scholarly journals Critical convergences

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramah McKay
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Health Knowledge

Thinking through two objects – a focus group and a photograph – this essay suggests that ethnographic critique is not separate from but constitutive of global health. Social science representations, from data and focus groups to ethnographic descriptions and clinical snapshots, not only analyze, unpack, or depict global health; they also constitute it as a field of intervention and to define certain spaces, particularly clinical ones, as exemplary global health sites. This co-constitutive role complicates ethnographic critiques that see their role as primarily destabilizing global health facts. Rather, by drawing on feminist approaches to ethnography and critique, I suggest that convergences between ethnographic and global health knowledge stem from historical alignments through which anthropology and global health alike emerged and have come to circulate. These convergences point to the need for a ‘non-innocent’ critique of global health that centers the disciplinary complicity between, and methodological adjacency of, social science and global health.

scholarly journals A Qualitative Framework for Collecting and Analyzing Data in Focus Group Research

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie ◽  
Wendy B. Dickinson ◽  
Nancy L. Leech ◽  
Annmarie G. Zoran
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Response Characteristics ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Focus Group Data

Despite the abundance of published material on conducting focus groups, scant specific information exists on how to analyze focus group data in social science research. Thus, the authors provide a new qualitative framework for collecting and analyzing focus group data. First, they identify types of data that can be collected during focus groups. Second, they identify the qualitative data analysis techniques best suited for analyzing these data. Third, they introduce what they term as a micro-interlocutor analysis, wherein meticulous information about which participant responds to each question, the order in which each participant responds, response characteristics, the nonverbal communication used, and the like is collected, analyzed, and interpreted. They conceptualize how conversation analysis offers great potential for analyzing focus group data. They believe that their framework goes far beyond analyzing only the verbal communication of focus group participants, thereby increasing the rigor of focus group analyses in social science research.

scholarly journals Undergraduates May Prefer to Learn about the Library Informally

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Elizabeth Miller
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Library Instruction ◽  
Trial And Error

A Review of: Murphy, J. A. (2014). Library learning: Undergraduate students’ informal, self-directed, and information sharing strategies. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 9(1), 1-20. https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/index Abstract Objective – To determine undergraduate student approaches to learning about research and to seeking assistance with resources and services offered by the library. Design – Three face-to-face focus groups received the same 12 questions to discuss over 90 minutes. Setting – Academic library in Saskatchewan, Canada. Subjects – A total of 14 undergraduate students majoring in a social science or humanities subject area. Of these, four subjects were in their second year of undergraduate study, four in their third year, and six in their fourth year. Subjects participated in focus groups with other students in their year of study. The researcher recruited subjects through printed advertisements distributed in areas frequented by social science and humanities students. 12 female students and 2 male students participated. 13 participants had attended a library instruction session in the past. Subjects were offered pizza, but were not otherwise incentivized to participate. Methods – The researcher and an assistant conducted three focus groups with undergraduate students, eliciting qualitative comments later transcribed and coded manually for analysis. Requirements for participation included being engaged in an undergraduate major in the social sciences or humanities, and previous experience using the library. Subjects answered open-ended questions about their studies, research activities, use of the library for a variety of tasks, and help seeking preferences. Main Results – Regardless of year of study, focus group participants reported informal approaches to learning about and conducting research. All participants were confident about using the library’s online resources, and preferred learning about library resources through self-directed practice and trial and error. Participants revealed that learning about the library informally was preferable to library instruction. Most participants indicated they had sought help from the library at one time or another. Participants prized sharing information with classmates, especially through collaboration and social networks, and they valued the expertise of professors, peers, friends, and family when doing research. Three factors may influence their choice to consult and exchange information with other trusted advisers outside of the library: convenience, familiarity, and knowledge. Conclusion – Findings from this study align with previous findings about student approaches to seeking research assistance. The author reveals that assistance from the library, including library instruction, is less important to focus group participants than the research strategies they have developed informally, including trial and error and information sharing within one’s personal network. The author observes that the informal learning strategies implemented by undergraduates in this study mirror the strategies of adult learners, especially in the workplace. The author suggests that intentional, course integrated library instruction in the early years of undergraduate education would strengthen students’ preferred self-directed learning about research.

scholarly journals Development of a Global Health Learning Progression (GHELP) Model

Pharmacy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Ellen M. Schellhase ◽  
Monica L. Miller ◽  
Jodie V. Malhotra ◽  
Sarah A. Dascanio ◽  
Jacqueline E. McLaughlin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Pharmacy Practice ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Learning Progression

There has been a steady increase in global health experiential opportunities offered within healthcare professional training programs and with this, a need to describe the process for learning. This article describes a model to contextualize global health learning for students who complete international advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). Students from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Purdue University, and the University of Colorado completed a post-APPE survey which included open-ended questions about knowledge, skills, and attitudes one week after completing an international APPE. Students were also invited to participate in a focus group. All 81 students who participated in an international APPE completed the open-ended survey questions and 22 students participated in a focus group discussion. Qualitative data from both the survey and focus groups were coded in a two-cycle open coding process. Code mapping and analytic memo writing were analyzed to derive to a conceptual learning model. The Global Health Experience Learning Progression (GHELP) model was derived to describe the process of student learning while on global health experiences. This progression model has three constructs and incorporates learning from external and internal influences. The model describes how students can advance from cultural awareness to cultural sensitivity and describes how student pharmacists who participate in international experiential education develop global health knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

Using focus groups to teach social science research practice

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Jo Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Participant ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Research Skills

Contemporary undergraduate courses in research methods are challenging to teach because of the wide scope of the subject matter, limited student contact hours and the complexity of supervising research projects undertaken by novices. Focus group assignments within class offer an interesting and enjoyable way for students to develop and apply research skills and reflect on the process of being both a researcher and a research participant in social science disciplines. Using focus groups enables deep learning, formative assessment and the development of reflexive research skills. This article discusses the use of focus group assignments as a key assessment tool in a Sociological research methods course taught at Monash University, Australia. The use of focus groups as a teaching tool is further assessed through analysing the reflections and evaluations given by students participating in the course.

Displaying opinions: Topics and disagreement in focus groups

1998 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Myers
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Everyday Talk ◽  
Gathering Data

ABSTRACTFocus group discussions are now widely used for gathering data, in social science as well as in commercial marketing and public opinion research. One appeal of focus groups is that in some ways they seem like everyday talk, but their effectiveness depends on a tension between the moderator's constraints and participants' interaction. The moderator introduces and defines topics, but participants can shift, close, and interpret them. The moderator elicits disagreement in a way specific to focus groups, but participants manage their disagreement. Thus we see not simple control by the moderator, but a complex collaborative project operating under the shared assumption that the purpose of the discussion is to display opinions to the moderator. These findings extend the analysis of conversation in institutional settings and contribute to a methodological critique of the reification of attitudes and opinions in some social science research. (Focus group techniques, conversation, discourse analysis, interaction, agreement, topic, laughter, environment.)

59. General medicine residents' perception of the mini-CEXs

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
S. Malhotra ◽  
R. Hatala ◽  
C.-A. Courneya
Keyword(s):  
Internal Medicine ◽  
Medical Education ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Clinical History ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Medical Teacher ◽  
The Impact

The mini-CEX is a 30 minute observed clinical encounter. It can be done in the outpatient, inpatient or emergency room setting. It strives to look at several parameters including a clinical history, physical, professionalism and overall clinical competence. Trainees are rated using a 9-point scoring system: 1-3 unsatisfactory, 4-6 satisfactory and 7-9 superior. Eight months after the introduction of the mini-CEX to the core University of British Columbia Internal Medicine Residents, a one hour semi-structured focus group for residents in each of the three years took place. The focus groups were conducted by an independent moderator, audio-recorded and transcribed. Using a phenomenological approach the comments made by the focus groups participants were read independently by three authors, organized into major themes. In doing so, several intriguing common patterns were revealed on how General Medicine Residents perceive their experience in completing a mini-CEX. The themes include Education, Assessment and Preparation for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Internal Medicine exam. Resident learners perceived that the mini-CEX process provided insight into their clinical strengths and weaknesses. Focus group participants favored that the mini-CEX experience will benefit them in preparation, and successful completion of their licensing exam. Daelmans HE, Overmeer RM, van der Hem-Stockroos HH, Scherpbier AJ, Stehouwer CD, van der Vleuten CP. In-training assessment: qualitative study of effects on supervision and feedback in an undergraduate clinical rotation. Medical Education 2006; 40(1):51-8. De Lima AA, Henquin R, Thierer J, Paulin J, Lamari S, Belcastro F, Van der Vleuten CPM. A qualitative study of the impact on learning of the mini clinical evaluation exercise in postgraduate training. Medical Teacher January 2005; 27(1):46-52. DiCicco-Bloom B, Crabtree BF. The Qualitative Research Interview. Medical Education 2006; 40:314-32.

scholarly journals Blending Indigenous Sharing Circle and Western Focus Group Methodologies for the Study of Indigenous Children’s Health: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 160940692110151
Author(s):  
Sarah C. Hunt ◽  
Nancy L. Young
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Community Advisory Board ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Sharing Circles

The primary objective of this systematic review was to investigate how Western focus groups and Indigenous sharing circles have been blended for the study of Indigenous children’s health. The secondary objective of this study was to propose recommendations for adapting focus groups to include elements of sharing circles. This systematic review was conducted using a systematic search of original research articles published between 2009 and 2020 that (a) focused on North American Indigenous children’s health and (b) used group-based qualitative methods including focus groups and sharing circles. Each of the articles was screened for relevance and quality. The methods sections were reviewed, subjected to qualitative content analysis, and codes were analyzed to identify common themes and synthesize results. We identified 29 articles, most of which followed a community-based participatory research approach. In these publications, most included a community advisory board, ethics approval was obtained, and in some cases, community members were included as research assistants. There was evidence that sharing circles and focus group methods had been blended in the recent Indigenous children’s health literature. This was particularly apparent in the authors’ approaches to recruitment, location, facilitation techniques, question format and reimbursement. Several groups have published results that describe approaches that successfully incorporated aspects of Indigenous sharing circles into Western focus groups, thus establishing a research method that is culturally safe and appropriate for the study of Indigenous children’s health.

Participatory development of the food literacy intervention “GUSTO” for older adults in Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
F Zastrow ◽  
K Neher ◽  
H Hassel
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Food Literacy

Abstract Background Healthy aging is one of the major challenges currently faced by an aging population. Food literacy (FL) refers to the ability to apply knowledge and practical skills regarding healthy and sustainable nutrition into everyday life. The project “GUSTO” is sponsored by the Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care and aims to contribute to enjoyable aging by developing the nutritional skills of people aged 65 and over. This community-based program comprises independent working groups of older adults guided by peer moderators. The FL intervention is developed in cooperation with the target group. Methods The nutritional situation of older adults was first established through a literature research. The results of this research were compared to the “self-perceived food literacy scale” by Poelman et al. (2018) and the “nutritional framework for literacy courses” by Johannsen et al. (2019). The resulting data provided a basis for focus group discussions carried out in six municipalities, supported by local practice partners. In six guided focus group discussions, a number of recurring themes were identified and summarized. Results The focus groups consisted of a total of 44 people between 62 and 88 years of age (average age: 73.1 ± 6.1 years). 22.7 % were men. The group discussions revealed resources used and barriers encountered in terms of FL and interests of older adults. It was evident that, due to the high density of information available, the participants found it difficult to identify reliable information and to implement it in their everyday life. At the request of the focus groups, topics such as the best before date and the use of food waste were added to the intervention. Conclusions Older adults find it challenging to identify reliable nutritional information and implement it in their everyday life. With the help of the participatory approach outlined in this study, target group-related issues can be identified and taken into account in the intervention. Key messages Older adults can be involved in the development of an FL intervention. A participatory approach allows target group-related issues and specific needs to be taken into account in the intervention.

scholarly journals 136. In Their Own words: a Qualitative Analysis of Factors Contributing to Gender Bias in Academic Advancement in Infectious Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S198-S198
Author(s):  
Wendy Stead ◽  
Jennifer Manne-Goehler ◽  
Jasmine R Marcelin ◽  
Carlos Del Rio ◽  
Douglas Krakower
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Full Professor ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Academic Advancement ◽  
Assistant Professors ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

Abstract Background Large and persistent inequities in academic advancement exist between men and women faculty in academic Infectious Diseases (ID). To identify and characterize beliefs about why these inequities persist in ID, we asked ID faculty members to share their thoughts and experiences with the advancement process. Characteristics of Focus Group Participants Summary of Main Emergent Themes from Focus Group Analysis Methods We conducted four 60-minute focus groups with ID faculty members during IDWeek 2019. We enrolled women that were diverse geographically and in academic rank (i.e., Instructor/Assistant, Associate, Full Professor). We assigned women to focus groups by rank to minimize social desirability bias across rank. Our fourth focus group included only men who were Full Professors, to capture additional perspectives about barriers to advancement and solutions. (Table 1) We analyzed focus group discussion transcripts using content analysis. Results We identified nine main themes regarding inequities in academic advancement of women in ID. (Table 2) In all 4 focus groups, gender bias as a barrier to academic advancement was a major theme. Women Full Professors emphasized explicit gender bias such as sexual harassment and “predatory mentoring,” whereas women Instructors/Assistant Professors more frequently cited barriers related to implicit bias, such as obscure maternity leave policies and divisional meetings scheduled during childcare hours. Women Associate Professors cited implicit and explicit gender bias, while men Full Professors focused primarily on implicit bias. Women Instructors/Assistant Professors experienced the greatest difficulty in balancing demands of family with career, though this was a prominent theme in all groups. The perception that women less often utilize negotiation to advance themselves was a dominant theme for women Associate Professors, though all groups raised examples of this theme. Conclusion Gender bias, both implicit and explicit, is an important and ongoing barrier to equitable academic advancement of women in ID. Difficulty balancing demands of family with career and gender differences in professional negotiation are also perceived barriers that can be targeted by innovative programs and interventions to address gender disparities in academic advancement. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

User-centered Requirements for Patient Fluid Intake Monitoring Support

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 736-740
Author(s):  
Ellen J. Bass ◽  
Andrew J. Abbate ◽  
Yaman Noaiseh ◽  
Rose Ann DiMaria-Ghalili
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Fluid Intake ◽  
Fluid Consumption ◽  
Registered Dietitians ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Focus Group Data

There is a need to support patients with monitoring liquid intake. This work addresses development of requirements for real-time and historical displays and reports with respect to fluid consumption as well as alerts based on critical clinical thresholds. We conducted focus groups with registered nurses and registered dietitians in order to identify the information needs and alerting criteria to support fluid consumption measurement. This paper presents results of the focus group data analysis and the related requirements resulting from the analysis.

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