THE PROCESS AND IMPLICATIONS OF DOING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH - AN ANALYSIS OF 54 DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS

The number of social work doctoral dissertations following qualitative research methods tripled in the ten year period from 1982 to 1992. Th e purpose of the current study was to understand the qualitative resea rch process of 54 social work dissertations completed between 1986 and 1993. The two general reasons for following a qualitative design were the researcher's dissatisfaction with current theory to explain the s tudied phenomena and the desire to implement participant driven resear ch. Much was written by the dissertation authors about the place of th eory in qualitative research and the mutual influences between the res earcher and researched. The study results were discussed within the co ntext of current qualitative/quantitative debates in social work. This is an important study for graduate faculty and students as qualitativ e research methods are being required in graduate social work educatio n and more is being published on the expected standards of qualitative research.