Is qualitative research generalizable?

Abstract

Many qualitative researchers are faced with the everlasting question of generalizability of their findings, especially when trying to support their research in front of quantitative researchers. Despite this state of affairs qualitative researchers rarely discuss generalizability of their data and argue that a deeper understanding of the phenomena is the goal of their endeavour and not statistical generalization. Furthermore, quantitative researchers usually dismiss the results of qualitative research based on the lack of generalizability. I argue that this state of affairs is a crude simplification of reality based on either a misconception about what qualitative data is or on a misconception of the aspects of qualitative data analysis that lead to generalizability like: the purpose of the research, the sampling method, the data analysis method and the coding strategy. The paper suggests that discussions on generalizability should become the standard for reporting qualitative report if the research question is phrased to demand a general answer.