Hierarchical qualitative research teams: refining the methodology

Abstract

Qualitative research traditionally has been done by individual researchers or by collaborating researchers of equal status. In recent years, a number of prominent qualitative research efforts with hierarchical research teams have emerged. In part, this has been in response to the criticism that the small number of cases on which qualitative research typically is based does not permit enough variation for the results to be generalized. Researchers have responded by conducting larger, often multi-site, qualitative research projects. The model of lead researchers and a group of lower status research assistants common in the natural sciences and in quantitative research, however, does not neatly fit the realities of qualitative research. As feminist and other researchers have argued, research is not simply experts’ objective discoveries of pre-existing truths. Knowledge is produced within social contexts that include power dynamics and ethical issues. In qualitative research teams these issues are particularly salient. A model of qualitative team research must be developed that takes into consideration the unique aspects of the methodology.