Meet Maxi and Christine!

Hello Qualitative Mind,

Today’s blog post (as well as next week’s) includes segments of a conversation I recently had with two qualitative researchers I met during my PhD training: Maxi Miciak and Christine Daum. I sincerely believe they’ll inspire you now as much as they’ve inspired me since the Fall of 2014, when they were guest speakers at a qualitative methods course I was taking.

Maxi and Christine stood out to me, and inspired me, for two main reasons: the personal relationship they built around (and initially because of) their qualitative projects, and their passion for demonstrating rigor in qualitative research.

Today, I’m going to focus on the story of their relationship and how it shaped their growth as qualitative researchers. Next week, you’ll get a sneak peek into their process of conducting rigorous qualitative health research.

Maxi and Christine describe themselves as best friends, and it all started with a stats course they had to survive (and ace) together.

“We were both graduate students in rehabilitation medicine. And I think we bonded during our first term, doing our stats course together. Because we had to take the stats course that was a requirement for our program, and of course, we were both freaked out. So we basically forged an alliance through our quantitative experience, but, you know, I think that that's kind of where we got to know one another, just kind of as people outside of qualitative research. It was more a friendship that developed. Initially, though, it was also an alliance to try and make sure we both got through the stats course.” (Maxi)

“We knew we didn't want to do quantitative research. I knew my question was qualitative in nature so I really didn't want to be taking the stats course. And yet, part of me thought, ‘I'm going to take this course, I'm going to get an A+.’ And I don't care what it takes me to get that A+…I think Maxi was the same where she wanted to beat this course. So we did!” (Christine)

{If you’re a graduate student conducting a research project that is 100% qualitative, and still required to take advanced stats, we feel your pain} (Maira)

If you’re familiar with The Realize Path©, you know that Pillar Two represents community of practice {and the relationships you foster to grow as a qualitative researcher}. Maxi and Christine’s relationship began with an alliance to survive and succeed in a quantitative course, and that mindset of learning and excellence carried over to their qualitative research. A few months after the stats course, they both entered an intensive qualitative summer training with our mutual mentor, Dr. Maria Mayan, and solidified their relationship through qualitative methods.

“We partnered up for all of the assignments, right?! And so we spent an incredible amount of time together. We were going to do the best work possible in Maria's course because, of course, we wanted to impress Maria…because it's Maria, Maria Mayan, right?! But also, I think we both had very high standards and aspirations, so we pushed the envelope with one another, and did some creative things.” (Maxi)

“We spent an incredible amount of time together, quite frankly. After the program ended we felt that we were at a loss, that we went from talking about nothing but qualitative methods to getting ready for candidacy exams, we felt that there was a huge gap, because I felt like I'd come so far in that time. So we, and I think there were other students who were also in the intensive qualitative program at the time, started a qualitative salon. It was a group of about 12 graduate students from all over the world. We were all health professionals interested in qualitative health research. We continued to meet for at least a year and I guess over that time, we started to develop our proposals and get ready for candidacy. So the relationship between Maxi and I continued.” (Christine)

I want you to notice how Maxi and Christine’s relationship evolved, and for a while included a greater number of people in their community of practice, i.e., the qualitative salon, but eventually went back to the two of them. They supported one another through huge graduate program and research milestones. This is what I wish for you, qualitative mind/reader, someone to move alongside you through the hurdles and victories of qualitative research.

In Christine and Maxi’s story, the relationship continued throughout their qualitative data collection, analysis and writing. They continued encouraging and supporting each other as their research needs changed.

“Our recurrent meetings were very organic or unstructured in that we met in order to work together on our research. If I was going to meet, it meant that I would have to show some progress, even if it's just this much. This paragraph is more than nothing, right? And we know how hard it is to write a paragraph. So there were times when it was more structured and times when it was less structured. For instance, sometimes we didn't have much to report other than that paragraph. But sometimes we would say, ‘Hey, you know, I've done a ton of work on this particular category. I think it's becoming clear. Can I tell you what I've been working on and what it was and what it is now and how I got from A to B?’.” (Christine)

{Qualitative researchers need people to hear how they got from A to B. We thrive with a sounding board, with a conversation that reassures us that we’re being truthful to our data and ethical with our participants. Moreover, even within the same methods, there is a lot of variance; as such, a community of practice helps you to grasp the reality that there are a number of ways to get from A to B.}

“We were both using interpretive description, right, and, you know, interpretive description, it's kind of this loose sort of structure. And so, we could speak with one another about a common like, ‘How are you understanding this?’ And even selecting, I remember Christine trying to land on the method that she was going to use, and going back and forth, and being a part of those conversations was great. I think it was really positive that we did things in different ways. You know, Christine is very methodical and will like, research something until her fingers are bleeding, right? Like, she will research and research or know everything that she needs to know about something. And I'm maybe a little more organic. And so I think we were good together. We kind of had that sort of the yin and yang sort of perspective on how we went about our projects and our dissertation as well.” (Maxi)

I hope you’re now thinking about who you are and who your “Maxi/Christine” is. I also sincerely hope this blog post demonstrated the power that lies in a relationship that is built around qualitative research. Next week, we’ll discuss how Maxi and Christine fostered rigor in qualitative research through their relationship and beyond. It’s going to be great!

I wouldn’t be the researcher I am without some incredible people who are part of my community of practice. You might not know them, but I’ll take this opportunity to thank Maria, Tatjana, Rhonda, Karen, Rebecca, Bethan, Richard, Michael and Megan. Thank you! ❤️

Thanks to Christine and Maxi for their time, dedication and inspirational stories! We’ll hear more from them shortly.

Talk soon,

Maira