Introduction This chapter combines discussion of interviews and focus groups because they are both face-to-face means of gathering evidence of effectiveness. They are perhaps the most exciting means of gathering evidence, as the evidence comes directly from participants, who often have the most telling methods of letting us know exactly what they think about what we do. We begin by thinking about metaphors that go with generating evidence by asking questions. Such metaphors include ‘extracting information’, ‘digging for ideas’ or ‘mining for data’ and are
109 SIX Teleconference focus groups with fathers: ‘You’re on the line with ...’ Simon Burnett and Caroline Gatrell Introduction Recently teleconferencing has been used to conduct focus groups in research ... where distance makes face-to-face [interactions] difficult and where anonymity of participants is important. (Tolhurst and Dean, 2004, p 1) I admire machinery as much as any man [sic], and am as thankful to it as any man can be for what it does for us. But, it will never be a substitute for the face of a man, with his soul in it, encouraging another
Introduction The methodological reflections in this chapter are based on a qualitative study of youth volunteering in deprived urban areas in Glasgow, Scotland conducted during my doctorate (2013–18). The research explored young people’s understandings of volunteering, their routes to participation, the meanings they attributed to it and barriers to participation. Young volunteers and non-volunteers, aged 12–18, were recruited to focus groups and interviews from youth organisations and educational institutions. Interviews were also conducted with youth
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit researchers’ plans, discussion swiftly turned to adapting research methods for a locked-down world. The ‘big three’ methods – questionnaires, interviews and focus groups – can only be used in a few of the same ways as before the pandemic.
Researchers around the world have responded in diverse, thoughtful and creative ways – from adapting their data collection methods, to fostering researcher resilience and rethinking researcher-researched relationships.
This book, part of a series of three Rapid Responses, showcases new methods and emerging approaches. Focusing on Response and Reassessment, it has three parts: the first looks at the turn to digital methods; the second reviews methods in hand and the final part reassesses different needs and capabilities.
The other two books focus on Care and Resilience, and Creativity and Ethics. Together they help academic, applied and practitioner-researchers worldwide adapt to the new challenges COVID-19 brings.
The 21st century has witnessed significant changes to the structures and policies framing Higher Education. But how do these changes in norms, values, and purpose shape the generation now coming of age?
Employing a generational analysis, this book offers an original approach to the study of education. It explores the qualitative dimensions of the relationship between academics and students, and examines wider issues of culture and socialisation, from tuition fees and student mental health, to social mobility and employment.
This is a timely contribution to current debates about the University and an invaluable resource for those interested in education, youth, and intergenerational relations.
Measuring research impact and engagement is a much debated topic in the UK and internationally. This book is the first to provide a critical review of the research impact agenda, situating it within international efforts to improve research utilisation. Using empirical data, it discusses research impact tools and processes for key groups such as academics, research funders, ‘knowledge brokers’ and research users, and considers the challenges and consequences of incentivising and rewarding particular articulations of research impact.
It draws on wide ranging qualitative data, combined with theories about the science-policy interplay and audit regimes to suggest ways to improve research impact.
ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Amid debates about the future of both higher education and Europeanisation, this book is the first full-length exploration of how Europe’s 35 million students are understood by key social actors across different nations.
The various chapters compare and contrast conceptualisations in six nations, held by policymakers, higher education staff, media and students themselves. With an emphasis on students’ lived experiences, the authors provide new perspectives about how students are understood, and the extent to which European higher education is homogenising. They explore various prominent constructions of students – including as citizens, enthusiastic learners, future workers and objects of criticism.
Legal professionals are thought to have higher levels of mental health issues and lower levels of wellbeing than the general population.
Drawing on qualitative data from new research with legal practitioners, this in-depth study of mental health and wellbeing in the UK and Republic of Ireland’s legal sector is a timely contribution to the urgent international debate on these issues.
The authors present a comprehensive discussion of the cultural, structural and other causes of legal professionals’ compromised wellbeing. They explore the everyday demands and difficulties of the legal working environment and consider the impacts on individuals, the legal profession and wider society.
Making comparisons with systems overseas, this is an invaluable resource that provides evidence-based suggestions for swift and effective organisational and policy-related interventions in the legal sector.
Across Europe the importance of reconciling paid work and family life is increasingly recognised by a range of diverse government regulations and organisational initiatives. At the same time, employing organisations and the nature of work are undergoing massive and rapid changes, in the context of global competition, efficiency drives, as well as social and economic transformations in emerging economies.
“Work, families and organisations in transition” illustrates how workplace practices and policies impact on employees’ experiences of “work-life balance” in contemporary shifting contexts. Based upon cross-national case studies of public and private sector workplaces carried out in Bulgaria, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK, this innovative book demonstrates the challenges that parents face as they seek to negotiate work and family boundaries. The case studies demonstrate that employed parents’ needs and experiences depend on many layers of context - global, European, national, workplace and family.
This book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of organisational psychology, sociology, management and business studies, human resource management, social policy, as well as employers, managers, trade unions and policy makers.
The definition of data in qualitative research is expanding. This book highlights the value of embodiment as a qualitative research tool and outlines what it means to do embodied research at various points of the research process. It shows how using this non-invasive approach with vulnerable research participants, such as migrant, refugee and asylum seeking women can help service users or research participants to be involved in the co- production of services and in participatory research.
Drawing on both feminist and post-colonial theory, the author uses her own research with migrant women in London, focusing specifically on collage making and digital storytelling, whilst also considering other potential tools for practicing embodied research such as yoga, personal diaries, dance and mindfulness. Situating the concept of ‘embodiment’ on the map of research methodologies, the book combines theoretical groundwork with actual examples of application to think pragmatically about intersectionality through embodiment.
