmann & C. West (Eds.), Post-analytic philosophy (pp. 3-19). New York: Columbia University Press.
53.
Scheurich, J.J. (1997). Research method in the postmodern. London: Falmer.
54.
Scheurich, J.J., & Young, M.D. (1997). Colouring epistemologies: Are our research epistemologies racially biased? Educational Researcher, 26(4), 4-16.
55.
Schwandt, T. (1996). Farewell to criteriology. Qualitative Inquiry, 2(1), 58-72.
56.
Smith, D.E. (1989). Sociological theory: Methods of writing patriarchy . In R. A. Wallace (Ed.), Feminism and sociological theory (pp. 34-64). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
57.
Smith, J.K. (1989). The nature ofsocial and educational inquiry: Empiricism versus interpretation. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
58.
Smith, J.K. (1990). Alternative research paradigms and the problem of criteria. In E. G. Guba (Ed.), The paradigm dialog (pp. 167-187). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
59.
Smith, J.K. (1993). After the demise of empiricism: The problem of judging social and educational inquiry. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
60.
Smith, J.K. (1995). The ongoing problem of criteria. In T. Tiller, A. Sparkes, S. Starkus & F. Darling Waess (Eds.), The qualitative challenge: Reflection and educational research (pp. 133-154). Bergen, Norway: Caspar Forlag.
61.
Smith, J.K. (1997a, May). Learning to live with relativism. Paper presented at The nature of educational research: Realism, relativism, or post-modernism? Conference, The Manchester Metropolitan University, Crewe, United Kingdom.
62.
Smith, J.K. (1997b). The stories educational researchers tell about themselves. Educational Researcher, 26(5), 4-11.
63.
Sparkes, A.C. (1991). Toward understanding, dialogue, and polyvocality in the research community: Extending the boundaries of the paradigms debate . Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 10, 103-133.
64.
Sparkes, A.C. (1992). The paradigms debate: An extended review and a celebration of difference. In A. C. Sparkes (Ed.), Research in physical education and sport (pp. 9-60). London: Falmer.
65.
Sparkes, A.C. (1995). Writing people: Reflections on the dual crisis of representation and legitimation in qualitative inquiry. Quest, 47, 158-195.
66.
Sparkes, A.C. (1996). The fatal flaw: A narrative of the fragile body self. Qualitative Inquiry, 2(4), 463-494.
67.
Sparkes, A.C. (in press). Validity in qualitative inquiry and the problem of criteria: Implications for sport psychology. The Sport Psychologist.
68.
St. Pierre, E.A. (1997). Methodology in the fold and the irruption of transgressive data. Qualitative Studies in Education, 10(2), 175-189.
69.
Stronach, I., & MacLure, M. (1997). Educational research undone: The postmodern embrace . Buckingham, England: Open University Press.
70.
Thomas, D. (1993). Empirical authors, liminal texts and model readers: a response to "managing marginality." British Educational Research Journal, 19(5), 467-474.
71.
Trinh, T. M-ha. (1992). Framer framed. New York: Routledge.
72.
Welchman, J. (1989). After the Wagnerian bouillabaisse: Critical theory and the dada and surrealist word-image. In J. Freeman (Ed.), The dada and surrealist word-image. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
