Do You Hear What I Hear? Using the Listening Guide Method for Qualitative Data Analysis

• In Event: Using Novel Research Methods to Understand Teaching and Learning in the Professions

Abstract

Since the 1970s, qualitative methods have had an increased presence in education settings, in funded research, and in professional conferences and journals (Wertz et al., 2011). Despite this “qualitative revolution”( Denzin & Lincoln, 1994), all too often, when faced with the task of analyzing qualitative data, professions education researchers quite reasonably look to Grounded Theory. Grounded Theory, which was developed in the 1960s in the field of sociology, consists of a set of well-delineated structures and procedures. These structures and procedures provide researchers with clear direction when faced with the (often maligned) “murky” task of making meaning from qualitative data. However, Grounded Theory is but one approach to qualitative data analysis. There are other, equally structured and easily followed approaches to qualitative data analysis that can be used by professions educators to support the analysis and interpretation of qualitative data. The goal of this presentation is to introduce one such approach that is not often employed in the education of professions literature: the Listening Guide (Wertz et al., 2011).

The Listening Guide is a method of psychological analysis that is particularly useful when trying to know the inner world or lived experiences of another person (Gilligan et al, 2003). It draws on the concepts of voice, resonance, and relationship, and attends to how the statements of each individual are always embodied in culture and in relationship with oneself and others (Gilligan et al., 2003). The Listening Guide method comprises a series of steps which together are intended to offer a way of tuning into the multiple “voices” present in an individual person’s utterances. Given that the Listening Guide can support the analysis of participant utterances in any format (be those expressions in words, art, or other expressive means), this method is universal in application. The method looks to provide insight into both what is explicitly said by study participants as well as what remains silent or rendered invisible in their utterances. In these ways, the Listening Guide provides a way of systematically attending to the many voices embedded in a person’s expressed experiences (Gilligan et al., 2003).

In this presentation, we describe and demonstrate the four steps involved in the Listening Guide method. We illustrate the use of the guide by analyzing the “creative summaries” completed by healthcare students (including medical, nursing, and allied health students) at the end of a training rotation in a palliative care setting where inter-professional collaboration and communication were curricula foci. In this analysis, we present how the method can be used to understand the “outcomes” of an educational innovation. To show the universal applicability of this method, our analysis will address two student submissions: (a) a text /language-based reflection, and (b) a summary that took the form of a painting. We will highlight this method’s utility for discovery research; to uncover new questions to pursue through focusing on and learning from individual experiences.

Authors

• Lara Varpio, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

• Pamela Grassau

• Pippa Hall