Focus Groups

Who is My Neighbor: Guides for Congregational Research

Grace Klinefelter, Zoe Parish, and Erica Collin, St. Olaf College

What is a focus group?

Focus groups are small-group discussions in which a moderator asks a series of questions and the participants answer them in an open, unstructured conversation.

Setting

6 to 12 community members. Accessible, comfortable space. Round or oval table is ideal.

Recording

Have an assigned note-taker to write down notes during conversation.Only video or audio record with permission.

Recording the focus group may make it easier to review information later, but it may make participants uneasy or less willing to share. Only record focus group conversations with the explicit informed consent of all participants.

Regardless of whether the focus group is recorded, the moderator should be accompanied by a note taker to take notes on what everyone says. This person should not interrupt the focus group.

Researcher Roles

Moderator: asks questions to guide focus group conversation.

Note taker: takes notes on focus group.

Moderator Considerations

The moderator asks questions and guides conversation — but most importantly, the moderator must create space for participants to speak freely. The moderator establishes group rules and maintains confidentiality. The moderator should critically consider their own social position and how it impacts the focus group.

The moderator must be able to make everyone feel welcome and make an effort to promote meaningful conversation.

“Moderators should welcome the participants, restate the purpose of the focus group, establish rules for group behavior, and take note of any special arrangements…The moderator must make sure that all exchanged information stays in the group. If the participants do not know each other, a pseudonym name or not using names at all can be helpful.” (Alder et. al. 8)

The moderator should also consider their own social position in relation to those of the participants. This consideration is called positionality. “It is reasonable to expect that the researcher’s beliefs, political stance, cultural background (gender, race, class, socioeconomic status, educational background) are important variables that may affect the research process. Just as the participants’ experiences are framed in social-cultural contexts, so too are those of the researcher” (Bourke 2).

Steps

Step One: Ask community members to participate.

Step Two: Write guiding questions.

Step Three: Identify moderator, note taker, and space.

Step Four: Conduct focus group.

Step Five: Discuss findings and next steps.

Bibliography

See the academic sources used to compile these recommendations.

Adler, Kristin, Sanna Salanterä, and Maya Zumstein-Shaha. 2019. “Focus Group Interviews in Child, Youth, and Parent Research: An Integrative Literature Review.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 18 (January): 1609406919887274. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919887274.

Bourke, Brian. 2014. “Positionality: Reflecting on the Research Process.” The Qualitative Report 19 (33): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2014.1026.

Cyr, Jennifer. 2016. “The Pitfalls and Promise of Focus Groups as a Data Collection Method.” Sociological Methods & Research 45 (2): 231–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124115570065.

Freeman, Tim. 2006. “‘Best Practice’ in Focus Group Research: Making Sense of Different Views.” Journal of Advanced Nursing 56 (5): 491–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.04043.x.