Dr Elizabeth Yardley, a social sciences professor with over 20 years’ experience supporting doctoral researchers. Many PhD students struggle with qualitative research not because they’re doing it wrong, but because they’re using the wrong standards to judge it.
In this video, Elizabeth breaks down the real reasons qualitative research feels difficult during a PhD, and what these struggles reveal about how qualitative PhD research actually works.
Qualitative research is often described through abstract concepts – reflexivity, interpretation, saturation – but rarely explained in a way that connects to the actual experience of doing a PhD.
This video focuses on 5 of the most common problems qualitative PhD students face, including:
- Feeling like qualitative research is less rigorous than quantitative research
- Doubting whether your analysis or themes are “correct”
- Worrying about how many interviews are “enough”
- Feeling overwhelmed by the volume of qualitative data
We then unpack what these concerns actually reveal about the interpretive nature of qualitative research.
If you liked this video and fancy making PhD life slightly less chaotic, check out https://www.thedegreedoctor.com/
National Centre for Research Methods