Learning to do qualitative research: The importance of trust, vulnerability and patience
Location
1054
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2019
End Date
January 2019
Abstract
Learning to do qualitative research, that is grounded in a critical perspective, can be a turbulent time for graduate students and supervisors. The influence of power is omnipresent and can create significant problems for graduate student experiences. This presentation is uses the graduate thesis research experience of one student and supervisor dyad to highlight the relational factors that we found to support learning qualitative methods: vulnerability, trust, and patience. For our dyad, negotiating the power structures surrounding the academic experience was one strategy that helped foster the development of a critical qualitative researcher. The relational factors that characterized our student-supervisor relationship, like those in the critical qualitative research process, provided a basis for discussion and growth, which required vulnerability from both parties. Trust was an attribute that we held as an important construct as we worked through our academic relationship, noted between researcher and participants, and held in the qualitative data. Patience was needed as we waded through the data to examine, uncover, and understand the meaning behind participants’ experiences through a critical theoretical lens. Furthermore, patience was required as we muddled through the conditions necessary for graduations that we not always consistent with the qualitative research process.
Keywords
qualitative research; graduate supervision; critical perspective
Learning to do qualitative research: The importance of trust, vulnerability and patience
1054
Learning to do qualitative research, that is grounded in a critical perspective, can be a turbulent time for graduate students and supervisors. The influence of power is omnipresent and can create significant problems for graduate student experiences. This presentation is uses the graduate thesis research experience of one student and supervisor dyad to highlight the relational factors that we found to support learning qualitative methods: vulnerability, trust, and patience. For our dyad, negotiating the power structures surrounding the academic experience was one strategy that helped foster the development of a critical qualitative researcher. The relational factors that characterized our student-supervisor relationship, like those in the critical qualitative research process, provided a basis for discussion and growth, which required vulnerability from both parties. Trust was an attribute that we held as an important construct as we worked through our academic relationship, noted between researcher and participants, and held in the qualitative data. Patience was needed as we waded through the data to examine, uncover, and understand the meaning behind participants’ experiences through a critical theoretical lens. Furthermore, patience was required as we muddled through the conditions necessary for graduations that we not always consistent with the qualitative research process.
Comments
Breakout Session H