This week we tried to develop some testable hypotheses, based on the literature, and a relevant research design that would enable us to submit the hypotheses to criticism. I’ve tried to summarise these efforts in the diagram (below).

There are some problems with this type of design, though, many of which we pointed out in the session:

1. Conducting focus groups with children and young people is difficult (do we have the skills?);
2. This design demands at least 5 focus groups, each of which would take around 4-hours to transcribe and longer again to analyse (so well over 20-hours work);
3. The type of data we get may not enable us to comment definitively on the hypotheses (i.e. the hypotheses imply that quantitative data might be more useful).

With these concerns in mind, it’s worth us thinking about alternative methods of data collection, which, whilst not ideal, may reflect a more realistic proposition, given the time and skills we have at our disposal.