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Home  Past Conferences, Events & Newsletters AQR Conference 2007 Workshops
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WorkshopsSunday, 11 November 2007 Helen Marshall and Lyn Lavery Introduction to Nvivo7 This hands-on workshop, intended for those who have started or are contemplating starting a qualitative research project, introduces the NVIVO7 software with an emphasis is on methodology. It will cover the decisions researchers make about methodological issues and systematically introduce the relevant elements of NVIVO. Whatever their topic or theoretical approach, researchers dealing with qualitative data must make decisions about these things: By the end of the workshop participants should be able to make important decisions about their own projects, be capable of setting up a basic project, introducing and coding sources, creating nodes text searching and drawing basic models.
A Demonstration of Ideawriting Ideawriting is a recent participative and empowerment qualitative technique where people write down and then share ideas in order to make plans or find solutions to questions. It is particularly useful for research, evaluation, strategic planning and development exercises. The technique capitalizes on the strengths of both individual contributions and group interaction. This is achieved by combining individual silent generation of initial ideas followed by group discussion to develop them. Moreover, it is a useful tool as part of multi-method triangulation (i,e, it is easily combined with other qualitative and quantitative methods). The technique will be explained and then everyone will take part in an ideawriting exercise to see how the theory is applied to practice. In the first half of the session the theory and detail of ideawriting will be explained. In the second half an ideawriting exercise will be run in order to see how the theory works in practice.
Dr John Bednall The interview and its place in phenomenological method The workshop will explore how phenomenological method is being utilised in current qualitative research projects being conducted in three Western Australian schools under the Federal Government’s Success for Boys Program. Two of the schools are government primary schools and the other a co-educational K-12 independent school. The research questions ask how boys aged 10-14 describe their shared experiences of being at school. The three schools are described by the research teams as being in low socio-economic areas and with little social and educational capital being invested by parents in the schools’ learning cultures. The workshop will pay particular attention to the development of appropriate interview protocols with regard to the ethical and duty of care dimensions related to children. How the elusive concepts of bracketing and epoche which sit at the core of authentic phenomenological method are being applied in the research projects, will also be explored. Preliminary patterns detected in data analysis will be shared.
A New Approach to the Analysis of Think-Aloud Data Having people verbalize their thoughts during or after undertaking a task allows for insights into the nature of how people go about doing things that mightn’t be obtainable by purely observational means. As a research methodology, think-aloud data analysis is useful for: Think-aloud techniques might also receive pedagogic applications in the field of education, for example in tools to diagnose learning difficulties or as a portfolio/journal type study aid. Rejecting the traditional approach outlined in Ericsson, K.A. & Simon, H.A. (1984/1993) Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, this workshop will explore think-aloud methodology from first-principles, highlighting how its structure can be modified for those different genres of application. Working in groups, participants will be guided in the analysis of a sample think-aloud transcription. Each stage will encompass reflection on how the techniques might have broader applications within and across the various professions represented by workshop participants.
Monday, 12 November 2007 Bob Dick Convergent interviewing is an interviewing technique with unstructured content and structured process. It yields good data from surprisingly small samples by analysing data progressively. The interviews converge (hence the name) on a set of themes, with explanations. The technique may be used for theory building. There are some similarities to data-driven grounded theory in the style of Glaser. The process for data convergence resembles constant comparison. However, transcription and coding are unnecessary. It is therefore a more efficient process than grounded theory and can often be substituted for it. Convergent interviewing was initially developed in response to the need in corporate and community change programs for efficient and rigorous data collection. Since then it has been continuously refined through use. Especially recently, the refinement has been able to draw on over 150 studies using it, about 50 of them in refereed journal articles.
Dr Jan Brace-Govan Stepping Through Visual Data The visuality of culture is omnipresent and often offers multiple understandings of our everyday world. Tapping in to participants feelings, responses and meanings through visual representation is a valuable, and recently revived, route for researchers. Images are useful to research from two different directions: the way in which images are perceived by participants and; participants’ understanding of a research issue expressed in images. Both sources of visual data require a framework through which to analyse and interpret what is expressed. This workshop will take researchers through a process that, will not only give them a way of exploring and analysing images, but also, and importantly, offer them a way of gathering visual data in a stepwise progression that facilitates comparisons across different participants. Through this structure the visual data remains rich and complex. The first section of the workshop will offer a foundation for further independent work. The second section of the workshop will go through a practical example. The workshop participants will need to get in touch with the presenter to get instructions on gathering images for this hands-on section.
Literature Reviews: The Qualitative systematic approach Presenter has cancelled the workshop as a result of factors beyond her control. She and AQR apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Ms Helen Butler, Ms Lea Trafford, Mr Ian Seal, Dr Lyndal Bond, Dr Sarah Drew, and Dr Ruby Walter Facilitators, Researchers & Researched: Exploring the Tensions of Multiple Roles and Relationships within a Qualitative Research Project. The Adolescent Health and Social Environment Program based at the Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, is currently undertaking a research project to improve understanding of how to build capacity for health promoting change in schools. Utilising a qualitative research design, the project involves four school clusters in Victoria and a team of educators, facilitators and researchers. The educators, facilitators and researchers each occupy multiple and overlapping roles and relationships within the research as they: move within the field; engage with the research methods of reflective diaries, interviews and participant observation; and participate in cluster activities such as meetings and professional development days. This interactive workshop will explore these tensions through the use of stories, activities and group discussion. Participants will be invited to share their own experiences and join the discussion of how these tensions may be managed.
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