Research update #8: Data collection complete!

We are excited to announce that we have completed all of our interviews! We did a total of 30, from a wide range of backgrounds. Thank you for sharing your stories with us, it was our pleasure to talk to you! Next step is analysis, which we'll be working on this summer. Stay tuned for what we learn from the data!

Research update #7: Resuming interviews

Hello everyone! We have finished with the initial analyses, and we are pleased with the direction of the study thus far. We are resuming interviews, and will complete the remainder of the interviews before the end of April. We have about 15 more to complete. Again, thank you for your participation, and your interest in this important topic!

Research update #6: Initial analyses underway

For those of you who are research savvy, and qualitative research savvy in particular, you might recognize the term "grounded theory." In this study, we are using Charmaz (2006)'s version of grounded theory. Part of this method involves taking time out during the beginning phases of your data collection to look at the data that you have thus far, and doing what is called "initial coding." Initial coding is basically making a line-by-line summary of what the participant said. It is useful because it keeps the researcher close to the data and using the participant's terms rather than using the researcher's own pre-conceived ideas about the topic under investigation.

So, we have conducted 10 interviews to date, and have transcribed them all. We are now going to do the initial coding process and discover what our data tells us thus far. Once we do that, we'll do another "round" of interviews (probably 10 at a time) to do more digging into the topic. The benefit of doing this "pause and reflect" method is that it gives the researcher the opportunity to revise her interview questions, or to explore a particular topic with future participants. It can help focus the data collection into more meaningful stories. This is essentially what an "emergent design" is intended to do. It helps the researcher see what meaning emerges from the data, and to follow that emergent meaning in subsequent data collection.

We'll post another update once we have completed the initial coding, and start up interviews again! Thanks for staying tuned!

Research Update #5: Interviews starting

We are now in the phase of contacting a handful of people with whom to conduct in-depth interviews. We will select about 30 people out of the 163 who participated in phase 1 (the survey). So, you may or may not hear from us, but if you do, we look forward to speaking with you! We are excited about getting underway with this phase of the research, and look forward to hearing your stories! Thank you for your interest in our research, and we will update the blog again periodically as the study moves forward.

-Megan

Research Update #4: Survey closed

Greetings! The open period for the initial survey is now closed. We are happy to report that over 225 people responded, and we're excited to move into the next phase of this research! Thank you to each of you for your support along the way. We'll keep you updated on the next steps as they come.

Research update #3: Only 5 days left for the survey!

Hi folks,
We are nearing the end of the enrollment period for the survey. Remember, if you haven't looked at it yet, here's some details: it takes 5 minutes to complete, and you can enter to win an iPad mini! We'd love to hear from you, so read more about the study here: tinyurl.com/LGBTQFaithStudy.

Thanks!

Research update #2: Help us reach 200 participants!

We are happy to report that we have 163 responses so far! Wow! What a great response from the community. We are grateful for your support, and we could not have done it without you.

We would like to hit 200 responses by January 31st. Do you think you can help us? Share the page and the survey link: http://tinyurl.com/LGBTQFaithStudy

Thanks!