What is an example of critical qualitative research?

Introduction

Critical research was created out of a need to examine power, inequities, and the resulting societal implications on the status quo in society. It is a necessary departure from traditional scientific research in that it looks beyond what is directly observable to analyze the social world and develop social theory from novel perspectives to address previous injustices. In this article, we’ll look at what critical theory entails for qualitative research, as well as the different strands that make up critical research.

What does critical research mean?

In specific terms, critical research examines the nature of power dynamics influencing the social world. More broadly, this has implications for understanding inequality and disparity across cleavages of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and economic class, among other differences in identity.

While there are many different strands to critical research, there are a number of common characteristics that are shared by scholars of critical theory:

• Contextualization: Traditional research assumes a singular, almost absolutist approach to knowledge. In contrast, critical theory challenges the positivist outlook on scientific research and assumes a more sociocultural outlook to the social world. In adopting a more contextualized approach to any particular social phenomenon, scholars look to making propositions specific to different contexts rather than defining grand, unifying theories that explain socially constructed concepts regardless of individual or cultural circumstances.
• Subjectivity: Unlike more positivist approaches to research, critical research presupposes a lack of an ability to directly observe physical reality. Moreover, a researcher’s perception is often confounded by culturally-reinforced presumptions such as stereotypes and other biases that privilege those in power. The possibility that the social world can be subjectively construed directly challenges assumptions of a positivist understanding of social phenomena. Instead, critical research encourages scholars and laypeople alike to consider the world from different points of view in order to identify problems and inequities that are otherwise invisible within traditional worldviews.
• Social change: Critical research is seldom interested in generating insights purely out of intellectual curiosity. Critical scholars tend to adopt a philosophy of social justice where research is aimed at benefiting marginalized or oppressed populations who lack the same opportunities and benefits that are otherwise granted to those in mainstream society. In this respect, research and analysis within a critical paradigm are merely preliminary steps in a process that appeals to institutions, stakeholders, and social activists to draw on actionable insights from the research and make tangible proposals for enacting change.
• Transformation: Similar to the imperative of social change, transformation deals with fundamentally altering contemporary paradigms. However, this aspect to critical research is more concerned with problematizing traditional perspectives of the social world and the phenomena within it, both from a layperson’s point of view and from the view of traditional academic institutions that perpetuate mainstream scientific inquiry. Rather than simply acknowledge the subjective nature of the social world, critical research calls for fundamentally transforming perceptions and attitudes in a manner that views marginalized populations more equitably.