ABSTRACT
This chapter details a key research method increasingly used as part of qualitative social work research, that of the focus group. Focus groups offer an extension to the formal interview, the key difference being that a ‘moderator’ interviews a group of participants rather than one person at a time. In this chapter we will look at the planning of a focus group, the role of the moderator, offer a discussion guide, means of support and some of the ways we can analyse our findings. We conclude by looking at the relevance of this method for social work related research.
