Using Drawings in Qualitative Interviews: An Introduction to the Practice

Authors

Alexios Brailas, Department of Psychology, Panteion University, Athens, GreeceFollow

Abstract

Drawings are employed by qualitative researchers in many creative ways, and in many different contexts, and a variety of different terms are used to describe similar techniques. I present here a concise description of two basic approaches to integrating participants’ produced drawings into verbal qualitative research interviews, along with characteristic cases of empirical research demonstrating how these approaches have been applied. I also provide a list of best practices and I discuss ethical issues. It is common for qualitative researchers to mix techniques in order to creatively address real-world research challenges. The proposed categorization, augmented by the list of best practices, can help researchers to effectively integrate drawings and verbal interviews into a multimodal research project.

Keywords

Participatory Research, Visual Methods, Drawings, Interviews, Multimodal, Best Practices, Psychotherapy, Qualitative Research

Author Bio(s)

Alexios Brailas (Ph.D.) works at the Department of Psychology, Panteion University, Athens, Greece, where he teaches courses on qualitative research methods, Systems Science, and Psychology of Social Media. He is also running and facilitating group workshops and interventions with students and the community. His approach to research is participatory, design-based, and practice-focused. Research interests include, among others: personal development and resilience in complex techno-social systems; learning communities, reflective practice and peer learning networks; evidence-based group work and therapy; and community-based action research. Alexios is a licensed psychologist and a certified group psychotherapist and adult educator. For further or updated information and a list of publications, please visit: https://abrailas.github.io/. Please direct correspondence to abrailas@panteion.gr.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to my students in the Qualitative Research Course I teach at Panteion University for granting me permission to use their drawings.

Publication Date

12-20-2020

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4585

Recommended APA Citation

Brailas, A. (2020). Using Drawings in Qualitative Interviews: An Introduction to the Practice. The Qualitative Report, 25(12), 4447-4460. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4585

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2016-4438