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Contemporary developments in technology provide opportunities for qualitative researchers to enhance their modes of collecting rich data for analysis. In this article we explore the utility and impact of using email as a means of collecting data in the form of semi‐structured interviews. We investigate what participants think about email interviews, and how they view the relationship between email interviews and online pedagogies. We illustrate our discussion with reference to a recent research project carried out using email interviews with professional colleagues, including analyses of the respondents’ own insights about the methodology. We conclude that email interviews provide a useful medium to explore the experiences of an international group of participants, including some for whom English is not their first language. Further, the method enables respondents to participate in the process of collaborative knowledge building as co‐researchers, by reflecting on and analysing their own responses in the email interviews

This article is based on a research study conducted for Crisis UK into capability and resilience among 87 people who used the Crisis Open Christmas Service (COC) in December 2006 and the Crisis Skylight/Learning Zone in Spitalfields. Both services are in London, UK. The study took a ‘capability’ approach, focusing on the values, interests and needs of people in the study as defined by them, and on the outcomes of formal and informal support. This article reports the range of capabilities and resilience among the people in the study, the different ways in which they used services, and the outcomes for them. Interviews were undertaken by co‐researchers who themselves had been homeless.

This paper aims to report process findings of two online inclusive research projects with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It includes a discussion of the potential benefits and barriers of online inclusive research and its impact on the future of inclusive research.

Two researchers describe the transition of their inclusive research projects from in-person to online formats and highlight how they operationalized the principles of inclusive research throughout these transitions.

Potential benefits of inclusive research include enabling participation of research participants with IDD when in-person methods are not safe or feasible, increasing participant control of the research environment, stimulating participants’ online skill development and reducing geographic and support barriers to participation in research. A barrier to participation in online inclusive research includes people with IDD’s lack of access to online spaces and Web-enabled devices. Additionally, people with IDD have support and communication needs that are not always accommodated by online skills training and access to the internet. To conclude, inclusive researchers need to develop skills and reflexivity specific to online research environments.

Inclusive online research with people with IDD brings unique ethical and methodological challenges that have not been well explored in the literature. Engaging people with IDD in research using online tools expands the terrain of inclusive research, opening possibilities for even greater inclusion and participation.

Inclusive abstract

Two researchers could not do their research studies because of the pandemic. They did them online. The studies were with people with disabilities.

Being online can make it easier for people with disabilities to be a part of a study. They can choose how to be a part of the study. They can also learn more skills.

Being online can be hard for people with disabilities. Some do not have a computer or smartphone. Some do not know how to use them. Researchers may not know how to help people with disabilities to be a part of an online study.

This paper stems from a 12-month collaborative enquiry between a group of Syrian academics in exile in Turkey and academics from the University of Cambridge into the state of Syrian Higher Education after the onset of the conflict in 2011. The purpose of this paper is to draw on 19 open-ended interviews with exiled Syrian academics; two focus groups; mapping and timeline exercises; and 117 interviews collected remotely by collaborating Syrian academics with former colleagues and students who were still living inside Syria at the time of data collection. The findings of the research suggest that Syrian HE after 2011 was fragmented across regions; in some cases non-existent, and in others deemed to be in a state of reform in order to meet student needs. Key issues that emerged from this work are human rights’ abuses directed against academics and students including the detainment, purging and kidnapping of academics, an increased militarisation of university life and a substantive loss of academic and human capital.

The overall design involved two workshops held in Turkey (in June and July, 2017) at which the Cambridge team explained the stages of undertaking qualitative research and planned the collaborative enquiry with Syrian co-researchers. The first workshop addressed the nature of qualitative research and explored the proposed methods of interviewing, using timelines and mapping. The instruments for interviewing were constructed in groups together and mapping was undertaken with the 21 Syrian academics in exile who attended the workshop. Syrian academics also built their own research plans as a way of expanding the consultation dimension of this project inside Syria, engaged in survey and interview protocol planning and discussed ways to access needed documentation which could be drawn upon to enrich the project. The Syrian co-researchers interviewed remotely HE staff and students who had remained in, or recently left, Syria; the key criterion for group or participant selection was that they had recent and relevant experience of Syrian HE. The second workshop focused on data analysis and writing up. There was also wide consultation with participants inside and outside Syria. As part of the research, the Cambridge team conducted open-ended interviews with 19 Syrian academics and students living in exile in Turkey. This involved interviewing Syrian scholars about their experiences of HE, policy changes over time and their experiences of displacement. The researchers developed this protocol prior to the capacity-building workshops based on previous research experience on academic and student displacement, alongside extensive preparation on the conditions of Syrian HE, conflict and displacement. In addition to interviewing, a pivotal element of methodological rigour was that the authors sought to member check what participants were learning through mapping and timeline exercises and extensive note-taking throughout both workshops. The major issues that the authors confronted were ethical concerns around confidentiality, the need to ensure rigourously the protection of all participants’ anonymity and to be extremely mindful of the political sensitivity of issues when interviewing participants who may not feel able to fully trust “outsider” researchers. Issues of social trust have been reported in the literature as one of the most significant drawbacks in conducting research in “conflict environments” (see Cohen and Arieli, 2011) where academics and students have been working and/or studying in autocratic regimes or were operating within political contexts where being open or critical of any form of institutional life such as university work or the nation could cost them their jobs or their lives.

The accounts of Syrian academics and students emerging from this work point to some of the state-building expressions of HE manifested in the shaping of professional and personal experiences, the condition and status of HE, its spatial arrangements and their associated power formations, and resulting in feelings of intense personal and professional insecurity among Syrian scholars and students since 2011. While acknowledging that the Syrian situation is deemed one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region in recent decades, these accounts resonate, if in different ways, with other studies of academics and students who have experienced highly centralised and autocratic states and tightly regulated HE governance regimes (Barakat and Milton, 2015; Mazawi, 2011).

Currently, there is virtually no research on the status and conditions of higher education in Syria as a consequence of the war, which commenced in 2011. This work presents a first-person perspective from Syrian academics and students on the state of HE since the onset of the conflict. The major contribution of this work is the identification of key factors shaping conflict and division in HE, alongside the political economies of HE destruction which are unique to the Syrian war and longstanding forms of authoritarian state governance.

The purpose of this paper is to present results from the action research project, where sustainability professionals, local businesses and academic researchers collaborated on exploring barriers for food waste recycling in SMEs food outlets in order to inform local policy and business practices in Bristol, UK.

The researchers conducted face-to-face, qualitative surveys of 79 catering businesses in three diverse areas of the city. The action research methodology was applied, where a range of co-researchers contributed towards study design and review.

The research reveals the main barriers to recycling and how such perceptions differ depending on whether the respondents do or do not recycle, with “convenience” and “cost” being the main issue according to the already recycling participants. On the other hand, participants who do not recycle state that their main reason is “not enough waste” and “lack of space”.

Participants recommended a range of measures, which could improve the current food waste services in Bristol. For example, they suggest that business engagement should address the barriers voiced by the participants applying the framings used by them, rather than assuming restaurants and cafes are not aware of the issue. By inviting a variety of non-academic stakeholders into the process of research design and analysis, the project addressed the imbalances in knowledge production and policy design.

Despite the local and qualitative focus of this paper, the results and research methodology could act as a useful guide for conducting food waste action research in the policy context.

The purpose of the study was to identify the economic impacts of landmine clearance on household livelihoods and to present the qualitative findings of a study undertaken in the Kurdish region of Iraq.

The sampling method followed a case series, purposive sampling design. Five recipient households were interviewed from different districts. In addition, purposively selected program staff (N = 4) and local community leaders (N = 2) were interviewed. When undertaking the thematic analysis of the Kurdish household qualitative interviews, it became very apparent that the Kurdish informants did not talk in terms of economic outcomes as a result of demining. The data were then re-analyzed using a narrative framework and reported in this paper.

While the research sought a link between demining, livelihoods, poverty reduction and economic development, the respondents told another story. Their story focused on the social consequences of returning to their “grandfather’s land”. Participants’ narratives told of resilience resulting from negotiation with the environment and the importance of regaining one’s identity and hopes to heal in the face of adversity.

The findings cannot be generalized to all mine action program recipients but have salience for rural households in the site of inquiry.

The paper is rare in illustrating the social benefits of post-conflict demining and its links with social capital and collective resilience.

Take the word “research,” combine it with the words “experiences around hair,” and you inevitably get a personal story. Whether it’s concerns about too much hair, complaints about one’s lack of hair, or the ability of hair to intimidate or convey authority, questions related to hair appear to provoke passionate responses in the form of narratives. The authors believed “hair” stories would provide a unique method for examining employment realities in nonprofit and public sector workplaces. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Attendees at the 2009 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) conference were invited to a symposium discussing what “hair” might indicate about the lived experiences of individuals employed in nonprofit and public sector workplaces. A participatory action research methodology was used to engage 24 academics and practitioners in structured small group conversations about workplace hair-related image management issues. A storytelling framework was used to guide the content analysis of the 305 narratives generated by two focus groups.

The interview questions were literal ones, yet the responses that were elicited were figurative. As the process unfolded, it became clear the focus group participants had to tell their own individual stories, in their own way, before they could answer the research questions. Hence, the storytelling dimension became a critical component of this research as a vehicle for conveying the power behind what may have initially appeared to be a simple set of questions and answers.

Selection bias in this study was unavoidable, given the voluntary nature of participation and the transparency of the study’s purpose. Given the chosen research approach, the project findings may also lack generalizability. However, since the so-called “subjects” of the investigation are the same persons found in sector workplaces, there is no way to avoid this limitation in any related assessment.

This project allowed for a new understanding of how the direct and literal approach often used by social scientists to investigate the impact of attitudes and perceptions on social outcomes might best be replaced or augmented by methods that uncover the ways in which subjects frame the effects under examination within the context of their personal experiences.

One’s appearance takes on professional and, often, political ramifications whether the individuals involved desire this or not. Ironically, one’s ability to appear more casual may be one of the benefits of working in the nonprofit or public sectors as a means of connecting to constituents and stakeholders. However, given the need to serve multiple and competing audiences, this ability to identify and connect with others may have unintended consequences that may not be experienced in the private sector, where stakeholders may have a more unified set of goals.

This project focused on a relatively under-researched audience and subject: hair and image management. Each day, individuals make a choice about their appearance, which includes their hair. For those working in the nonprofit and public sectors, especially women and people of color, there appear to be implicit areas of concern that manifest themselves in the workplace, many of which were identified through this research.

This article focuses on the following questions: 1) How do secondary social studies teachers working in schools of color experience pedagogical negotiations when trying to teach students thoughtful, critically informed citizenship and government and school accountability mandates? and 2) How does teaching with lessons grounded in the principles of authentic intellectual work (AIW) affect this negotiation experience? We employed a phenomenological framework as the methodological basis for eliciting two classroom teachers’ experiences, both of whom have advanced degrees in social studies education and several years of teaching experience in schools of color and of poverty. The findings show that prior to the incorporation of lessons based on the principles of authentic intellectual work, these teachers’ negotiation experiences had strong negatively affective dimensions based on a zero-sum pedagogical conceptualization of curriculum. Following the introduction of lessons based on AIW, these negatively affective dimensions began to recede from their experiences and were replaced by more positive ones. Given that classroom teachers are the ultimate arbiters of curriculum in their classrooms, this research has implications for improving the experiences of secondary social studies teachers working in schools of color.

A range of one-to-one, group and online approaches to peer support are increasingly complementing formal mental health service delivery. Evidence is emerging of the potential benefits and challenges of peer support for individuals, communities and organisations. There is more limited evidence describing peer-led peer support networks. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In an evaluation of Prosper, a peer-led, peer support network and social movement, members of the network played a participatory role in the design, conduct and interpretative work of the evaluation. An online survey, one-to-one interviews and group discussions were used.

The evaluation describes an evolving network with planning and development meetings constituting core activity for many members alongside a monthly training programme supporting people to set up their own activities. There were strong shared values, and consensus that Prosper could strengthen social networks, improve individual well-being and impact on the way people used mental health services. Challenges were identified around feelings of uncertainty and vulnerability in relation to involvement in the network.

The participatory nature of the evaluation adds value to the learning offered. This was a descriptive evaluation; potential is indicated for the more formal modelling and testing of peer-led network and social movement initiatives.

Clarity is needed on the relationship of the network to statutory mental health services – specifically around taking on a “service provider” role – and on the advantages and challenges of a “hybrid” organisational model that combines traditional, hierarchical and new distributed forms of leadership and structure.

Prosper demonstrated potential to create a sense of common culture based on sharing lived experience and mutual peer support, providing an alternative to the traditional culture of mental health services.

This paper offers wider learning derived from evaluation of a highly original initiative in peer leadership, network structure and interface with statutory mental health services.

The purpose of this paper is to describe learning gained from involving service users and carers as researchers in an action research study. The researchers aimed to introduce self‐directed support in mental health services – part of the government's personalisation agenda, which requires a move from current social care commissioning, where a person is matched to available services, to one where a person self‐assesses, has an agreed support plan and then with appropriate help, purchases his or her own services to lead as independent a life as possible. This development is allied closely with the mental health service recovery approach.

Three service users and two carers were recruited to work alongside the lead researcher. Service users were fully involved in the steering group – part of participatory action research project. Data were collected from: debriefing meetings with co‐researchers between April and December 2007; a group interview held by the lead researcher; and participants' journal comments and self‐reflections.

The main areas in which service users and carers found involvement difficult were: overcoming professional language barriers; emotional impact; and power imbalances between themselves and professionals. Findings suggest that considerable improvement is required by mental health professionals and managers if service users and carers are successfully involved in projects.

This is a small study within a larger action research project. Findings are not generalisable owing to the small sample; however, findings are supported by the service‐user involvement literature.

Few studies explore participation effects on service users and carers from their perspective. This research provides insights into what needs to be addressed to improve service user and carer involvement to improve mental health services.