Dearest blog readers,
In this latest installment of the SPRINT project blog, we do not bring you news of the latest scandals and betrothals from the Ton, but exciting overviews and projects from the world of qualitative research in sport and exercise. We (Dr Mary Quinton & Dr Grace Tidmarsh) travelled to the beautiful city of Bath at the end of July for the International Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise conference (QRSE 2024).
The conference organisers and committee put together the event of the season. Filled with fascinating history and an array of cultures and cuisines to explore outside of the conference, these authors were indeed, delighted. Bath is also one of the filming locations for the much-loved Netflix series, and a favourite of ours, Bridgerton. Don’t worry you won’t find any spoilers here!
Without further delay we will progress to brief overviews of the work we presented and our conference highlights.
Yours Truly,
Mary and Grace
QRSE 2024 SPRINT Project presentations
Dr Mary L Quinton: Researcher Mental Health
Based on work from Mary’s project “Advancing Safe Research for Researchers’ Mental Health” she gave a presentation titled: “I think the first thing we can do is acknowledge that mental health can be made vulnerable by being researchers, as well as by the topics we're looking at”: Co-designed guidelines for supporting the mental health of researchers in sport and exercise science.
Mary emphasized that researcher mental health requires immediate attention within wider research culture. As part of this project, Mary has been working closely with the QRSE conference organisers to embed the integration of content notes as part of abstract submission and presentations on emotionally demanding topics. It was great to see Mary’s evidence-based guidance integrated into the conference handbook and presenters using the content note template. Thank you to the organisers, in particular Dr Bryan Clift and Dr Toni Williams, for being so supportive of embedding this change.
Keep your eyes peeled for co-created guidelines for researchers, supervisors, organisations, ethics committees, funders, and conferences that will be coming soon. The guidelines are intended to serve as a toolbox for researchers to create tailored, regularly revisited, safe research plans.
Image description: Dr Mary Quinton presenting her research at the QRSE conference.
To keep up to date with Mary’s work you can follow her on X (formerly Twitter) or connect on LinkedIn.
Dr Grace Tidmarsh: Poetry as a qualitative research method
Based on work from Grace’s project “A Community Health and Wellbeing Approach to the UK Youth Homelessness Crisis” she gave a presentation titled: Poetry as a vehicle for enhancing understanding, evaluation, and challenging stereotypes: Learnings from a community health and wellbeing approach to youth homelessness.
The presentation considered the conceptual idea of the application of arts-based participatory methods within the discipline of sport and exercise science based on work relating to the “What Makes Home?” Poetry eBook. Key implications from the project were that poetry can be an inclusive approach, that keeps communities at the heart of our research through providing empowering, positive and safe ways to express their, thoughts, feelings and experiences. Another important finding was that using poetry combined with literary analysis can provide an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of people’s thoughts, feelings and experiences, as well as how they engage the reader.
Image Description: Grace presenting on her research related to poetry at QRSE 2024.
To keep up to date with Grace’s work you can follow her on X (formerly Twitter) or connect on LinkedIn.
QRSE had a packed programme of presentations, symposiums and keynote speakers. Choosing what to go to was a challenge in itself with research spanning across dance settings, coaching, athletes, community projects, researcher wellbeing, and applied practitioners, and incorporating a broad range of qualitative methodologies including:
Creative methodologies (poetry, i-poems, comic strips)
Narrative analysis & narrative photovoice
Co-operative enquiry
Co-design & Co-production
Interview approaches (interpersonal interviews, interactive interviews, walking interviews).
Within these topics above, it was also fantastic to have University of Birmingham, PhD Student, Morgan Milne present on her research “An Interpretive Description of Vocational Dance Students’ Emotions and Emotion Regulation”.
Image Description: Morgan presenting on her research at QRSE 2024.
There are so many to mention but here is a snapshot of some of the thought provoking and inspiring talks from across the conference.
Dr Richard Simpson gave a talk on interpersonal well-being in sport and his use of interpersonal interviews.
Michaela Kousalova and colleagues presented experiences of maltreatment in women’s artistic gymnastics through a poetic ethno-drama.
Dr Dan Martin taught us about practitioners (sport psychologists) self-care at the Olympics through creative representations following interviews. This included 3 vignettes developed from the interviews, reflective journal logs, third person narrative, and first-person monologue.
Sophie Wensel provided an insight into navigating ethical choices in reflexive qualitative research on harm in dance, highlighting the importance of appropriate support costed into research projects.
Dr Janelle Joseph gave an incredible keynote on day 2 titled “De-Coloniality and/in Qualitative Sport Research: Re-Visiting Embodiment and the Erotic”. This thought-provoking talk navigated complex historical context intertwined with active engagement building a sense of community through sharing song and statements together such as “I am. Because we are.”
We thoroughly look forward to continuing to see the advances in methodologies, concepts and theories that are given a platform to shine, grow and develop, through the welcoming and nurturing community within QRSE. An opportunity to connect with friends, new and old and we’re excited to do it all again in Toronto in 2026!
Image description: A delicious conference dinner at The Architect in Bath city centre. It was lovely to spend the evening with colleagues including Dr Richard Simpson, Dr Helen Heaviside & Samantha Glynn.
Image description: Mary, Grace and Morgan enjoying a walk and some sight seeing across Bath.
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Photo credits: Dr Grace Tidmarsh, Dr Mary Quinton, Dr Toni Williams.
Blog written by Dr Grace Tidmarsh & Dr Mary Quinton.
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