Methods of Data Collection 1 Sampling and Access

As much as one might want to, it is impossible to study everyone everywhere doing everything (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Patton (1990) states, “Qualitative inquiry typically focuses in depth on relatively small samples, even single cases (n=1), selected purposefully” (p.169). This is a strategy in which particular settings, persons, or events are selected deliberately in order to provide important information that cannot be obtained as well from other choices (Maxwell, 1996). In qualitative inquiry, sampling is driven by the desire to illuminate the questions under study and to increase the scope or range of data exposed – to uncover multiple realities (Crabtree & Miller, 1992).

As Sears (1992) states, “the power of qualitative data, however, lies not in the number of people interviewed but in the researcher’s ability to know well a few people in their cultural contexts. The test of qualitative inquiry is not the unearthing of a seemingly endless multitude of unique individuals but illuminating the lives of a few well-chosen individuals. The ideographic often provides greater insight than

the nomothetic” (p.148). And as Wolcott (1995) puts it, “What can we learn from studying only one of anything? Why, all we can!” (p.171).

There are many different sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry. In regards to this study, I used one main type of sampling: purposive. This type of sampling involves subjects being selected because of some characteristic (Patton, 1990); however, purposive sampling comes in many forms. In this study, I used criterion based purposive sampling, which searches for cases or individuals who meet certain criteria. In the case of this study, I was looking for three main criterion: (1) the participants were women; (2) the participants were highly active prior to their accidents; and (3) the participants suffered a spinal cord injury while participating in a sport or physical activity.

Contact was made initially with the participants via the Back-Up Trust, which supports those affected by spinal cord injury. To ensure confidentiality, it was agreed that an open letter from ourselves explaining the project, along with a brief questionnaire seeking demographic details, would be distributed in one of the newsletters circulated by the network. The questionnaire ended by asking the respondent to indicate if they would agree to be interviewed, and if so, to provide their name and address in a stamped addressed envelope that was also supplied. Because the sensitive nature of the topics discussed could elicit strong emotions, the participants were supplied with a document containing a list of professional support and information networks that they could contact if they felt the need.

3.2.2 Interviews

For this study, I chose to use interviews as my main data-gathering technique because this method is able to focus onto areas of the participants’ lives and experiences. It also allowed me the flexibility to follow through on areas of interest that the participants introduced. This flexibility was possible because interviewing is not merely the exchange of asking questions and getting answers; rather, it is a process involving two (or more) people, and their exchanges lead to the creation of a collaborative effort called the interview (Fontana & Frey, 2005).

There are many different types of interview, and a variety of terms to describe each one; however, in general, the three main types are: structured

interviews, semi-structured interviews and unstructured interviews. For this study, I chose to use semi-structured interviews for a number of reasons. The semi- structured interview has a more specific research agenda than the unstructured interview, but the informants in both types of interview describe the situation in their own words and in their own time (Holloway, 1997). In a semi-structured interview, an interview guide aides the researcher in focusing on the issues to be covered, while still giving informants the opportunity to report on their own thoughts and feelings (Holloway, 1997). Esterberg (2002) feels that semi-structured interviews are particularly useful for exploring a topic in detail or in constructing theory. The strength of this kind of interview is that the researcher adopts a flexible approach to data collection, and can alter the sequence of questions or probe for more information with subsidiary questions (Gralton & Jones, 2004), as opposed to a structured interview, which is formatted in a survey-style, and can often neglect the depth and complexity of the participants’ experiences (Marvasti, 2004).

The purpose of my semi-structured interviews here was to learn about the life stories of the participants; therefore these can also be defined as life story interviews. According to Linde (1993):

the notion of the life story means something like ‘what events have made me what I am’, or more precisely, ‘what you must know about me to know me’, where knowing a person specifies a range of linguistic and social activities and relations by the knowers (p. 20).

Corradi (1991) further explains:

In sociology, the term ‘life story’ refers to the results of a research approach that consists of collecting an individual’s oral account of his or her life or of special aspects of it; the narrative is initiated by a specific request from the researcher and the ensuing dialogue is directed by the latter towards his or her field of inquiry...life stories aim to explain and give meaning to social phenomena (p.106).

Linde (1993) points out that when listening to life stories, one must be aware that we change our stories at least slightly for each new listener. We change a story for a given listener as our relation to that person changes, as new events occur, as we acquire new values that change our understanding of past events, and as our point of view, our ideology, or our overall understanding changes.

3.2.3 Ethical Issues

There is no fixed or final definition of ethics in qualitative research, because unlike quantitative research which uses universal ethical guidelines, qualitative research uses non-foundational or relativist ethics. This does not mean that anything goes, but that ethics are always in progress. There are many guides as part of an on-going list that serve as a starting point for qualitative ethics, but these are not meant to serve as models. The importance of ethics is stressed by O’Reilly (2005):

We are moving into people’s daily lives, talking to them, watching them, asking them questions, thinking about what they are saying, writing about what they are saying, analysing what they are doing, and sometimes being critical about all these things. Some would consider this an inherently unethical activity. Luckily, rather than causing us to abandon research because of ethical problems, the result of the ongoing debates has generally led researchers into becoming more thoughtful, more informed, more reflexive, and more critical of their own actions, perspectives and responsibilities (p.59).

Following some of the ethical guides that have been suggested for qualitative research, informed consent was gained from the participants after full disclosure of the aims of the study, and their rights to withdraw from the study at any time was made clearly known to all participants. In addition, to strive to preserve the anonymity and confidentiality of the participants in this study, names and locations have been changed (Lewis, 2003).

3.3 Analyses