QSIG Midday Talk: Realist evaluation and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
This month's Qualitative Special Interest Group has two presentations for the price of one:
A theory-based evaluation: realist evaluation (Mengying Zhang)
Realist evaluation is a methodological approach to evaluate complex interventions that focuses on understanding not just whether a programme or intervention works, but how it works in specific contexts and for whom. It seeks to uncover the underlying mechanisms that explain the intended or unintended outcomes. The focus of Realist evaluation is the exploration of Context-Mechanism-Outcome configurations (CMOCs) in order to refine explanations of how a programme works.
Exploring Lived Experience Through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA): Reflections from Dementia Care Research in Rural China (Xiaoyang Li)
This presentation introduces Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a qualitative methodology, drawing on a doctoral study exploring the lived experiences of caregivers of people with dementia in rural Chinese care homes. The session will reflect on IPA’s phenomenological roots, its evolution and theoretical underpinnings, and how it guides each stage of research. The talk will also focus on how IPA supports a double hermeneutic process, allowing researchers to make sense of participants’ meaning-making and its strengths in capturing rich, contextualised insights, particularly from under-researched or marginalised populations.
About the speakers
Dr. Mengying Zhang earned her B.Sc. and B.Ec. degrees at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and her MSc and PhD at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. She is currently part of the COLLATE team at King's College London, where she is involved in co-designing a website that presents digital health intervention co-design methods, tools, and theories. For her PhD project, Mengying employed realist evaluation methodology to explore how smoking cessation applications work, for Chinese smokers. She has expertise in the design, development, and evaluation of health interventions, as well as in qualitative methods and systematic reviews.
Xiaoyang Li is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh with research interests in dementia care, healthcare ethics, and innovative approaches to understanding complex caregiving experiences. Her doctoral research explores the lived experiences of caregivers of people with dementia in rural care homes in China, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Currently affiliated with both the University of Edinburgh and King's College London, Xiaoyang brings extensive expertise in healthcare research. She currently works as a Research Assistant at King’s College London, contributing to the AI Nurses Network. She is also a Research Assistant at the University of Edinburgh, supporting Equity, Diversity and Inclusive (EDI) in the simulation-based healthcare education project.
Please join our mailing list for the Zoom link, which will be sent out a week before and the morning of the workshop.