The Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone podcast brings author and professor Karen O’Reilly into challenging conversations with students, academics and practitioners around the world. Together, they explore how the toolkit approach - a curated collection of expert skills, knowledge, procedures, tools and information - can help navigate the complex terrain of contemporary qualitative research methods.
This week, I am excited to welcome Lucy Dwyer as my guest. Lucy is a specialist nurse in urogynaecology at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and a final year PhD student at the University of Manchester, funded by Health Education England and the National Institute for Health Research. She is particularly passionate about research in women’s health, supported self-management and conservative management of pelvic floor dysfunction.
We focus on Chapter 8, Analysing and Interpreting. Lucy is in the thick of her PhD analysis as we speak and she kindly and openly shares her anxieties, self-doubt and moments of clarity.
I explain why I use the term ‘interpretive analysis’ in the book—highlighting that we do more than simply look for themes. We discuss how we work on interpreting our data for specific readers, aiming to produce something meaningful for our participants and our readers.
Lucy gives great examples from her own analyses—for example reflecting analytically on why one participant kept repeating that something “didn’t matter to her”. We discuss the importance of immersion, of listening to what is not being said as well as what is.
I outline the nine heuristics (or ways of thinking about analysis) and really enjoy listening to Lucy’s interpretations of her data, including the typologies she is developing using iteration.
Special thanks to Bahar Celik Muller, Senior Marketing Executive and Martha Gleeson, Digital Marketing Executive, for their support, advice and expertise.
Find out more about the book: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/qualitative-research-methods-for-everyone
Intro music: Good Times Are Coming by Bohdan Kuzmin from Pixabay.
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