The pandemic as a trigger for decolonizing classroom teaching in qualitative health research?

Abstract

Teaching qualitative methods for health science students, we have previously focused on the importance of physical presence in data collection and interaction between researcher and study participants. Such presence has also been vital in our pedagogy where we have urged students to be present at lectures and doing practical assignments for qualitative methods in order to be able to reflect upon interaction and construction of knowledge that happens within qualitative research. Due to the pandemic, our teaching had to move to digital platforms. The change in teaching format has shown promise for decolonizing classrooms through providing an opportunity for students at satellite campuses or those living in remote areas. In a country like Norway with scattered population this is an important contribution when we know that especially boys growing up in rural areas to a lesser degree graduate from universities, while girls go to the cities and graduates and never return to the rural areas. Digital teaching also promote knowledge on qualitative health research in these areas. Prior to the pandemic, our on-campus teaching was streamed to two other campuses across Norway. During the pandemic, all students were given the opportunity to follow digital teaching from their home, and we started to record lectures so they could be seen independent of time and space, which was of particular importance for students working in health services during the pandemic. Students who had previously followed streamed lectures at the satellite campuses increased their satisfaction due to a more equal offer where all students could ask questions through the chat or microphone, which tells us they might have felt marginalized before the pandemic. Moreover, international students attending global health programs has not been able to move physically to Norway, and by offering digital teaching we avoid delay in their study-progress but missed out the possibility to meet them and observe non-verbal communication. When teaching qualitative health research, we aim to make students reflect upon diverse knowledge and perspectives. In our course, we are gathering students from different health professions, which provides experiences from different fields of knowledge. Our course reading list includes articles with empirical examples from different professional fields. However, during the sudden need to convert our teaching to digital platforms, we have left out the attention to more diverse ways of knowing/doing qualitative research. Rather, we have focused on a multitude of technological solutions – which may allow for diverse ways of knowing (YouTube videos with international colleagues, including interactive activities as Mentimeter, Kahoote, or Padlet). The new practices we have developed will impact our future teaching through new evaluations on which subjects that are suitable for flipped-classroom or fully developed e-learning, and which subjects gain the best learning outcomes through physical meetings with technology assisted activities. However, at present, we have lost some of the spontaneity and the creative process when interacting physically. This specifically concerns losing the informal interaction with students during a break, including questions students ask that they feel too shy to ask within the larger group. One important challenge lies in the teaching staff’s working conditions since there is not much time for creative pedagogy through new technologies. The competencies in technology seem to be inversely proportional to age/year of research which may make us loose important research experience and critical thinking.