ASSESSING RIGOUR

According to Miles and Huberman (1994) good qualitative research contributes to science through the use of a consistent chain of reasoning, by using multiple sources of converging evidence to support an explanation and ruling out conflicting hypothesis with convincing arguments and solid data. In this section, the researcher outlines how the study

methodology was conducted to ensure ‘good research’ in terms of the reliability and validity of the data and the reduction of researcher bias in arriving at the findings. The researcher uses reliability and validity as a means of assessing the ‘truth’ of the data.

Credibility questions whether the right type of data was actually collected to meet the objective of the study and to what extent the researcher’s findings are an accurate representation of the participants understanding.

The efforts made by the researcher to achieve this were as follows:

(i) Theoretical sampling ensured that the sources of data chosen were relevant to meeting the study objectives. For example, an inclusion criterion for

participants within each case study was that they had experienced one of the EVD outbreaks in the capacity of an employee within the health system, a patient or family member of a patient from within both communities.

(ii) Adopting a grounded theory technique of analysis ensured that the analysis was grounded in the data. For example during open coding, the researcher used in- vivo coding (i.e. the participants own words) wherever possible as a means of describing a section of data. Constant comparison was used within this

technique to compare each interview for analysis to the previous interview and to previous emerging concepts thereby approaching the data analysis as a whole unit. Constant questioning kept the researcher close to the data and minimized researcher effect.

(iii) In this study, data triangulation was used to support the validity of the data by employing multiple data sources (in-depth interviews, observation and

documents) where the data could corroborate. In relation to in-depth interviews, respondents were required to answer honestly. However, the possibility of social desirability cannot be ruled out as the majority of participants were public servants working within the MoH and some may have feared to criticise the government, and may have been conservative in offering their true opinions. Others may have felt that they needed to justify that they were performing their duties adequately. For example, it was observed that some participants’ relayed events related to surveillance and response interventions in what seemed to the researcher as a textbook or learned version of how things should be done. Some participants may have felt that this was an opportunity to impress upon the researcher that they were experts in the field, perceiving the researcher as a person of power. These realities became clearer during subsequent interviews and through other data sources that contradicted some facts. The researcher conducted all of the interviews within the settings where the outbreak occurred so she could directly observe the context. Documents such as WHO reports and

media archives were used for cross reference to validate dates and the chronological order of events and to help reduce recall bias. This was useful, particularly for the Bundibugyo case study where there was a seven-year time lapse since the outbreak and the data collection period. A two-year gap existed between the Kibaale outbreak and data collection.

3.7.2 Transferability

Transferability poses the question ‘would similar findings be found if the study was repeated’ in another context. As the study took place within its natural setting within the social world, it would not be possible for the findings to be exact. For example, delays in the announcement of Ebola, as in the Bundibugyo case, might not be repeated in a world more sensitised to EVD under improved global health regulations and surveillance strategies or in different political contexts. The response may be more organised with increased capacity and confidence gained by the participants in the first outbreak or outcomes may be worse than before if the participants or external actors were over- confident that they could resolve the issue (the West Africa outbreak for example

demonstrated an unexpected and unprecedented outcome of an EVD outbreak). A reader of this study might ask would the findings of this study be similar if the study was repeated in Sierra Leone or Guinea.

Interpretive sociologists recognise that meanings arise through interaction and are not standardised across social and cultural groups. Accounts and assumptions are investigated and analysed as research data, rather than representations of phenomenon of interest. Although interpretive analysis of the data generates only theoretical propositions, and case studies are not generalisable, they are however useful in providing important insights and a broader understanding applicable beyond the immediate surroundings of the two studies. Using two case studies helped to support the robustness of the findings.

3.7.3 Dependability

This refers to the extent to which the methodology used in this study would produce the same findings if carried out by another researcher. In constructivist studies this is however

questionable as the researcher is part of the cognitive analysis of the social world and cannot be completely value free.

One of the functions of constant comparison is to reduce researcher bias. The researcher remained conscious of this fact, kept close to the data and strove to avoid allowing personal values and perspectives to influence how the findings were interpreted.

Contradictory or deviant cases were accounted for in the analysis, to ensure the researcher was not biased in supporting one view. Triangulation discussed above also helps to counter threats of researcher bias by using diverse data sources to validate findings and give a more complete picture. The use of document analysis for example did not have any potentially distorting effect of the researcher in the field. In addition, a strong familiarity with the context was ensured to avoid over simplicity or in arriving at narrow views in understanding a ‘local’ social or organisational culture for example. Efforts made here by the researcher were to allow the process by which findings were arrived at, to be auditable. In other words being explicit about the methodology, being articulate about the lines of enquiry and by offering a reflexive account of her position within the study.

A similar study using a phenomenological approach that covered the Kibaale case study undertaken approximately one year before this study was identified during this study (Matua, 2014). The study focused specifically on the human experience but similar findings were identified including internal and external coping strategies, fear, stigma, ostracism, and adaptation. This offers some support that the findings are dependable.

3.7.4 Confirmability

Confirmabilityrefers to objectivity and control of researcher bias. The position of the researcher in the study was made explicit from the onset. Limitations of this study in developing a true ‘southern theory’ are that the researcher originates from the global north. Therefore, only the participant views are ‘southern’, and these have been constructed through the eyes of the ‘northern’ researcher. The researcher has resided in Uganda and Rwanda within the contexts of two public institutions for over six years for the duration in which the study was conducted, but, while she may have a good understanding, cannot declare that she has a full understanding of the context. The researcher was conscious to bracket her experience and ongoing position in the field during the analysis to reduce bias.

3.8 Chapter Summary

Chapter three has attempted to give a comprehensive account of the research methodology, including theoretical assumptions, study design, process of data collection including access, ethics protocol followed and the methods employed. Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) cyclic three-step guideline used to analyse the data is described using the theme of

Exceptionalisation as an example. How the findings from the analysis are presented and discussed is also described. Finally, the researcher outlines how the study methodology was conducted in terms of reliability and validity of the data findings.