Ensuring Quality in Qualitative Research: A Researcher's Reflections

Abstract

This reflective paper is the outcome of my qualitative research engagement aligned with quality standards. I began with autoethnography in my master's research in mathematics education (see Dahal, 2013), then moved on to narrative inquiry in my MPhil research (see Dahal, 2017), and collaborative autoethnography in my doctoral research (see Dahal, 2023). With the above, this paper aims to clarify the quality criteria used in autoethnography, narrative inquiry, and collaborative autoethnography based on my experiences to evaluate the robustness of qualitative research from various ontological and epistemological vantage points. Likewise, this article offers a comprehensive overview of the key elements of qualitative research across master, MPhil, and Ph.D. research that can be used to evaluate the rigor of qualitative reports. In this introspection, I explored the significance of qualitative research and the need to assess it, considering quality criteria and/or characteristics. Quality criteria also offer some insights and recommendations for improving the standard of qualitative reports. From these musings, I deduced that established norms of quality are the product of preexisting paradigmatic (e.g., interpretivism, criticalism, postmodernism, and intergalism) practices and broader socio-institutional processes. It is unrealistic to expect that a single, all-encompassing set of quality standards will be developed for qualitative research due to the diversity of its paradigms. This paper provides novice and veteran researchers and practitioners with an overview of qualitative research's theoretical and methodological foundations and the applicable standards and deciding factors for evaluating qualitative reports.