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Conducting Focus Groups in Terms of an Appreciation of Indigenous Ways of Knowing

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Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences

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Abstract

This chapter offers deliberations around the facilitation of focus groups in a manner that takes into account Indigenous ways of knowing. Indigenous knowing (within various Indigenous cultural heritages) can be defined as linked to processes of people collectively constructing their understandings by experiencing their social being in relation to others. This chapter explores how the conduct of focus groups can be geared toward taking into account as well as strengthening knowing as a relational activity defined in this way. I suggest that once facilitators of focus groups appreciate this epistemology, they can set up a climate in which people feel part of a research process of relational discussion around issues raised. This requires an effort on the part of facilitators to make explicit the type of orientation to research that is being encouraged via the focus group session to participants. In this chapter, I offer an illustrative example of an attempt to practice such an approach to facilitation in a rural setting in South Africa.

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Acknowledgement

This chapter is based on my article that appeared in January 2015 in Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS), 16, 1, Article 2. The article was entitled: Conducting Focus Groups in Terms of an Appreciation of Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Some Examples from South Africa. Permission was granted by Katja Mruck – editor of FQS – on 31 May 2016. She stated (by email) that “all FQS texts are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,” which means that I have the copyright for use of the material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Adult Education and Youth Development, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

    Norma R. A. Romm

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  1. Norma R. A. Romm
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Correspondence to Norma R. A. Romm .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science and Health, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Pranee Liamputtong

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Romm, N.R.A. (2019). Conducting Focus Groups in Terms of an Appreciation of Indigenous Ways of Knowing. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5251-4_46

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