Creswell Ch. 10 (Standards of Validation and Evaluation)

In Chapter 10, Creswell (2007) mainly discussed validation, reliability, and standards of quality in qualitative research. He described various perspectives, the terms used by researchers, and many perspectives on validation.

According to Creswell (2007), he considered “validation” in qualitative research to assess the “accuracy” of the findings, as best described by the researcher and the participants. This view also suggests that any report of research is a representation by the author” (pp. 206-207). It is important to remember that Creswell maintained “validation as a distinct strength of qualitative research in that the account made through extensive time spent in the field, the detailed thick description, and the closeness of the researcher to the participants in the study all add to the value or accuracy of the study” (p. 207). Creswell noted several validation strategies, which are useful for researchers for the accuracy of their research (p. 207).

Also, Creswell dealt with “reliability” which often “refers to the stability of responses to multiple coders of date sets” (p. 210). According to him, reliability is often used in qualitative health science research. Lastly, Creswell described standards of quality that these criteria are cased on various perspectives, such as procedural, postmodern, and interpretive (pp. 210-213).

Generally, I appreciate Creswell’s research that I could know what qualitative research is more. Still, it seems like I am in process to build up the qualitative research skills and knowledge. Of course, I consider myself as a qualitative research novice in this field. One of the important things I have found is that I am very interested in “Case Study”, “Ground Theory”, and “Phenomenology” qualitative research methodologies that I might use for my dissertation. I hope this lesson will equip and make me as a professional qualitative researcher who is able to understand “validation”, “reliability”, and “standards of quality” in qualitative research.