Qualitative Data Techniques In Social Sciences

Focus group discussions are an exploratory research tool, thus a structured group used to explore people's thoughts and feelings and obtain detailed information about a particular topic or issue. Focus group discussions lasts from one hour and a half to two hours, longer than this and the discussion loses momentum. If the discussion is well managed, it allows deep seated feelings on a subject to emerge naturally. A focus group discussion is an in-depth session in which a small number of people usually eight to twelve from the target population, under the guidance of a facilitator (moderator) discuss topics of importance for a particular study or project. In nature focus group discussions are a method in which the topics covered are flexible and the discussion starts with more general issues and slowly flows into more specific ones. This book is going to focus on highlighting the merits as well as the demerits of focus group discussions as a data collection instrument in monitoring and evaluation.