Our team had two presentations at the Qualitative Methods Conference in Glasgow Scotland: ‘How to balance both in a qualitative research study’ and ‘Returning to Creative, Responsive, and Collaborative Engagement in Narrative Research‘.
Abstract: Emerging secure online data management systems allows the successful management of sensitive qualitative research, from data collection through dissemination. These secure virtual research environments (VREs) enable each researchers within a geographically dispersed research team to have ongoing 24/7 access to large sets of sensitive qualitative data and analytic software programs. However, these emerging system do not come without their own unique challenges, including appropriately downloading copies of data, attending to legislation requirements which may prohibit data exchange between two jurisdictions, and ethics boards’ unique requirements for privacy and security. Additionally, members within a research team may have different levels of experience using such emerging technologies as well as various computer platforms and specific preferences for document formats. This presentation will discuss the key learnings from a current qualitative narrative study that is utilizing a secure VRE for managing health-related data. This narrative inquiry study involves securely managing transcripts and visual data of 80 participants living with life-threatening illnesses. The 12 member research team transverses across two Canadian provinces and utilizes a single point of access for data management—the University of Alberta Health Research Data Repository. The presentation will provide (1) an overview of the successful strategies that were implemented to ensure systematic organization of the large qualitative data set, (2) the unique considerations in using a secure VRE for qualitative data management, (3) the challenges that were addressed in balancing the security requirements of the VRE, while promoting a collaborative research team environment.
Reference: Antonio, M., Doiron, J. and Sheilds, L. (2016). Security or Collaboration? How to balance both in a qualitative research study. Qualitative Methods Conference. Glasgow, Scotland. May 4, 2016.
Abstract: In this paper, we examine how genuine collaboration necessitates a return to emergent research designs in narrative research. Situating the discussion within “the narrative turn,” we draw on a recent longitudinal narrative inquiry conducted over 6 years across two university sites and an advisory committee of community stakeholders. We contend that the principle of emergent design within narrative inquiry has been lost in recent years. Increasing demands for predetermined, fixed analytic approaches required by granting agencies and ethics review boards pose methodological challenges. In particular, evolving analytic approaches that are responsive to unanticipated participant data, surprising philosophical tensions, and the nature of innovative, emergent analysis in a longitudinal inquiry are explored. Using exemplars from recent research, we describe a synthesis of analytic approaches developed in response to such challenges. Throughout, we draw from a recent nursing study and conclude with how narrative inquiry can, and must, evolve as an emergent design to support genuine collaboration by researchers, study participants, and advisory committee members within the ever-maturing field of narrative research.
Reference: Bruce, A., Molzahn, A., and Beuthin, R. Returning to creative, responsive and collaborative engagement in narrative research. Qualitative Methods Conference. Glasgow, Scotland. May 3-5, 2016.