Guidance Note on Qualitative Research in Education - Considerations for Best Practice

In order to develop education policies, structures and systems that create sustainable development, it becomes even more important than ever to understand what works, and in particular, in which contexts. Qualitative research methods play an important role in program evaluation, especially with a focus on research contextualization, but often they are considered “second class” when compared to quantitative evaluations. When researchers want to know ‘what works’, quantitative methods are commonly selected instead of qualitative methods. However, without good qualitative data to contextualize these findings, ‘how or why things work’ can often remain obscured. This guidance note addresses this gap to help commissioners of research and researchers design and implement qualitative research that use a high level of rigor.

The BE2 Steering Committee*
February, 2020