국내 생물교육 분야의 질적 연구 동향- ｢생물교육｣ 학회지를 중심으로 -

Qualitative research, which has emerged as a method to overcome the limitations of quantitative research, has been increasingly used in various fields since the 1990s. In this study, we analyzed 200 qualitative research studies published in the journal of Biological Education between 1976 and June, 2019. These studies were analyzed according to (1) the research method, (2) qualitative research approach, (3) data collection, and (4) validation method. Results showed that the use of qualitative research has continuously increased: 104 of the analyzed papers (52%) used mixed qualitative research, while 96 papers (48%) used qualitative research approach alone. While the basic qualitative research method among qualitative research approaches accounts for the 65% of the total studies analyzed, the recent trend reflects more diversified approach, due to the increase of case studies, narratives, grounded theories, etc. In terms of the data collection, various sources, such as interviews, artifacts, discourses, and documents, were collected with relatively even frequency. Finally, various strategies were used to validate data analysis, such as triangulation through several investigators or multiple sources of data, expert review, and member checks. Different trends between the qualitative research alone and mixed research method studies are further discussed.