Reimagining qualitative research education: A look inside the Summer School

We welcomed 53 participants from the UK and beyond, including PhD students, NHS clinicians, public health practitioners, people with lived experience, and academics new to qualitative research.

The Summer School aimed to deliver content on qualitative research methods while holding a space for curiosity, practical advice and getting to know other people. It had to model the kinds of values often discussed in qualitative theory that can be hard to practice in academic settings, such as self-reflection, relationship-based research, and researcher humility about whose truth is most important.

"This [course] should become an obligatory training for all early career researchers. Amazing set up and I definitely feel much more confident about proceeding further with my research." – Anonymous Course Feedback.

Our Summer School on a wall

Photovoice is a qualitative research method where people share their experiences and promote critical dialogue through photography. Throughout the week, we asked participants to take photos of their summer school experiences, building on the photovoice workshop they had on the first day. On the final day of the course, participants transformed our shared space into a photo exhibition, with each image a reflection of how they experienced the week. Some photos showed the learning environment itself, desks with notebooks and water bottles, a screen mid-presentation. Others zoomed out to capture community, food, and emotion.

Below, is a photo a student took of a King’s College London sign. In their caption they use the metaphor of a run in an unfamiliar city to describe their learning journey through the summer school. The photograph, paired with the caption, evokes disorientation and momentum. The caption’s honesty, “a bit overwhelmed, but curious and ready to stretch myself”, captures something many participants echoed during the week. The Summer School challenged not just what people knew, but how they were used to knowing. Like running in a strange place, it asked them to keep moving, notice more, and be open to surprise.

Exploring the Unknown: I was out for a run in an unfamiliar city. Everything felt alien to me. So many people, bins, bikes and trees growing out of pavements. This mirrored how I felt starting the course. A bit overwhelmed, but curious and ready to stretch myself. Like the run, the course has been full of surprises & challenges. – Caption and Photo by Jennifer Hepburn

During the Summer School sessions, we encouraged participants to see qualitative research in a new light. Qualitative research is something that can engage all the senses: sight, sound, touch, and even atmosphere can be forms of data. The photo of a T-shirt and its caption reflect how the week highlighted the multimodal nature of qualitative inquiry. It underlines that doing qualitative work is about paying attention in layered ways. Listening closely, seeing carefully, and noticing context as well as our own role in shaping interpretation.

This t-shirt design reminded me of the multimodal nature of qualitative research and the vast array of methods available to delve into questions about human nature and experience. Throughout the week, this course has reiterated to me the importance of really paying attention (both HEARing and SEEing) the participant, their context and also ourselves in this work. – Caption and Photo by Yanakan Logeswaran

The Summer School created a learning environment where relationships mattered as much as lectures. Knowledge was built through conversations, pauses, and the everyday rhythm of being together. The next photo is of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience stairwell. It captures one of the everyday spaces people passed through during the summer school. It’s a snapshot of the surroundings, concrete, glass, and railings, where side conversations happened, coffee was carried, and people found their way between sessions.

This café terrace on King’s College London’s Campus, with its bold chairs and exposed layout, was more than a place to sit. It symbolised the openness I felt during the summer school: open questions, open discussion, and open ways of thinking that contrasted with what I was used to in Japan. The stairway reminded me that knowledge is a step-by-step journey, and this was one of those steps upward. – Caption and Photo by Yutuka Sawai

Overall, our time at the Summer School sparked momentum, confidence and a sense of possibility to carry out impactful qualitative health research. Participants developed work they had planned in prisons, maternity wards, and in specialist eating disorder clinics. They describe the week as a safe space to think out loud, test ideas, and connect theory to practice. People left with energy to act, collaborate, and carry insights back to their everyday work. 

I am exploding with ideas, thoughts, opportunities and solutions. – Caption and Photo by Calisha Allen

What we learnt

Our photo exhibition offered something different: an insight into how participants experienced the Summer School not just as a training, but as a space of connection, curiosity, and challenge. We certainly feel that it allowed for a more reflective kind of feedback, grounded in lived experience and shared interpretation.

Next year, we hope to build on this by affording participants even more time to analyse and curate their images, and by opening the exhibition to the wider King’s community. In doing so, we aim to get closer to values of inclusion, support, and collaboration across difference. You’re all invited!