Challenges Of Qualitative Research Research Articles

Health equity via inclusive communications: self-censorship of marginalized health needs in qualitative research

ABSTRACT Based on a multi-phase study conducted on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) age-friendly cities program, healthy-cities program, and global sustainable-cities initiatives, this paper assesses how older adults – particularly those living with chronic health conditions and disabilities – discuss mobility challenges in qualitative research. Initial results indicate that demobilizing levels of travel cost and travel risk are implied, with older adults refraining from direct discussion. Reflective analysis is performed on marginalized older adults’ conceptual associations, ideologies, and response to social norms, to identify sources of pressure which may lead to downplaying or self-censorship on transport disadvantage. Results highlight that inequalities may arise from both the built environment and how research trainees communicate in research. Despite literature which suggests severe impacts of transport disadvantage, older adults may face difficulties in voicing their needs when research trainees adhere to the following social norms. First, physical access and feasibility may be minimized as mere matters of convenience to the able-bodied individual; second, overcoming transportation barriers may be seen as based on one’s effort – as opposed to the disabling effects of the built environment; third, health and fitness in general may be also associated with one’s effort, and increasingly also to one’s commitment to environmental-sustainability; fourth, older adults may feel pressure to align perspectives with more privileged stakeholders, or with the general public; fifth, money and income may be delegitimized as apt research topics, regardless of how inability to overcome travel costs may impact daily-wellbeing. Implications for educating future gerontology-research trainees conclude the study.

Opportunities and Challenges of Qualitative Research in Academic Health Sciences in Ethiopia

Background. The goal of qualitative research is to learn more about the opinions and experiences of the subjects being studied in relation to a particular question. There is a paucity of information on opportunities and challenges encountered to conduct qualitative research among the academic staffs in the health sciences. The purpose of this study was to examine the opportunities and challenges of conducting qualitative research among academic staff of health sciences in Ethiopia. Methods. A descriptive qualitative study design was conducted among health sciences academic staffs of selected public universities in Ethiopia. The study was conducted at three universities’ health sciences colleges, namely, Addis Ababa University, Dilla University, and Wolaita Sodo University. Data were collected using focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and key informant interviews. MAXQDA 2020 software was used for coding and data management. A thematic analysis approach was followed to present the results. Both inductive and deductive coding approaches were used. Results. Three main themes have been identified as follows: general research practice, opportunities for qualitative research, and challenges to conduct qualitative research. Participants indicated that the availability of research opportunities will have a good impact on qualitative research engagement. Availability of grants, funding, and other incentives and demand for qualitative research in healthcare were described as opportunities for qualitative research practice. Despite the available opportunities, study participants uncovered different challenges that encountered by health academic staffs in conducting qualitative research. Resource limitations, lack of knowledge, negative attitudes or beliefs, publication, and language issues were raised as main challenges. Conclusion. Qualitative research practices were found to be low among health sciences academics. Lack of resources, training, and expertise, problems associated with publication, a lack of funding, and a shortage of experts were the main challenges in conducting qualitative research in health sciences academic settings in Ethiopia.

Challenges of Qualitative Research in Special Education: Views of Saudi University Faculty Members

Challenges of Qualitative Research in Special Education: Views of Saudi University Faculty Members

Challenges in conducting qualitative research among nurse educators.

To explore the perspectives of nurse educators regarding challenges in conducting qualitative research. The qualitative descriptive study was conducted from August 2021 to January 2022 at three private nursing colleges of Peshawar, Pakistan, including the Rufaidah Nursing College, the North West Institute of Health Sciences, and the Rehman College of Nursing. Nurse educators of either gender with at least one year of experience who were able to speak Urdu and English and had a minimum qualification of bachelor's degree in nursing were Included. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews using an interview guide. Braun and Clark 6-step method was used for analysis. Of the 26 nurse educators, 13(50%) each were males and females. Three main themes were developed; concept of qualitative research, challenges in qualitative research, and suggestions to promote qualitative research. Participants reported that conducting qualitative research was a challenging task that needed resourses and collaboration. Qualitative research is a complex process which requires commitment, support and skills at individual and organisational levels.

Rules of interpretation – qualitative research in tourism by incorporating legal science canons

ABSTRACT Achieving rigour is one of the key challenges in qualitative research. Despite a significant amount of triangulation efforts in regards to data, methods, researcher and theory, actual coding aspects do not get the same level of analytical attention. This ‘technical’ triangulation can be improved and made more transparent by incorporating methodology of other disciplines, like legal science. Within the traditional ‘black-letter’ research, at least in continental Europe, the application of canons, especially the ‘Savigny Canons’, has a proven track record of structuring legal interpretation. Such interpretation from a technical perspective shares quite a few similarities with interpretation in qualitative research. Hence, it is proposed to also apply them in qualitative research in tourism, given the interdisciplinary nature of tourism as a field of research.

Qualitative research on financial accounting – an emerging field

PurposeThe purpose of this Editorial is to reflect on the potentials and challenges of qualitative research in financial accounting and introduce the four papers included in this Special Issue.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on and discuss extant literature and the papers included in the Special Issue to develop our assessment of the current state of the field of qualitative financial accounting research and possible future paths ahead.FindingsThe authors observe that qualitative research on financial accounting is still an emerging field with substantial further research potential.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors outline future potentials for qualitative accounting research.Originality/valueThis Editorial contributes to studies on the state of academic research in (financial) accounting.

Email correspondence, interpretation and the psychoanalytically informed research interview.

Approaching qualitative interviews using principles drawn from psychoanalytic therapy can assist nurse researchers in developing nuanced accounts of participants' and their own subjectivity. Yet, doing so means confronting questions about the use of psychoanalytic concepts and techniques outside the traditional clinical context of the consulting room. To consider the researcher's interpretive involvement when a psychoanalytically informed interview approach is used with specific reference to email correspondence as a form of interpretive intervention. The authors describe the experience of completing a study involving a psychoanalytically informed interview approach. The interpretive quality of email correspondence is illustrated via reference to the case of one study participant for whom this correspondence appeared to help in the level of insight afforded overall. When using a psychoanalytically informed interview approach, researchers should consider emails delineating topics for discussion in follow-up interviews as a form of interpretive intervention. Nurse researchers interested in this type of method should reflect on the interpretive function of email correspondence. Pre-participation and pre-interview dialogue with participants may be used to explore participants' views on the potentially therapeutic aspects of participation and what might be related to them of the researcher's understanding.

One size does not fit all – overcoming barriers to participant recruitment in qualitative research

It can be challenging to recruit participants for qualitative research. Recruitment can be affected by factors such as systemic barriers, as well as potential participants being reluctant to enrol in research they view as time-consuming and burdensome - particularly research exploring sensitive topics. To analyse and describe the implementation of multiple recruitment strategies used to overcome the recruitment barriers in a qualitative study exploring the use of physical restraints during mechanical ventilation in intensive care. Recruitment strategies that are helpful for one study may not be successful in another. Qualitative researchers may face many recruitment challenges specific to the contexts of their studies. Overcoming these challenges can be costly, time-consuming and often frustrating, so it is important that researchers develop qualities and skills that enable them to navigate these barriers. Nurse researchers must consider the contexts of their target populations and tailor their recruitment strategies to the populations' needs. They must also be flexible, innovative and persistent in their approach, despite the challenges they face. This paper provides insights into the recruitment barriers faced during a qualitative study and possible solutions. These insights can guide nurse researchers facing similar challenges in qualitative research.

Attending to Methodological Challenges in Qualitative Research to Foster Participation of Individuals with Chronic Critical Illness and Communication Impairments

Individuals with chronic critical illness experience multiple complex physiological disturbances including ongoing respiratory failure, requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation, and thus communication impairments. In conducting a qualitative interpretive description study, we sought to ensure that individuals with chronic critical illness themselves were included as participants. Our commitment to recruiting these individuals to the study and ensuring their data meaningfully informed the analysis and findings required us to reconsider and challenge some of the traditional notions of high-quality qualitative research and develop appropriate practical strategies. These strategies included: (1) centering participant abilities and preferences, (2) adopting a flexible approach to conducting interviews, (3) engaging in a therapeutic relationship, and (4) valuing “thin” data. In this article, we extend existing literature describing the complexities of conducting research with individuals with communication impairments and strategies to consider in the hopes of informing future research with other populations historically excluded from study participation.

"I'm Stamped a Liar on my Heart": Challenges of Qualitative Research on Arab and Arab-American Drug User Populations

In the social sciences, Arabs and Arab-Americans are an understudied population. While there are numerous contributing factors as to why this disparity in the literature exists, one of the main contributing factors when studying Arab populations is that of access. In quantitative data, those of Arab descent are often misclassified or grouped into broader categories such as “White,” “Middle-Eastern,” or “Muslim.” This can lead to data that either seem limiting or misleading. In qualitative research, cultural factors such as shame, stigma, fear of judgment, and a culture of honor can lead to blocked access to offender populations. This article will discuss some of the challenges with gaining access that are specific to ethnically Arab populations, particularly with drug users.

Distinctive ethical challenges in qualitative research with migrant children

PurposeThis paper describes distinctive ethical challenges encountered in qualitative research with migrant children. It brings attention to how the exploratory nature of qualitative research, intersected with the multifaced realities of migrant children, shapes stances towards these ethical challenges.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is developed through conceptual and reflective contributions. It narrates distinctiveness within ethical challenges via the literature. It then illustrates these, through the author's experiences of negotiating such tensions on a project with a category of migrant children, namely, separated children.FindingsEthical choices are made throughout the research processes. These choices need to be matched to distinctive childhood and migration intersections, and methodological frameworks must reflect these, including when applied to standardised ethical guidelines. Transparency, reflexivity and positionality influence these choices, and researchers have enhanced responsibility to minimise harm in how they research migrant children.Research limitations/implicationsFindings relate to work in development, where sensitivities regarding research conduct are still present. The scope is therefore on particular challenges of dealing with ethical codes and practices. The intention of the author is for this to be a reflective discussion producing paper, but not a practice guide.Originality/valueIts value is centred on taking generalised ethical challenges in qualitative work with children and systematically contextualising these regarding factors specific to migrant children, arguing that the way which migrant children are represented is in itself a key ethical challenge. It further contributes to the body of knowledge by describing procedures of a qualitative study which address some of this distinctiveness.

Researching while queer: a research note about a genderqueer lesbian conducting qualitative research in the southeastern United States

ABSTRACT In this research note, I use an autoethnographic approach to examine the challenges of qualitative research for queer scholars, and to bring the embodied, interactive, and gendered research experience to life. I compare and contrast how my queer embodiment and identity was received, or erased, in two different research contexts, both within the southeastern United States. The first study discussed involved in-person and phone interviews with Mississippi Christians about their views of gay and lesbian civil rights. The second study included phone interviews with trans men across the southeastern United States. I discuss my experiences as a queer qualitative researcher to demonstrate why self-reflection, reflexivity, and self-care are essential to queer, feminist, and critical methodologies across qualitative research. I analyze thoughts and feelings that arose when my interviewees challenged my feminist and queer commitment to social justice and reversed the expected power dynamics in a research relationship. The goal is to help prepare queer researchers for the emotional difficulties and trauma of qualitative research as they enter the qualitative research field.

A Review of Qualitative Methods in Health Communication Research

This paper examines the ways that qualitative inquiry can be especially useful for gathering relevant descriptive data that can provide a deep understanding of health communication issues and processes, as well as to provide evidence-based guidance for addressing key challenges of health care delivery and promotion. This article promotes methodological diversity in research designs and illustrates the value of employing qualitative methods such as ethnography and grounded theory in health communication research. It is also provides calls for the application of less-used, unfamiliar qualitative methods such as phenomenology. Our careful bibliographic review of health communication research studies published over the past twenty years was conducted using the Google Scholar search engine (employing key search terms that included “health communication, qualitative, ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, and multimethod”) to guide our analysis of the uses of qualitative inquiry in health communication inquiry. Our analysis identified a breadth of qualitative research applications and opportunities for future inquiry. This article concludes with an analysis of challenges in qualitative research and a discussion of the usefulness of multimethodological research to address complex health communication challenges.

Mogucnosti i izazovi kvalitativnih istrazivanja u podrucju mentalnog zdravlja

Mogucnosti i izazovi kvalitativnih istrazivanja u podrucju mentalnog zdravlja

“Systematic Combining”: An approach to case research

“Systematic combining” is a non-linear, non-positivistic, approach to case study research. The paper describes the central features of this research framing with regard to two basic processes: matching and direction/re-direction. These processes impact, and are affected by, two significant forms of interplay: theory vs. empirics, and the analytical framework vs. the evolving case. Major diversities in relation to the mainstream literature on case studies are discussed with regard to the perspective on the research process, the view of multiple and single case studies, the relevance of replication and generalization, and the role of the context. Moreover, three current challenges for qualitative research are identified. First, increasing methodological specialization and sophistication tend to disintegrate methodology from the important linkages to theory and research phenomenon. Second, mainstream requirements for replication and generalization lead to isolation of the research phenomenon from the empirical context, thus undermining the main advantage of the case study approach. Third, in order to improve the scientific recognition of qualitative case studies, researchers need to develop their abilities to convince readers about the relevance of their findings by providing better accounts for the research approach applied.

Navigating Ethical Challenges in Qualitative Research With Children and Youth Through Sustaining Mindful Presence

This article explores ethical challenges in qualitative research by bringing forward examples from the literature and from IN•GAUGE®, a research program spanning over 15 years and focusing on the s...

The Organization of the Internal Audit Function and Its Relationship to Other Governance Players

This study analyzes the integration of the internal audit function (IAF) into the organizational governance structure of nine different organizations and identifies best practices and organizational differences to improve the overall governance quality from the perspective of IAFs. The results of this qualitative study are based on 26 semi-structured interviews, which were conducted with Chief Auditing Executives and Internal Auditors of six listed companies and three organizations from the public/governmental sector. This study highlights factors to improve the relationship between the IAF and other assurance providers, such as the board of directors, the supervisory board in the two-tier-system, the audit committee, risk management or the external auditor. Based on the results, different common practices regarding potential ways of organizing and integrating the internal audit function into organizational governance are identified. The results contribute to the existing literature through a unique inside-view and extend the prior discussion about the benefits and challenges of internal auditors in different organizational (e.g. Roussy, 2015; Roussy & Perron, 2018). Nevertheless, the typical challenges of qualitative research can be found. All best practices provide an adequate benchmark, and support practitioners as well as scholars to better understand the current best practices of effectively working internal audit function. The study gives additional insights to the growing body of literature about the IAF and uses unique data from practitioners.

Nepalese Schoolchildren as Research Participants: Challenges in Qualitative Research

The present research explores the potential methodological challenges in conducting qualitative fieldwork using schoolgirls in Nepal as participants. It particularly focuses on the logistic, academic, and social challenges that impact on the scholarly inquiry into aspects of schooling and the wider society in rural Nepal. The participants in this study were schoolgirls, and school drop-outs girls (12 - 16 years old), from Dalit community in Nepal. Schoolchildren, both in school and school drop-outs particularly girls, are an invaluable source of information on society and schooling. Although school-aged girls have the right to express their views, perceptions, opinions, and competencies, as much as adults do. However, their participation in research activities has been very rare in Nepal. This research applies various methodological tools to carry out this qualitative study in the school setting in Nepal and highlights the challenges associated with these methodologies, particularly the challenges related to confidentiality and interactions when using children as research participants.

Ethical issues in qualitative research: challenges and options

Background: We have been conducting workshops on “Qualitative Methods in Health Research” since last 5 years for health professionals in India. Objective: To explore the concerns and suggestions of the participants during their learning of ethical issues in qualitative research in a workshop setting. Materials and Methods: We obtained responses in an interactive session on ethical issues in qualitative research from a group of newly trained participants in workshops conducted in the years 2011 (n = 13) and 2013 (n = 30). A summative manual content analysis was done to identify themes generated. The results were compiled by two authors in which one was trained in qualitative research and another was trained in ethics in biomedical research. The discussion was developed in consensus. Result: The ethical challenges in qualitative research that emerged were (1) ensuring confidentiality, (2) selecting a tool and an approach for studying sensitive topics, (3) developing a consent form for a flexible interview, (4) addressing risks, (5) ethical reviewing of qualitative research proposals, and (6) publishing qualitative research findings. Participants suggested the need for training of researchers and ethics committee members in qualitative research methods. Conclusion: The findings may help in developing instructional design for ethics education in qualitative research and stimulate the generation of separate guidelines for the conduct of qualitative research in the future, in our country.

Innovation in social work research

Greetings to readers as we start a new year for Qualitative Social Work. Last year saw an increase in papers to the Journal and as our readership continues to grow, the value of qualitative research for social work is confirmed. However, there is no room for complacency and if we are to ensure that the Journal continues to thrive, it is important to remain abreast of changes in the world of qualitative research and social research more generally. So, this brings me to consider the issue of innovation in this new year editorial. For readers familiar with writing or reviewing grant applications, claims by academics that their work is novel or innovative are all very familiar. As Taylor and Coffey described in 2009, pressures stemming from funding councils and publishers encourage academics to state and indeed over-state the cutting edge nature of their work. Writing in 2015, it seems that claims to innovation are now endemic and if we examine the mission of the UK’s major social science research funding council – the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) – the word innovation is never far from the Council’s funding calls, strategy statements or impact case studies. In the Council’s research funding guide, applicants must pay attention to impact, innovation and interdisciplinarity. The Council’s conceptualisation of innovation is broad, to include: ‘innovative or even untested methods’, through to research which challenges ‘existing paradigms in respect of research ethics’ (ESRC, 2015). So what exactly is meant by innovation and to what extent is new invention better than old? In response to the latter question, critics differ in their opinion. For example, there are those who consider that innovative methods simply represent the latest fads, leaving unresolved the long-standing challenges in qualitative research (Travers, 2009). The problem of fad is that where we fetishise the novel we may inadvertently recast tried and tested methodologies as dated, or at worse obsolete. Traditional ethnography and conventional methods of qualitative interviewing have been so vital to our understanding of the social world, we must resist casting such methods as old hat (Wiles et al., 2011). Critics have also argued that claims to innovation are frequently overstated and can amount to little more than Qualitative Social Work 2016, Vol. 15(1) 3–10 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1473325015619822 qsw.sagepub.com