what can qualitative longitudinal research with children and young people add to international...
TRANSCRIPT
What can qualitative longitudinal research with children and young people add to international development?
Ginny Morrow & Gina Crivello
DSA, Birmingham 16th November 2013
Structure of talk
• Background to Young Lives
• Definitions of Qualitative Longitudinal Research
• QLR in development studies?
• QLR in Young Lives - two examples:
• (1) policy-relevant question - transition to adulthood, and
• (2) QLR for a specific study linking research to policy & practice
• Discussion and challenges
Background: Young Lives
• Longitudinal study of childhood poverty -Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh, India, Peru and Vietnam
• Commissioned by DFID to track progress of MDGs• 12,000 children 2001-2017• Survey every 3 years; Qualitative research with
‘nested’ sample n=200• Interdisciplinary research teams • Improve the understanding of causes and
consequences of childhood poverty • How policies affect children
QUALITATIVE DATA
3 rounds collected from a nested sample of both cohorts in 2007, 2008 & 2011. 50 children in each country.
4th (final) round planned for 2014.
• Methods include: interviews with children, creative methods, caregivers, group discussions, interviews with teachers/other community members.
• Qual 1 & 2 – wellbeing, experiences of poverty, transitions
• Qual 3 – included social support, caregivers’ life histories.
Children’s life trajectories, role of poverty in shaping life-course, decision-making and choice
WHAT IS QUALITATIVE LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH?
- Multiple approaches to investigating aspects of time and change (no single definition)
- Mixed methods approaches where qualitative longitudinal elements are attached to a quantitative study
- Planned prospective qualitative longitudinal studies
- Follow-up studies (revisiting communities)
- Evaluation/tracking studies
- Unit of analysis can be individuals, households, communities, schools, NGOs, CBOs
QLR in development studies?
• What is the status of qualitative research in development knowledge?
• Temporality - goals of development are change and sustainability – but approaches to research in development are cross-sectional/snapshot = disjunction?
• Dominance of human capital approaches, uncritical acceptance of developmental psychology - marginality of children and young people’s experiences.
QLR in Young Lives
- Embedded within a larger survey study (Young Lives not originally designed as a QLR study)
- Complements other data sources
- Children’s and caregiver’s evaluations of what has shaped their trajectories
- Identification of broad unifying research questions
- Iterative – survey and qualitative protocol design
- Adds depth to processes behind survey findings
- Adaptable to changing research contexts, age and biographical circumstances of participants
-Policy and communications - individual cases in broader context of changing communities
Example 1: ‘transitions’ to adulthood
• Work, school, marriage nexus and change over time in rural AP. • High rates of school leaving amongst rural poor• Eg - Ranadeep – in 2007 was missing school to work, but optimistic.• 2008 - wanting to migrate, open a shop. Wanted to continue his schooling, but complained about working.
• 2010 had failed Grade 10 - ‘I will be a waste’ • Can’t ask his family for support - ‘I know they are struggling’; crop failure because of drought, indebtedness.• Wants to support his mother/family.
Example 2: QL approach to Research to policy and practice
• Oak-funded study on risks, vulnerability and resilience for children • To explore the challenges of translating research into practice in Ethiopia and India• Process – iterative, consultative – • Background research - analysis of Young Lives data (survey and qualitative) to identify question • Interviews with stakeholders (policy, NGOs) = policy context analysis • Consultation meetings to identify research priority •(Orphanhood in Ethiopia, hazardous work in AP)
Continued…
• Qualitative research study, highlighting context-specific understandings of children’s vulnerability • Results reported to stakeholders in consultative process Outcomes: in Ethiopia •Opportunities to share learning: Child Research and Practice Forum •Meets regularly bringing together researchers, policy-makers, practitioners •Building a local network for using and engaging with research, shaping future agenda•2nd project ongoing on evidence-based approaches to children’s work/child labour
Reflections
• QLR helps explain changing circumstances that led to outcomes for Ranadeep
• QLR is a powerful way of linking individual biographies with structural (poverty) factors
• Oak research emphasised the importance of creating spaces over time, networks, relationships – meetings, newsletters etc.
• QLR enabled ‘capacity-building’, two-way learning, trust-building between research teams others.
• OAK – strengthening relationships that transcends the study, and continue.
Challenges
• Practicalities
• Costly
• Ethics – (respondent fatigue, maintaining relationships in long-term research, etc)
• Data management – transcribing/translation
• Disciplinary boundaries – development economists?
• Mixed methods papers? Publishing conventions in development studies?
• Getting beyond ‘stories’?
Data Collection
Round
Year YC Ages OC Ages
Round 1 2002 6-18 months 7-8 years
Round 2 2006-7 5-6 years 12-13 years
Qual-1 2007 5-6 12-13
Qual-2 2008 6-7 13-14
Round 3 2009 7-8 years 14-15 years
Qual-3 2011 9-10 16-17
Round 4 2013 11-12 years 18-19 years
Qual-4 2014 12-13 19-20
Round 5 2016 14-15 years 21-22 years
Data collection