Qualitative Research Workshop

Reflections on one day colloquium on qualitative research in health and social services professional education

This was the second in our series of one-day colloquia on topics of interest to health professional educators. Facilitated by our 2008 international visiting research fellow, Dr Lynn Knight (Senior Lecturer and Director of Medical Education Research, Division of Medical Education, Cardiff University, UK) and Charlotte Rees (Associate Professor and Director of Educational Research, OPME), this colloquium focused on the importance of marrying theory, methods and practice in health professional education research. With an audience of over 40 local, interstate and international visitors, with a diverse background and mixed range of experience in qualitative research, the day aimed to be interactive, stimulating and an opportunity for all to network.

The day began with three plenaries from Lynn and Charlotte, the first of which focused on the importance of marrying theory, methods and practice in health professional education research. The second plenary concentrated on Lynn’s research employing longitudinal audio diaries to explore how medical students narrate, and thereby construct, their professional identities. The third plenary centred on Charlotte and Lynn’s research employing observational methods and discourse analysis to examine how medical students, physicians and patients construct their roles, power and identity in healthcare interactions.

The afternoon was devoted to four interactive workshops focused on making sense of sense making (analysing personal incident narratives and analysing explanations of behaviour) and making sense of talk (analysing discourse in social interaction and analysing metaphoric talk). In the workshops participants got hands-on experience of analysing excerpts of data (e.g. audio-diary, observational or focus group data) and discussing their analyses in small and larger groups.

The evaluation was extremely positive, with delegates finding the day well organised, well structured, informative, enjoyable and useful. They also appreciated the delegate pack, which included plenary and workshop handouts and references. The delegates particularly enjoyed new insights into the richness, breadth and depth of qualitative data analysis: “The depth of analysis that can be applied to only a few lines of data has brought me to look more carefully at my data”. The delegates also welcomed the high levels of interaction and participation, particularly through the workshops. However, a number of people commented that the workshops needed more time and they would have liked to attend all four of the workshops rather than just two. Our favourite comment to the question “what have you learned today that was new to you?” was that “Medical researchers are friendly and not scary!” Phew!

Given the positive feedback for this event, we are discussing the possibility of running this event again in July 2008, when Lynn visits the OPME for a second time this year. If you would be interested in receiving details of this event, or indeed coming to the event, please email: