Elizabeth St. Pierre’s (2011) chapter on post qualitative research talks about reading difficult texts. St. Pierre points out that “we hesitate to read outside our comfort areas and too casually reject texts that seem too hard to read” (p. 614). St. Pierre’s advice to her student is to: take seriously Lacan’s (as cited in Ulmer, … Continue reading Tips for reading difficult texts
A research design framework for understanding online conversations
In this week's blog post, Trena Paulus talks about her forthcoming co-authored book on conducting research in online spaces. While the phenomenon itself goes by many names - social media, discussion forums, computer-mediated communication, online conversations – people have been talking together online now for nearly four decades. Research into what happens in these spaces … Continue reading A research design framework for understanding online conversations
Online Professional Development: Photovoice
‘Talking with Pictures’: Photovoice – June 18 – 27, 2019 (5 online sessions, 2 hours each) This online professional development course provides hands-on experience with adapting Photovoice to clinical care, programming, evaluation, and research. Upon completion, participants will have the knowledge, skills and tools to implement their Photovoice Plan. Photovoice is a participatory approach to … Continue reading Online Professional Development: Photovoice
Tips for using focus groups in qualitative research
There are a variety of "group" interview formats that researchers use. These include brainstorming groups used to generate ideas in a relatively unstructured format; nominal groups, in which a researcher directs members of the group to respond to questions (which may be in written form), and there is minimal or no group interaction (MacPhail, 2001); … Continue reading Tips for using focus groups in qualitative research
What qualitative researchers can learn from studies that examine interaction in research interviews
Almost 30 years ago, Lucy Suchman and Brigette Jordan (1990) published an article in which they closely examined how survey interviewers posed questions to participants, and what happened next. They found that the delivery of scripted questions without deviation to ensure that people were asked the same questions, in the same way, was very difficult … Continue reading What qualitative researchers can learn from studies that examine interaction in research interviews
Tips on getting started with analyzing qualitative data
Analyzing qualitative data for the first time can entail a good deal of confusion among novice researchers. Mystification about how to being analyzing data can be heightened when reading published presentations of research in which descriptions of what authors actually did with their data in order to produce “findings” are both limited and opaque. One … Continue reading Tips on getting started with analyzing qualitative data
“Failure” in doing social research
It’s natural for us all to yearn to be successful at everything we do. Yet whatever we do, we will likely experience failure as we navigate the learning curve to become proficient and then expert in the skills we aim to develop. Conducting research is no different to the many other tasks we have learned … Continue reading “Failure” in doing social research
Postcard from 2019 The Qualitative Report (TQR) Conference
Fort Lauderdale in southern Florida is a great place to be in January! Earlier this month I was very fortunate to attend the 10th TQR conference at Nova Southeastern University.I had the pleasure of meeting qualitative researchers working in the US, Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan, Jamaica, and Scotland. This year, the TQR conference celebrated its 10th … Continue reading Postcard from 2019 The Qualitative Report (TQR) Conference
What qualitative interviewers can learn from studies of epistemics in conversation
Sociologist John Heritage (Heritage, 2012a, 2012b, 2013, 2018; Heritage & Raymond, 2005) has been writing about epistemics in naturally occurring conversation for over a decade. This work draws on the work of other scholars. These include Erving Goffman’s idea of “territories of the selves” (Goffman, 1971) in which people tend the boundaries of knowledge that … Continue reading What qualitative interviewers can learn from studies of epistemics in conversation
Finishing off the dissertation
All over the world, doctoral students are working to complete their doctoral research before presenting their thesis or dissertation (depending on what part of the world you reside in) to examiners. In the final throes of developing one’s writing, sometimes it is easy to lose sight of things. One issue that I have noted in … Continue reading Finishing off the dissertation
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