“Evidence-based” qualitative research: Analysis of master’s dissertations in Educational Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how qualitative research has been accepted and recognised in the area of ​​Psychology. Specifically, is intended to analyse the master's dissertations carried out under a master's degree course in Educational Psychology, between 2010 and 2018, in a Portuguese public university, which were available online, in the institutional digital repository. The search in the repository was carried out in two phases, using the defined descriptors, in February and in December of 2018. There were 82 master's dissertations, 63 (77%) were quantitative studies and 19 (23%) were studies using qualitative methodology [8 (10%) qualitative studies and 11 (13%) mixed studies]. In the qualitative studies there was diversity in the themes and paradigms adopted. In the mixed studies, several of them were characterised as case studies and combined distinct forms of data collection. The data allow to verify a predominance of the quantitative methodology in the master’s dissertations produced.