"I worry that the drive for 'clean' identification as a methodological obsession is driving some junior researchers . . . to a pursuit of the cute instrument. This is leading them down the intellectual cul de sac of precise answers to trivial questions"

My research project and I are spending some quality time together this weekend, which has started with a coffee date at Café Essen in Civic (Canberra). I think we are progressing nicely in our relationship, with conversation flowing a lot more freely now that we have become well acquainted with one another.

We spent the first half of our coffee looking around and observing the passerby, eavesdropping on conversations about poetry and listening to the playful banter between the wait staff. However, as I opened my laptop lid my research project turned to me and posed the question that any male dreads- “where is this going?”

Well, needless to say I was shocked. But I had done all the ground work leading up to this point so wasn’t worried, and was able to answer with confidence. We spoke about everything we had done together in the past – the literature review and research design -, but now it was time to take things to the next level and conduct the data analysis. Whilst I had a fair idea about what was going to happen and my vision for conducting the focus groups, I thought it was best to talk things through. And we did.

The focus groups are being held early next week, and I have made all necessary arrangements such as purchasing snacks and booking rooms. Whilst I know it sounds rather anal, I have gone and had a look at the rooms already to ensure that I was familiar with them and so that I can lay out the rooms to make sure they are conducive to the study- A recommendation I picked up from Kitzinger (1994) in “The Methodology of Focus Groups: The importance of interaction between research participants”.

Also, in preparation for the focus groups I have prepared an information sheet and consent form, which participants will be asked to sign before being able to take part in the focus groups. Additionally, I have prepared a discussion framework to guide the conversation towards research objectives without any bias. This is entirely flexible and will be adapted to the respective focus group depending on the direction things seem to take.

But I wanted to make sure that I was well equipped before going into battle- not only to ensure that the integrity of the study is maintained, but so that I am confident in my ability to extract the information necessary to address the research question. A book that I found useful in doing so was ‘Focus Groups as Qualitative Research’ (Morgan, 1996). This helped me in earlier stages of my project in designing my focus groups around any limitations, and I drew on it once again so that I would be ready for battle. One thing in particular that stood out was ensuring that I make the environment rather informal and more sociable, given that the social context is relevant to the content of discussion. Further, students are more receptive to a casual environment and are likely to be comfortable and subsequently give better responses.

One of my classmates (Caitlin Taylor) had also found a credible source (Hague & Morgan, 2004) that provides tips to researchers on how one should go about conducting research interviews, which can be found on her blog- http://researchrulesandreflections.blogspot.com/. She identifies eight key points, which I think are important and warrant re-publication:

1. Questions should not be worded in such a way as to lead the respondent into the answer.
2. Questions should not only be short, they should be simple - questions that include multiple ideas or two questions in one are likely to confuse the interviewee.
3. Make the questions specific and avoid using words such as 'usually' 'frequently' or 'typically' as these have no specific meaning.
4. Avoid Jargon
5. Steer clear of sophisticated and uncommon words
6. Avoid questions with a negative in them
7. do not use words that could be misheard
8. Do not ask questions that are outside the frame of reference of the respondent

So after discussing all of the above, my research project was content with the relationships and was more at ease from thereon in. Which subsequently concludes the synopsis from today’s date. Who knows what the rest of the weekend will hold; things appear to be intensifying between us, and I definitely get the feeling that it is mutual, so prospects are quite exciting.