Teachers who engage with Edusense inevitably produce qualitative data. Shenton (2004:63) argues that although many critics are reluctant to accept the trustworthiness
of qualitative research, frameworks for ensuring rigour in this form of work
have been in existence for many years. Guba’s constructs, in particular, have
won considerable favour. Here researchers seek to satisfy four criteria.

In addressing credibility, investigators attempt to
demonstrate that a true picture of the phenomenon under
scrutiny is being presented.

To allow transferability, they provide sufficient detail of the context of the fieldwork for a reader to be able to decide whether the prevailing environment is similar
to another situation with which he or she is familiar and whether the findings can justifiably be applied to the other setting.

The meeting of the dependability criterion is difficult in qualitative work, although researchers should at least strive to enable a future
investigator to repeat the study.

Finally, to achieve confirmability, researchers must take steps to
demonstrate that findings emerge from the data and not
their own predispositions.

Guba’s constructs correspond to the criteria employed by the positivist investigator:

a) Credibility (in preference to internal validity);

b) Transferability (in preference to external validity/generalisability);

c) Dependability (in preference to reliability);

d) Confirmability (in preference to objectivity).