Title: Introduction to questionnaires
Course: EDPS0009: Researching Education and Society: Qualitative Methods 2020/2021 > Section: 5. Questionnaires

The data collection methods we have discussed so far are very clearly aligned with the qualitative research paradigm.

Questionnaires are also used in qualitative research, but actually stem from quantitative paradigms, and therefore have to be considered a little bit differently. The confusion about questionnaire arises from the use of the word. The word "questionnaire" can describe a set of questions, which are used to collect data within surveys. Within the context of surveys, the questionnaires truly are a quantitative approach. However, "questionnaires" can also describe an approach to collecting data from a larger sample within qualitative research.

The difference between lies in the scale of data and what we can then do with that data. Surveys are large-scale data sets that allow for statistical analyses, from which we can draw conclusions about trends. This will be used for medical research, for example, to identify the relationship between health behaviours and illnesses, or in education to look at the relationship between socio-economic status and academic achievement.

Within qualitative research questionnaires can help to reach a larger sample of participants, and there are some conclusions we can draw from the results as trends. But the use remains limited and remains focussed on what people think about the relationships between health behaviours and illnesses or socio-economic status and academic achievement, rather than the actual relationship between them.

As with interviews, the questions in questionnaires need to be carefully crafted so that they are meaningful. Here is an introduction to a video about questionnaire questions. Watch the video and make a note of the key criteria for good questionnaire questions: