1/ Following on from a great thread by @DrAdamJowett yesterday - here are some suggestions on doing qual research in a context of physical distancing. First off check out my @ginnybraun & @DrDebraGray's edited book Collecting Qualitative Data: cambridge.org/core/books/col…
2/ This book is all about methods & data sources that either don't involve participants or don't require physical interaction between researchers & participants - like email interviews, online forums, qualitative surveys & story completion. It grew out of a seminar held at UWE -
3/ Qualitative Research in an Age of Austerity. Talks from a second book launch seminar (on qual surveys, online forums, email interviews, story completion & vignettes plus a keynote from @BrendanGough7) can be watched on my YouTube channel: youtube.com/channel/UCLBw6…
4/ @ginnybraun & I first started writing about these types of methods & datasources in our textbook Successful Qualitative Research - in this we cover secondary sources, qual surveys, virtual ints, story completion, diaries & vignettes: uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/succ…
5/ The link to the book also takes you to the free to access for anyone online resources - including egs of research materials (participant info sheets etc) for research using these methods and qual survey & story completion datasets that can be used in teaching.
6/ Ok so methods & data sources in more detail - in terms of accessibility & ethical complexity 'secondary sources' like print & broadcast media, public documents & literature (e.g. textbooks, patient information literature, websites, Hansard) R the most accessible & least...
7/ ethically complex. There's not huge amounts of student friendly guidance on using these data sources beyond our 2 books (at least in psych) so here are some egs to inspire - first you can go 'meta' & analyse textbooks & how they represent certain issues - here's a great e.g.
8/ from @megjohnbarker analysing the representation of bisexuality in psychology textbooks with useful tips on developing a robust sampling strategy: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/97…
9/ you can also look at academic lit more broadly - I've written several papers on how lesbian parenting is represented in psychology & feminist literature - here's an eg: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.100…
10/ I, @ginnybraun & many others have done research on how newspapers, magazines & websites represent certain issues - here's Ginny on the representation of 'designer vagina' cosmetic surgery in women's magazines: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13…
11/ Hansard - the official record of the proceedings of the UK parliament is ripe for analysis: hansard.parliament.uk Here's Sonja Ellis & @KitzingerCelia on debates about lowering the age of consent for sex between men in Hansard: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.100…
11/ One final eg from @Annadisr using literature given to pregnant women (some of these egs combine secondary sources & ints - both standalone secondary source & multi method secondary source + ints or another method designs are possible): journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…
12/ The second option for physical distanced qual data collection is online user generated content (forums, blogs, vlogs, comments etc) - still relatively accessible but more ethically complex. In BPS accredited psych programs ethical scrutiny is required 4 student research. This
13/ data source is not "fair game" - be guided by the Association of Internet Researchers: aoir.org/ethics/ and the British Psychological Society on ethics: bps.org.uk/news-and-polic…
14/ There are chapters on online forums & blogs in Collecting Qual Data - my student Susan Anderson thought very carefully about ethics when researching skin picking forums: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…
10a/ Oops I forgot to mention media framing analysis as a technique for exploring media representations - here's an example: tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
15/ Finally there is physically distanced data collection from participants - both methods where participates generate textual data (through qual surveys, story completion, diaries, vignettes etc) in response to the researcher's questions/tasks & various modes of virtual int
16/ But do consider the ethics of asking people to participate in research right now - I've seen both carry on as normal & no-one will want to do research right now & I think the first is totally wrong & the second prob isn't true for everyone (socially isolated anyway, bored af)
