International Journal of Qualitative Methods: ARCHIVE
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Work-Identity in Ethnographic Research: Developing Field Roles in a Demanding Workplace Setting
No full textIn this article we problematize our field roles as two linguistic ethnographers who aim to study the communication and documentation practices drawn upon by care workers in elderly care facilities in Sweden. Our field roles are discussed in relation to the complex nature of care workers’ knowledge and competence, which results from three different aspects of their work-identities: institutional, professional, and individual. As researchers, we found ourselves in constant dialogue with the research participants, and our field roles were continuously shaped and reshaped according to the individuals and the situations in which we became involved. Even aspects of our own identities taken into the field, such as our background and personal qualities, proved to be important in establishing good relations with the care staff. Coming closer to the participants’ professional identity proved to be of utmost importance for interpreting their choices and decisions in the workplace. Identity negotiation is presented here as a constructive way of discussing ethnographic field roles in the research field
Challenges of Learning to Write Qualitative Research: Students’ Voices
No full textWriting qualitative research is a complex activity. Yet there is relatively little research about novices’ experiences in learning to write this genre. The purpose of this multiple case study is to explore the challenges students face when they first encounter the qualitative research paradigm. Drawing upon interviews with students, think-aloud protocols, class observations, and students’ written artifacts, this article reveals that major problems new students have include: understanding the qualitative research paradigm, especially the concepts of validity and subjectivity, determining how to carry out a systematic data analysis, becoming familiar with genre knowledge of presenting qualitative findings, and meanwhile, expanding their disciplinary knowledge. Pedagogical implications are also discussed to help student researchers learn better
Situational Factors in Focus Group Studies: A Systematic Review
No full textThe aim of this study was to see how contextual factors are expressed, used, and analyzed in data collected in focus group discussions (FGDs). The study includes an assessment of how the methodological reporting of contextual factors might influence and improve the trustworthiness of articles. Articles reporting workplace health, stress, and coping among health professionals were identified in a systematic review and used in the analysis. By using Vicsek’s framework of situational factors for analysis of focus group results as a starting point, we found that contextual factors were most frequently described in the method sections and less frequently in the results and discussion sections. Vicsek’s framework for the analysis of focus group results covers six contextual and methodological dimensions: interactional factors, personal characteristics of the participants, the moderator, the environment, time factors, and the content of FGDs. We found that the framework does not include a consideration of psychological safety, ethical issues, or organizational information. To deepen the analysis of focus group results, we argue that contextual factors should be analyzed as methodological dimensions and be considered as a sensitizing concept. Credibility, confirmability, dependability, and transferability can be strengthened by using, reporting, and discussing contextual factors in detail. The study contributes to elucidating how reporting of contextual data may enrich the analysis of focus group results and strengthen the trustworthiness. Future research should focus on clear reporting of contextual factors as well as further develop Vicsek’s model to enhance reporting accuracy and transferability
Space, Time, and Reflexive Interviewing: Implications for Qualitative Research with Active, Incarcerated, and Former Criminal Offenders
No full textSpace and time are concepts familiar to physicists, philosophers, and social scientists; they are operationalized with varying degrees of specificity but are both heralded as important to contextualizing research and understanding individual, cultural, and historical differences in perception and the social construction of reality. Space can range from, at the macro level, geographic region, to at the micro level, the immediate physical surroundings of an individual or group of persons. Similarly, a conceptualization of time can range from era or epoch to the passing of seconds and minutes within a situational dynamic of human interaction. In this article we examine the microcosmic end of the space-time spectrum, specifically as it relates to doing qualitative interviews with current or former criminal offenders. Through a comparative discussion of interviews with incarcerated, recently released, and active offenders, we pose questions and offer insights regarding how interviewers and interviewees perceive physical space and the passage of time and, most importantly, how these perceptions relate to the interview process and resulting data. Notably, we suggest that interviewer reflexivity should take into account not only the relationship, dialogue, and discourse between interviewer and interviewee but also space and time as perceived and constructed by both parties. Finally, we offer several key strategies for incorporating these considerations into the interviewer toolkit
Reflections from a Creative Community-Based Participatory Research Project Exploring Health and Body Image with First Nations Girls
No full textIn Canada, Aboriginal peoples often experience a multitude of inequalities when compared with the general population, particularly in relation to health (e.g., increased incidence of diabetes). These inequalities are rooted in a negative history of colonization. Decolonizing methodologies recognize these realities and aim to shift the focus from communities being researched to being collaborative partners in the research process. This article describes a qualitative community-based participatory research project focused on health and body image with First Nations girls in a Tribal Council region in Western Canada. We discuss our project design and the incorporation of creative methods (e.g., photovoice) to foster integration and collaboration as related to decolonizing methodology principles. This article is both descriptive and reflective as it summarizes our project and discusses lessons learned from the process, integrating evaluations from the participating girls as well as our reflections as researchers
“Would You Decide to Keep the Power?”: Reflexivity on the Interviewer–Interpreter–Interviewee Triad in Interviews with Female Punjabi Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
No full textThis article presents methodological reflections on the different streams of knowledge that are drawn upon during interpreted interviews and the shifts of power between (1) the interviewer, (2) the interpreter/co-researcher, and (3) the interviewee. Interpreters are increasingly seen as active agents in the interview process, and they act as cultural brokers. Interpretation by a nurse researcher introduces further challenges and benefits to the interview dynamic, which was explored through reflexive discussions with an independent researcher. These challenges include conducting interviews in a clinical setting, where the health professional–patient relationship remains active. A modified discourse analysis was used to examine the subject positioning in the interview situation and the power negotiations that ensued. The main conclusion that can be drawn from these reflexive accounts is that the use of different streams of knowledge (experiential, clinical, cultural, and academic) enhanced the interview interaction, and power relations were successfully negotiated to facilitate rapport and data collection. Reflexivity provides an important tool for identifying, and learning from, the challenges and benefits of working with an interpreter, who is also a co-researcher with multiple professional roles
“A Pencil for Your Thoughts”: Participatory Drawing as a Visual Research Method with Children and Youth
No full textThis article explores the use of participatory drawing as a non-mechanical visual research method in qualitative research with children and youth. Because of its co-constructed and playful nature, as well as its lack of dependence on linguistic proficiency, participatory drawing emerges as a highly efficient and ethically sound research strategy that is particularly suited for work with children and young people across a variety of cultural contexts. The analysis of drawn images, complemented by a subsequent discussion of these drawings in the context of their production, has the potential of revealing a more nuanced depiction of concepts, emotions, and information in an expressive, empowering, and personally relevant manner. As a review of the participatory drawing methodology, this article draws on several examples in order to highlight the inherent affordances of the visual mode and discuss the benefits and limitations of using this strategy in research with children and youth
Transnational Institutional Ethnography: Tracing Text and Talk Beyond State Boundaries
No full textPurpose: In this article I provide a rich account of how I utilized and critically applied the research strategy of institutional ethnography to investigate transnational processes of legislative standardization. The text at the center of this inquiry is a model law that was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to create omnibus HIV/AIDS laws across West and Central Africa (2005-2010). Expanding upon the sociological approach of institutional ethnography, my research method is best understood as a transnational institutional ethnography (TIE). This article provides a case study of TIE for those interested in ethnographically exploring transnational processes across diverse institutional settings.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The complex legislative process being investigated was made visible through the use of participant observation, archival research, textual analysis, and informant interviews with national and international stakeholders (n=32). This research strategy involved ethnographic data collection in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Austria, South Africa, and Senegal (2010-2011).
Findings: In this article a methodological discussion is offered focusing upon the everyday actualities of conducting transnational research in diverse environments, including cafes, conferences, courtrooms, and activist gatherings. I provide an account of (a) the complex institutional sites from which a research problematic may emerge; (b) challenges and opportunities when conducting interviews and identifying informants; (c) the importance of accounting for matters of geography and interview location in one’s study design; and (d) the work of knowing where to look, what to read, and who to talk with during the iterative process of research and discovery.
Originality/Value: Moving beyond state-based organizational relations, a focus which is predominant in most institutional ethnographies, in this article I explicate the research process undertaken to ethnographically interrogate complex processes of transnational social organization and translocal text-mediated relations. Methodological insights and lessons learned regarding the experience of conducting transnational ethnographic research are provided
Ethical Dilemmas of a Clinician/Researcher interviewing Women who Have Grown Up in a Family Where There Was Domestic Violence
No full textThis paper attempts to illuminate some of the ethical dilemmas of a clinician/researcher interviewing women about a sensitive topic- their experience of having witnessed domestic violence in the family they grew up in, as part of a grounded theory study. Vignettes are presented to illustrate the self-reflexive process of the researcher and how she understood the effects of the interview process on her and the participants. The authors argue that doing in-depth qualitative research interviewing is an intervention in the life of the participants, especially, but not only, when the researchers are clinically-trained. However, this clinical training may also be an important resource from which to draw from, to act ethically and understand some of the complexity of the interaction between researcher and participants