How should we supervise qualitative projects?
There is a ‘shortfall in numbers of highly skilled qualitative
researchers’ says the Economic and Social Research Council (2004). What
is psychology doing about it? The Society’s revised syllabus (BPS,
2002) states that students should be able to collect and analyse
qualitative (non-numerical) data. The Quality Assessment Agency (QAA,
2002) also specifies that psychology should cover qualitative methods.
Therefore, in time, psychology graduates should have the expertise the
ESRC needs.
But if qualitative methods are to be included in the mainstream
psychology curriculum, we need to find and maintain a high standard of
supervision in this specialised field. At the moment many departments
may have only one expert in qualitative methods. However, there is a
growing demand for supervision of qualitative projects (Elliott et al.,
1999; Krahn et al., 1995). Guidelines could help the lone supervisor
benefit from others’ experience. Guidelines could also provide a
template for departments beginning to make qualitative projects
available to their students.
Parker (2004) offers three overarching criteria for good research
designed for supervisors of undergraduate qualitative projects:
l grounding in existing research;
l coherence of argument; and
l accessibility of presentation.
But to supervise and produce projects of this nature requires guidance
and consistency, and to that end we produced a handout for our own
qualitative project students at Leeds (Madill et al., 2001). This made
us realise we had different opinions about, for example, the amount of
data students should collect. It seemed a good time to ask our
colleagues across the UK to help define good practice. It also seemed
democratic to ask undergraduates about their experience of doing
qualitative research.
We hosted a one-day workshop on ‘developing guidelines for the
supervision of undergraduate qualitative research in psychology’,
funded by a grant from the Learning and Teaching Support Network for
Psychology (now the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network).
Supervisors from all over the UK took part: 55 of them, representing 36
different institutions. We content-analysed audiotapes of their small
group discussions, and discussions amongst 12 of our own students who
had just completed their qualitative project. From this material we
produced the evaluation criteria shown in Table 1 and a set of
procedural guidelines.
[SEE PDF VERSION FOR TABLE 1]
Guidelines for the supervision of qualitative projects
Preparation
l Prepare students for the labour-intensive nature of
qualitative research and help them time-manage the phases of their
project.
l Research questions should have some social relevance and originality.
l When recommending a particular qualitative method,
consider the demand on the supervisor, the theoretical background
required, and the time demand on the student (see Table 1).
l Provide access to previous high-quality qualitative
projects and indicate examples of relevant published qualitative
research.
l Consider using staff with experience in qualitative
research as project consultants and/or limiting the types of
qualitative method offered in order to use elements of group
supervision.
Data collection
l Where access to participants is difficult or
inappropriate, consider using archive material (including media texts).
The selection and sifting of these should be substantial enough to be
considered a form of data collection.
l When deciding how much (interview) data students
should collect, refer to guidelines associated with particular methods
(see Table 1).
l Require students to notify someone of their whereabouts when collecting data outside university premises.
l Have informed consent obtained before and after
data collection and, if appropriate, again once the transcript has been
approved by the participant.
l If interviewing, require students to conduct a
pilot in order to check the student’s reaction to the research topic,
their interpersonal sensitivity, and skills in using an enquiring
technique.
Post data collection
l Check an early sample transcript for anonymisation.
Participants could be invited to do this, with the right to withdraw
potentially identifying details.
l Analysis should move beyond description, not
reflecting too closely the questions asked of participants, and there
should be a serious effort to be reflexive.
l Reports should show sophisticated understanding of
the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, ground
the method theoretically and epistemologically, be written in the first
person where appropriate, and develop a coherent narrative about the
research as a whole.
l After the project has been marked, monitor the
destruction of non-anonymised data, audio-tapes, and files, and the
return of signed consent forms to the department for confidential
storage.
Evaluation of methods
Table 1 allows student and supervisor to evaluate the demands of a
particular method on four relevant criteria. These demands can be
weighed against the resources available, such as time and training.
Supervisors agreed that a small data set would be fine for methods
requiring detailed analysis, such as conversation analysis (Drew,
2003). More data would be needed for methods providing a pre-given
analytic structure, such as attributional coding (Stratton, 1997). The
minimum amounts of data shown are suggestions based on experience of
allowing students to complete their project on time while demonstrating
competence in the method used. Cross-institutional guidelines like
these should reassure supervisors concerned that examiners might baulk
at the seemingly small amount of data used.
Supervisors thought their job was particularly demanding due to the
lack of prior training students had in qualitative data collection and
analysis. Our participating students agreed that they felt
underprepared for their project. Supervisors had to offer a lot of
guidance and overcome common misconceptions. For example, some students
presented hypothesis-testing designs inappropriate to qualitative
research.
Most qualitative approaches have a strong theoretical basis. For
example, free association narrative interviewing (Hollway &
Jefferson, 2000) draws heavily on psychoanalytic theory. The student
needs to understand the theoretical premises of
a method in order to apply it well. Interpretative phenomenological
analysis (IPA: Smith & Osborn, 2004) and grounded theory (Strauss
& Corbin, 1998) may be exceptions. They offer procedures for
extracting themes from textual data which might be applied without too
much theoretical overlay.
The students found transcription and analysis very time-consuming. The
methods which avoid transcription, such as repertory grid analysis
(Fransella & Bannister, 1967), may be less labour intensive. The
thematic analysis required by IPA may also be less time-consuming than
other more detailed approaches to analysis, such as discourse analysis
(Potter & Wetherell, 1987).
Supervisor and student comments were also collated into procedural
guidelines (see box above), giving suggestions on preparation for the
project, data collection, analysis and write-up. These guidelines
provide a reference point and source of ideas for supervisors. They are
not prescriptive or definitive. We agree with Reicher (2000) that
‘there are basic differences amongst qualitative methods which render a
common standard of excellence difficult or even impossible to achieve’
(p.5). We also acknowledge Hollway’s (2002) warning that ‘qualitative
methods need more theoretical development – both in terms of an
epistemology and an ontology – before teachers (and researchers) in
qualitative psychology could be ready to set guidelines’ (p.1).
However, our recommendations are about good practice in supervision and
are intended to be general, pragmatic and used flexibly.
Research environment
So far, recommendations have focused on the tasks of student and
supervisor. Students feel more satisfied with their research and work
more effectively when their tasks are clear, but they also value a
supportive research environment and opportunities to influence their
work (Swager, 1997). Supervisors should offer educational guidance, but
good meetings also include personal support that allows students to own
their research (McMichael, 1992). This is understandable as some
undergraduates have a huge personal investment in the project they
select (Wilkinson, 1994). This challenges us to see project supervision
as a form of mentoring.
Parker (2004) helps us understand the mentoring process. He identifies three core principles for aiding student performance:
l Apprenticeship: help the student learn the language and traditions of the research area;
l Scholarship: encourage the student to argue well in support or against positions within the field;
l Innovation: nurture the student towards creating something novel.
Ethical issues
The workshop revealed different opinions about participant and
student vulnerability. Some argued that participant distress in a
research interview is not necessarily harmful. Some thought that
vulnerable individuals, such as those diagnosed with a mental illness,
should not be exposed to novice researchers. Some were concerned about
students they suspected of using their project as therapy (for example,
the emaciated student wanting to study eating disorders).
A widely accepted suggestion was that students should conduct a pilot
interview. This would allow the supervisor to check the student’s
reaction to the research topic, their interpersonal sensitivity, and
skills in using an enquiring technique. However, supervisors were
concerned about their ability to manage interpersonal issues, such as
counselling a student away from a research topic. Mentoring students
towards a reflexive account of their involvement in the production and
analysis of their material also requires a great deal of skill and
sensitivity that is unlikely to have been taught in any course.
Issues for discussion
Our recommendations need further development, and we can already see
several issues that need more discussion. Many of these draw on
important and complex debates in qualitative research. For example,
Hollway (2002) highlights how the amount of data a student collects
depends on ‘the research question, the method, the type of analysis,
the status of the theories being used, the mode of and constraints upon
generalisability’ (pp.6–7). We therefore need creative ideas to refine
our guidelines on amount of data collected. We also need to extend
recommendations to data other than interviews.Our participant
supervisors were concerned about their workload, given the popularity
of qualitative projects. Our guidelines suggest using group supervision
to help manage workload where there are few suitably qualified staff.
Limiting the number of methods offered may be more controversial.
We believe it is worthwhile to produce guidelines for the supervision
of undergraduate qualitative research in psychology. One useful outcome
will be greater parity in the demands made of undergraduates in
different psychology departments. We hope the recommendations presented
here will stimulate discussion. We invite constructive comments through
the letters page of The Psychologist and at the JISCmail site (see
weblinks) which includes an extended report of this work.
- Dr Anna Madill, Brendan Gough, Dr Rebecca Lawton and Professor Peter
Stratton are at the Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of
Leeds. E-mail: [email protected].
Weblinks
JISCmail discussion list: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/QUALITATIVEPROJECTS.html
Leeds University Qualitative Psychology Group: www.psyc.leeds.ac.uk/research/qual
Forum Qualitative Social Research: www.qualitative-research.net
Discourse Analysis Online: extra.shu.ac.uk/daol
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