Understanding and making oneself understood: how to reinforce the internal and external legitimacy of qualitative studies

Abstract

The objective of this article is to consider the contributions of a certain number of recent publications of a methodological character, particularly French, as well as our own thoughts about the conditions for the production and acceptance of qualitative interpretations in order to propose different manners of increasing the internal and external legitimacy of qualitative studies, especially in the sociology of education. The first part of the text analyzes how to improve the validity of interpretations through the observation of a certain number of rules for the selection of the field of study and for the conduction of interviews and observations. The second part is concerned with the manner of improving the work of interpretation through distancing, the reinforcing of internal coherence, and with the application of various generalization strategies.