Validity in Qualitative Evaluation Linking Purposes, Paradigms, and Perspectives

This article provides a discussion on the question of validity in qualitative evaluation. Although validity in qualitative inquiry has been widely reflected upon in the methodological literature (and is still often subject of debate), the link with evaluation research is underexplored. Elaborating o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of qualitative methods Vol. 14; no. 5
Main Author Lub, Vasco
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2015
Subjects
Validity
evaluation research
validity checklist
policy research
reliability
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Summary:This article provides a discussion on the question of validity in qualitative evaluation. Although validity in qualitative inquiry has been widely reflected upon in the methodological literature (and is still often subject of debate), the link with evaluation research is underexplored. Elaborating on epistemological and theoretical conceptualizations by Guba and Lincoln and Creswell and Miller, the article explores aspects of validity of qualitative research with the explicit objective of connecting them with aspects of evaluation in social policy. It argues that different purposes of qualitative evaluations can be linked with different scientific paradigms and perspectives, thus transcending unproductive paradigmatic divisions as well as providing a flexible yet rigorous validity framework for researchers and reviewers of qualitative evaluations.
ISSN:1609-4069
1609-4069
DOI:10.1177/1609406915621406