Category / Social Work and Social Policy

Positionality in qualitative research

international, open access, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing

At the online editorial board meeting today [Saturday 29th June] of the Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology I had the pleasure of seeing Bournemouth University’s latest paper ‘The Importance of Positionality for Qualitative Researchers‘ ahead of publication [1].  The lead author of this paper is Hannah Gurr and this methodology paper is part of her M.Res. research project in Social Work.  Hannah is supervised by Dr. Louise Oliver, Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS).

Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology is a Gold Open Access journal so when it appears online it will be free to read for anybody across the globe.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

Reference:

  1. Gurr, H., Oliver, L., Harvey, O., Subedi, M.van Teijlingen, E. (2024) The Importance of Positionality for Qualitative Researchers, Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 18 (1): 48-54.

FHSS academics’ paper cited 1,000 times

international, Publishing, Training, writing

This morning ResearchGate alerted us that our paper published two decades ago ‘The Importance of Pilot Studies’ has now been cited one thousand times [1].  This methods paper in the Nursing Standard is very often used by authors quoting a  paper in their research methods section when they have done pilot or feasibility study for a larger-scale study. This paper is also our second top cited paper with 1,982 citations on Google Scholar and, interestingly enough, on SCOPUS it is not listed at all.

Pilot studies are a crucial element of a good study design. Conducting a pilot study does not guarantee success in the main study, but it does increase the likelihood of success. Pilot studies fulfill a range of important functions and can provide valuable insights for other researchers. There is a need for more discussion among researchers of both the process and outcomes of pilot studies. 

This paper is one of several methods paper focusing on pilot studies we have published over the past 22 years [2-7].

 

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

 

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2002) ‘The importance of pilot studies’ Nursing Standard 16(40): 33-36. Web: nursing-standard.co.uk/archives/vol16-40/pdfs/vol16w40p3336.pdf
  2. van Teijlingen E, Rennie, AM., Hundley, V, Graham, W. (2001) The importance of conducting & reporting pilot studies: example of Scottish Births Survey, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 34: 289-95.
  3. Simkhada, P, Bhatta, P., van Teijlingen E (2006) Importance of piloting questionnaire on sexual health research (Letter), Wilderness & Environmental Medical Journal, 17(4): 295-96. wemjournal.org/wmsonline/?request=get-document&issn=1080-6032&volume=017&issue=04&page=0295#Ref
  4. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2001) The importance of pilot studies, Social Research Update Issue 35, (Editor N. Gilbert), Guildford: University of Surrey.  Web:  http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU35.html
  5. Hundley, V., van Teijlingen E. (2002) The role of pilot studies in midwifery research RCM Midwives Journal 5(11): 372-74.
  6. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2005) Pilot studies in family planning & reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31(3): 219-21.
  7. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2003) Pilot study, In: Encyclopaedia of Social Science Research Methods, Vol. 2, Lewis-Beck, M., Bryman, A. & Liao, T. (eds.), Orego, Sage: 823-24.

 

Resilience, Advocacy and Wellbeing: Voices from the Frontline

conferences





On the 17.05.24 Tilia Lenz, Senior Lecturer presented her research project ‘Reclaiming Resilience- voices from the frontline’ to the UCU Equality Research conference in Manchester. The hybrid conference was open to all and free to attend, attracting 250 delegates.

Resilience, Advocacy and Wellbeing- RAW is a CPD (Continues Professional Development) unit at Bournemouth University. In 2022 Tilia and Dr Rejoice Chipuriro facilitated an action research session (Susman and Evered 1978; Watkins et al. 2019) with 18 students to conceptualize and subsequently Reclaim Resilience! All participants were female and in leadership roles in Health and Social Care, seeking to learn more about RAW. The topic was important to them in practice, despite or because of the inequalities they were exposed to. This word cloud represents their physical and psychological symptoms of stress.



They reflected on their personal circumstances as woman with caring responsibilities and ‘of a certain age’- meaning 30s and 50s. Whilst the women were employed in England, half were of black or ethnic global majority and/or had an international background.

We concluded that those who are less likely to be discriminated against, due to gender, age, health, race and so on, do not find the topic of RAW relevant to them. In fact, it is those in positions of power who create the narrative that individuals are not ‘resilient enough’ and question performance as Galpin (2019) considers.

The themes we identified through the action research were clearly gendered, pointing out women’s health issues during the stages of menopause and the complexities for women with a migration or ethnic global majority background. It signified the inequality of gender and background of our participants within their perceived positions of power in their leadership roles. Tilia collaborated with the cartoonist Harry Venning to create a version of his well-known character Clare in the community, visualising the research findings.



The group challenged the politicisation of the term resilience through their reflective contributions, stories and shared experiences (Phillips and Bunda 2018) of prejudice due to gender, health and race.

Through Appreciative Inquiry (McArthur-Blair and Cockell 2018; Watkins et al. 2019; Arnold et al. 2022) and positive questioning about what could be, rather than focusing on the problem, the group was then empowered to consider actions as individuals and as leaders. They defined what RAW meant to them in their personal and professional lives, defining who practice in health and social care could be made safer through compassionate leadership and organisational cultures of kindness.

BU academic listed on Research.com

international, Publishing, writing

Research.com, a leading academic platform for researchers, has just released its 2024 Edition of the Ranking of Best Scientists in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities.  BU is listed as 509th globally.Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH), is the BU social scientist listed in this year’s ranking.  The full UK ranking is available here: research.com/scientists-rankings/social-sciences-and-humanities/gb and the full world ranking is available here: research.com/scientists-rankings/social-sciences-and-humanities

 

Congratulations to Social Workers Drs. Oliver & Harvey

Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Dr. Louise Oliver on the publication of their latest article ‘The use of poetry in form of haikus as a tool for critical reflection’ [1].  This latest academic publication has been published in Social Work Education The International Journal.  This interesting article focuses on critical reflection is an integral part of social work education and practice, yet it is widely understood to be hard to learn, teach, and assess. The authors introduced the use of poetry in the form of haikus to three different qualifying social work student groups to trial a creative way of getting students to engage in critical reflection. Ninety-six students took part in the reflection activity and 23 of the students agreed to take part in the research element, which used a mixed-methods approach to explore the value of haikus in critical reflection. Following the thematic network analysis process, we identified one global theme: that haikus were a useful tool for developing critical reflection. There were three organizing themes identified: the need to create a safe learning environment to support engagement; that taking part provoked reactions; and the activity held important elements that aided the development of critical reflection.

 

Well done !

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

Paper with 160,000 reads

Publishing, writing

Occasionally we have the pleasure to announce that one of our papers has been read 300 times or 2,000 times or has been cited 40 times.  However, some papers are in a different category.  Today ResearchGate informed us  that our 2002 paper ‘The Importance of Pilot Studies’ [1] has been read 160,000 times.  This paper was written over two decades ago and submitted to the Nursing Standard when we were both still at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

 

Profs. Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

 

Reference:

  1. van Teijlingen, E, Hundley, V (2002) The Importance of Pilot Studies, Nursing Standard, 16(40):33-6

Fifteen years at BU

international, PG research, writing

Fifteen years ago I started as a professor in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.  I have had three different job titles without moving jobs, starting in 2009 with ‘Professor of Maternal & Perinatal Health Research’, which, after a few years, changed to ‘Professor of Reproductive Health Research,’ and again then a few years later dropping the ‘Research’ to my current title of ‘Professor of Reproductive Health’.  During these 15 years there have been major changes especially in terms of research in our Faculty.  There has been a growth in quantity as well as quality as reflected in our REF scores in 2014 and 2021!  We also have a much higher proportion of staff with a PhD then when I started.  Currently, I am the Research Culture Champion for our Faculty, tasked with a small team to strengthen our research culture and profile even further.

At a personal level, I have supervised 17 PhD students to completion at BU in the past 15 years, plus an additional nine students registered elsewhere.  The latter were mainly PhD students from the University of Aberdeen whom I continued to supervise.  Interestingly, two of these Aberdeen PhD students ended up working for BU.  I counted 42 PhD viva as external examiner in this period as well as five as internal BU examiner.  Some of my experiences at BU were captured last year when I was interviewed by the editors of a sociology journal based in Nepal. [1]

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMWH (Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health)

 

References:

  1. Subedi, M., & Khattri, M. B. (2023). Interview with Professor Edwin van Teijlingen. Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 17(01), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v17i01.61149

2nd HSS PGR Conference – submission deadline 19th April

conferences, NHS, PG research, student research

HSS conference poster

Last chance to submit…

The Conference Committee welcome all PGRs in HSS to submit an abstract to present at the 2nd annual department conference, which will be held on Tuesday 4th June.

Last year’s inaugural conference was very successful, with evaluations celebrating the welcoming and supportive atmosphere for sharing aspects of our PGR work. It was fantastic to hear from students across the faculty and to see the breadth of research being carried out. You can see some highlights on X, by searching for the tagline #FHSSPGRConference2023
We welcome applications from all HSS PGRS, at any stage of the research.  Please submit your abstract, for either an oral presentation (20mins/3mins) or a poster presentation at https://forms.office.com/e/uwMMNxstEY. NB the deadline for submissions has been extended by 1 week. Closing date Friday 19th April.
 
We have 2 keynote speakers organised to present on the day.
Dr. Mona Seyed Esfahani will deliver a keynote on new technologies in healthcare in the morning.
Dr. Holly Henderson will deliver a keynote on AI in research in the afternoon.
We look forward to receiving your abstracts.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on wardl@bournemouth.ac.uk or Tanya Andrewes on tandrewes@bournemouth.ac.uk.
Best wishes
Louise Ward, on behalf of the Conference Committee

Congratulation on new interdisciplinary publication

international, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulation to Dr. Orlanda Harvey (Social Work), Dr. Terri Cole (Psychology) and Dr. Jane Healy (Criminology) who in collaboration with Jade Levell, a colleague at the University of Bristol, had their article ‘Explorations of attitudes towards accessibility and accessing domestic violence and abuse (DVA) perpetrator support programmes by victim-survivors and perpetrators across five European countries’ accepted by the journal Abuse: An International Impact Journal [1].  This paper reports on an international mixed-methods study exploring victim-survivors and perpetrators’ attitudes towards perpetrator support programmes. The study includes a questionnaire survey of victim-survivors and interviews with male perpetrators conducted in five European countries.

Results showed that of the 93 victim-survivors of domestic violence and abuse, half stated they would have stayed in their relationship with perpetrators if the abuse had stopped, and a similar number reported that they believed their relationships would have been different had there been help for the perpetrator. Analysis of perpetrator interviews showed that they faced barriers to obtaining support, such as being labelled a ‘perpetrator’ which, had they been addressed, may have enhanced their engagement with services. Whilst acknowledging the need for safeguarding and justice, this paper demonstrates the importance of reflecting both victim-survivor and perpetrator needs in order for perpetrators to fully engage with support services. Moreover, it highlighted the need to address the underlying societal issues related to hegemonic masculinity, which can lead to the abuse of women being normalised and the vulnerability of men being stigmatised, through education for young people around healthy relationships.

 

Congratulations

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

Reference:

Harvey H.,  Cole T., Levell, J., Healy J. (2024) ‘Explorations of attitudes towards accessibility and accessing domestic violence and abuse (DVA) perpetrator support programmes by victim-survivors and perpetrators across five European countries’,  Abuse: An International Impact Journal 5(1): 26-45    https://doi.org/10.37576/abuse.2024.055