Interpretationfocused

Interpretation-focused is a term used to describe research, analysis, or design approaches that place interpretation of meaning at the center of inquiry. It emphasizes how people interpret texts, data, or phenomena, and how context, perspective, and social interaction shape that meaning.

Within qualitative research, interpretation-focused work situates interpretation as the primary product. It relies on hermeneutic and interpretive phenomenological traditions, discourse and narrative analysis, and other methods that foreground participants’ sense-making. Analyses are iterative, reflexive, and transparent about how researchers’ own perspectives influence interpretations.

Applied domains include education, literary and cultural studies, user experience research, and legal interpretation. Examples include examining how students interpret feedback, how readers construct meaning from a text, or how designers’ instructions are understood by users. The approach aims to reveal interpretive processes rather than to test isolated variables.

Strengths of interpretation-focused work include rich, context-sensitive insights; deep attention to meaning and experience; and the potential to generate theory. Limitations include potential researcher bias, limited generalizability, and challenges in establishing reliability. Proponents address these concerns through methodological transparency, explicit analytic frameworks, reflexivity, and, where appropriate, triangulation across data sources.

Relation to other paradigms: interpretation-focused approaches are commonly used alongside quantitative methods in mixed-methods research and contrast with strictly positivist models that emphasize measurement and prediction. They align with constructivist and critical traditions in focusing on how knowledge is produced, interpreted, and situated within social contexts.