Pathways Through Participation » team

Approach to analysis

Ellie Brodie — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:32:30 +0000

The volume of information that we’ve gathered on the Pathways project so far is massive and we’re currently in the process of trying to make sense of the rich and varied stories we heard from the people we interviewed. Each interview was recorded and then transcribed and we have between 15-30 pages of text for each interview that needs to be read, digested and analysed. We are using a piece of software called NVivo to help manage, structure and make sense of this interview data.

The first phase of the analysis involved each researcher summarising and then ‘coding’ the interviews they had carried out. Coding involves highlighting pieces of text that stands out as illustrating one of the themes or topics we had agreed were important. As a project team we had many discussions about these themes which provided the starting point for the coding, although the researchers added in additional codes that we thought were valuable or useful as we went along. This was, in theoretical terms, using a combination of grounded theory where the researchers allow themes to emerge in response to what they are reading from the ‘bottom up’ and a ‘top down’ or structural approach where the hypotheses developed throughout the project are ‘super imposed’ on the data.

After this first phase of analysis we got together and ‘merged’ our three separate NVivo ‘projects’ or databases. We are now looking at the whole codes, such as ‘life stage’ and ‘challenges to participating’ from across all three of the case study areas in order to look for patterns, trends and surprises in the data. We’ll be testing out what we find in workshops in the case study areas in March.

Introducing Tim Hughes

Veronique Jochum — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:13:51 +0000

Tim Hughes has now joined the Pathways through Participation team. He replaces Eddie Cowling at Involve and will be responsible for the Leeds case study. A short biography for Tim is available here.

Pathways present at the VSSN/NCVO annual Research Conference

Ellie Brodie — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:38:15 +0000

The Pathways through Participation team were out in force at this year’s Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) / NCVO research conference, held over two days earlier this week at Leeds University. Sarah Miller made the case for using life stories in volunteering research as part of an IVR-led panel on the impact of volunteering, and Eddie Cowling and I presented on the findings from community mapping workshops that we held earlier this year as part of the first phase of the fieldwork. Click on the links if you’d like to see our presentations and papers.

Life stories in volunteering research paper
Life stories in volunteering research presentation
Community mapping paper
Community mapping presentation

A few changes

Veronique Jochum — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:56:44 +0000

Angela Ellis Paine is now on maternity leave, and is being replaced by Nick Ockenden, who will be acting-up as Director of IVR in Angela’s absence. Also on maternity leave is Joanna Wheeler from IDS who is a member of our advisory group. Her colleague Jethro Pettit has kindly agreed to come to the advisory group meetings in her place. Short biographies for Nick and Jethro are available here.

Welcome Sarah!

Veronique Jochum — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:06:19 +0000

Last Monday Sarah Miller joined the Pathways through Participation team.

Sarah is the full-time researcher working on the project at IVR and is responsible for carrying out the fieldwork in Suffolk. She replaces Nina Nissen, who has now moved to Denmark to do a post-doctoral fellowship.

A short biography for Sarah can be found here.

IVR is recruiting

Veronique Jochum — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:52:00 +0000

Nina Nissen, the research officer working on the project at IVR, is unfortunately leaving us end of January to do a post-doctoral fellowship in Denmark – an opportunity that couldn’t be missed. If you are interested in this post and wish to join the team, visit the IVR website for details. Completed application forms should be returned by 18 December 2009.