I chose to conduct my pilot focus group with three other friends who teach dance, ideally I would have completed a focus group with one of my dance classes but I did not have sufficient amount of time to conduct the focus group in the correct ethical manner and gain consent from all parents. The group of participants had similar experiences in terms of training and varied opinions and were at different levels in their teaching careers, so I believed it to be a good choice of diverse individuals.
Bell states personalities ‘also, influence, and in some cases actually take over, a group and make it difficult for less assertive members to speak.’ (Bell,2005,p.163)
This was the main problem I had with my focus group. Two of the participants were very strong minded and liked to voice their opinions, the other participant was slightly more reserved. I felt this left me with slightly misleading data- as one participant might have sided and agreed with something she may not have entirely agreed with and for this reason I found the focus group difficult to manage. I left the questions fairly open in the fact that I just introduced a topic and asked opinions on how they each viewed knowledge and what they feel they gain from participating in dance. I also had a problem listening to the recording as the stronger participants would often shout over each other- I think because I am a friend it felt quite normal to behave in an overly natural way and this also revealed difficulties as to not let the focus group become a friendly debate. I started to become too involved and voice my opinions. This could potentially have an effect on others opinions and in turn the truthfulness of my data. Had I time to conduct a focus group with my class, I would have most definitely insisted on students saying their names first before speaking and to raise a hand in order to speak to avoid the chaos my recording presented. I do see focus groups as a useful inquiry tool, listening to varied opinions and arguments can aid a researcher in seeing things from other angles and this can lead to an avenue of discovery. Although the pilot focus group encountered many potential problems and so I deem this an effective inquiry tool to use during my research. Interviews will allow the slightly quieter participants to voice their true opinions avoiding the data being somewhat dishonest.
I had similar problems to you, in that I found some of my participants were much more vocal than others. I worried that as a result the data would not be very reliable. But...I agree with your idea that focus groups might be a good way to identify themes and 'get the ball rolling' before following up with interviews. The focus groups may help you to design your interview questions by getting a better idea of the issues and questions that your participants have.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that has occurred to me is that we cannot ever be 100% sure of our data - participants in both interviews and focus groups can always lie if they want to! I suppose this is why it's important to make sure that our sample group is wide enough, and that we have put all the measures in place that we can to ensure validity. I think that carrying out observation alongside interviews/focus groups will help - it gives the researcher (amongst other things) the chance to see first hand whether people's actions are the same as their words. Hope this makes sense!