Qualitative research in the service of understanding learners and users of statistics

This paper seeks to add to a scholarly dialogue regarding the role and value of qualitative techniques in research on learning and using statistics. The paper briefly outlines some of the core assumptions of qualitative research methods, and presents four examples to illustrate selected qualitative methods that are used by educational researchers and service organizations. The discussion emphasizes the need to integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches in research on learners and users of statistics, and suggests that such integration may be needed to study emerging web-based communities of learners and users of statistics.