To develop critical research designs
This resource provides ideas for creating research methods designs that reflect the critical ideological considerations raised through the readings lists.
Potential methodological approaches
There is a tendency for research with international students to stick to a classic “semi-structured interview + questionnaire” design. While these methods are tried and tested, we argue that more innovative and creative methods may help align critical conceptual perspectives with practice through research designs. Below are a collection of approaches that might be alternatively considered.
| Methodological approach | Purposefully over-simplified description | Resources or example(s) in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Photo elicitation interviews | Asking participants to take or share photographs that symbolise their experiences | Elliot et al. (2016); Wang & Hannes (2014) |
| Walking interviews | Interviews conducted while walking with participants in their daily lives | Stevenson (2015) |
| Participatory or community mapping | Asking participants to draw maps of places that are important to their experiences | Simoni & Georgoudaki (2020) |
| Solicited diaries | Use of audio, video, or visual diaries over a period of time to document experiences | Cao & Henderson (2020) |
| Drawing, painting, and artistic approaches | Asking participants to draw or paint their experiences, or else use other artistic approaches | Huang (2020) |
| Narrative collage | Asking participants to develop short stories | Kostera (2006) |
| Video or documentary creation | The creation of videos or documentaries by participants | Arkoudis et al. (2013) |
| Participatory or community-based research | Co-designing research methods approaches with participants | Dollinger et al. (2021) |
| Mediating artefact interviews | The use of an interactive tool as a discussion piece in an interview | Jones et al. (2021) |
| Timeline interviews | An approach to discussion the temporal order of events or experiences | Spangler (2022) |
| Theatre or drama methods | Asking participants to develop and perform in plays or theatre productions about their experiences | Frimberger (2016) |
| Social network analysis | A visual mapping of social connections based on surveys data | Héliot et al. (2020); Rienties et al. (2018) |
| Multimodal discourse analysis | Discourse analysis approach to analysing multiple forms of media or information | Zhang et al. (2020) |
| Art gallery visiting | Taking participants to an art gallery and asking them to select pieces which symbolise their experiences | Huang (2021) |
| Media analysis | Analysis of discourses or ideologies present in media | Abelmann & Kang (2013) |
| Nexus analysis | Analysis which focuses on the intersection of language / discourses and social action | Aarnikoivu (2020) |
Methods for Change project:
This helpful website also has a bank of step-by-step guides to different creative research approaches, many of which will be relevant to reserach with international students: https://aspect.ac.uk/about/aspect-funded-projects/methods-for-change/
Critical methodological readings
This reading list includes critical scholarship which focuses on different aspects of research design, providing helpful reflections and critical considerations for designing a methodological approach. This list is an ongoing work in progress.
Researching internationalisation in higher education
Deuchar, A. (2022). International students and the politics of vulnerability. Journal of International Students. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v13i2.4815
Khoo, S-M; Haapakoski, J. and Hellstén, M. (2018) Moving from interdisciplinary research to transdisciplinary educational ethics: Bridging epistemological differences in researching higher education internationalisation(s). European Educational Research Journal, 18(2): 181-199. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904118781223
Lipura, S. J., & Collins, F. L. (2020). Towards an integrative understanding of contemporary educational mobilities: A critical agenda for international student mobilities research. Globalisation Societies and Education, 18(3), 343–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2020.1711710
Positionality and relationships to participants
Adriansen, H.K., & Madsen, L. M. (2009). Studying the making of geographical knowledge: The implications of insider interviews. Norsk geografisk Tidsskrift – Norwegian Journal of Geography, 63(3), 145-153. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291950903238966
Driessen, H. (1998). The notion of friendship in ethnographic fieldwork. Anthropological Journal on European Cultures. 7(1), 43-62. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43234930
Dwyer, S. C., & Buckle, J. L. (2009). The Space Between: On Being an Insider-Outsider in Qualitative Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(1), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690900800105
Egharevba, I. (2001). Researching an-‘other’ minority ethnic community: reflections of a black female researcher on the intersections of race, gender and other power positions on the research process. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 4(3) 225-241. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570010023760
Folkes, L. (2022). Moving beyond ‘shopping list’ positionality: Using kitchen table reflexivity and in/visible tools to develop reflexive qualitative research. Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941221098922
Frers, L. & Meier, L. (2022). Hierarchy and inequality in research: Practices, ethics and experiences. Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941221098920
Holmes, A. G. D. (2020). Researcher positionality – A consideration of its influence and place in qualitative research – a new research guide. International Journal of Education, 8(4), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.34293/education.v8i4.3232
Kamlongera, M.I. (2021). ‘So what’s arts got to do with it?’: An autoethnography of navigating researcher positionality while co-creating knowledge. Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794121104561
Kun-Ting Hsieh, J. (2018). Positioning the researcher in the studies of international student identities. Journal of International Students, 8(2), 659-676. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1250368
Milligan, L. (2016). Insider-outsider-inbetweener? Researcher positioning, participative methods and cross-cultural educational research.
Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 46(2), 235-250. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2014.928510
Torres-Olave, B., & Lee, J.J. (2020). Shifting positionalities across international locations: Embodied knowledge, time-geography, and the polyvalence of privilege. Higher Education Quarterly, 74(2), 136-148. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12216
Yakushko, O., Badiee, M., Mallory, A., & Wang, S. (2011). Insider outsider: reflections on working with one’s own communities. Women & Therapy, 34(3), 279–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2011.580685
Decolonising research in higher education
Barnes, B.R. (2018). Decolonising research methodologies: Opportunity and caution. South African Journal of Psychology, 48(3). https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.1177/0081246318798294
Chilisa, B., Major, T.E., & Khudu-Petersen, K. (2017). Community engagement with a postcolonial, African-based relational paradigm. Qualitative Research, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794117696176
Held, M.B.E. (2019). Decolonizing research paradigms in the context of settler colonialism: An unsettling, mutual, and collaborative effort. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918821574
Moosavi, L. (2020). The decolonial bandwagon and the dangers of intellectual decolonisation. International Review of Sociology, 30(2), 332–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2020.1776919
Muñoz-García, A.L., Lira, A., & Loncón, E. (2022). Knowledges from the South: Reflecting on writing academically. Educational Studies, 58(5-6), 641-656. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2022.2132394
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. (2017). Decolonising research methodology must include undoing its dirty history. Journal of Public Administration, 52(1). https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-b1cd74dfa
Woldegiorgis, E.T. (2021). Decolonising a higher education system which has never been colonised. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(9), 894-906. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1835643
Multilingual research
Andrews, J., & Fay, R. (2020). Valuing a translingual mindset in researcher education in Anglophone higher education: Supervision perspectives. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 33(2), 188-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2019.1677701
Arafat, N. & Woodin, J. (2022). Opening up spaces for researching multilingually in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 27(4), 593-600. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2022.2037545
Costley, T., & Reilly, C. (2021). Methodological principles for researching multilingually: Reflections on linguistic ethnography. TESOL Quarterly, 55(3), 1035-1047. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3037
Gobbo, F., & Russo, F. (2020). Epistemic diversity and the question of lingua franca in science and philosophy. Foundations of Science, 25, 185–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-019-09631-6
Holmes, P., Fay, R., Andrews, J., & Attia, M. (2013). Researching multilingually: New theoretical and methodological directions. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 23(3), 285-299. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12038
Preece, S. (2019). Postgraduate students as plurilingual social actors in UK higher education. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 33(3), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2019.1676767
Stelma, J., Fay, R., & Zhou, X. (2013). Developing intentionality and researching multilingually: An ecological and methodological perspective. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 23(3), 300-315. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12040
Research in international and intercultural contexts
Banks, J. A. (1998). The lives and values of researchers: Implications for educating citizens in a multicultural society. Educational Researcher, 27(7), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X027007004
Chadwick, R. (2020). Theorizing voice: toward working otherwise with voices. Qualitative Research, 21(1), 76-101.
https://doi.org/10.1177/146879412091753
Honan, E., Obaidul Hamid, M., Alhamdan, B., Phommalangsy, P., & Lingard, B. (2013). Ethical issues in cross-cultural research. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 36(4), 386-399. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2012.705275
Mullings, B. (1999). Insider or outsider, both or neither: Some dilemmas of interviewing in a cross-cultural setting. Geoforum, 30(4), 337-350. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7185(99)00025-1
Rosa, J., & Flores, N. (2017). Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language In Society, 46(5), 621–647. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404517000562
Shah, S. (2013). The researcher/interviewer in intercultural context: a social intruder! British Educational Research Journal, 30(4), 549-575. https://doi.org/10.1080/0141192042000237239
Subreenduth, S. (2008). Deconstructing the politics of a differently colored transnational identity. Race Ethnicity and Education, 11(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320701845780
Xu, X. (2022). Epistemic diversity and cross-cultural comparative research: ontology, challenges, and outcomes. Globalisation, Societies, and Education, 20(1), 36-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2021.1932438
Ethical considerations for research
Pascoe Leahy, C. (2021). The afterlife of interviews: Explicit ethics and subtle ethics in sensitive or distressing qualitative research. Qualitative Research.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794121101292
Hammett, D., Jackson, L., & Bramley, R. (2022). Beyond ‘do no harm’? On the need for a dynamic approach to research ethics. Area. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12795
Nind, M., Wiles, R., Bengry-Howell, A., & Crow, G. (2012). Methodological innovation and research ethics: Forces in tension or forces in harmony? Qualitative Research, 13(6), 650-667. https://doi.org/10.1177/146879411245504
Oyinloye, B. (2022). Reimagining the researcher-participant ethics relationship: A participant-centred, values-based ethics approach in comparative and international education. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2022.2116929
Skerritt, C. (2022). A sinister side of student voice: Surveillence, suspicion, and stigma. Journal of Education Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2022.2149859
Traianou, A., & Hammersley, M. (2021). Is there a right not to be researched? Is there a right to do research? Some questions about informed consent and the principle of autonomy. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24(4), 443-452. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1801276
Zhang, J.J. (2017). Research ethics and ethical research: some observations from the Global South. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 41(1), 147-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2016.1241985
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Research with International Students 