How to Prepare for Research Roundtables:
Ensuring Productive Discussion of Works-in-Progress

We’re delighted that you’ll be presenting at the upcoming Qualitative Research Network (QRN)! We’d like to ask you to prepare some materials we believe will help you and other participants gain the most advantage from the research roundtables. While the keynote address typically provides valuable information, insight, and inspiration, the research roundtables offer you an opportunity to gain targeted feedback focused on your particular projects. Each roundtable typically includes 4 – 5 participants (or teams of participants) and an experienced researcher in the field who facilitates the discussion. The roundtables are organized either by shared research focus (e.g., cultural literacies, first-year writing, digital contexts, institutional research) or common questions (e.g., study design, data analysis, theoretical framing).

During the roundtables, each of you (or each collaborative team) will have approximately 20-25 minutes in which to present some aspect of your research and to receive feedback from the facilitator and other presenters at the table. Overhead and LCD projectors are not available, but we offer some suggestions below for designing handouts and presentations that will make your roundtable most productive. It will be helpful for you to read the suggestions for both presenters and facilitators so you have a clear understanding of everyone’s roles.

Suggestions for Presenters

  • Prepare a two-page handout that provides key information on your project, including a short list of prior scholarship that informed the development of your project; short descriptions of your research methods, site and participants; a brief list of theoretical concepts or models you expect to play a key role in your analysis; your research question(s); one to three questions to direct discussion of your project; and project materials on which you’d like feedback, for instance, excerpts from coded or uncoded fieldnotes, a list of themes generated from your coding, a set of interview questions, or an outline or abstract of a planned or in-process text on your study.
  • Develop an informal 5-10 minute presentation you’ll use to guide others at your table through your handout. Your presentation should explain any aspect of your handout that requires clarification (e.g., theoretical concepts). If you’ve developed patterns, findings, or conclusions, or if you received responses from other readers, we encourage you to include those.
  • Be sure your presentation provides the information others at your table will need to give you feedback on the issues or questions you’ve raised.
  • Please bring 6-8 copies of your handout for the in-person QRN, OR use provided folder on Google Drive for each breakout group. Please upload your handouts and other materials there so that everyone in your breakout group will have quick access.
  • Please time your presentation so that it doesn’t exceed 10 minutes, and expect to spend roughly 10-15 minutes discussing your research project with those at the table.

We’ve also provided the table facilitators with a list of suggestions for leading the discussions at each table. You may find these suggestions useful as you prepare for the QRN: Facilitator Instructions.