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Dialogue

Dialogue is a mode of communication characterized by an open exchange of ideas and meanings. In qualitative research, dialogue has been conceived both as a data collection method and as an ethical means of conducting research regarding researcher–participant relationships and the construction of knowledge and understanding. Learning that occurs through dialogue is conceptualized as potentially transformative and empowering with, in some cases, a social reconstructionist intention. Within the qualitative research paradigm, there has been particular attention paid to the theoretical and practical implications of dialogue for evaluation as a participatory democratic process. These conceptions of dialogue in qualitative research and evaluation are informed by the writings of the European philosophers Martin Buber, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Jürgen Habermas; the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates; the Russian literary theorist M. M. Bakhtin; and the quantum physicist David Bohm.

Theoretical Influences

The writings of the scholars just listed inform the more technical conception of dialogue in research as well as dialogue as an ethical practice and way of being. Each emphasizes the communicative role of dialogue as a relational learning process.

Dialogue as a Learning Process

The Socratic dialogue, which uses a questioning strategy to make the speaker aware of implicit knowledge or ways of thinking, is relevant to the interview in which the researcher asks a series of questions intended to draw forth a participant's knowledge or insight, or insight may be constructed during the dialogic exchange of the interview. Habermas's conception of dialogue recognized the role of speech in conveying knowledge but emphasized the moral importance of uncoerced, and thereby equitable, communication. Bohm also focused on dialogue as a form of learning through a nonjudgmental open exchange of ideas. Habermas's and Bohm's emphases on equity and open-mindedness (or the resistance to judgment) inform the researcher–participant relationship as collaborative instead of power-laden.

Dialogue as Relational

Buber defined a genuine dialogue as a reciprocal relationship between “I” and “thou” in which a mutual exchange of ideas promotes reconciliation. Bakhtin's theories are especially relevant to the researcher – participant relationship in that dialogue is integral to one's self-development; each person is inevitably influenced by engagement with another person.

Dialogue as Transformative

Gadamer also discussed the transformative quality of dialogue. Through dialogue, the researcher and participant exchange ideas and insights in a reciprocal process that may be mutually transformative through constructing understanding about the research topic as well as fostering each person's self-understanding. This relational and transformative quality of dialogue underscores the ethical practice of research and evaluation both in terms of the research process as a beneficial (albeit possibly emotionally or psychologically painful) learning experience and in terms of the research process as one that may instigate change on the part of the participant, researcher, or reader.

  • qualitative research
  • evaluation research
  • evaluation
  • the self
  • interviews
  • research
  • knowledge
Tracie E.Costantino
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909.n109
See also

Further Readings

Abma, T. A. (Ed.). (2001). Dialogue in evaluation [Special issue]. Evaluation, 7(2).
FrankA. W.What is dialogical research and why should we do it?Qualitative Health Research15 (2005) 964–974http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049732305279078
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