(C) The Conversation This story was originally published by The Conversation and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Navigating Complexity: Qualitative Research in Challenging Field Settings [1] [] Date: 2025-07 Navigating Complexity: Qualitative Research in Challenging Field Settings - Online Date: 16/07/2025 - 17/07/2025 Organised by: NCRM, University of Southampton Presenter: Dr. Jasmine Fledderjohann, Dr Swayamshree Mishra, Dr Charumita Vasudev and Dr. Ankita Rathi Level: Entry (no or almost no prior knowledge) Contact: Jacqui Thorp Training and Capacity Building Coordinator, National Centre for Research Methods, University of Southampton Email: jmh6@soton.ac.uk Venue: Online Description: This course is designed to familiarize students and researchers with various facets of qualitative research, particularly focusing on challenging fieldwork environments involving complex and intimate inquiries, expansive research scopes and diverse participant types. We will draw on our personal experience of undertaking ethnographic work and collecting semi-structured interviews with adults and children, presenting examples from the field to illustrate key challenges. The course will particularly benefit researchers engaging in qualitative research with vulnerable communities for short-term periods and in international contexts. This course will discuss: Making sense of the field: As researchers working on sensitive issues and with families living in precarious conditions, how can one effectively understand and document the field (space, participants, communities and surroundings)? How can we make decisions about community engagement in research while recognizing that our participants are part of existing networks and communities? How can our research ensure that voices are heard without causing harm or disruption to people’s daily lives and social structures? How does our definition of the boundaries of a ‘community’ influence how we define and include community/peer researchers? Further, do we concentrate on noticeable elements that define the field for us, or should we pay attention to aspects that may not be prominent to us but hold significance for the participants? What leads us to make these decisions? Likewise, in informal discussions when new subthemes of our primary research objective emerge, what strategies can we employ to capture the evolving field effectively. Working with ‘vulnerable’ participants: How can we define vulnerability in a way that respects participants’ right to participate and be heard but also attends to situated realities? How do you interact with participants who are traditionally seen as vulnerable, considering both the environment they live in and the potential vulnerability their involvement in the research might entail? Research with children Researching daily wage labourers in factory settings Navigating the complexities of posing tough questions in qualitative research Locating researcher and participant vulnerabilities in qualitative research: While participants may be structurally vulnerable and situated in precarious circumstances, it is likely that both researchers and participants will encounter additional vulnerabilities during the research process. How should these challenges be managed and navigated as the research progresses? Managing unanticipated challenges during fieldwork Understanding and iteratively addressing multi-layered power dynamics in working with community/peer researchers Ethics as an ongoing process in qualitative research: How does one navigate ethical dilemmas in the field while collecting data and later representing participants’ and their experiences in academic writing? How does one continue to maintain ethical rigour throughout the research and beyond the application process? Navigating positionality constraints in short-term field research Adopting inclusive research practices Praxis-oriented reflexive research Adopting more collaborative methods, including working with community/peer researchers By the end of the course participants will: Understand key challenges and ethical considerations in qualitative research Be able to articulate their own positionality and why it might matter during fieldwork Have a nuanced view of how to define a ‘vulnerable’ group and understand the methodological and ethical challenges while working with such groups Understand what a praxis-oriented, reflexive approach entails Understand how local contexts might shape participants’ understandings Be able to identify non-disruptive community engagement strategies Identify benefits and challenges of working with community/peer researchers Be able to identify some of the unique considerations involved in international research Acquire essential insights into the challenges and experiences of working with children This course is aimed at students, researchers and academics in the social sciences with little or no training in qualitative methods. The course will run from 11:00-16:00 and equates to one teaching day for payment purposes. Provisional Programme Day 1: 11: 00 – 11: 15: Introduction and course outline 11:15 – 12:00: Overview of our fieldwork experience 12:00 – 12: 30: Group Breakout 12: 30 – 13.00: Break 13.00 – 13.30: Thinking through ethics before during and after fieldwork 13.30 – 14.00: Lunch 14.00 – 15.00: Defining and grappling with ‘vulnerability’ 15:00 – 16:00: Interactive Workshop Day 2: 11.00 – 12.00: Moving towards a reflexive praxis-oriented approach 12:00 – 12:15: Group Breakout and Discussion 12.15 – 12.30: Break 12.30 – 13.30: Participant and interviewer discomfort with sensitive questions 13.30 – 14.00: Lunch 14.00 – 15.00: Responding to unanticipated challenges 15.00 – 15.15: Break 15:15 – 16.00: Discussion, Evaluations & wrap-up Cost: The fee per teaching day is: • £60 for registered students at any University. • £150 for staff at academic institutions, Research Councils researchers, public sector staff, staff at registered charity organisations and recognised research institutions. • £350 for all other participants. In the event of cancellation by the delegate a full refund of the course fee is available up to two weeks prior to the course. No refunds are available after this date. If it is no longer possible to run a course due to circumstances beyond its control, NCRM reserves the right to cancel the course at its sole discretion at any time prior to the event. In this event every effort will be made to reschedule the course. If this is not possible or the new date is inconvenient a full refund of the course fee will be given. NCRM shall not be liable for any costs, losses or expenses that may be incurred as a result of the cancellation of a course. The University of Southampton’s Online Store T&Cs also continue to apply. Website and registration: Register for this course Region: South East Keywords: Qualitative Data Handling and Data Analysis, Research Ethics, Qualitative Interviewing/methods, Reflexivity, International Fieldwork Related publications and presentations from our eprints archive: Qualitative Data Handling and Data Analysis Research Ethics Back to the training database [END] --- [1] Url: https://theconversation.com/uk/events/navigating-complexity-qualitative-research-in-challenging-field-settings-14446 Published and (C) by The Conversation Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/theconversation/