Introduction

The relationship between qualitative and quantitative research haschallenged social scientists and public policy researchers for mostof the past two centuries. The survey research tradition of CharlesBooth and Joseph Rowntree has been developed and refined greatlysince the early 19th century, part of which has involved integratingqualitative data on people's perceptions, experiences, values andpriorities with respect to a range of public policy issues. At thesame time, the interpretive tradition of sociologists such as MaxWeber has introduced the notion of idiographic and particularistic inquiry alongside thatof generalisable, law-like findings of the nomothetic tradition.Social science and public policy research also has a distinguishedhistory of using, and developing, experimental methods ofinvestigation (Oakley, 1998) which, despite pursuing a clearlypositivist approach, necessarily involve qualitative research, ifonly in terms of developing and using outcome measures that arecontextually valid and relevant.

Qualitative and quantitative data, then, have a long history ofcontributing to social science and public policy research. Bothtypes of research and evidence are essential in terms ofdefining:

• • the questions for which evidence is sought;

• • what counts as evidence;

• • the appropriate methodological procedures for finding andcritically appraising the best available evidence.

The calls from evidence-based practitioners, especially in medicine(see Chapter Three), for more and better evaluative studies usingcontrolled experimental designs, and the insistence by many thatrandomised controlled trials (RCTs) constitute the ‘gold standard’of evidence-based practice, may have served to undermine the valueand contribution of qualitative research and evidence. Similarly,the notion of a ‘hierarchy of evidence’, with RCTs and meta-analysesof RCTs at the top, and the opinions of respected authorities,expert committees and descriptive studies at the bottom (see Box3.3, Chapter Three), may also serve to suggest that qualitativeresearch is inferior to quantitative data and findings.

This chapter seeks to redress any such demeaning of qualitativeresearch and evidence by:

• • describing what constitutes qualitative research;

• • reviewing what constitutes evidence;

• • exploring how qualitative research has informed publicpolicy and practice in healthcare, education and othersubstantive areas of inquiry.