Qualitative Research During a Pandemic (Part 4)
Hello Qualitative Mind,
Our qualitative research during a pandemic continues with a discussion about Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) or Ethics Review Boards. Before I begin this post, I want to say that I have the utmost respect and appreciation for IRBs. History has shown horrendous cases of misconduct in research, especially with vulnerable populations, so IRBs exist for a very important reason.
My PhD research was very much in the intersection of health and social sciences, yet all my ethics application went through health sciences. This meant that the applications were structured in a way that did not always address some relevant aspects of qualitative research, such as community participation/engagement, researchers’ safety and emotional well-being, and reflexivity.
Graffigna, Bosio, and Olson (2010) discuss the differences in ethics assessments between social and health sciences, and the examples they provide in how these differences shaped their recruitment, and ultimately data, are really interesting. I have yet to design online qualitative research but I used Graffigna's and Bosio’s body of work as a reference when I discussed different approaches to cross-lingual focus groups, and highly recommend the papers they have on theory of technique.
Going back to IRBs, I think we all need to remember that people who sit in ethics boards are humans experiencing the pandemic in their own way. Their level of comfort with online qualitative research is likely being pushed and expanded daily ever since this all started.
As such, try to proactively give them context and rationale when submitting an amendment for an existing application or a brand new application. This is the time to push existing boundaries and socially constructed meanings we ascribe to when conducting qualitative research. However, we need to do this in a very respectful manner; one that respects our reviewers and, most importantly, our participants. The ultimate goal is involve people in ethically sound qualitative research.
Talk soon,
Maira
This picture made me reflect on how nature is alive and well. Perhaps even better now as we, humans, quietly await the storm of COVID-19 to pass.