The research question: Error type 1

The most frequent and more visible error in qualitative research starts with the research question. In this post, I present 3 main characteristics to avoid this type of error.

First, a qualitative research question is about  a human lived experience. So it must be crafted, and tailored to what qualitative research stands for living. One must always keep in mind that qualitative research is about a. the meaning of an experience, b. the understanding made by those who live such an experience, and c. a possible description and/or interpretation that provides the context for the explanation of a human experience. These 3 principles altogether result in the writing a possible explanation about a human experience within a context. A context that refers to a time, the spatiality where an experience takes place, the location where an experience happens, and how a researcher is able to understand and explain a human experience, based on his or her characteristics. This last concepts refer to the 4 existentials used to study a human experience.

Second, a qualitative research question must have specificity. It should describe, address or refer to a specific human experience and not to a generalization. This form of research is about the inquiry of a human experience that is unique, and as such, it is about certain type of people and not anonymous individuals. Also, it is people who live life in certain circumstances. And mover, people who should not be difficult to relate or get to know as oneself. 

Third, a qualitative research question needs to embrace a qualitative research approach.  This will facilitate the identification of a methodologist and the steps that are proposed for such approach. There is no need to invent the wheel. One may say that there are many methodologies and approaches available and well-respected in our time. However, one mya look for the one that fits best the research question, because even if we deviate somewhat from one of them, we are still protected and have a safety net when having clarity and relatedness to a methodology, method, methodologist and research approach.

Let us illustrate these 3 principles  in 1 sample question that can help us avoid this type of error.

Example number 1. What Black women think about their college experience?

​At first glance, this may seem like a qualitative question. It addresses women thinking and how they understand their college experience. However, this is misleading, if at the end of this study, whatever the methodology used, one may condense the findings to a percentage or some numbers, even classification, then we are in front of a quantitative study. We will not enter into the detail of which one it may be but whatever study may result in a simple punch line or numbers, even a classification, then we have made error 1 in qualitative research. Also, let's focus in the content of the question. "Black women," for a Black researcher may feel like a calling, but the lack of specificity, the vast array of Black women leads us to a topic rather than a specific type, unique situation, and something that aims at a deeper understanding of something that above all is unique.
As a footnote, one may say that "Generalization" is not the aim of a qualitative study, rather the uniqueness of an experience.  
So rather stating the specificity of a type of person and a location we may enter more closely into the realm of qualitative research. So may be, if we ask, What is the experience of Black adult women in a professional school, while pursuing a graduate degree? In this question, we identify a more specific group or rather a subgroup within the large vast population called Black women. Then, by asking about a specific scenario, we have a closer appeal to the description of something more unique.  However, we can go even further, since this may be answered in many ways.
However, if we ask, What is the experience for Black adult women in a Master in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program like, when also having a full time employment and being mothers?  Here we have more specificity. We have two special characteristics about the Black women population we want to study. They have full time jobs, and they are mothers. Not all Black women in a Master's program are like that. Nevertheless, the more specificity we create about a phenomenon we want to study, the easier it may be to obtain IRB permission, to delineate the criteria of our study, and most importantly, we identify the approach we may want to use to answer the research question. 
Also, there is something special about the construction of a question such as"what is it like?" Often, this type of question refers to a phenomenological question. This approach refers to the description of a phenomenon, rather than how a process is done or what stories can tell about an experience. Certainly, these are slight differences, but they matter when doing qualitative research because one has to choose a methodology and also create an argument about how one chooses a method to answer a research question.  And yes, one may argue in many different directions, but qualitative research is not about a unique answer, but rather about an argument that makes sense and fits the question one proposes as worth of investigation. 
Consequently, if we asked what stages do adult Black women as mothers go when pursuing a Master's degree in Mental Health? we are in front of a likely grounded theory question, Or if we asked, what do the stories of adult Black women as mothers while pursuing a  Master's degree in Mental Health tell us? Here, we in likely in front of a narrative study. While when asking, How does the environment help adult Black women when pursuing a Master's degree in Mental Health and also balancing life as mothers?, then we are in front of a likely ethnic research question. 

A research question must be able to answer itself multiple questions. Such as 
a. what do we study? The phenomenon
b. who do we study? The participants
c. where do we study such individuals? The location
d. where does the experience happen? The location and the spatiality 
e. who studies the phenomenon? The corporeality of the researcher 
f. how does this people relate to one another and others like them? The concept of communality or relationality 
g. what research approach do we use? The methodology and the methodologist we choose
These are just some of the main questions that a research question should answer.
 
The lesson to learn from this post is this: A qualitative research question should not be answered with numbers, percentages or even classifications, but rather, it must require an explanation about something that may appear as missing so the study we propose is justified as a qualitative study. Also, a research question should answer a unique answer but rather offer an option. Our job as qualitative researcher is not to answer with all possibilities about a human experience, since life is more complex that one single answer, but rather to offer a plausible explanation that is logical, consistent with a research approach, and sufficient to satisfy the curiosity for answer about the aspect of human experience about human beings. This curiosity should be grounded life and return us back to living.  We should not do qualitative research to disengage from life, but to bring us back to life. It is an approach life and so must it give us, a renewed interest in life.