Dear Emmanuel:

It seems to me that you are doing some online Survey rather than a qualitative study. However, you might have some plans to carry out the research. But still you need to be engage with your respondents in depth. That is you might follow some basic principles of bracketing the live experiences from the women who have gone through the circumcision. It would be better to see how they feel the experiences and their everyday life while before and after the issue. Still, I am not sure about that,however you might take some model Phenomenological research to follow and then do it in your own way.  

Thank you Al Amin for responding to my questions. I will be happy to contact those women face to face, by phone, or by email. However, because of cultural reasons and the sensitive nature of the research topic, they can not talk to me especially as a male. My chair advised me to conduce an online Survey with open ended question which is acceptable in a qualitative study. But my concern is to have one qualitative study that have been conducted without follow up questions even if it was done by an interview.

Thanks.

if you are conducting online survey, simply by asking their email address should enable a follow up question. The response rate for the follow up session would be lower than the main session, but in my opinion, qualitative approach does not dwell in the number of respondent, rather in the depth of the responses.

another method of collecting data would be creating (or finding) a thread in an online forum for suitable community and discuss the phenomenon you want to study. 

I would give caution though on using internet data collection design since it could introduce data availability bias to cases with/without internet access.

Thank you all for the answers you provided.

Hi Emmanuel, I have questions  about this statement ..."However, because of cultural reasons and the sensitive nature of the research topic, they cannot talk to me especially as a male."  How are you recruiting them?  

Before they participate, they must sign an informed consent and your name will be on it.  They will know your are male.  

You are not describing a phenomenological study, you are describing a survey.  Phenomenology requires in-depth interviews to capture the essence of the experience.

Will you please give this forum more details about this study so that we can help you?  Thank you.  Jan Vinita White, PhD, Gerontologist 

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I am conducting a phenomenological study about female circumcision which has made it difficult to recruit participants for my study.

I have decided to do an open ended online questionnaire without follow up questions, and have be asked by my committee to provide an article with a phenomenological study without follow up questions.

Are there any phenomenological research studies that have been done without a follow up question?.

Hi Emmanuel,

I just completed my research work on HIV/AIDS_ related stigma and discrimination towards women living with HIV/AIDS in Enugu City, Nigeria. I used both qualitative and quantitative research method. When you are conducting a research where "complex and pluralistic social contexts demand analysis that is informed by multiple and diverse perspectives" , you need to include a research process that justifies and strengthens your research approach( Sammons et al, 2005). I used interview for qualitative component and online survey for quantitative part. Comparing the two data sets will help you strengthen and validate the result of the qualitative study. 

Female circumcision is a sensitive topic in Nigeria. Individual perception varies in different cultures. For example, it is difficulty , if not impossible to carryout an authentic follow up study on a circumcised female individual after interview because of cultural, and ethical issues. I am circumcised, I have five children. I had no problem with any of the hypothetical theories out there. I was circumcised 8 days after birth. This my 36 years of marriage. Had no marital problem because of "sex". I had all my children with natural birth. I am a 6feet tall woman, my infant babies were quite big. So also are my three  sisters. Never experienced any of the fuss about female circumcision . As I said, It depends on what part of Nigeria, you are conducting your research. I suggest that you review more previous studies on this topic and review their methodologies and research designs.

 *****  See if this helps   

Thanks

Lolo Chinyere