Focus groups are groups of 6-12 people invited together so that you can find out information, views and what people think about a specific subject. They generally take longer to organise than 1-1 interviews and need good facilitation skills, but they can enable you to explore issues in depth and to really find out 'where people are coming from'. Depending on the participants, you can do mini-groups with only 4 or 5 participants, but you risk losing the interaction which is key to the process. (Interaction in a focus group means not just getting participants to answer the questions set by the group leader, but also dialogue between participants.)
It is important to understand that focus groups produce qualitative, not quantitative, information. They give you deep insights into how different strategies and priorities might work out in the neighbourhood, but they don't tell you which option is most popular. Focus groups can help you to ask the right questions or to make the right kind of proposal and to express ot so that people understand and support it.
Focus groups could be used to:
- explore or generate ideas about how the neighbourhood could be improved
- triangulate (confirm or raise questions about) the results of other methods
- develop questions or approaches to further surveys and questionnaires
You can use focus groups at the start of an enquiry (to frame further surveys), during planning (to work out a strategy) or as part of the review of what you have come up with.
Focus groups can be used to find and contrast differences between communities or segments of the community in terms of how they think about a particular issue. For example, you could use focus groups of older people and younger people to look at the same local issue from different angles. You can present alternative views to a focus group by having two facilitators leading alternatives - in which case the focus group beciomes a very lively sort of interactive debate.
Focus groups can take a while to organise but they are a relatively cheap and quick way of engaging with people (because you are meeting with them in groups). You can use focus groups as a way of introducing people and building the local community network. Focus groups can develop to become part of the change you wish to create in the neighbourhood.
What you Need
Group leader(s) - good interpersonal skill are required to lead a group successfully. Facilitation and observation are the two roles you need to consider. In the simplest form, a group leader can take on both roles - asking questions and steering discussion on one hand and noting the results on the other. This can be hard to do in practice. Variants include:
- splitting the role so that there are two people responsible for facilitation and observation with one leading on each
- debating style - using two facilitators to put alternative types of view to the group
- splitting the group of participants in two and having one half observe the others and use the outputs of their discussion as further starting points
The issue - you need to be clear about what it is you want to find out about, otherwise the focus group will wander and you might not be able to make anything of the findings. It is better that the issue is too narrow (because you can extend it during the group session), than trying to cram too much in (because you are unlikely to get so much interaction, which is the object of using the method). Knowing what you want to find out about is, of course, not the same as knowing what you want the focus group findings to be: the method is open-ended; you can't predict what people will say.
Participants - 6-12 participants who can all communicate in the same language and are willing to take part for between 45 minutes and 2 hours. You will want a mixture of people inasmuch as that is relevant to the issue and the approach you want to take to it. Do not try and make the focus group 'representative' in terms of gender or ethnicity etc for the sake of it. What you are interested in is interaction - you need people to have some common ground to make that interaction fruitful.
The venue - is a significant factor. You need a neutral, but friendly place which feels secure. It needs to be accessible.; you probably want somewhere that is in the neighbourhood - but you could also consider somewhere outside the neighbourhood if going away from the place you are talking about will help the discussion.
Incentives - you need to consider how to thank participants and to compensate them for their time. In particular, you will want to help them overcome any problems that might face due to transport or care responsibilities etc
Refreshments - at least a hot/cold drink.
How to do It
Preparation
Discuss and agree the issue or set of issues you want to use the focus group to find out about and how this fits in to the rest of the research you are doing.
Agree the kind of participants which it would be useful to involve and choose one or more people to act as group leader(s).
Find a venue that is appropriate and available for use at a reasonable time. You will need at least two weeks to recruit participants. The time of day and day of the week should be chosen so as to make it easy for the participants to attend. Book the venue for an hour (for a 45 minute focus group) or two hours (for a 90 minute focus group) - this means you can be in the room before participants arrive and leave it after the group has finished.
Recruit participants either by personal invitation or through general notices. If you do not know the participants, you will want to meet them beforehand. Focus groups need to be kept relatively small so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute and there is scope for discussions between participants.
In the Focus Group
Typically, the group leader(s) introduce themselves, explain why they have organised the group and ask the participants to idenify themselves so that everyone knows each others' names. It is really important to get everyone to the venue on time.
The facilitator asks a question and gets a response from each participant and then enables group discussion - sometimes asking supplementary questions - particularly 'what if..' type questions. The group environment feels less contrived than a 1-1 interview and there is scope for ambiguity, discussion, 'mulling things over' which doesn't really happen in most interviews.
The observer - if you have one - takes notes. They should focus on insights: ones they spot and anything indicated as an insight by the facilitator or one ofthe participants. The observer can ask questions to clarify or help them to make the record.
The process carries on until 10 minutes before the scheduled end time. The facilitator might then have a final go around of participants about the process; ask the observer for any questions; thank the participants and wind the session up.
Any claims for expenses and thank you cards with any incentives are dealt with after the session is concluded.
Examples and Case Studies
There are plenty examples of focus groups and how to do them available online. Most, however, apply to marketing or wider social research rather than to use of the tool in community planning. Some that are more useful include:
Community Toolbox at the University of Kansas - notes on Focus Groups and examples
The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement - notes on using Focus Groups
Overseas Development Institute - notes and Focus Group Discussion toolkit
| Checklist
Key points to bear in mind: Language - you need to listen not just to what participants say, but also how they say it - what kind of language are they using; what is their body language; how sure do they appear; is there something else they really want to say? Bias - you need to take into account the bias which you bring to your observation of the results. There are plenty of examples of focus groups used in marketing which were effectively manipulated (consciously or sub-consciously) by the group leader to confirm whatever it is they already thought about an issue. False consensus - you need to beware of easy compromises. If they aren't challenged by the facilitator, focus groups can rapidly adopt unthreatening positions that no one really believes, but which participants will agree with so as not to offend each other. You don't want the focus group to become an argument in the sense of a slanging match, but you will need to make sure that participants feel it is OK to disagree. Self-moderation - bear in mind that when participants talk, they are not necessarily expressing purely their own views. They will tend to moderate what they say, according to the circumstances they find themselves in. You need to think about how you present the venue, the group leaders, the project and how you introduce participants to each other in order to guard as far as possible against people being influenced by external factors. Respect - you should ask participants to treat each other and each other's views with respect, but a focus group is not a confidential method. In practice, with participants drawn from the same neighbourhood, people will not behave as if everything they say will be forgotten when they leave. You should, at least, not identify participants as recognisable individuals (eg by using their name) in any write up you do of the foucs group findings. Facilitation - includes seeding the dialogue (with open ended questions); moving it on so that the issue you want discussed is heard properly; encouraging reality-checking and challenge; probing the details of what people say and making sure that it is intelligible to other participants. Facilitators may also need to act to ensure that participants can all take part meaningfully - though not necessarily exactly equally. The facilitator has to be objective and non-judgemental. |
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BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT METHOD SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-15 07:59:45 | by: admin | status: f published |