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Supervisory conversations on rigour and interpretive research

Alma Whiteley (Curtin Graduate School of Business, Curtin University, Perth, Australia)

Qualitative Research Journal

ISSN: 1443-9883

Article publication date: 3 August 2012

1142

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive narrative account of supervisory conversations with doctoral students. They include providing knowledge and experience about the nature of qualitative and quantitative approaches and their respective histories and rigour requirements.

Design/methodological/approach

An introduction reveals the complexity, debates and dialectics that are engaged with during the doctoral supervisory process. Two design issues are discussed. One is research design; the other is supervisor method.

Findings

Rigour in interpretive research is distinctive, linked to its characteristics and the unique role of the researcher as an instrument of data collection, conscious of the need to give voice to respondents and preserve their authentic responses. The audit trail is a centrepiece for both rigour and the reflection, reflexivity necessary to address ongoing biases, decisions and dilemmas.

Research limitations/implications

Supervisory conversations are dynamic but there is a core, a set of initial conditions and these relate to the ethics and integrity of the doctoral student and the supervisor.

Originality/value

The paper penetrates the social space where supervisors and doctoral students interact. Within the text, “advice” and seminal ideas are presented from literature and the supervisor's experience that will inform researchers and demonstrate a supervisor method.

Keywords

Citation

Whiteley, A. (2012), "Supervisory conversations on rigour and interpretive research", Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 251-271. https://doi.org/10.1108/14439881211248383

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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