Focus groups in educational research: using ICT to assist in meaningful data collection

Education research methods include the use of focus groups for gathering qualitative data. Focus groups consist of small groups of informed people addressing research questions and are a form of 'group interview'. Focus groups in education research can be considered to be conversations that are initiated by the researcher for the specific purpose of obtaining data relevant to the specified research outcomes. Traditionally, approaches to data collection in focus groups use tape and/or video recorders and note takers. These approaches however, can be intrusive to the small group processes employed in gaining responses to the focus group questions. This paper discusses some of the issues and benefits of using focus groups in education research. It draws upon Australian research that explored educational leaders' views about the relationships between school leadership and teaching and learning with information and communication technologies (ICT) in which the data was collected through face-to-face focus groups, and where ICT was incorporated into the research method. This paper examines the processes required to incorporate ICT into the focus groups and outlines ways in which ICT can assist in data collection for education research