Researching lifelong learning through focus groups

Focus group research is becoming a seriously hot topic. As a research method, the focused group interview is well established in the social sciences, dating back to Robert Merton's pioneering investigation of audience reactions to government information films during the Second World War. More recently, though, focus groups have been largely associated with market research. Among their many reported achievements, famous and infamous, focus groups are credited with influencing the creation of New Labour, the 'rebranding' of the Royal Family following the death of Diana Spencer, even the invention of the Teletubbies (Ingle, 1997, p. 2; Gould, 1998; Harding, 1998, p. 1). Can such a versatile technique have any constructive role to play in researching such a slippery field as lifelong learning? Or have focus groups and lifelong learning both become too trendy and poorly-defined to be of any serious value?

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

Focus group research is becoming a seriously hot topic. As a research method, the focused group interview is well established in the social sciences, dating back to Robert Merton's pioneering investigation of audience reactions to government information films during the Second World War. More recently, though, focus groups have been largely associated with market research. Among their many reported achievements, famous and infamous, focus groups are credited with influencing the creation of New Labour, the 'rebranding' of the Royal Family following the death of Diana ...  [+] Show more