Making Peace with the Wibbly Wobbly World of Qualitative Research - A Summative Reflection

At the start of this semester in LTEC 6512: Qualitative Research Methods in the Learning Technologies, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about qualitative research. I knew it had potential, but it felt kind of loose and uncertain—less structured than what I was used to. As someone more comfortable with numbers and formulas, the idea of analyzing people’s words, emotions, and experiences seemed too subjective and hard to pin down. It felt, as I said back then, a little “wibbly wobbly”—and not in a fun way.

But over the course of the semester, my perspective shifted. I’ve learned that qualitative research isn’t about being messy or unstructured—it’s about digging deeper and being thoughtful about how we make meaning. It asks different questions than quantitative research does. Instead of trying to reduce things to numbers, it asks us to understand context, emotion, and perspective. That’s not a weakness; that’s a strength—especially when studying human behavior, learning, and experiences.

I think we can think of research like creating a painting. Quantitative research is like working with rulers and graph paper—precise, clean lines, consistent shapes. It’s about structure, scale, and measurement. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is more like painting with color and texture. It’s about layering, blending, and stepping back to see how the whole picture comes together. Each brushstroke might feel small or abstract, but over time, it reveals a much richer and more human story. I’m learning to be okay with the fact that not every edge is sharp—sometimes the beauty is in the blending.

I really enjoyed Sharon Ravitch’s book, Qualitative Research: Bridging the Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological. Ravitch does an excellent job breaking down how qualitative research is not just a set of tools, but a mindset. Her emphasis on reflexivity, intentionality, and the idea that research is both personal and political really stuck with me. It helped me realize that the uncertainty I was struggling with isn’t a flaw in the process—it’s part of what makes qualitative research meaningful. Her writing helped me connect the theory to the actual practice and gave me a much clearer picture of how to design and carry out a study that is rigorous and human-centered. In all research, context is important, and qualitative research helps us maximize context through the lens of the participant.

One of the biggest things I took away from this course is how important it is to be intentional and reflective throughout the research process. From writing interview questions to coding transcripts, every step involves making choices—and those choices matter. Secondly, about minimizing and identifying potential points of bias. I’ve come to appreciate how much rigor is involved in qualitative work, even if it doesn’t look the same as in quantitative studies.

Looking ahead, I’m planning to add a qualitative phase to my current research to get a better understanding of what’s really going on behind the numbers. I think combining both methods—quantitative and qualitative—will give me a more complete picture. Hearing directly from participants will help me make sense of some of the patterns I’ve seen and give the data more richness and depth. I’m especially interested in how this approach can be useful in areas like learning design and user experience, where people’s perspectives really matter.

Overall, this course helped me rethink what it means to do research. I still appreciate the clarity of numbers, but now I see the value of stories, voices, and lived experiences, too. It’s not about choosing one over the other—it’s about knowing when and how to use each. I came in unsure, but I’m leaving with a clearer sense of how qualitative research fits into my work—and why it matters.