Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research

Taking a sociological view, we can investigate the empirical consequences of variations in the rhetoric of sociological methodology. The standards advocated in Qualitative Literacy divide communities of qualitative researchers, as they are not explicitly connected to an understanding of social ontology, unlike previous qualitative methodologies; they continue the long-growing segregation of the rhetorical worlds of qualitative and quantitative research methodology; and they draw attention to the personal competencies of the researcher. I compare a rhetoric of qualitative methodology that: derives evaluation criteria from perspectives on social ontology that have been developing progressively since the early twentieth century; applies the discipline-wide evaluation criteria of reactivity, reliability, representativeness, and replicability; and asks evaluators to focus on the adequacy of the textual depiction of research subjects.

Automated summary

Taking a sociological view, this article explores the empirical consequences of variations in the rhetoric of sociological methodology. The standards advocated in Qualitative Literacy have caused a division among qualitative researchers and further segregated the worlds of qualitative and quantitative research methodology. This article compares a rhetoric of qualitative methodology that takes into account perspectives on social ontology, applies discipline-wide evaluation criteria, and emphasizes the adequacy of the textual depiction of research subjects.