Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is an approach concerned with understanding meaning, experience, and context, rather than measuring and quantifying variables numerically. It typically asks questions about how and why — how people experience a situation, why a process unfolds the way it does — producing rich, descriptive data rather than statistics.

Common data sources and methods

• Interviews — structured, semi-structured, or open conversations exploring a participant’s perspective in depth
• Observation — watching and recording behaviour or events as they naturally occur, sometimes with the researcher embedded in the setting
• Documents and artefacts — analysing existing text, records, or materials for meaning and pattern
• Focus groups — group discussion used to surface shared or contrasting perspectives on a topic

Analysis

Because qualitative data is typically textual or descriptive rather than numerical, it’s analysed through interpretive methods rather than statistics — Thematic Analysis is one of the most common approaches, identifying recurring patterns of meaning across a data set.

Relationship to other approaches

Qualitative methods are central to participatory and action-oriented approaches like Action Research, Participatory Action Research, and Codesign, all of which rely on understanding people’s lived experience and perspective rather than measuring predefined variables. It’s often contrasted with Qualitative research though the two are frequently combined within a single study as mixed methods.

Relevance

This pillar sits under Research Methodologies, anchoring the qualitative side of research work — particularly relevant to participatory, action-oriented, and design-based approaches within Vocational Education and Training.