Facilitation
I've worked in adult education and libraries, so I enjoy facilitating groups. The main types of activities I deliver are:
- Focus groups
Sometimes these are mostly discussion-based, but they often involve creative activities too. Examples of projects involving focus groups include:
Developing Principles for Working with Young People in Libraries (2018-19), ASCEL
Embedding Excellence:, teaching, learning and assessment (2022), Durham University
- Research/evaluation skills training and support
I've delivered training in research skills to many different groups, including students, librarians, healthcare staff and volunteers, and at different levels from novice to expert. Examples of projects involving research skills training include:
Research into Words in Mind, Kirklees (2019), Words in Mind/Third Sector Leaders Kirklees
‘Lost and Found’: Researching Youth Loneliness (2016-17), The Co-operative Foundation
Find out more about research/evaluation skills training I offer.
- Creative and arts-based activities
Many of the projects I do use creative and arts-based activities. Sometimes I work alongside an artist. Examples of projects using creative or arts-based activities include:
There's No Bus Map for Dementia (2018-19), Arts Council England
Graphic Lives: Telling Bangladeshi migrant women’s stories through graphic narratives (2017-18), Heritage Lottery Fund
Read Introduction to Visual Research Methods for free.
introduction-to-visual-research-methods.pdfFreely available publications about facilitation methods and activities
‘Co-creating a graphic illness narrative with people with dementia’, Journal of Applied Arts & Health, 2020, with Cathy Leamy
'The Playful Space of Workshops: on imagination, improvisation and ignoring instrumentalism', Writing in Practice, 2019, with Andrew McMillan
'Using participant-created comics as a research method', Qualitative Research Journal, 2019
'Britain’s real working-class voices are not being heard – here’s why', The Conversation, 2018, with Andrew McMillan
'"We can do it imaginatively first!" Creating a magic circle in a radical community education setting, Studies in the Education of Adults, 2017
'How dementia is portrayed in comics', The Conversation, 2018
'Bangladeshi Women Creating Comics', Comics Forum, 2017
The publications below are behind paywalls. But if you don't have access to these, please get in touch to request a copy or more information.
'Working with what’s there' in R. Phillips and H. Kara Creative Writing for Social Research, Bristol: Policy Press. 2021, with Andrew McMillan
'Exploring Trauma and Social Haunting through Community Comics Creation', in D. Davies & C. Rifkind (eds.) Documenting Trauma: Traumatic Pasts, Embodied Histories and Graphic Reportage in Comics, London: Palgrave, 2020
A Practical Guide to Focus Groups, Lulu, 2020, with Pete Dalton
Comics in Qualitative Research, SAGE Research Methods Foundations, 2019, with Lydia Wysocki
'Using Rhetorical Analysis with Participant Comics', in SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2, London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2019