Speaking back from the margins: Participant marginalia in survey and interview research.

Abstract

Marginalia is a term used to describe written notes or verbal comments spontaneously offered by participants over the course of a study. Although typically ignored, this unexpected form of data offers psychologists an opportunity to listen when participants "speak back" to the researcher. In this introduction to this special section on marginalia in Qualitative Psychology, I argue for recognizing marginalia as data. In addition, I discuss relevant research on marginalia in the social sciences and describe evidence for how marginalia offer an invaluable tool for researchers to examine their own assumptions about research design and data collection. The authors included in this special section describe their experiences with analyzing marginalia in studies using survey, interview, and participatory research methods. Each article discusses challenges the authors faced when thinking about marginalia. This involved shifting from thinking about marginalia as "noise" to thinking about marginalia as an important source of data. This special section on marginalia offers strategies that extend calls from feminist writers of color to recognize the margins as locations of political knowledge, a challenge to status quo assumptions, and critical spaces for knowledge production.

Utility of science, technology and innovation governance for occupational discourses from the perspective of occupational therapy students

“…An online survey was chosen to reach as many student participants as possible (104) and to give students the flexibility to participate in this study at their convenience. The questions in the survey were 'Yes/No' questions with open comments to allow participants to further expand on their responses (105) and to allows for the comparison of the comments (qualitative data) with the 'Yes/No" responses (quantitative data) (106) (an approach used by others (107)(108)(109)(110)(111)(112)(113)). This research design also allowed for multiple measurements of the same question (114).…”

Pushing back the margins: power, identity and marginalia in survey research with young people

“…Existing studies of marginalia are predominantly located in psychology (McClelland, 2016, Stroudt, 2016 and health sciences, where standardised questionnaires are commonly used with patients (Clayton et al, 1999, Powel & Clark, 2005, Smith, 2008. Clayton et al (1999) found that 25% of multiple sclerosis sufferers invited to complete a survey added extra comments, indicating high levels of investment in the research process and providing further knowledge about participants' lives.…”

“…We therefore argue that the incorporation of some forms of marginalia-as a form of reflexivity applied to a medium that traditionally discourages dialogue-is both ethical and valuable. In this sense, marginalia can be used as a tool for researchers to re-examine their own assumptions about research design and data collection (McClelland, 2016). This requires a reconceptualisation of what rigour means, what ethics covers, and a consideration of whether this approach tallies with participants' expectations of taking part.…”

“…Marginalia, a variant of 'paradata', consists of spontaneous notes or comments offered by participants that are not directly sought by the research or that sit outside the boundaries of the designed data collection methods (McClelland, 2016). The forms of marginalia discussed here are notes, drawings and marks made by child participants on a paper-based survey.…”

“…There is a long-standing interest in literary marginalia (Jackson, 2001) but it has only recently been applied as a concept in social research. Existing studies of marginalia in research are predominantly located in psychology (McClelland, 2016;Stroudt, 2016) and health sciences (Clayton, Rogers, & Stuifbergen, 1999;Powel & Clark, 2005;Smith, 2008). A recently edited collection on paradata in social sciences research suggests a nascent interest in the unintended by-products of social research (Edwards, Goodwin, O'Connor, & Phoenix, 2017), but it remains a largely untapped resource.…”