26 - Creative collaborative data analysis: co-constructing and co-analysing the data together

Summary

Introduction

This chapter documents a cooperative inquiry with co- researchers with intellectual disabilities, exploring their experiences of relationships and sexuality. The method was devised for adults with intellectual disabilities who were new to data analysis. This project combined existing methodological techniques in the literature and then developed them to make them more accessible to the group. Analysis workshops began with the most common words from the group's previous meeting transcripts. Words were written on a card and provided on large sheets of paper and art materials. Co- researchers were asked to choose the word that was most important to them and creatively express their thoughts in a poster. Posters were discussed by the group for sense making and to see if anything was misunderstood or missing. Once the data was generated, we then dived into the analysis to see what would happen, which resulted in us co- creating a collaborative approach to analysis.

The chapter begins by introducing our project, and the epistemological and ontological positions that underpinned this way of working and engendered a creative method of collaborative data analysis. This is a six- step systematic method that includes visual analysis, member checking, content analysis, arts-based analysis, embodied data analysis, and creative collaborative reflections. The chapter evaluates this method from the group's perspective, considering the limitations of the method we encountered and reflecting on the related ethical considerations.

Background to the study

This project stemmed from my doctoral study in the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, in Ireland (Mannion, 2024). I worked with a team of co- inquirers with intellectual disabilities, called the R&S (Relationships and Sexuality) Research Team. This research team formed and participated in a cooperative inquiry group, where its members acted as co- researchers and co- subjects, who were actively involved in all the decisions in the study and co- created the research findings on topics relating to relationships and sexuality, based on their own life experiences. The study was granted ethical approval from the university's faculty ethics committee.