Preface

This second volume of 'New Trends in Qualitative Research: Practices and Challenges" includes selected papers presented at the 5th annual World Conference on Qualitative Research (WCQR) held virtually from 20-22 January 2021. There are 8 chapters in this volume: four report on qualitative studies, three are literature reviews and one is a review of digital tools for qualitative analysis.

Although research, teaching, and learning has largely moved online since early 2020 when the global COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold, the chapters in this volume illustrate the range of qualitative research being undertaken around the world despite the challenging times we have faced. In particular are the range of methodological contexts and analytic methods discussed in this volume. Two types of literature review are presented - integrative and scoping. The use of theory in qualitative research and the role of theoretical frameworks is discussed. Three chapters report on the use of thematic analysis but in quite different ways: multi-disciplinary thematic analysis, combining thematic analysis of interview transcripts with qualitative experiments, and the use of themes in presenting results of a scoping review. One chapter employs Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), and another a mixed-methods design. One chapter presents an in-depth reflexive account of undertaking research, and others also reflect on methodological process in various ways. In addition, one chapter discusses analysis tactics by focusing on digital tools for qualitative analysis. Across this variety in methodological discussion is also the range of substantive topics discussed - including mental health, teaching and learning, and nursing care - and the countries in which the authors are undertaking their research - France, Portugal, and the UK among others. As such, this volume, like its predecessor, champions the breadth and depth of the field of qualitative research.

Chapter 1 by Jakub Niedbalski and Izabela Ślęzak, “Discovering CAQDAS - what can be helpful for a novice user of computer aided qualitative data analysis software?” presents a review of a selection of freely available digital tools designed to facilitate the analysis of qualitative data, focusing on their functionalities and utility assets. The programs discussed are grouped into those designed for working with textual materials (OpenCode, WeftQDA, CATMA and Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT)), those designed for working on audio and video materials (Stories Matter, ELAN and Transcriber), and those designed for developing concept maps (CmapTools and MindMaster). The authors' intention with their review is to open up understandings of the range of options available beyond proprietary products that are more commonly discussed. In addition to describing some of the features of the selected tools, they offer guidance for choosing between tools, and raise potential affordances and limitations of using digital tools for qualitative analysis that they suggest should be considered before using them.

Chapter 2 by Nienke Moernaut, “Listening Between the Lines: How a Theoretical Framework Prevents Superficial Analysis in Qualitative Research,” discusses the use of theory in qualitative research, illustrating how theoretical frameworks can lead to more in-depth analysis. Moernaut’s discussion is framed by the continued dominance of quantitative research and the resulting pursuit of objectivity in qualitative analysis and interpretation by many qualitative researchers. Through discussion of their own research (experiences of the negative symptoms in psychosis using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of in-depth interviews with 12 patients with psychosis) the author argues that use of theoretical frameworks at appropriate stages of an analysis can lift an analysis from mere summary to deeper understandings and interpretations. Moernaut contends that the pursuit of quantitative conceptions of objectivity are not only flawed, but can lead to qualitative researchers avoiding 'real' interpretation for fear of unwarranted critiques of bias.

Chapter 3 by Nadia Steils, “Qualitative Experiments for Social Sciences,” discusses the usefulness of qualitative experiments based on combining quantitative and qualitative validity criteria by describing and discussing their combination of an open qualitative approach and a structured and controlled experiment. Steils first presents the theoretical context, highlighting the characteristics of qualitative experiments and discussing qualitative and quantitative validity criteria and techniques. The goals are described, focusing on the benefits and risks of qualitative experiments and providing methodological recommendations based on different validity criteria, and the methods employed are outlined - three studies including in-depth interviews preceded by qualitative experiments with interviews analysed using thematic analysis and the findings compared with those of the qualitative experiments. They conclude by discussing the value and limitations of qualitative experiments in terms of their value in exploring and identifying patterns, processes and behaviours in alternative ways.

Chapter 4 by Stephen Holmes, “‘It Doesn't Rain it Pours’ - Reflections on Fieldwork in The Academic Year 2019/20,” presents a personal reflective and reflexive account of the challenges faced by postgraduate researchers in the UK during the 2019-2020 academic year. Three key situations that gave rise to challenges in gaining access to research participants are discussed: industrial action across the higher education sector in the UK; regional rial network industrial strikes, and the global COVID-19 pandemic. Framed by an interpretivist epistemology, Holmes reflects on the impact of these challenges on the study into teaching innovation in the UK higher education sector in the UK. The account presented in this chapter is methodologically and personally reflexive as Holmes has a “conversation with oneself” - reflecting both on the impacts on the research process that the barriers to access gave rise to, and on the emotions the situations and resulting experiences created for the author personally. The adaptation of methods and the technologies used to undertake fieldwork whilst in-person data collection was not possible are described, and the problems encountered are discussed. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the limitations of reflection.

Chapter 5 by Héloïse Haliday and Lise Demailly, “Going Beyond a Conflict of Approaches in Psychiatric Care: The Perks of Interdisciplinary Research,” presents and reflects on the process and findings of their qualitative study exploring the interactions between mental health care professionals and service-users in the French public psychiatry system. After describing the psychiatric care system in France to provide the research context, the authors outline their overarching research objectives. First, to reveal professional and organizational issues in mental health care and to understand the construction of professional cultures in terms of consistency, resistance to change, and their potential for evolution. Second, to detail their study methodology: an ethnographic framework in which qualitative data were collected via in-depth interviews and observations and were interpreted using multi-disciplinary thematic analysis. As well as presenting their findings that reveal the eclectic and heterogeneous nature of care practices, the authors discuss the extent to which research findings can be “enough,” by reflecting on whether unsurprising results “matter,” the methodological obstacles they faced, and the extent to which they were “worth the trouble.”

Chapter 6 by Christina Monteiro, Joao Rosado, Pedro Teixeira, and Melissa Fernandes, “From Emergency to the community: Nursing care that promotes safe transition of the person whit increased vulnerability,” presents the findings of an integrative literature review of nursing care promoting safe transitions between emergency departments and the community in Portugal. The authors place their work in the context of historic and projected demographic changes in Portugal, that are resulting in an ageing population with changing healthcare needs and likely subsequent pressures on emergency and community care. Their literature review seeks to identify risk factors for readmission to emergency departments and the nursing care practices that promote safe transitions between emergency departments and the community amongst elderly populations (defined in Portugal as those aged 65 and over). The methodology for selecting the articles for review is outlined (based on PRISMA recommendations) and the process of selecting the seven articles that were included from the 98 that were identified from publication databases is illustrated. The findings of these articles are summarised, compared and discussed.

Chapter 7 by David Loura, Ana Eva Arriscado, Afke Kerkstra, Carla Nascimento, Isa Félix, Mara Pereira Guerreiro, and Cristina Baixinho, “Interprofessional Competency Frameworks in Health to Inform Curricula Development: Integrative Review,” seeks to answer the following question: “What are the competency frameworks that support learning outcomes-based curricula for interprofessional education in health?” The authors present the context for their integrative literature review, its methodology and the results. The review is part of a larger research study - the Train4Health project - surveying the landscape of interprofessional competency frameworks (ICFs) in health. The authors provide an introduction to this context before outlining the integrative review methodology conducted over a seven month period and which followed an established six phased protocol that they describe and illustrate. They present the results of the review, highlighting that they identified only four ICFs that support the development of curricula in the specific area of competencies. They reflect on this finding both in terms of the limitations of their own work and in the context of the usefulness of competency frameworks.

Chapter 8 by Margarida Alves and Elisabete Pinto da Costa, “Framing Conflict Mediation in the Context of Teacher Training: A Scoping Review of the Literature Between 2000 and 2020,” presents the methodology and findings of their scoping review that sought to answer the following question: “What can we learn from research on conflict mediation in schools in the context of initial teacher training published in EBSCOhost and Scopus databases?” The authors present an overview of the theoretical background to the review, outlining why the focus on conflict mediation in the context of teacher training is warranted. The review methodology is described, including its purpose, focus and research question, search and selection criteria, time-scale and five-stage analysis process. Seventy studies were initially identified and seven empirical studies were included in the review after exclusion criteria were applied. Descriptive results and thematic findings of the seven included studies are presented and discussed. The authors highlight key insufficiencies in how conflict mediation in schools and its impact on teacher training have been empirically researched over the past 20 years.

The chapters presented in this volume demonstrate the range and quality of research that scholars around the world have been undertaking despite the challenges presented by the global COVID-19 pandemic during the past year. Working in different contexts, with different methodological foci and using different analytic techniques, these chapters showcase their work and illustrate the standard of research presented at the 5th World Congress on Qualitative Research. They provide both insights and exemplars that will be useful to qualitative and mixed-methods researchers around the globe