Bethlehem Tekola

“Positivism Creep”

“The subtle, often unacknowledged infiltration of positivist or post-positivist assumptions into methodologies where they do not naturally, philosophically, practically, or epistemologically belong.”

By @thomasgraves.bsky.social @maddipow.bsky.social @annayahprosser.bsky.social

NCRM News | Qualitative research and generative AI: reflections on an NCRM seminar Should qualitative researchers be using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)? Recently, more than 400 internationally renowned qualitative researchers co-signed a commentary rejecting GenAI for

I did a blog post for NCRM - Should qualitative researchers be using GenAI?
I’ve used LLMs but in-depth analytic engagement is a creative joy of quali research

Shaping a Brighter Future The first event in our Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture Series, delivered by Hetan Shah, Chief Executive, The British Academy

Are you worried about the devastating cuts we are seeing to arts, humanities & social sciences in UK universities? Last call for my lecture in Leicester this Thurs 27th Nov on the value of these subjects and how they support UK security, cohesion and prosperity www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shaping-a-...

Is this a hybrid event?

Come and join us to discuss the whys and wherefores, joys and torture of writing - in solidarity, in relations with participants, in neoliberal academia.

We have a panel, snacks, and time for everybody to take part in the conversation

Bush House KCL, 4 Nov 2-5pm

🎤 Proposals for our Centre for Qualitative Research, University of Bath Qualitative Research Symposium at University of Bath School of Management are open until November 7th!
Find out more and submit your talk, symposium and workshop abstracts here:
www.bath.ac.uk/events/quali...
#qualitative

Certified organic and AI-free: New stamp for human-written books launches As machine-made books flood online marketplaces, a new UK initiative is introducing an Organic Literature stamp to help readers identify books created by real authors

Certified organic and AI-free: New stamp for human-written books launches www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

hybrid conferences should be the norm, not the exception.

Institutional affiliation should not be a requirement for doing research - Impact of Social Sciences Universities espouse a universalist approach to creating research-based knowledge. Helen Kara & Petra Boynton argue, from the outside these claims are hollow.

With yet another university hosted event closed to 'non academics' (aka those not employed by a university)* I'm just going to leave this piece by @drhelenkara.bsky.social and myself here blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

* yes I know it's utter nonsense and academics/researchers exist outside unis

New open access paper by me and @ginnybraun.bsky.social - Exploring U.K. University Students’ Social Perceptions of Dating and Physical Disability Using Story Completion. There are extensive Supplementary Materials which we hope are useful for teaching reflexive TA: awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Exploring Black Women's Experiences in Psychotherapeutic Training and Practice in the UK Background Discussions around racial disparities and injustice have gained increasing prominence in psychotherapy and counselling research. However, research in this area has been criticised for its.....

Melissa McCallum's important research using qualitative surveys, interviews, focus groups & reflexive thematic analysis (supervised by me) -
Exploring Black Women's Experiences in Psychotherapeutic Training and Practice in the UK - Counselling and Psychotherapy Research share.google/QAahdyVCLjtV...

A new academic year has begun, but UK universities are still struggling to respond to AI - Impact of Social Sciences Mark Carrigan argues university staff are still struggling to develop coherent, contextual and disciplinary responses to AI’s impact on teaching and learning.

👀 ICYMI: "While 92% of undergraduate students are using Generative AI, only 36% said they had been offered support by their university"

#AcademicSky #HigherEducation

Universities teaching literature students how to cope with long novels Critics blame GCSE English for deterring teenagers from the subject, describing the literature syllabus as boring and repetitive

I think we’re really going to have to do a lot more of this. A massive deprogramming so that people can read more than ten words at a time without anxiety.

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured Mākereti Papakura died weeks before handing in her thesis at Oxford university documenting the life and customs of her tribe, work that is still used by Māori today

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Stunning!

Impact in Qualitative Research: Jo Law on Messy, Emotional and Necessary Ethical Research with Marginalised Populations | QUAHRC Jo Law is a qualitative research assistant at the Qualitative Applied Health Research Centre at King’s College London, working on the qualitative component of the EDEN project, which examines the use ...

Messy, emotional, and necessary: PhD student and research assistant Jo Law reflects on ethical #QualitativeResearch with marginalised groups in this month's #ResearchImpact blog:

www.quahrc.co.uk/podcasts-blo...

@kingsioppn.bsky.social @bethlehem.bsky.social

Long Covid has now overtaken Asthma in the US, as a cause of chronic health disease in children. There is currently no cure. Yet no action is being taken and Violet Affleck is very much on point.

Pan-Africanism, Afrofuturism and Decolonisation: A reading list Knowledge will be the first frontier of our freedom.

This is an essay, a reading list and a poem on why I think Pan-Africanism, Afrofuturism and Decolonisation can be insightful tools for realising visions of flourishing future worlds for all.
folukeafrica.com/pan-africani...

Unequal pressures: how disadvantage shaped young people's education… School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just disrupt learning, they revealed and intensified deep inequalities that continue to shape young people’s lives today. While some children…

Unequal pressures: new #qualitative work from the QUAHRC team explores how young people from different backgrounds had very different #Covid experiences, and why this is still relevant to widening inequality

www.kcl.ac.uk/how-disadvan...

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."

www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

How do researchers study experiences that are "too shattering to put into words"? MAshNup method uses art-making, metaphor analysis, and narrative techniques to help participants explore difficult experiences in ethical, sensitive ways.

Read the article here: doi.org/10.1332/3050...

Inside the world of Kenya’s ‘shadow scholars’ paid to write essays for UK students Highly educated Kenyans working for essay mills ghostwrite academic work that students pass off as their own

Inside the world of Kenya’s ‘shadow scholars’ paid to write essays for UK students

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

I have always hated the way smart speakers and chatbots mimic amicability and draw people in to talking to them as if there is a person there.

Great to read a scholarly exploration, using dear old Gigerenzer and Grice to set out the problem 🌟

Iceland Embraced a 4-Day Workweek in 2019 – Now, Nearly Six Years On, All Gen Z Forecasts Have Materialized In 2019, Iceland made headlines as one of the first countries to implement a four-day workweek, not by passing a blanket law, but through agreements

"In 2019, Iceland made headlines as one of the first countries to implement a four-day workweek...Nearly six years later, the results are clear: this bold move has proven to be a game-changer, not just for the workforce, but for society as a whole."

www.wecb.fm/iceland-embr...

Are you, might you become, or do you know a transnational scholar from the Global South? Or do you work with one or more? If so, this insightful, creatively written book will be of interest. It's part of the series I co-edit with @patthomson.bsky.social www.routledge.com/Insider-Guid...

No other word has done more damage to the craft of writing in recent years than “content”. Even if you’re using the word “content” ironically, or as a cute little joke, don’t. When someone calls writing “content” they’re pissing on someone’s hard work & passion. “Content” is Technosatan’s henchword.

Ethical Review in Practice Call for Chapter Proposals Working title: Ethical Review in Practice Editors: Lucy Pickering and Helen Kara Research ethics approval is a key part of the process for many researchers. The small but…

Call for chapters: Ethical Review in Practice, edited by Lucy Pickering and me. Do you have a particularly good, bad, or mixed experience with a research #ethics approval body that you would like to share? If so this call may be of interest: helenkara.com/writing/ethi... please share widely!

I’m so pleased to share that the launch issue of the Journal of Creative Research Methods (JCRM) is now live! 🎉

👉 bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

Huge thanks to my wonderful Co-Editors in Chief Su-Ming Khoo, Harriet Shortt & Sophie Woodward.

#CreativeMethods #JCRM