Part 7 - Philosophy and the place of research methods Now we get to the heart of one of the most contentious issues in QHR. If you’ve followed the series so far, we’ve covered a lot of ground: sampling, generalisability, voice, and the ‘emic’ perspective, but we’re mining the motherlode now when we talk about the place of philosophy and methods in QHR. So let’s be clear from the outset, QHR places far too much emphasis on research methods and nowhere near enough on philosophy. Anchoring a qualitative study in philosophy is perhaps the most valuable thing you can do to a research study. Firstly, it guides every step of the process - every aim, and every question you pose of the … [Read more...] about Qualitative Health Research – A guide for the perplexed
Resources for Hazel Horobin’s session on Identity
Hazel Horobin presented the 6th Critical Physiotherapy Course session on 'Symbolic meanings in physiotherapy'. Here you can find links to Hazel's: … [Read more...] about Resources for Hazel Horobin’s session on Identity
Ways to be critical
I'm sometimes asked what the 'Critical' in Critical Physiotherapy Network refers to. It's a good question, because there's more than one meaning for the term, and we are using it in quite a specific sense here. So here are some different meanings for the word critical, only some of which apply to the Network. Critical in the sense of expressing disapproval or negative judgement, as in; 'I don't like that' or 'I think that's wrong' Critical as in 'critical review'; the sort of thing that a lot of students are trained to do these days; to review a body of literature and say whether it's any good or not Critical care: that required by acutely ill people Critical in the sense … [Read more...] about Ways to be critical
Critical conferences and decolonising physiotherapy
A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to attend a critical health conference in South Africa. The group that runs the conference is the called International Society of Critical Health Psychology (ISCHP). Similar to our organisation, ISCHP “provides a forum for scrutinising, challenging and questioning what is said and done in the purported pursuit of promoting and improving ‘health’ by health psychologists and others”. ISCHP has a membership of around 800 people and its main activity as a society is to organise bi-annual conferences (the first was in 1999) and to moderate an active email list. The email list provides members with information about relevant employment, publishing, … [Read more...] about Critical conferences and decolonising physiotherapy
Critical physiotherapy curios – updates, ideas and new postings
Research We have to start with this. WCPT has published a list of the 15 most influential trials in physical therapy. I loved the fact that they used a qualitative process to ascertain which blinded, controlled and randomised clinical trial they found most influential. No hint of irony there then! Fatemeh Rabiee, Anne Robbins and Maryam Khan's article in Health Education Journal Gym for Free: The short-term impact of an innovative public health policy on the health and wellbeing of residents in a deprived constituency in Birmingham, UK is well worth a look if you're interested in how community-based health interventions might work for people in marginalised communities. A paper … [Read more...] about Critical physiotherapy curios – updates, ideas and new postings
Connectivity – Contributions from the Network – New resources
Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and thoughts on the Connectivity writing project. Here are some of the extra resources people thought might be linked to the project. If you have any more thoughts on what should go into the article, either add them as comments below (remember, I may post them on the blog) or send them to me via email (david.nicholls@aut.ac.nz). Lester Jones I think this document could be relevant - although I am aware it is 11 years old now. I have used it, including figure 1 - as referenced below - in curriculum design. Should be able to access pdf from link below, with figure on p29. STAKES (2003) 'Label Us Able : A Pro-active Evaluation of Finnish Development … [Read more...] about Connectivity – Contributions from the Network – New resources
Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #5 – Richard Horwood
Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and thoughts on the Connectivity writing project. Over the next few days I'll post up some of the feedback and thoughts that these pieces. Remember to send comments on these things too and I'll pull them all together. This post came from Richard Horwood, Clinical Educator in the Physiotherapy Department at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. Why Critical Physiotherapy Needs Connectivity. Modernism likes to create single forms that can be 'understood', words, labels, models, tags etc. In effect it creates simple forms from complex parts. To create these forms, 'z', it works it's way from 'a' through a series of processes, accepting each … [Read more...] about Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #5 – Richard Horwood