Why qualitative research

My lived experience has shown me that nothing is more rewarding for me than understanding and being understood. Whether it’s understanding by someone else or by myself, unraveling mental knots and numerous confusions in life provides me with the dopamine needed for happiness for a long time. Recently, science has once again bestowed upon me the sweet taste, not by providing tested data and findings, but by presenting a method and approach for research. My acquaintance with the ‘qualitative research method’ dates back years ago, through studying articles by Dr. Mohammad Farajiha, a professor of criminology at Tarbiat Modares University. Especially when he was appointed as the external examiner for my doctoral thesis, I inevitably delved into articles that he had independently published or co-authored as guidance for his students, with even greater depth and precision. Without exaggeration, the depth and richness of concepts and issue-centeredness in his articles set them apart from other criminal law articles in Iran. His high-quality work encouraged me to attend workshops on ‘Research Methods in Criminal Sciences’ conducted by him. For law students and graduates in Iran, the scientific research method is generally an unfamiliar concept. We don’t have a course titled ‘Research Methods, Quantitative and Qualitative’ at university, and we’re completely unfamiliar with statistics and data analysis methods. Dr. Farajiha single-handedly bears the heavy burden of cultural transformation in the field of qualitative research, which is even more challenging and complex than quantitative research, within the legal academia of Iranian universities.

My attendance at these workshops was irregular until I seriously started studying and learning in this field from the winter of 2023. The further I progressed, the more acquainted I became with the depth and effectiveness of this method. After I had obtained Dr. Farideh Khalaj Abadi’s qualitative research training packages, with meticulous attention to detail, I dedicated myself to learning the necessary skills with the intention of writing an article using the qualitative method on a topic related to the Iranian judicial system.

Although I have no pressure or reward for writing such an article, what keeps my enthusiasm alive more than anything else is the comprehensive nature of this research approach in studying human issues. Engaging multidimensionally and issue-centered in human affairs, especially in the field of criminal law and criminology, which is closely related to the most fundamental human and societal rights and principles and has had a comprehensive impact on society as a whole and each individual therein, has been my focus ever since I entered law school in the autumn of 2005 and subsequently engaged in legal professions of advocacy and adjudication. My perennial concern, question, ambiguity, and perplexity over the years have revolved around the handling of legal matters by authorities at all levels, be it academia and judiciary or top-down and bottom-up policymaking, abstractly addressing the issue, detached from the reality of the phenomenon in its specific societal context. This situation has trapped us in a null cycle that hurts the public, judges, and the legal community. Although in my opinion, lawyers and law professors (at least the indifferent ones) see less harm in this. Multiple meetings on repetitive topics are held in courts and higher levels of the judiciary every day and every week, without yielding any significant results that contribute to problem-solving.

In my opinion, based on years of practical experience in the field of legal theory and practice, embracing the culture of qualitative research in both academia and executive institutions not only solves a significant portion of legal and judicial problems but also fosters the scientific, personal, relational, human, social, and other aspects of society, both individually and collectively.

The analytical tools, procedural rules, and principled frameworks provided by each of the qualitative research approaches and strategies, including phenomenology, allow the researcher to analyze and understand a human or social issue from various dimensions and to infinite depths. Most likely, the understanding gained from exploring various dimensions and depths of a subject leads to finding more efficient and beneficial solutions with long-term and profound effectiveness. The preferential bias towards qualitative research does not necessarily imply negating the effectiveness and usefulness of results obtained from quantitative research. However, it cannot be denied that quantitative research results, due to their shallower depth yet broader scope, often yield a superficial and one-dimensional understanding of human and social issues.

Conducting qualitative research, alongside its numerous benefits in understanding human and social phenomena and notably aiding in more fundamental policymaking, also has profound effects on the personal and scholarly growth of the researcher. A researcher who spends months or sometimes years patiently engaging in the process of deep individual and group interviews with members of the sample community and analyzing thousands of pages of interviews word by word no longer remains the same person as they were on the first day before embarking on the research. Establishing a human relationship and mutual trust between the interviewer and the interviewee requires strengthening psychological, behavioral, and personality skills. A character who is impatient and hasty, judgmental, critical, without empathy and mutual understanding, lacking analytical skills, abrasive and harsh, will never succeed in conducting qualitative research. A qualitative researcher must acquire deep and comprehensive knowledge along with critical thinking and strong reasoning skills in their study area. Merely collecting a set of auxiliary data will not contribute to the advancement of the research.

For me, qualitative research embodied the human imagination, which, due to having all these ambiguities, questions, and confusions over all these years, gave me the right to have doubts and be confused, without labeling me as being critical, rigorous, or sensitive. This research method opened up a world to me where the value of emotions, thoughts, ideas, and experiences of each individual is recognized and acknowledged, validating their authenticity and worth. For me, the function of qualitative research is synonymous with its approach to conducting research: recognizing the authenticity of everyone’s understanding and experience of a phenomenon as the subject of study and investigation. Some days, when I’m engrossed in working on my research and become so immersed in the joy of understanding and being understood, this thought becomes obsessive, occupying my entire mind that it is necessary and obligatory for everyone to learn qualitative research at least once in their life. Then, no one will speak about a subject without studying it, acquiring sufficient knowledge and scientific understanding, recognizing and validating the experiences and perspectives of individuals, and most importantly, without patience and moderation in listening and understanding people. They will not only refrain from policymaking but may even express personal opinions within their circle with utmost caution.