Stylus Publishing (VA) Using Focus Groups to Listen, Learn, and Lead in Higher Education

Review "While surveys and other quantitative tools provide broad data regarding higher education and its impact, they cannot accurately reflect the socially constructed, interpretivist experience of individual participants. In Using Focus Groups to Listen, Learn, and Lead in Higher Education, Danner, Pickering, and Paredes embrace this reality and have created a comprehensive text for implementing focus groups. This vital resource, with nine easy-to-read chapters outlining the process, should be on the bookshelf of every higher education researcher and practitioner." --Gavin Henning, Ph.D., Director, Doctorate of Education and Master of Higher Education Administration Programs"New England College" (08/02/2017) "A friendly, practical, and principled DIY guide, Using Focus Groups will help educators at any type of institution. Its process approach aims for the relevance of qualitative research combined with the rigor of quantitative methods. Guiding readers from first steps through data analysis and reporting, the book offers extended vignettes as well as templates and models. Engaging both faculty and staff in the process, the book identifies resources ready to hand on every campus." --Susan Albertine, Senior Scholar"Association of American Colleges & Universities" (09/25/2017) "I know personally that the results obtained from well-designed and executed focus groups can provide information that campus administrators need to make programmatic and strategic decisions. The authors used focus groups to help me learn more about the culture, values, and critical issues facing the campus when I became Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Old Dominion University. This book is the next best thing to having them at your institution." --Augustine O. Agho, Ph.D, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs"Old Dominion University" (09/27/2017) Product Description Using Focus Groups to Listen, Learn, and Lead in Higher Education presents an easy-to-use 6-step guide to help leaders in higher education listen to and learn from their stakeholders in order to enhance decision making. The big questions facing institutions today, especially those surrounding access, affordability, and accountability, require more than dashboards. Metrics and quantitative data alone do not offer lasting solutions and improvements. Using qualitative methods to listen to the voices of those involved, especially students and staff, is critical. Focus groups constitute the most appropriate, rigorous, and relevant qualitative research tool for this purpose, and one that is cost-effective and builds community when conducted using the ODU Method described in this book. Using Focus Groups is a single, comprehensive, and practical resource that describes why, when, and how to use focus groups. The authors provide detailed guidance for using focus groups, from developing the research questions with stakeholders, through training and recruiting moderators, and identifying and recruiting participants, to the logistics of conducting focus groups, and ultimately analyzing data and developing final reports. Conversational vignettes illustrate the discussions that regularly occur in each step and help the reader better understand the process. Fifteen appendices provide templates and examples of every part of the process. Written particularly for institutional research and assessment staff and upper-level administrators, this book will also appeal to deans, department and program chairs and directors, faculty leaders, and administrative unit directors, including those in auxiliary and student services, alumni associations, and university foundations. It also serves as an excellent resource for higher education research methods courses. The authors are uniquely positioned to guide readers in this process. The team developed and refined this technique over two decades at Old Dominion University. They have conducted over 100 focus groups with campus, nonprofit,