1. Are we there yet?
Growing maturity in qualitative tools and methods
Christopher Thorn
Assistant Scientist and Director of Technical Services
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison

2. Are we really in the back seat?

3. How would we know?
• The qualitative research SIG in AERA is
celebrating its 20th anniversary this spring. It’s
also bigger than two of the divisions
• Take a look at the long history of CAQDAS, a
long list of software, and the level of the
discussion on the related listserves
• The criticism of tools as distancing from data
is a decade out of date

4. Maturity of the tools

5. Basic Functionality of CAQDAS Tools
• CAQDAS Networking Project
– Structure of work – The Project
– Closeness to data and interactivity
– Exploring the data
– Code and Retrieve functionality
– Project Management and Data Organization
– Searching and interrogating the database
– W riting tools
– Output

6. Maturity of Evaluation & Review
• AERA Standards for Reporting on Research
Methods – guidelines that discuss the
underpinnings of quality
• The Qualitative Report’s Qua lity in Qua lita tive
Re s e a rc h Re fe re nc e s provides a 22 page list of
scholarly references
• Journal and grant proposal reviewers are
requiring explicit discussion about the links
between questions and methods used

7. Maturity of Literature
• Early 90’s - Pulling it all together
• Specialization of the late 1990s
– Organizational Studies
– Mental Health
– Program Evaluation
– Social Policy Reform
– Education
• Reintegration of the mid-00’s
– Cross-cutting issues of quality and rigor

8. Maturity of Training
• Exploration
– The rise of artisans
– Teach me the basics
– You are not alone
• Specialization
– The rise of guilds
– Training widely available,
but often narrow
• Reintegration
– Scope and sequence

9. Maturity of Infrastructure
• Availability of
Archives
• Standards for
Storing &
Transmitting Data
• Standards for
Secondary Use
• Scholarly Discourse
on Secondary Use

10. Maturity of Desire
• Transfer data and analytical coding from one
tool to another – leverage different strengths
• Storage and transmission standard
– Ability to share primary data
– Ability to share journals and memos
– Ability to share coding and coding frameworks
• Real-time simultaneous access for coding and
searching

11. Maturity of the Market
• Desktop vs Teams
– QSR is using technologies
that would allow web services
and multi-user
• Enterprise services
– Atlas services are already
there, this a is a place QSR
could head as well –
discovery inside the
enterprise
• Real Easy vs Real
Research
– Market segmentation

12. Trends
• Social Network Analysis
– Visualization of groups and
processes
– New notions of mixed
methods
• Tools for federation of
data and analysis
– Search and storage
• Web 2.0 tools
overlapping with
collaborative qualitative
analysis

13. Is it the right metaphor?
• I think I got out of the
back seat a while ago
• Maybe I don’t have
the right vehicle?
– Hybrid
– Landau
– Nascar
– Horseless carriage
• Maybe another
picture be better?

14. A New Era of Collaboration
• The tenor of the new
AERA publication
guidelines should
provide a platform for
high-level dialogue
and professional
engagement
• It’s time to get out of
the car and work
together

15. A few other “there yet?” images