Reconceptualizing Bias in Teaching Qualitative Research Methods

Researchers who have been prepared in positivist traditions to social research frequently equate “subjectivity” with “bias,” which is viewed as both a problem to be managed and a threat to the credibility of a study. Teachers of qualitative research methods are familiar with questions about “subjectivity” that invoke “bias” from newcomers to qualitative research. This article revisits the methodological literature to examine how bias has been understood in qualitative inquiry. We argue for an approach to teaching qualitative research methods that assists students to make sense of long-standing and new debates related to “bias” and reconceptualize it in relation to their work. We provide recommendations for how teachers of qualitative inquiry might do this and illustrate these strategies with examples drawn from methodological reflections completed by a graduate student taking qualitative coursework.