ABSTRACT
As we have noted, focus group research almost always involves contingent, synergistic articulations of three functions: inquiry, politics, and pedagogy. Recall that we have used the imaginal metaphor of the prism to think about these functions and relations. Our work with focus groups has indeed been prismatic, and several key principles or highly recommended practices for facilitating rigorous, synergistic, effective research using focus groups have emerged from this prismatic work. In this chapter, we unpack these principles, and we demonstrate how they have played out in our own research. These include: exploiting pre-existing social networks that encourage collegiality; doing our best to create safe, comfortable, and even festive spaces “of” the people; using open-ended prompts for questions and then letting group participants “take over”; keeping notes and following up on key themes and gaps; listening for breakdowns and subtexts and asking for elaboration. Finally, expect unpredictable group dynamics and even conflict and contradiction. These can be particularly productive affordances of focus group work.
