A capacity building workshop focused on Reflexive Thematic Analysis

The Voices of the Rainforest organised a Reflexive Thematic Analysis workshop on 12th December 2024 to provide postgraduate researchers in the School of Education, University of Leeds, with the opportunity to critically engage with the process. The workshop also served as a vital platform for participants to work with real data collected from the project, demonstrating the systematic and practical application of reflexive thematic analysis.

Led by Dr Syafiq Mat Noor, the workshop began with an introduction to reflexive thematic analysis, based on Braun and Clarke’s (2021) approach. The discussion primarily focused on the key distinctions between thematic analysis and its reflexive counterpart, as well as the six phases of the approach, providing participants with a critical understanding of reflexivity in qualitative research.

The workshop also recommended the use of the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ), developed by Tong et al. (2007), to ensure methodological rigour in qualitative research. COREQ is a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups that helps researchers report key aspects of the research team, study methods, study context, findings, analysis, and interpretations. Many participants found COREQ to be a useful tool for structuring their analytical approach and ensuring methodological rigour in qualitative research.

In the second half of the workshop, participants were presented with 32 teacher interview transcripts collected from 10 indigenous schools in Malaysia. They were given the opportunity to apply the six phases of reflexive thematic analysis, including the development of a codebook. Despite time constraints, participants successfully identified several fundamental codes from the transcripts, including issues related to indigenous education and perspectives on climate change.

Towards the end of the workshop, participants also discussed reliability in qualitative research when multiple coders analyse interview data. Although optional, the most commonly used approach to measure reliability is Cohen’s kappa coefficient (Cohen, 1960). Designed for use with two raters, Cohen’s kappa assesses the consistency in ranking items or classifying them into mutually exclusive categories.

In conclusion, the two-hour afternoon workshop provided postgraduate researchers with fresh insights into conducting qualitative research for their dissertations. The theoretical and practical discussions during the session enhanced their understanding of the qualitative research process. This workshop reaffirms the Voices of the Rainforest’s commitment to supporting postgraduate researchers and fostering a strong research culture.