Unmoderated Focus Groups as a Tool for Inquiry

Focus groups are a commonly used methodology to explore ideas in a group setting with a researcher acting as moderator. However, in some contexts the presence of a moderator may unduly influence the responses of focus group participants. I report on the use of unmoderated focus groups, a modification of the traditional focus group methodology. Unmoderated focus groups are made up solely of participants in the research study and as such remove the direct influence of the researcher. I found that this methodology uncovered richer identity stories than interviews did alone. In this article, I present the methodology as well as potential constraints for its use in qualitative research.