09:30-10:00
Coffee and registration
10.00-10.30
Welcome and introduction
Professor Thomas Moser, University of South-Eastern Norway, Department of Educational Science, and professor Lars Qvortrup, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University
10.30-11.30
Quality Criteria for Qualitative Research? - Suggestions, Limits, Alternatives
Professor Uwe Flick, Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaft und Psychologie, Qualitative Sozial- und Bildungsforschung.
In this talk, the idea of formulating general quality criteria for qualitative research will be discussed from several angles. Traditional and more recent suggestions for sets of criteria will be discussed as well as the challenges, limits and alternatives for evaluating qualitative research.
11.30-12.30
The challenging problem of assessment criteria for qualitative research
Professor emeritus Martyn Hammersley, Open University, London.
The question of what are appropriate criteria for evaluating qualitative inquiry brings to the fore the fundamental divisions to be found amongst qualitative researchers today. Variation in axiological, ontological, and/or epistemological assumptions can result in very different assessments of the same study. And the effects of this are also evidenced in the lists of evaluation criteria that have been produced in the methodological literature. Furthermore, some qualitative researchers deny the need for, or possibility of, any such criteria. While I believe this latter position is misguided, it usefully raises questions about why assessment criteria are required, what character they need to have, and what is the focus of evaluation-questions that also arise in relation to quantitative research. I will address these generic questions first, before returning to the specific problems that stem from the heterogeneous forms that qualitative research takes today.
12.30-13.30
Lunch
13.30-14.30
Can qualitative educational research articulate ‘qualities’ in education without articulating ‘qualities’ for itself?
Professor Morten Nissen, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University
This talk is about qualitative educational research as a practice among practices, in an era of quality control. It is argued that the plurality of quality criteria is vital not only to research, but also to educational/pedagogical practices. This is, indeed, why qualitative research may still be relevant for them – precisely by articulating those qualities. What may be fruitful ways to articulate such plurality – and the commonalities that it presupposes?
14.30-15.30
Panel discussion
Moderator: Professor Hans Siggaard Jensen, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University
15:30-15:45
Conclusion of conference
Professor Lars Qvortrup, NCS, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University