Reflections on the Value of Mixed Focus Groups with Adult Learner Research Participants: Exploring Gender Disparities and Gendered Relationships

Abstract

The purpose of this article is two-fold. Firstly, we consider whether the setting up of mixed-gender focus group sessions has the potential as a research process to contribute to transforming people’s understandings of their gendered relationships. Secondly, we relate our discussion to the question of the mutability of stereotypical thinking in the context in question, taking into account the idea that cultures in different contexts can be seen as “in the making” through the way in which people together create meaning. We explain how the first author of the article organized focus groups which were mixed in terms of gender with the purpose that the adult learner participants could develop their perceptions as they related to each other around the topic of gender inequalities.). The sessions were conducted in two adult learning Centers located in a rural and an urban area respectively – Xola and Zodwa – within the Cacadu District of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Two mixed focus groups took place in 2016 (one in each Center, with 19 females and 5 males altogether), and a follow up took place in 2018, to further discuss recommendations. In 2022, another set of focus group sessions was arranged in the same Centers, with 10 females and 6 males who were asked to participate and agreed. As part of a related discussion on gendered relationships, they were asked specific questions regarding how they understood the value of the mixed-gender conversations. Results from the various sets of groups suggest that focus groups can indeed help people to explore and rethink gender disparities and to think of ways forward in terms of enriched understandings. We recommend that mixed-gender focus group sessions should be regarded by researchers as a potential space to fruitfully set up a way for people to develop their sense of interdependence in their social relations.