scholarly journals The Vulnerable Researcher: Some Unanticipated Challenges of Doctoral Fieldwork

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Ballamingie ◽  
Sherrill Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Field Experiences ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Methodological Research ◽  
Professional Vulnerability

This paper draws explicitly on the field experiences of two doctoral researchers in geography to elucidate some of the challenges and issues related to researcher vulnerability that are especially acute for graduate students. In spite of significant differences in context, both researchers experienced an unanticipated degree of professional vulnerability during their doctoral fieldwork that warrants further exploration, including a theoretical interrogation of the complex (and shifting) terrain of power relations within qualitative research projects. This paper addresses the lacuna in the qualitative methodological research literature on the topic of researcher vulnerability (in contrast to the well-developed discussion of participant vulnerability). Throughout, the authors suggest possible strategies for mitigating researcher vulnerability while protecting the overall integrity of the research process.

scholarly journals Resilient Research in the Field: Insights and Lessons From Adapting Qualitative Research Projects During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 160940692110161
Author(s):  
Syahirah Abdul Rahman ◽  
Lauren Tuckerman ◽  
Tim Vorley ◽  
Cristian Gherhes
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Building Resilience ◽  
Digital Methods

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the implementation of unprecedented social distancing measures, restricting social interaction and with it the possibility for conducting face-to-face qualitative research. This paper provides lessons from a series of qualitative research projects that were adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure their continuation and completion. By reflecting on our experiences and discussing the opportunities and challenges presented by crises to the use of a number of qualitative research methods, we provide a series of insights and lessons for proactively building resilience into the qualitative research process. We show that reflexivity, responsiveness, adaptability, and flexibility ensured continuity in the research projects and highlighted distinct advantages to using digital methods, providing lessons beyond the COVID-19 context. The paper concludes with reflections on research resilience and adaptation during crises.

scholarly journals Conducting the Pilot Study: A Neglected Part of the Research Process? Methodological Findings Supporting the Importance of Piloting in Qualitative Research Studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 160940691987834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Malmqvist ◽  
Kristina Hellberg ◽  
Gunvie Möllås ◽  
Richard Rose ◽  
Michael Shevlin
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
Recorded Data

During the development of research to compare the processes and impact of inclusive education in Sweden with results obtained from a study undertaken in Ireland, a pilot study was conducted and documented. The pilot study had three aims: (1) to gather data to provide guidance for a substantive study adapted to Swedish conditions through modification of Irish research procedures and instruments, (2) to critically interrogate how we as researchers could most effectively conduct a pilot study utilizing observational and video-recorded data, and (3) to use the Irish theoretical model as a tool of analysis for studying inclusion in two Swedish schools. Although pilot studies are frequently conducted to assess the efficacy of research instruments for use in qualitative research projects, few publications have drawn upon empirical findings related to such studies. Additionally, while methodological texts recommend the use of pilot studies in qualitative research, there is a lack of reported research focusing on how to conduct such pilot studies. We argue that our methodological findings may contribute to greater awareness of the important role that a pilot study may have for full-scale qualitative research projects, for example, in case study research where semi-structured qualitative interviews are used. This argument is based on the assumption that researchers, and especially novice researchers, having conducted a pilot study will be better informed and prepared to face the challenges that are likely to arise in the substantive study and more confident in the instruments to be used for data collection. A proper analysis of the procedures and results from the pilot study facilitates the identification of weaknesses that may be addressed. A carefully organized and managed pilot study has the potential to increase the quality of the research as results from such studies can inform subsequent parts of the research process.

Graduate Education Grounded in Community-Based Participatory Research

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Sheehan ◽  
Brian Burke ◽  
Jeremy Slack
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Ambos Nogales ◽  
The Cost

Research projects at the University of Arizona's Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) have provided graduate students an opportunity to engage in anthropological inquiry and application, often in teams, and with guidance from experienced researchers. In this paper, we focus on our experiences as graduate students working on two community-based environmental anthropology research projects in the sister cities of Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Arizona (known collectively as Ambos Nogales). In choosing to participate in these projects, we hoped to develop our skills with specific anthropological research methods (interviews, participant-observation, surveys, focus groups, and the writing of field notes), gain experience with a community-based participatory research (CBPR) model (including strategies for prioritizing community decision-making and incorporating local knowledge and interests throughout the research process), improve our Spanish skills, and learn to integrate research and action in a mutually-enriching way. Of course, having a job that reduced the cost of school was beneficial, but our main goal was to become anthropologists capable of contributing to academic, policy, and community-based action.

Conducting health research with resettled refugees in Australia: field sites, ethics, and methods

2019 ◽  
pp. 230-244
Author(s):  
Celia McMichael ◽  
Caitlin Nunn
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Psychosocial Health ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Key Aspects

Research involving resettled refugees presents many complexities. In particular, how do we engage ethically with research participants and also ensure that the data we produce is rigorous and makes a productive contribution to knowledge about refugee health? This chapter reflects on two qualitative research projects involving people from refugee backgrounds who have resettled in Victoria, Australia: one project with refugee-background women living in the capital city, Melbourne; another with refugee-background youth living in Bendigo, a regional city. Both projects focused on refugee settlement and psychosocial health. Focusing on three key aspects of the research process: conceptualizing the field site, ethics in practice and qualitative research methods, we suggest that the dual imperatives of refugee research—significance to people with refugee backgrounds and relevant agencies, institutions and governments, and ethical and rigorous research practice—are best served by a reflexive, sensitive and creative relationship with both the research process and with refugee-background participants.

Learning through a Reunion of Mind-Body-Emotion-Spirits

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-431
Author(s):  
Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Critical Qualitative Research

While reflexivity has been taken up as an important concept in critical qualitative research, there are few texts that illustrate explicit approaches to practicing reflexivity. Drawing on my doctoral research experience, this article fills this gap and explores how the practice of mindfulness may guide us to a rich engagement with reflexivity during the critical qualitative research process, in particular within the context of interactions with research participants. More specifically, mindfulness is put forth as a practice to invite an embodied and holistic form of learning that goes beyond cognitive knowing. I argue that a mindfulness-based reflexivity has the potential to open up a space to learn from the messiness and discomfort experienced in the research process and deepen our understanding about the operation of power relations in critical qualitative research and beyond.

scholarly journals “It Requires Interest, Time, Patience and Struggle”: Novice Researchers’ Perspectives on and Experiences of the Qualitative Research Journey

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmut Kalman
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
External Support ◽  
State University ◽  
Support Strategies

This study aimed at exploring novice researchers’ experiences of and perspectives on the qualitative research journey and determining the difficulties tackled and strategies developed while conducting qualitative research. The study was an interview-based qualitative case study involving nine graduate students in education as the participants. The data were collected between 2017 and 2019 at a state university located in Southeastern Turkey. The content-analyzed data revealed several findings about the research topic, indicating that the novice researchers considered the qualitative research journey as daunting and overwhelming, but pleasurable and satisfying. Despite scholarly development and lessons learned in the process, the researchers confronted with several difficulties concerning data collection, analysis and interpretation, recruitment and developing rapport, representation of findings, and the research process as a whole. They developed personal and external support strategies during the research journey. The metaphorical perceptions portrayed the elusive and distinctive nature of qualitative research.

Vital Researcher Conversations: Pivoting Past Impasses in Qualitative Research

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 889-907
Author(s):  
Steen Halling ◽  
Erica Lilleleht ◽  
Kevin C. Krycka ◽  
George Sayre
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Personal Meaning ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Relational Contexts

In this article, we address the vital, yet largely ignored role conversations among researchers play in furthering qualitative research projects. We identify conversations as vital when they foster creativity and afford the researchers an opportunity for clearer focus. Through a close examination of four distinctly different qualitative research experiences, we show how these conversations open and deepen reflective relationships among the researchers and with the phenomenon being studied, both of which lead to a reformulation of the research process. Finally, we suggest that these kinds of conversations emerge out of relational contexts that honor personal meaning, care, openness, and even vulnerability among researchers.

scholarly journals Researching Organisational Change and Learning: A Narrative Approach

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Organisational Learning ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Pluralistic Approach

This paper explores a qualitative research approach to organisational change and learning based on the gathering and reporting of stories. Particular emphasis is placed on reporting research findings in the "voices" of the organisational actors involved in the research. The paper starts by identifying learning, socialisation and diversity as a context for research and goes on to examine the power relations implicit in organisational learning. A pluralistic approach to the use of storytelling in organisational analysis is discussed and a research process is described. Issues of how research findings are represented are examined as are some unresolved and potentially unresolvable problems with narrative based research.

A study of practice based design research models from knowledge integration perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Honghai LI ◽  
Jun CAI
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Design Knowledge ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Design Innovation

The transformation of China's design innovation industry has highlighted the importance of design research. The design research process in practice can be regarded as the process of knowledge production. The design 3.0 mode based on knowledge production MODE2 has been shown in the Chinese design innovation industry. On this cognition, this paper establishes a map with two dimensions of how knowledge integration occurs in practice based design research, which are the design knowledge transfer and contextual transformation of design knowledge. We use this map to carry out the analysis of design research cases. Through the analysis, we define four typical practice based design research models from the viewpoint of knowledge integration. This method and the proposed model can provide a theoretical basis and a path for better management design research projects.

Collective Fieldwork Interviews in the Classroom Without Walls

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-380
Author(s):  
Daniel Makagon
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Experiential Pedagogy ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Learning Focused

This article uses a course that meets from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. as a context to critically examine collective collaborative fieldwork as an experiential pedagogy that helps students better understand and practice qualitative fieldwork interviews. A collective interviewing experience can provide each student with practice and establish a situation for relatively sustained learning-focused dialogue and debate about interviewing ethics. With this context in mind, I critically examine how interviewing participants in a group scenario can help students understand spurned interview requests, the effects on researcher-participant relationships, and the alteration of temporal and spatial scenes in which interviews take shape as well as teach students about the important nuances of translation during interviews. Taken together, these four issues offer important ways to think about team-based fieldwork projects as an alternative to lone-ethnographer models of research practices that are foregrounded in qualitative research literature and in fieldwork-based courses.

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