Qualitative research and rock climbing

How do we acquire skills?

You wouldn’t (I assume) expect to become a rock climber by reading about how to do it, but by trying it yourself, getting guidance and feedback from an instructor, and perhaps watching someone more expert and emulating them. You'd also start with easier climbs and build up your expertise to tackle more challenging routes.

Unfortunately, in large teaching groups, there are often limited opportunities to try your own analysis in a low-stakes situation and get feedback before it ‘counts’ in an assessment. Time and resources are frequently limited in institutions, and students may find themselves with an instructor who is not a qualitative expert or perhaps isn't an expert in specific methodologies that interest them.

It might also be difficult to find opportunities to see the inner workings of an expert’s analysis or work WITH them to practice your skills. It can be useful to see what someone else's work looks like, and that it's often messy and complicated. Allowing students to see 'behind the scenes' takes a level of vulnerability on the part of the teacher, and also requires them to have done the analysis themselves. Not everyone is willing or able to do this.

Why is qualitative research so challenging to teach or supervise?

The first reason is this: I've been saying 'qualitative research', but the term encompasses many perspectives on what 'knowledge' means, and ways to collect and analyse data. When I started learning about qualitative research 20+ years ago, it was feasible to get a working knowledge of many approaches. Through extensive work, debate and development, we've come a long way since then. But that means that it's hard (impossible?) for one person to provide expert guidance for students in every possible approach. 

Unfortunately, we still hear students say that their supervisor or advisor isn't familiar with IPA, or we see published research (or examine theses) that shows a lack of specific knowledge. It's a huge responsibility to supervise postgraduate work (or any research, for that matter), so knowing when to find additional help is vital for supervisors. We know these concerns are shared by others, particularly in psychology.

While it's easy to direct students to the published literature, this has limitations. Methodological guidance is useful, but knowing 'what it's like' to do research is invaluable. Think of the difference between reading an instruction manual and hearing someone explain the pitfalls they encountered and how they overname them. Reading published research is like watching a rock climbing competition: you're seeing people who are good enough to get this far, and you don't get to witness the mistakes, challenges and effort that they exerted to get this far. 

What are better ways to develop qualitative skills?

Harking back to our initial rock climbing analogy, we have a range of recommendations. If you're a supervisor who isn't an IPA expert, you should seek out opportunities to learn or conduct your own research. You can also find and direct students to good-quality IPA to provide models of good 'outcomes', or help them identify a critical friend or colleague who has the knowledge to provide thoughtful insights.

For students or novice researchers: 

1. Find people to work with specific and relevant experience, whether that's methodological (e.g., interpretative phenomenological analysis or reflexive thematic analysis) or situations you will be encountering (e.g. doing your viva). That person has first-hand knowledge of the challenges you might encounter and how to overcome them.

2. Seek opportunities to work in smaller groups that permit individual contributions. That gives you more individual attention and someone to provide feedback tailored to your situation. 

3. Work with examples of other people's data, without the pressure to get your own work 'right' (although there's a whole other post to be made about that!). The route is already marked out and you can explore, with guidance, to understand how to make decisions about where to do.

4. Find ways to work WITH an expert rather than them just telling you or giving you feedback. Co-constructing your work is a beneficial way to learn from someone else through modelling. This doesn't mean they do the analysis for you, but they challenge you along the way and support you in deepening your work.

5. Look for examples of the messy inner workings of someone else's analysis - we see the final, tidy versions and not the dead ends, crossings out or messiness of actual research. You'll learn the types of decisions available along the way and how you might choose between them.

How Qual Academy can help

Our workshops are designed to supplement your qualitative research methods instruction or supervision by tackling the issues we outlined. For instance, we only offer workshops for topics we're experts in and research methods we've used and published in. We incorporate worked examples from our own research and opportunities to practice in small groups on others' work. 

Our Research Roundtables provide opportunities to receive input from others in a safe, small group environment, with (again) input about your research from someone with expertise in that area. 

As a postgraduate student, you are developing the skill to do 'solo' work, but we're here to offer support along the way. As you ascend, we are here to help you find hand and footholds, weigh up different routes and demonstrate best research practice.