Qualitative Research: Initial Thougthts

I’ve had just enough exposure to “research” to be dangerous. I have read a ba-zillion journal articles and have taken all of the required research courses in the program … with the exception of this last one involving qualitative research. At the outset of this class, I have read several introductory chapters in the required textbook and reviewed my proposed qualitative research topic with my professor. However, at this very early stage in the semester, I am struggling with what is gained by qualitative research? For the setting being examined, probably (potentially) a lot. However, what about for everyone else? In my study (a case study, I guess), I am planning to observe, interview, and analyze the profiles of a sub-set of Twitter users (those 1,000 or so folks followed by user “edtechtalk”). While I think it will be very interesting to see what is going on within that loosely clustered network of Twitteristas who care a lot about education and technology, I wonder the boundaries of what will be gained by the analysis. I keep thinking, “… but what if I turn my head slightly and analyze a different sub-set of Twitter users?” Clearly, I’m hitting on the “generalizability” issue which for me right now is a pragmatic issue. What is the relevance if what you are looking at only is relevant to what you are looking at? Interesting to see how my perceptions will (or won’t) change over the course of this process …