Journal ArticleDOI
Challenges in accessing research sites in Ghana: a research note
TLDR
In this paper, the authors share the experience with other researchers and practitioners for them to recognise the common challenges associated with gaining access to research sites and the significance of critical reflection and reflexivity on how a researcher's positionality affects knowledge production.Abstract:
Despite the crucial role of gaining access for successful research in social and management studies, very little has been written on issues and challenges associated with gaining access particularly in an undeveloped research context such as Ghana. The purpose of this paper is to share the experience with other researchers and practitioners for them to recognise the common challenges associated with gaining access to research sites and the significance of critical reflection and reflexivity on how a researcher’s positionality affects knowledge production. The paper emphasises the need for researchers to appreciate the taken-for-granted interactions that can contribute to critical thinking about identities and reflexivity in research. The paper adds to the paucity of voices particularly overseas students and researchers returning home (to country of origin) from Euro-American institutions to carry out field research.,The paper draws on the field notes relating to the PhD fieldwork experiences in accessing subsidiaries of western multinational enterprises in Ghana. The author discussed how gatekeepers hindered access to key organisational members and the need to identify helpful networks through snowballing in order to access organisations and participants.,Considerable challenges such as denial of access, physical and psychological distress were encountered in the process of accessing organisations which often led to abandoning certain sites for others, even though those originally chosen were potentially rich sources of information. Also, positionality and the manner in which a researcher is perceived by participants certainly influence the knowledge one produces. Sufficient time is needed to negotiate and build relationships of trust with gatekeepers, which often resulted in delays in data collection. In this present study, gatekeepers often denied, limited or delayed access to potential participants and sites despite institutional ethical approval.,The experiences highlighted in this paper can serve as a toolkit for qualitative researchers interested in conducting research in Ghana with regard to what to expect and how to manoeuvre through in the field.,The paper contributes to the dearth of the methodology literature on issues relating to challenges to access, positionality, insider/outsider status of the researcher and their influences on knowledge production in an under-researched context, Ghana.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Sleepless Nights While Our Doctoral Students Are in the Field: Supervisor Reflections on Ethical Challenges:
TL;DR: In this article, the ethical issues for supervisors when their doctoral students undertake qualitative fieldwork in such contexts are explored, and action guidelines for current and prospective students, supervisors, and universities are discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Experience of Negotiating Access in the “Field”: Lessons for Future Research
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the challenges of negotiating access to the field for their own qualitative research from the Global South, by exposing their own uncomfortable encounters during the negotiation process.
Journal ArticleDOI
Methodological issues in examining sanctions: Reflections on conducting research in Russia
TL;DR: This paper examined the effect of sanctions on practical aspects of arranging and conducting qualitative research and fieldwork in this context and highlighted serious implications for undertaking qualitative research on sensitive topics in politically unstable environments.
Journal ArticleDOI
“Your westernized habits”: contextual nuances of qualitative research in Russia
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the ethical dilemma, sensitivity of the topic, translation challenges and unexpected group interviews that arise when conducting qualitative research in emerging economies and provide specific tactics on how to deal with these circumstances when conducting research outside a Western context.
Journal ArticleDOI
Gatekeepers, guides and ghosts: intermediaries impacting access to schools during COVID-19
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors examine the role of gatekeepers, guides and ghosts in the process to access schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and show how gaining access is a nonlinear process that is influenced by the agency of researchers and intermediaries at different contextual levels.
References
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Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook
TL;DR: This book presents a step-by-step guide to making the research results presented in reports, slideshows, posters, and data visualizations more interesting, and describes how coding initiates qualitative data analysis.
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Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a comprehensive review of the literature on content analysis in the field of qualitative research, focusing on the role of focus groups and focus groups in the research process.
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Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods
Robert Bogdan,Sari Knopp Biklen +1 more
TL;DR: The Foundations of Qualitative research in education: An Introduction as discussed by the authors Theoretical underpinnings of qualitative research are discussed in detail in Section 2.2.1.
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Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers
TL;DR: The Foundations of Qualitative Research as mentioned in this paper The applications of qualitative methods to social research are discussed in detail in the context of qualitative research in the field of social science research, with a focus on the use of qualitative data.
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Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research
Mats Alvesson,Kaj Skoldberg +1 more
TL;DR: The Intellectualization of Method Data-Oriented Methods Empiricist Techniques and Procedures Hermeneutics Interpretation and Insight Critical Theory The Political and Ideological Dimension Postmodernism and Postructuralism Destabilizing Subject and Text Language/Gender/Power Discourse Analysis, Feminism and Genealogy On Reflexive Interpretation The Play of Interpretive Levels
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