An interesting conversation

Well i was on a flight back from wellington and sitting next to a guy who was involved with computer science research. I was reading the text i said was an amazing find on qualitative research for occupational therapists and physiotherapists and thats how the conversation got started. We got talking about the differences between OT and computer science research. The interesting thing was that he understood how methodology was so important for qualitative research in the social sciences however he just didn't understand how the results were useful. I talked about how credibility and rigour was so important and he questioned how the participants perceptions were trustworthy. Well all my reading had come to use as i explained to find out what is going on in an area of practice it is important to get the data grounded in the practice area. He also didn't understand why if we thought there was a problem that we just didn't solve it. But i talked about how im looking at the issues and "whats actually happening" - not trying to solve anything. Anyway the flight wasn't long enough to really have a good discussion however i managed to grasp that there are some obvious differences in "what research is defined as" in our different areas. I asked him "how do you know if your problem solving during research is valid and reliable? he didn't use those concepts he just went on the "if it works its right" principle. I wondered if it was research at all..but i guess he was finding out something..
Anyway it was interesting to see his views on qualitative research - but i was glad that i was able to justify why i was doing a qualitative research and not just trying to problem solve. He accepted that "methodology was very important" but i don't think he truly understood the credibility and trustworthiness or reliability and validity of research.

Will post soon - going over ethics letter and amendments with my supervisor today so hopefully will have that sorted within the next few days

Jess