Showing papers in "Qualitative Research in 2005"
TL;DR: This paper reviewed the origin and evolution of the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) during the past 50 years, discusses CIT's place within the qualitative research tradition, examines the robustness of the method, and offers some recommendations for using the CIT as we look forward to its next 50 years of use.
Abstract: It has now been 50 years since Flanagan (1954) published his classic article on the critical incident technique (CIT) - a qualitative research method that is still widely used today This article reviews the origin and evolution of the CIT during the past 50 years, discusses CIT’s place within the qualitative research tradition, examines the robustness of the method, and offers some recommendations for using the CIT as we look forward to its next 50 years of use The focus of this article is primarily on the use of the CIT in counselling psychology, although other disciplines are touched upon
927 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the research implications of using multi-methods within a broad qualitative approach by drawing on the experience of conducting two childhood obesity-focused qualitative studies of Australian children's perceptions and experiences of place, space and physical activity.
Abstract: This article explores the research implications of using multi-methods within a broad qualitative approach by drawing on the experience of conducting two childhood obesity-focused qualitative studies of Australian children’s perceptions and experiences of place, space and physical activity. Children described and depicted their physical activities and experiences: in focus group interviews, by mapping their local, social and recreational spaces and by photographing their meaningful places, spaces and activities using a Photovoice approach. The authors describe, reflect on and critique their chosen research approach, discussing the value, utility and pitfalls associated with using multiple methods with children. The article concludes that using multiple methods in researching children’s experiences is a valuable approach that does not merely duplicate data but also offers complementary insights and understandings that may be difficult to access through reliance on a single method of data collection.
772 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors have reviewed all of the studies using shadowing as a research method and through reviewing these studies has developed a threefold classification of different modes of shadowing.
Abstract: Shadowing is a qualitative research technique that has seldom been used and rarely been discussed critically in the social science literature. This article has pulled together all of the studies using shadowing as a research method and through reviewing these studies has developed a threefold classification of different modes of shadowing. This work provides a basis for a qualitative shadowing method to be defined, and its potential for a distinctive contribution to organizational research to be discussed, for the first time.
555 citations
TL;DR: The survivability of traditional methods within computer-mediated settings is dependent upon their capacity to be utilized and adapted to the technology that mediates human interaction online as mentioned in this paper, and the success of online focus groups is evaluated in online applications.
Abstract: The survivability of ‘traditional’ methods within computer-mediated settings is dependent upon their capacity to be utilized and adapted to the technology that mediates human interaction online. This article addresses the established focus group method and evaluates its success in online applications, using as examples two quite different research projects. The first, drawn from research into the employment experiences of inflammatory bowel disease sufferers exemplifies the use of asynchronous online focus groups, identifying key practical issues such as online moderation and the analysis of digital data. In contrast the second study, into deviance within online communities, provides an example of how synchronous forms of online focus groups, held within 3D graphical environments, create further challenges for the researcher, highlighting unique ethical considerations of conducting fieldwork in cyberspace. The article draws together the authors’ experiences of applying the method to offer insights into the viability and practicability of online focus groups.
359 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines identity dynamics in the qualitative research interview within the context of management research and argues that the identity of the interviewer is actively constructed by the interviewer, which is called the identity identity.
Abstract: This article examines identity dynamics in the qualitative research interview within the context of management research. It is argued that the identity of the interviewer is actively constructed th...
154 citations
TL;DR: In a broader research project about students' perceptions of their rights in New Zealand high schools, the first author conducted an interview with a group of students that was noticeably different from her interviews with groups of students at three other high schools as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In a broader research project about students’ perceptions of their rights in New Zealand high schools, the first author conducted an interview with a group of students that was noticeably different from her interviews with groups of students at three other high schools. This article was prompted in the first instance by a sense of this ‘noticeably different’ interview being a ‘failure’ because of the limited spoken text elicited. In this article we demonstrate what we can learn from data regarding embodiment, the interview setting, silence, laughter and, in the process, we attempt to practise ‘uncomfortable reflexivities’ advocated by Pillow (2003). We argue that an apparently ‘failed’ interview has a great deal to teach us about the theory and practice of qualitative research and the tenuous nature of the production of knowledge. We finish by identifying how our experience of this ‘failed’ interview informs our current research.
145 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that displays of hegemonic masculinity within research contexts are often perceived to inhibit the collection of 'good' data and present a problem which the researcher must overcome, instead of being se...
Abstract: Displays of hegemonic masculinity within research contexts are often perceived to inhibit the collection of ‘good’ data and present a problem which the researcher must overcome. Instead of being se...
120 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a dialogue around psychoanalytically and discursively driven interpretive strategies, centring on the analysis of material concerning a teenage boy's attempt to develop a non-hegemonic position with regard to masculinity.
Abstract: In order to address issues concerning the ‘positioning’ of individuals in discourse, appeal has recently been made to psychoanalytic formulations offering plausible interpretations of how and why specific subjects take up the positions they do. This raises many problems concerning the relationship between ‘top-down’ or ‘expert’ interpretive strategies and the ‘bottom-up’ grounded approaches traditionally preferred by qualitative researchers. Along with these methodological issues go epistemological and political questions concerning power and accountability.
The current article stages a dialogue around psychoanalytically and discursively driven interpretive strategies, centring on the analysis of material concerning a teenage boy’s attempt to develop a ‘non-hegemonic’ position with regard to masculinity. A psychoanalytic reading of the boy’s talk is given alongside a discursive analysis used to offer a critique of this approach. It is argued a) that psychoanalytic interpretive strategies require much more grounding than is usually available from conventional interview texts; and b) that a dialogue of psychoanalytic and discursive analytic interpretations serves to raise questions of difference as possibilities for collaboration.
93 citations
TL;DR: The authors discuss the history, development and current debates alive in the field, such as the biographical turn in social science, the theoretical underpinnings to using human documents in social research and the epistemological, substantive and practical concerns with the process of analyzing data from human documentary sources.
Abstract: This research tradition has arisen from a specific set of historical, disciplinary and institutional conditions. The very emergence of 'documentation' is predicated upon a set of long-term processes in which humans have developed the capacity to use symbols and store knowledge such that it can be exchanged and inter-generationally transmitted.Consisting of an impressive list of contributors, the four volumes discuss the history, development and current debates alive in the field, such as the biographical turn in social science, the theoretical underpinnings to using human documents in social research and the epistemological, substantive and practical concerns with the process of analyzing data from human documentary sources.Comprehensive, illuminating and dynamic, this collection will have appeal across all social science disciplines, especially sociology, social psychology, criminology, politics and international relations, management and business studies, human geography, media and communication studies
90 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an innovative research project which sought to use the outputs of a community development arts project as a source of visual data for the evaluation of an area-based health initiative is discussed.
Abstract: Image-based research is well developed within visual anthropology and visual ethnography, but it is little used outside of these disciplines. This article discusses an innovative research project which sought to use the outputs of a community development arts project as a source of visual data for the evaluation of an area-based health initiative. The use of such material in applied research required the development of a method unique to the project, and the aims, process and outcomes are discussed. In particular, the article details the difficulties encountered and the attempts made to overcome such challenges. It ends by suggesting there is scope for the development and application of the method, if it is developed within key guiding principles.
73 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the author used a concrete interview with an aerobic instructor, Edith, as a means of illuminating this theme and attempted to discern connections between the context for the interview, how the material is created socially and textually and how the researcher utilizes information from own body in the interpretation of the material.
Abstract: The theme of the article is to question how the researcher’s body is involved both in creating accesses to, and in interpreting, material from qualitative research interviews. The researcher’s body is understood from a phenomenological perspective and regarded both as an access and as a limitation to the acquisition of knowledge. The article uses a concrete interview with an aerobic instructor, Edith, as means of illuminating this theme. It is attempted to discern connections between the context for the interview, how the material is created socially and textually and how the researcher utilizes information from own body in the interpretation of the material. The analysis illustrates what insights on a research process can involve, and shows some of the challenges inherent in an open and critical attitude in terms of the self and the other as embodied subjects. It is brought forward how the two parallel processes, both the interview and training, rest upon implicit conditions into which the article acquir...
TL;DR: This paper examined the experiences encountered as a young, novice, female, white, northern English ethnographer investigating the sensitive topic of student resistance in two comprehensive secondary schools in Birmingham and Sydney, Australia.
Abstract: The experiences encountered as a young, novice, female, white, northern English ethnographer investigating the sensitive topic of student resistance are examined. Research was conducted in two comprehensive secondary schools in Birmingham (England) and a state governed school situated in Sydney (Australia). The implications of investigating student resistance and the importance of how the researchers’ personal dispositions influence the research process are discussed. The significance of the role the researcher adopts in the school and how this impacts upon how the researcher experiences leaving the field are examined. The predicaments an ethnographer can find themselves in when trying to balance the trust relationship between students and teachers are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss ways in which researchers observe girls and boys in the classroom, based on a comparative cross-cultural, collective ethnographic study, and present a methodological article.
Abstract: In this methodological article we discuss ways in which researchers observe girls and boys in the classroom. The article is based on a comparative cross-cultural, collective ethnographic study, ‘Ci...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take up the issue of transcript analysis within a collaborative researcher/participant relationship, focusing on the challenges and ethical dilemmas that researchers face when engaging in analysis.
Abstract: In this article we take up the issue of transcript analysis within a collaborative researcher/participant relationship. We specifically focus on the challenges and ethical dilemmas that researchers face when engaging in analysis. As researchers who use constructivist psychological theory to study the narratives of people's lives, we are particularly interested in inviting dialogues about what is involved when we engage in analysis of our participants’ renditions of experience. By conversing with colleagues and students, and reflecting on previous research projects, we use research experiences to shape our discussion.
TL;DR: In recent years, a number of prominent qualitative research efforts with equal status have been made by individual researchers or by collaborating researchers of equal status as discussed by the authors, which has been called equal status qualitative research.
Abstract: Qualitative research traditionally has been done by individual researchers or by collaborating researchers of equal status. In recent years, a number of prominent qualitative research efforts with ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the dichotomy between power and knowledge, instantiated by the power-knowledge nexus, can be explained by the notion of power knowledge nexus.
Abstract: Qualitative research and methods are often imagined as relating to a problematic, which we here term the power-knowledge nexus. We argue that the dichotomy between power and knowledge, instantiated...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have reviewed all of the studies using shadowing as a research method and through reviewing these studies has developed a threefold classification of different modes of shadowing.
Abstract: Shadowing is a qualitative research technique that has seldom been used and rarely been discussed critically in the social science literature. This paper has pulled together all of the studies using shadowing as a research method and through reviewing these studies has developed a threefold classification of different modes of shadowing. This work provides a basis for a qualitative shadowing method to be defined, and its potential for a distinctive contribution to organisational research to be discussed, for the first time.
TL;DR: In this article, strategic turns shape various contemporary uses of ethnography and reflect the exploration of ontological, epistemological, and methodological alternatives, and they suggest that strategic turns can be used to reflect the explorations of ontologies and epistemologies.
Abstract: In this article we suggest that strategic turns shape various contemporary uses of ethnography and reflect the exploration of ontological, epistemological, and methodological alternatives. In addit...
TL;DR: The authors describe howNarrative research writing often seeks to create a sense of feel and place, and the aim is to convince an audience that the researcher has "been there" and that they could have been there too.
Abstract: Narrative research writing often seeks to create a sense of feel and place. The aim is to convince an audience that the researcher has ‘been there’ and that they could have been there too. This art...
TL;DR: This small research project investigated whether it was feasible and beneficial to use voice recognition software to transcribe tape recordings of multiple voices and developed guidelines to increase the usefulness of the software for research purposes.
Abstract: This small research project investigated whether it was feasible and beneficial to use voice recognition software to transcribe tape recordings of multiple voices. Two methods of use were trialed a...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore tensions in the study of innovation, the practice of fieldwork and the narratives these produce, particularly as represented in the work of Latour, and argue that Latour's eth...
Abstract: This article explores tensions in the study of innovation, the practice of fieldwork and the narratives these produce, particularly as represented in the work of Latour. It argues that Latour’s eth...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how talk and the expression of feelings about work-family matters in the workplace are generated within the research encounter and how they are shaped by the characteristics of the researchers.
Abstract: The article shows how talk and the expression of feelings about work-family matters in the workplace are generated within the research encounter and how they are shaped by the characteristics of th
TL;DR: In this article, the use of oral history methodology in relation to studying the work of the police and particularly the culture or cultures of police was discussed, followed by an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of such methodological techniques when used in a piece of research which investigated the culture of the Metropolitan Police Force between the 1930s and 1960s.
Abstract: This article focuses upon the use of oral history methodology in relation to studying the work of the police and, particularly, the culture or cultures of the police. An overview of oral history is followed by a discussion of the application of such techniques to investigating police work. This, in turn, is followed by an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of such methodological techniques when used in a piece of research which investigated the culture of the Metropolitan Police Force between the 1930s and 1960s.
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TL;DR: The authors argue that one way to write history is to draw from autoethnography, popular culture and history, following Benjamin's argument that "one way to writing history is writing history."
Abstract: This is a performance experimental text with multiple speaking parts. Drawing from autoethnography, popular culture and history, I argue, following Walter Benjamin, that one way to write history is...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that questions of representation are best engaged with while the researcher is in the field, gathering data, and explore a dual ethnography of customer service work whereby the competing roles of worker and customer are acknowledged and incorporated into the research design through period spent observing as a worker and as a shopper.
Abstract: The post-structuralist focus on text and the production of text has recently produced a ‘crisis of representation’ for ethnography. This article argues that questions of representation are best engaged with while the researcher is in the field, gathering data. The argument is explored with reference to a dual ethnography of customer service work whereby the competing roles of worker and customer are acknowledged and incorporated into the research design through period spent observing as a worker and as a shopper. Researching customer service work as a worker and as a shopper reflects how claims to representation are contingent on the social role taken by the researcher. The implications of this for discussions of insider and outsider status and reflexivity are considered.
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of the use of the documentary method in the practical work of the police and road users on public highways is presented. But it is only in the context of public highways and traffic flows.
Abstract: There is a growing body of literature within the humanities and social sciences that is directly critical of the documentary tradition’s treatment and use of still and moving images as realistic data. The documentary tradition claims that it is possible to visually document social scenes with cameras. Postmodernism, poststructuralism, critical theory and related traditions argue that still and moving images amount to representations, their critique of realism. As instruments, cameras are open to a variety of uses ranging from the scientific to the artistic in orientation. Such uses of cameras comprise representational work. Following Garfinkel, this article suggests that the documentary method of sense making is employed in numerous practical situations.This article commences with an overview of the documentary tradition and then offers a brief case study of certain of these principles in operation within the practical work of the police and road users on public highways. Public highways and traffic flows...