Conducting Focus Groups in Village Settings

In this course, we will cover the value of conducting focus groups, how to design a focus group discussion guide, and provide you with real-world examples of focus groups conducted in Ghana and Zambia.

- Know the basic tools and step to conducting successful focus groups in village settings;
- Become familiar with key ‘focus group’ technical terms, such as ‘gate-keepers’;
- Understand the different duties of moderators versus those of notetakers; and finally,
- Have a basic set of ‘blue-prints’ you can follow to develop your own focus group discussion guide.

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Focus groups are group interviews that provide insights into how people think about a specific topic. Focus groups can be formal – that is, highly planned and structured group discussions – or informal – that is, impromptu and spontaneous group discussions.

Informal or impromptu focus groups are unscripted discussions spontaneously triggered by local circumstances, events, or opportunities that arises – such as a field training day with a group of farmers. Although sometimes unavoidable, informal focus groups are not ideal, as they make it difficult to uniformly and accurately gather information from participants.

In contrast, formal focus groups are highly planned and structured discussions that use a Focus Group Discussion Guide you’ve developed in advance. This course will be concentrating on formal focus group discussions.

Course Lessons

This course was developed by:

Dr. Mary Read-Wahidi

Mississippi State University
Mary Read-Wahidi, PhD, co-leads the Soybean Innovation Lab's Gender Impacts Research Program.  Mary is an Assistant Research Professor at the Social Science Research Center of Mississippi State University.  She co-founded the Gender Impacts Lab of Mississippi State University.

Dr. Kathleen Ragsdale

Mississippi State University
Kathleen Ragsdale, PhD, leads the Soybean Innovation Lab's Gender Impacts Research Program. Kathleen is a Research Professor at the Social Science Research Center  of Mississippi State University.  She co-founded the Gender Impacts Lab of Mississippi State University.
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