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This paper reflects on the human act of interpreting and its role in scientific research as an activity that generates theoretically oriented versions. It mentions some of the questioning directed toward the modern Western scientific views as well as the new epistemological perspectives that have been rising from the more critical trends of qualitative research. These acknowledge the transcendence of the researchers' interpretive commitment as they build their versions of the reality that they are studying. Likewise, the paper presents some instances of the problems that arise when conducting research in the field of health sciences. To conclude, some notes on the inescapable commitment of the researcher in his capacity of interpreter, and its multiple consequences on the construction of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative research is a very useful methodological strategy for health-related professions, and public health is no stranger to the implementations of these designs. Objective: to describe the phenomenological method and its techniques from the hermeneutic perspective of Heidegger. Methodology: this paper presents an analysis of Martin Heidegger's interpretive phenomenology and proposes various qualitative research techniques for applying this methodological design as an alternative for public health. Results: we describe the epoché, intentionality, reduction, constitution, the analysis process and the manner in which results are presented in a phenomenological study design. Conclusion: this paper's phenomenological proposal suggests taking an epistemological position in the light of Heidegger's hermeneutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the result of a theoretical study aimed at problematizing the current procedure of using qualitative research in public health and justifying it through the type of its object ("qualitative"), thus grounding on a dichotomous conception of reality that gives rise to a dualistic qualitative/ quantitative nature of research. I start by acknowledging the existence of various axiological referents which determine the diversity in qualitative research on public health and in the conceptions of social justice underlying the different schools of thought in the discipline. Since we don't conduct research in a disciplinary vacuum, I built two theoretical "edges" of public health that support different sets of values, to discuss how to think about qualitative research in different axiological scenarios. One edge corresponds to what can be called the classic Anglo-Saxon perspective of public health and the other has been constructed by taking into account the three Latin American public health schools of thought. The analysis was structured by contrasting the differences of the meaning that these two "edges" give to reality, science, the object of research, rationality, society, and social justice. This comparison made it possible to see how the instrumental perspective of qualitative research focused on the types of objects and on a dichotomous universe has no meaning for the dialectical and hermeneutical conceptions of reality. It is argued that the similarity between some trends of qualitative research and these Latin American schools of thought of public health is due more to the congruence among related sets of values, which serve as principles, than to the type of object. In this sense, an approach to research based on principles (values) is proposed, which overcomes the "quali" vs. "quanti" dichotomous views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I present the gnoseological, ontological, epistemological and methodological foundations of an Autobiographical Narrative Research (ANR) approach grounded on Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutical phenomenology. It is a novel proposal for the field of narrative research on health, and is characterized by the following traits:1) Conversational interviews represent an appropriate route for building "good stories", preserving a fair exercise of memory; ii) An autobiography is the result of the singular memory of remembrances, silences and forgotten events interwoven with other memories from contemporaries, predecessors and successors; iii) Interpretation, which is displayed in the "Hermeneutical arch", is carried out through the triple mimesis of the account, namely: Mimesis 1 or prefiguration, which provides pre-understanding of the narrated actions; Mimesis 2 or configuration, which explains how the story was built and answers the question: what does this tale tell?; and Mimesis 3 or re-figuration, which specifies where this narration is going, i.e. what new world opens up?; iv) The story reveals the identity of the narrator, who appears before others as a being in motion, unique and singular; likewise, it provides, from practical wisdom and the moral judgment present in the situation, a rational narrative that is beyond the theoretical and rational use of reason and science. The ANR provides, as an ethical and political challenge, new knowledge and thinking built with the narrators' own voices by means of the comprehension of meanings of experiences related to health and life experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of qualitative research goes beyond procedures and techniques. In health care it is acknowledged as a specialized area bearing ethical and emotional components. Training in qualitative research implies both intellectual work and the task of molding a character; in other words: a way of being. In this kind of research, the question involves both being and doing. This paper invites to reflect on the training of qualitative researchers. Learning qualitative research is a situated and reflexive social practice in which tacit and formal knowledge must be gathered. There are at least four conditions promoting its learning: 1) time -its study must be constant-2) failure, 3) relationships with others in a collaborative environment and 4) a master acting as a mediator between tacit and explicit knowledge. These conditions occur within the execution of a research project. However, there are three difficulties that educators and students of qualitative research commonly face: 1). the context of training, 2). pre-conceived ideas and 3). the need to sustain the desire to know over time. Who you are when learning the craft is critical in the training process; methods are what we make (out) of them. Research is an embodied practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]