Tracking narrative change in post-intervention focus groups for teachers: an exploratory study

Abstract

Reliable and systematic qualitative methodologies to assess participants’ change after group interventions are scarce. This study outlines a methodolo5gical approach to use in focus groups, allowing the elicitation and coding of participants’ change talk after a group intervention. A Change Elicitation Script for Focus Groups was developed and its viability for evoking participants’ discussion around change was tested. Following a self-compassion intervention for teachers, participants’ dialogue was examined in three focus groups following a simplified version of Innovative Moments Coding System for groups. Results suggest that the Change Elicitation Script for Focus Groups effectively prompted participants’ discussion around change. The Innovative Moments Coding System for groups allowed to reliably identify, delimit, and categorize Innovative Moments throughout these dialogues. Although preliminary, this study puts forward a mixed-method methodology, applicable to the retrospective analysis of the process of change in post-intervention focus groups, from educational to clinical settings.