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Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods Integrating Theory and Practice

• Michael Quinn Patton - Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Saint Paul, MN
• Description

Drawing on more than 40 years of experience conducting applied social science research and program evaluation, author Michael Quinn Patton has crafted the most comprehensive and systematic book on qualitative research and evaluation methods, inquiry frameworks, and analysis options available today. Now offering more balance between applied research and evaluation, t his Fourth Edition illuminates all aspects of qualitative inquiry through new examples, stories, and cartoons; more than a hundred new summarizing and synthesizing exhibits; and a wide range of new highlight sections/sidebars that elaborate on important and emergent issues . For the first time, full case studies are included to illustrate extended research and evaluation examples. In addition, each chapter features an extended "rumination," written in a voice and style more emphatic and engaging than traditional textbook style, about a core issue of persistent debate and controversy.

Supplements

"Very thoughtful and thorough coverage of qualitative design and study."

  “The content itself, based in years of thinking, reading, doing, conversing, is a huge strength. Reading the chapters is like sitting at the feet of one of the masters.”  

“I can’t emphasize enough the quality, detail, and depth of the presentation of research design and methods… Students and experienced researchers will appreciate the depth of presentation of potential qualitative paradigms, theoretical orientations and frameworks as well as special methodological applications that are often not covered in other qualitative texts.”

“It is refreshing to see a text that engages the multiple philosophical and historical trajectories within a qualitative research tradition while integrating this discussion so well with the practice of research design, fieldwork strategies, and data analysis.”

I have used Patton for this course historically; I will continue to use him for this course. I have used previous editions as well.

Great book - not currently teaching a course in evaluation - will definitely consider this text when I do next teach such a course.

Mae’r llyfr yma yn wych, yn enwedig y bennod ar fframweithiau damcaniaethol ac athroniaeth. Rwyf wedi ei argymell i nifer o fyfyrwyr ôl-radd sydd wrthi’n cynllunio traethodau hir - trwy gwrs ‘Yr ymchwilydd ansoddol’ y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (CCC) a hefyd myfyrwyr Bangor (Cymraeg a Saesneg ei hiaith). Rwyf hefyd wedi gofyn i’r llyfrgellydd gwyddorau cymdeithasol archebu un neu ddau o gopïau i’r llyfrgell.

Adopted Creswell 3rd ed (Sage)

Good resource for students looking to develop their qualitative research skills.

Will use as a secondary text in the Qualitative Research Methods course I teach

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Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice Hardcover – Nov. 11 2014

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Drawing on more than 40 years of experience conducting applied social science research and program evaluation, author Michael Quinn Patton has crafted the most comprehensive and systematic book on qualitative research and evaluation methods, inquiry frameworks, and analysis options available today. Now offering more balance between applied research and evaluation, this Fourth Edition of Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods illuminates all aspects of qualitative inquiry through new examples, stories, and cartoons; more than a hundred new summarizing and synthesizing exhibits; and a wide range of new highlight sections/sidebars that elaborate on important and emergent issues. For the first time, full case studies are included to illustrate extended research and evaluation examples. In addition, each chapter features an extended "rumination," written in a voice and style more emphatic and engaging than traditional textbook style, about a core issue of persistent debate and controversy.

• ISBN-10 9781412972123
• ISBN-13 978-1412972123
• Edition 4th
• Publisher Sage Publications
• Publication date Nov. 11 2014
• Language English
• Dimensions 22.23 x 3.81 x 28.58 cm
• Print length 832 pages
• See all details

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Product description

“The content itself, based in years of thinking, reading, doing, conversing, is a huge strength. Reading the chapters is like sitting at the feet of one of the masters.”

“I can’t emphasize enough the quality, detail, and depth of the presentation of research design and methods… Students and experienced researchers will appreciate the depth of presentation of potential qualitative paradigms, theoretical orientations and frameworks as well as special methodological applications that are often not covered in other qualitative texts.”

“It is refreshing to see a text that engages the multiple philosophical and historical trajectories within a qualitative research tradition while integrating this discussion so well with the practice of research design, fieldwork strategies, and data analysis.”

About the Author

Michael Quinn Patton is an independent consultant with more than 40 years’ experience conducting applied research and program evaluations. He lives in Minnesota, where, according to the state’s poet laureate, Garrison Keillor, “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” It was this interesting lack of statistical variation in Minnesota that led him to qualitative inquiry despite the strong quantitative orientation of his doctoral studies in sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years, including 5 years as director of the Minnesota Center for Social Research, where he was awarded the Morse-Amoco Award for innovative teaching. Readers of this book will not be surprised to learn that he has also won the University of Minnesota storytelling competition. He has authored six other SAGE books: Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Creative Evaluation, Practical Evaluation, How to Use Qualitative Methods for Evaluation, Essentials of Utilization-Focused Evaluation, and Family Sexual Abuse: Frontline Research and Evaluation . He has edited or contributed articles to numerous books and journals, including several volumes of New Directions in Program Evaluation, on subjects as diverse as culture and evaluation, how and why language matters, HIV/AIDS research and evaluation systems, extension methods, feminist evaluation, teaching using the case method, evaluating strategy, utilization of evaluation, and valuing. He is the author of Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use and coauthor of Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed, a book that applies complexity science to social innovation. His creative nonfiction book, Grand Canyon Celebration: A Father–Son Journey of Discovery, was a finalist for Minnesota Book of the Year. He is a former president of the American Evaluation Association and recipient of both the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Award for Outstanding Contributions to Useful and Practical Evaluation and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for Lifelong Contributions to Evaluation Theory from the American Evaluation Association. The Society for Applied Sociology presented him the Lester F. Ward Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Sociology. He is on the faculty of The Evaluators’ Institute and teaches workshops for the American Evaluation Association’s professional development courses and Claremont University’s Summer Institute. He is a founding trainer for the International Program for Development Evaluation Training, sponsored by The World Bank and other international development agencies each summer in Ottawa, Ontario. He has conducted applied research and evaluation on a broad range of issues, including antipoverty initiatives, leadership development, education at all levels, human services, the environment, public health, medical education, employment training, agricultural extension, arts, criminal justice, mental health, transportation, diversity initiatives, international development, community development, systems change, policy effectiveness, managing for results, performance indicators, and effective governance. He has worked with organizations and programs at the international, national, state, provincial, and local levels and with philanthropic, not-for-profit, private sector, international agency, and government programs. He has worked with people from many different cultures and perspectives. He has three children―a musician, an engineer, and a nonprofit organization development and evaluation specialist―and one granddaughter. When not evaluating, he enjoys exploring the woods and rivers of Minnesota with his partner, Jean―kayaking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing―and occasionally hiking in the Grand Canyon. He enjoys watching the seasons change from his office overlooking the Mississippi River in Saint

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1412972124
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sage Publications; 4th edition (Nov. 11 2014)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 832 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781412972123
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1412972123
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.95 kg
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22.23 x 3.81 x 28.58 cm
• #97 in Methodology & Statistics
• #99 in Education Research (Books)
• #116 in Social Sciences Methodology

About the author

Michael quinn patton.

Michael Quinn Patton lives in Minnesota where, according to the state's poet laureate, Garrison Keillor, "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." It was this lack of interesting statistical variation in Minnesota that led him to qualitative inquiry despite the strong quantitative orientation of his doctoral studies in sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He serves on the graduate faculty of The Union Institute, a nontraditional, interdisciplinary, nonresidential and individually designed doctoral program.

He was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years, including five years as Director of the Minnesota Center for Social Research, where he was awarded the Morse-Amoco Award for innovative teaching. He won the University of Minnesota storytelling competition and has authored several other books which include Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Creative Evaluation, Practical Evaluation, How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation, and Family Sexual Abuse: Frontline Research and Evaluation.

He edited Culture and Evaluation for the journal New Direction in Program Evaluation. His creative nonfiction book, Grand Canyon Celebration: A Father-Son Journey of Discovery, was a finalist for 1999 Minnesota Book of the Year.He is former President of the American Evaluation Association and the only recipient of both the Alva and Gunner Myrdal Award for Outstanding Contributions to Useful and Practical Evaluation from the Evaluation Research Society and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for Lifelong Contributions to Evaluation Theory from the American Evaluation Association. The Society for Applied Sociology awarded him the 2001 Lester F. Ward Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Sociology.

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Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice

Student resources.

This site is intended to enhance your use of  Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, Fourth Edition ,  by Michael Quinn Patton. Please note that all the materials on this site are especially geared toward maximizing your understanding of the material. 

Drawing on more than 40 years of experience conducting applied social science research and program evaluation, author Michael Quinn Patton has crafted the most comprehensive and systematic book on qualitative research and evaluation methods, inquiry frameworks, and analysis options available today. Now offering more balance between applied research and evaluation, this  Fourth Edition  illuminates all aspects of qualitative inquiry through new examples, stories, and cartoons; more than a hundred new summarizing and synthesizing exhibits; and a wide range of new highlight sections/sidebars that elaborate on important and emergent issues. For the first time, full case studies are included to illustrate extended research and evaluation examples. In addition, each chapter features an extended "rumination," written in a voice and style more emphatic and engaging than traditional textbook style, about a core issue of persistent debate and controversy.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Michael Quinn Patton for writing an excellent text and creating the materials on this site.

Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods

Research Methods in Social Psychology | Qualitative Methods in Criminal Justice | Evaluation in Social Work | Intermediate/Advanced Qualitative Research | Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods | Research Methods in Social Work | Program Evaluation | Introduction to Evaluation

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Out of Print - No longer available.

• DESCRIPTION

This book contains hundreds of examples and stories illuminating all aspects of qualitative inquiry. Patton has created the most comprehensive, systematic review of qualitative methods available.

• Explores, compares and contrasts 16 different theoretical and philosophical approaches to qualitative inquiry
• Offers strategies for enhancing quality and credibility of qualitative findings Unravels the complexities of mixed methods and triangulation
• Explains the issues and approaches to fieldwork as well as providing detailed analytical guidelines

Praise for the Edition

"On dissertation proposals on which I have served, Patton is by far the most cited qualitative research text."                                                       — Ian Baptiste, Penn State University

"I am dazzled by the extent of the material that this book describes and clarifies. Patton has shifted the focus of the text to qualitative inquiry in general, which includes qualitative evaluation. New examples from his own work and that of others serve to clarify and deepen understanding of qualitative research topics and processes. New discussion of many current issues and debates in qualitative scholarship (autoethnography, ethical issues of informed consent and confidentiality, focus group/group interviews, computer-assisted analysis, the complexity of creating criteria for judging the quality of qualitative research, etc.) will bring readers up-to-date with the variety in perspectives about (and the variety within) qualitative inquiry. Most of the chapters in the book have been substantially reorganized in ways that augment the reader's understanding. When anyone asks me about conducting qualitative inquiry, I will say: 'Get Patton's book'." —Corrine Glesne, author of Becoming Qualitative Researchers

"Clearly, this is a vastly improved, much more comprehensive, cogently systematic, and timely review-a tour de force, one might say-of the field of qualitative research, in terms of the theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and normative dimensions/foundations of qualitative research. This is one of the strengths of the volume. It seeks to bring together theory and practice/methods without overburdening one or the other--this is as rare as it is commendable, not to mention extremely useful, not only for the professional researcher, but for the "non-professional" as well." —Lester Edwin J. Ruiz, New York Theological Seminar

Available formats

• 12 primary strategic themes of qualitative inquiry to clarify readers' understanding of the different strands of qualitative research
• Five distinct criteria-based frameworks for presenting and judging qualitative findings
• 16 different theoretical and philosophical approaches to qualitative inquiry that are identified, compared and contrasted, and discussed
• Variations in observational methods, including historical perspectives, case studies and their layers, and partial disclosure and covert observation
• Alternative interviewing strategies and approaches, including focus group interviews, group interviews, "dangerous" knowledge, and cross-cultural interviews
• New issues in and approaches to fieldwork; detailed analytical guidelines, including software and computer-assisted options; strategies for enhancing quality and credibility of qualitative findings, mixed methods, and triangulation; and, a review and listing of the latest Internet resources.

"Paton has a distinguished career as an evaluation researcher and his experience in applying the tools of qualitative research to address the questions and concerns of those in the world of practice come through clearly… a gem of a discussion of sampling strategies in qualitative research that is useful not only to prospective researchers but also to more seasoned ones. It is the most complete and carefully reasoned consideration of sampling in qualitative research that I have encountered " Organizational Research Methods

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“I am there just to get on with it”: a qualitative study on the labour of the patient and public involvement workforce

• Stan Papoulias   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7891-0923 1 &
• Louca-Mai Brady 2  

Health Research Policy and Systems volume  22 , Article number:  118 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

18 Altmetric

Metrics details

Workers tasked with specific responsibilities around patient and public involvement (PPI) are now routinely part of the organizational landscape for applied health research in the United Kingdom. Even as the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has had a pioneering role in developing a robust PPI infrastructure for publicly funded health research in the United Kingdom, considerable barriers remain to embedding substantive and sustainable public input in the design and delivery of research. Notably, researchers and clinicians report a tension between funders’ orientation towards deliverables and the resources and labour required to embed public involvement in research. These and other tensions require further investigation.

This was a qualitative study with participatory elements. Using purposive and snowball sampling and attending to regional and institutional diversity, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with individuals holding NIHR-funded formal PPI roles across England. Interviews were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis with coding and framing presented and adjusted through two workshops with study participants.

We generated five overarching themes which signal a growing tension between expectations put on staff in PPI roles and the structural limitations of these roles: (i) the instability of support; (ii) the production of invisible labour; (iii) PPI work as more than a job; (iv) accountability without control; and (v) delivering change without changing.

Conclusions

The NIHR PPI workforce has enabled considerable progress in embedding patient and public input in research activities. However, the role has led not to a resolution of the tension between performance management priorities and the labour of PPI, but rather to its displacement and – potentially – its intensification. We suggest that the expectation to “deliver” PPI hinges on a paradoxical demand to deliver a transformational intervention that is fundamentally divorced from any labour of transformation. We conclude that ongoing efforts to transform health research ecologies so as to better respond to the needs of patients will need to grapple with the force and consequences of this paradoxical demand.

Peer Review reports

Introduction – the labour of PPI

The inclusion of patients, service users and members of the public in the design, delivery and governance of health research is increasingly embedded in policy internationally, as partnerships with the beneficiaries of health research are seen to increase its relevance, acceptability and implementability. In this context, a growing number of studies have sought to evaluate the impact of public participation on research, including identifying the barriers and facilitators of good practice [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Some of this inquiry has centred on power, control and agency. Attention has been drawn, for example, to the scarcity of user or community-led research and to the low status of experiential knowledge in the hierarchies of knowledge production guiding evidence-based medicine [ 9 ]. Such hierarchies, authors have argued, constrain the legitimacy that the experiential knowledge of patients can achieve within academic-led research [ 10 ], may block the possibility of equitable partnerships such as those envisioned in co-production [ 11 ] and may function as a pull back against more participatory or emancipatory models of research [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. In this way, patient and public inclusion in research may become less likely to aim towards inclusion of public and patient-led priorities, acting instead as kind of a “handmaiden” to research, servicing and validating institutionally pre-defined research goals [ 15 , 16 , 17 ].

Research on how public participation-related activities function as a form of labour within a research ecosystem, however, is scarce [ 18 ]. In this paper, we examine the labour of embedding such participation, with the aim of understanding how such labour fits within the regimes of performance management underpinning current research systems. We argue that considering this “fit” is crucial for a broader understanding of the implementation of public participation and therefore its potential impact on research delivery. To this end, we present findings from a UK study of the labour of an emerging professional cadre: “patient and public involvement” leads, managers and co-ordinators (henceforth PPI, the term routinely used for public participation in the United Kingdom). We concentrate specifically on staff working on research partnerships and centres funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). This focus on the NIHR is motivated by the organization’s status as the centralized research and development arm of the National Health Service (NHS), with an important role in shaping health research systems in the United Kingdom since 2006. NIHR explicitly installed PPI in research as a foundational part of its mission and is currently considered a global leader in the field [ 19 ]. We contend that exploring the labour of this radically under-investigated workforce is crucial for understanding what we see as the shifting tensions – outlined in later sections – that underpin the key policy priority of embedding patients as collaborators in applied health research. To contextualize our study, we first consider how the requirement for PPI in research relates to the overall policy rationale underpinning the organizational mission of the NIHR as the NHS’s research arm, then consider existing research on tensions identified in efforts to embed PPI in a health system governed through regimes of performance management and finally articulate the ways in which dedicated PPI workers’ responsibilities have been developed as a way to address these tensions.

The NIHR as a site of “reformed managerialism”

The NIHR was founded in 2006 with the aim of centralizing and rationalizing NHS research and development activities. Its foundation instantiated the then Labour government’s efforts to strengthen and consolidate health research in the UK while also tackling some of the problems associated with the earlier introduction of new public management (NPM) principles in the governance of public services. NPM had been introduced in the UK public sector by Margaret Thatcher’s government, in line with similar trends in much of the Global North [ 20 ]. The aim was to curb what the Conservatives saw as saw as excesses in both public spending and professional autonomy. NPM consisted in management techniques adapted from the private sector: in the NHS this introduction was formalized via the 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act, which created an internal market for services, with local authorities purchasing services from local health providers (NHS Trusts) [ 21 ]; top-down management control; an emphasis on cost-efficiency; a focus on targets and outputs over process; an intensification of metrics for performance management; and a positioning of patients and the public as consumers of health services with a right to choose [ 22 , 23 ]. In the context of the NHS, cost-efficiency meant concentrating on services and on research which would have the greatest positive impact on population health while preventing research waste [ 24 ]. By the mid-1990s, however, considerable criticism had been directed towards this model, including concerns that NPM techniques resulted in silo-like operations and public sector fragmentation, which limited the capacity for collaboration between services essential for effective policy. Importantly, there was also a sense that an excessive managerialism had resulted in a disconnection of public services from public and civic aims, that is, from the values, voices and interests of the public [ 25 , 26 ].

In this context, the emergence of the NIHR can be contextualized through the succeeding Labour government’s much publicized reformed managerialism, announced in their 1997 white paper “The New NHS: Modern, Dependable” [ 27 ]. Here, the reworking of NPM towards “network governance” meant that the silo-like effects of competition and marketization were to be attenuated through a turn to cross-sector partnerships and a renewed attention to quality standards and to patients’ voices [ 28 ]. It has been argued, however, that the new emphasis on partnerships did not undermine the dominance of performance management, while the investment in national standards for quality and safety resulted in an intensified metricization, with the result that this reform may have been more apparent than real, amounting to “NPM with a human face” [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Indeed, the NIHR can be seen as an exemplary instantiation of this model: as a centralized commissioner of research for the NHS, the NIHR put in place reporting mechanisms and performance indicators to ensure transparent and cost-efficient use of funds, with outputs and impact measured, managed and ranked [ 24 ]. At the same time, the founding document of the NIHR, Best Research for Best Health, articulates the redirection of such market-oriented principles towards a horizon of public good and patient benefit. The document firmly and explicitly positioned patients and the public as both primary beneficiaries of and important partners in the delivery of health research. People (patients) were to be placed “at the centre of a research system that focuses on quality, transparency and value for money” [ 32 ], a mission implemented through the installation of “structures and mechanisms to facilitate increased involvement of patients and the public in all stages of NHS Research & Development” [ 33 ]. This involvement would be supported by the advisory group INVOLVE, a key part of the new centralized health research system. INVOLVE, which had started life in 1996 as Consumers in NHS Research, funded by the Department of Health, testified to the Labour administration’s investment in championing “consumer” involvement in NHS research as a means of increasing research relevance [ 34 ]. The foundation of the NIHR then exemplified the beneficent alignment of NPM with public benefit, represented through the imaginary of a patient-centred NHS, performing accountability to the consumers/taxpayers through embedding PPI in all its activities. In this context, “public involvement” functioned as the lynchpin through which such alignment could be effected.

PPI work and the “logic of deliverables”: a site of tension

Existing research on the challenges of embedding PPI has typically focussed on the experiences of academics tasked with doing so within university research processes. For example, Pollard and Evans, in a 2013 paper, argue that undertaking PPI work in mental health research can be arduous, emotionally taxing and time consuming, and as such, can be in tension with expectations for cost-efficient and streamlined delivery of research outputs [ 35 ]. Similarly, Papoulias and Callard found that the “logic of deliverables” governing research funding can militate against undertaking PPI or even constitute PPI as “out of sync” with research timelines [ 36 ]. While recent years have seen a deepening operationalization of PPI in the NIHR and beyond, there are indications that this process, rather than removing these tensions, may have recast them in a different form. For example, when PPI is itself set up as performance-based obligation, researchers, faced with the requirement to satisfy an increasing number of such obligations, may either engage in “surface-level spectacles” to impress the funder while eschewing the long-term commitment necessary for substantive and ongoing PPI, or altogether refuse to undertake PPI, relegating the responsibility to others [ 37 , 38 ]. Such refusals may then contribute to a sharpening of workplace inequalities: insofar as PPI work is seen as “low priority” for more established academic staff, it can be unevenly distributed within research organizations, with precariously employed junior researchers and women typically assigned PPI responsibilities with the assumption that they possess the “soft skills” necessary for these roles [ 39 ].

Notably, the emergence of a dedicated PPI workforce is intended as a remedy for this tension by providing support, expertise and ways of negotiating the challenges associated with undertaking PPI responsibilities. In the NIHR, this workforce is part of a burgeoning infrastructure for public involvement which includes national standards, training programmes, payment guidelines, reporting frameworks and impact assessments [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. By 2015, an INVOLVE review of PPI activities during the first 10 years of the NIHR attested to “a frenzy of involvement activity…across the system”, including more than 200 staff in PPI-related roles [ 40 ]. As NIHR expectations regarding PPI have become more extensive, responsibilities of PPI workers have proliferated, with INVOLVE organizing surveys and national workshops to identify their skills and support needs [ 41 , 42 ]. In 2019, the NIHR mandated the inclusion of a “designated PPI lead” in all funding applications, listing an extensive and complex roster of responsibilities. These now included delivery and implementation of long-term institutional strategies and objectives, thus testifying to the assimilation of involvement activities within the roster of “performance-based obligations” within research delivery systems [ 43 ]. Notably however, this formalization of PPI responsibilities is ambiguous: the website states that the role “should be a budgeted and resourced team member” and that they should have “the relevant skills, experience and authority”, but it does not specify whether this should be a researcher with skills in undertaking PPI or indeed someone hired specifically for their skills in PPI, that is, a member of the PPI workforce. Equally, the specifications, skills and support needs, which have been brought together into a distinct role, have yet to crystallize into a distinct career trajectory.

Case studies and evaluations of PPI practice often reference the skills and expertise required in leading and managing PPI. Chief among them are relational and communication skills: PPI workers have been described as “brokers” who mediate and enable learning between research and lay spaces [ 44 , 45 ]; skilled facilitators enabling inclusive practice [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]; “boundary spanners” navigating the complexities of bridging researchers with public contributors and undertaking community engagement through ongoing relational work [ 49 ]. While enumerating the skillset required for PPI work, some of these studies have identified a broader organizational devaluation of PPI workers: Brady and colleagues write of PPI roles as typically underfunded with poor job security, which undermines the continuity necessary for generating trust in PPI work [ 46 ], while Mathie and colleagues report that many PPI workers describe their work as “invisible”, a term which the authors relate to the sociological work on women’s labour (particularly housework and care labour) which is unpaid and rendered invisible insofar as it is naturalized as “care” [ 50 ]. Research on the neighbouring role of public engagement professionals in UK universities, which has been more extensive than that on PPI roles, can be instructive in fleshing out some of these points: public engagement professionals (PEPs) are tasked with mediating between academics and various publics in the service of a publicly accountable university. In a series of papers on the status of PEPs in university workplaces, Watermeyer and colleagues argue that, since public engagement labour is relegated to non-academic forms of expertise which lack recognition, PEPs’ efforts in boundary spanning do not confer prestige. This lack of prestige can, in effect, function as a “boundary block” obstructing PEPs’ work [ 51 , 52 ]. Furthermore, like Mathie and Brady, Watermeyer and colleagues also argue that the relational and facilitative nature of engagement labour constitutes such labour as feminized and devalued, with PEPs also reporting that their work remains invisible to colleagues and institutional audit instruments alike [ 50 , 53 ].

The present study seeks to explore further these suggestions that PPI labour, like that of public engagement professionals, lacks recognition and is constituted as invisible. However, we maintain that there are significant differences between the purpose and moral implications of involvement and engagement activities. PPI constitutes an amplification of the moral underpinnings of engagement policies: while public engagement seeks to showcase the public utility of academic research, public involvement aims to directly contribute to optimizing and personalizing healthcare provision by minimizing research waste, ensuring that treatments and services tap into the needs of patient groups, and delivering the vision of a patient-centred NHS. Therefore, even as PPI work may be peripheral to other auditable research activities, it is nevertheless central to the current rationale for publicly funded research ecosystems: by suturing performance management and efficiency metrics onto a discourse of public benefit, such work constitutes the moral underpinnings of performance management in health research systems. Therefore, an analysis of the labour of the dedicated PPI workforce is crucial for understanding how this suturing of performance management and “public benefit” works over the conjured figures of patients in need of benefit. This issue lies at the heart of our research study.

Our interview study formed the first phase of a multi-method qualitative inquiry into the working practices of NIHR-funded PPI leads. While PPI lead posts are in evidence in most NIHR-funded research, we decided to focus on NIHR infrastructure funding specifically: these are 5-year grants absorbing a major tranche of NIHR funds (over £600 million annually in 2024). They function as “strategic investments” embodying the principles outlined in Best Research for Best Health: they are awarded to research organizations and NHS Trusts for the purposes of developing and consolidating capacious environments for early stage and applied clinical research, including building a research delivery workforce and embedding a regional infrastructure of partnerships with industry, the third sector and patients and communities [ 55 ]. We believe that understanding the experience of the PPI workforce funded by these grants may give better insights into NIHR’s ecosystem and priorities, since they are specifically set up to support the development of sustainable partnerships and embed the translational pipeline into clinical practice.

The study used purposive sampling with snowball elements. In 2020–2021, we mapped all 72 NIHR infrastructure grants, identified the PPI teams working in each of these using publicly available information (found on the NIHR website and the websites and PPI pages of every organization awarded infrastructure grants) and sent out invitation emails to all teams. Where applicable, we also sent invitations to mailing lists of PPI-lead national networks connected to these grants. Inclusion criteria were that potential participants should have oversight roles, and/or be tasked with cross-programme/centre responsibilities, meaning that their facilitative and strategy building roles should cover the entirety of activities funded by one (and sometimes more than one) NIHR infrastructure grant or centres including advisory roles over most or all research projects associated with the centre of grant, and that they had worked in this or a comparable environment for 2 years.

The individuals who showed interest received detailed information sheets. Once they agreed to participate, they were sent a consent form and a convenient interview time was agreed. We conducted 21 semi-structured interviews online, between March and June 2021, lasting 60–90 min. The interview topic guide was developed in part through a review of organizational documents outlining the role and through a consideration of existing research on the labour of PPI within health research environments. It focussed on how PPI workers fit within the organization relationship between the actual work undertaken and the way this work is represented to both the organization and the funder. Interview questions included how participants understand their role; how they fit in the organization; how their actual work relates to the job description; how their work is understood by both colleagues and public contributors; the relationship between the work they undertake and how this is represented in reports to funder and presentations; and what they find challenging about their work. Information about participants’ background and what brought them to their present role was also gathered. Audio files were checked, transcribed and the transcripts fully de-identified. All participants were given the opportunity to check transcripts and withdraw them at any point until December 2021. None withdrew.

We analysed the interviews using reflexive thematic analysis with participatory elements [ 54 , 55 ]. Reflexive thematic analysis emphasizes the interpretative aspects of the analytical process, including the data “collection” process itself, which this approach recognizes as a generative act, where meaning is co-created between interviewer and participant and the discussion may be guided by the participant rather than strictly adhering to the topic guide [ 56 ]. We identified patterns of meaning through sustained and immersive engagement with the data. NVivo 12 was used for coding, while additional notes and memos on the Word documents themselves mitigated the over-fragmentation that might potentially limit NVivo as a tool for qualitative analysis. Once we had developed themes which gave a thorough interpretation of the data, we presented these to participants in two separate workshops to test for credibility and ensure that participants felt ownership of the process [ 57 ].

As the population from which the sample was taken is quite small, with some teams working across different infrastructure grants, confidentiality and anonymity were important concerns for participants. We therefore decided neither to collect nor to present extensive demographic information to preserve confidentiality and avoid deductive disclosure [ 58 ]. Out of our 21 participants 20 were women; there was some diversity in age, ethnicity and heritage, with a significant majority identifying as white (British or other European). Participants had diverse employment histories: many had come from other university or NHS posts, often in communications, programme management or human resources; a significant minority had come from the voluntary sector; and a small minority from the private sector. As there was no accredited qualification in PPI at the time this study was undertaken, participants had all learned their skills on their present or previous jobs. A total of 13 participants were on full-time contracts, although in several cases funding for these posts was finite and fragmented, often coming from different budgets.

In this paper we present five inter-related themes drawing on the conceptual architecture we outlined in the first half of this paper to explore how PPI workers navigate a research ecosystem of interlocking institutional spaces that is governed by “NPM with a human face”, while striving to align patients and the public with the imaginary of the patient-centred NHS that mobilizes the NIHR mission. These five themes are: (i) the instability of support; (ii) the production of invisible labour; (iii) PPI as moral imperative; (iv) accountability without control; and (v) delivering change without changing.

“There to grease the cogs rather than be the cogs”: the instability of “support”

Infrastructure grants act as a hub for large numbers of studies, often in diverse health fields, most of which should, ideally, include PPI activities. Here, dedicated PPI staff typically fulfil a cross-cutting role: they are meant to oversee, provide training and advise on embedding PPI activities across the grant and, in so doing, support researchers in undertaking PPI. On paper, support towards the institution in the form of training, delivering strategy for and evaluating PPI is associated with more senior roles (designated manager or lead) whereas support towards so-called public contributors is the remit of more junior roles (designated co-ordinator or officer) and can include doing outreach, facilitating, attending to access needs and developing payment and compensation procedures. However, these distinctions rarely applied in practice: participants typically reported that their work did not neatly fit into these categories and that they often had to fulfil both roles regardless of their title. Some were the only person in the team specifically tasked with PPI, and so their “lead” or “manager” designation was more symbolic than actual:

I have no person to manage, although sometimes I do get a little bit of admin support, but I don’t have any line management responsibility. It is really about managing my workload, working with people and managing the volunteers that I work with and administrating those groups and supporting them (P11).

P11’s title was manager but, as they essentially worked alone, shuttling between junior and senior role responsibilities, they justified and made sense of their title by reframing their support work with public contributors as “management”. Furthermore, other participants reported that researchers often misunderstood PPI workers’ cross-cutting role and expected them to both advise on and deliver PPI activities themselves, even in the context of multiple projects, thus altogether releasing researchers of such responsibility.

As a PPI lead, it is very difficult to define what your role is in different projects….and tasks … So, for example, I would imagine in [some cases] we are seen as the go-to if they have questions. [..] whereas, in [other cases], it is like, “Well, that’s your job because you’re the PPI lead” […] there is not a real understanding that PPI is everyone’s responsibility and that the theme leads are there to facilitate and to grease the cogs rather than be the cogs (P20).

Furthermore, participants reported that the NIHR requirement for a PPI lead in all funding applications might in fact have facilitated this slippage. As already mentioned, the NIHR requirement does not differentiate between someone hired specifically to undertake PPI and a researcher tasked with PPI activities. The presence of a member of staff with a “PPI lead” title thus meant that PPI responsibilities in individual research studies could continue to accrue on that worker:

The people who have been left with the burden of implementing [the NIHR specified PPI lead role] are almost exclusively people like me, though, because now researchers expect me to allow myself to be listed on their project as the PPI lead, and I actually wrote a document about what they can do for the PPI lead that more or less says, “Please don’t list me as your PPI lead. Please put aside funds to buy a PPI lead and I will train them, because there is only one me; I can’t be the PPI lead for everyone” (P10).

This expectation that core members of staff with responsibilities for PPI would also be able to act as PPI leads for numerous research projects suggests that this role lacks firm organizational co-ordinates and boundaries. Here, the presence of a PPI workforce does not, in fact, constitute an appropriate allocation of PPI labour but rather testifies to a continuing institutional misapprehension of the nature of such labour particularly in terms of its duration, location and value.

Conjuring PPI: the production of invisible labour

Participants consistently emphasized the invisibility of the kinds of labour, both administrative and relational, specific to public involvement as a process, confirming the findings of Mathie and colleagues [ 50 ]. This invisibility took different forms and had different justifications. Some argued that key aspects of their work, which are foundational to involvement, such as the process of relationship building, do not lend themselves to recognition as a performance indicator: “ There is absolutely no measure for that because how long is a piece of string” (P11). In addition, relationship building necessitated a considerably greater time investment than was institutionally acceptable, and this was particularly evident when it came to outreach. Participants who did their work in community spaces told stories of uncomprehending line-managers, or annoyed colleagues who wondered where the PPI worker goes and what they do all day:

There is very little understanding from colleagues about what I do on a day-to-day basis, and it has led to considerable conflict …. I would arrive at the office and then I would be disappearing quite promptly out into the community, because that is where I belong […] So, it is actually quite easy to become an absent person (P3).

Once again, the NIHR requirement for designated PPI leads in funding applications, intended to raise the visibility of PPI work by formalizing it as costed labour, could instead further consolidate its invisibility:

I am constantly shoved onto bids as 2% of my full-time equivalent and I think I worked out for a year that would be about 39 hours a year. For a researcher, popping the statistician down and all these different people on that bid, “Everyone is 2% and we need the money to run the trial, so 2% is fine”. And if I said to them, “Well, what do you think I would do in those 39 hours?” they wouldn’t have a clue, not a clue (P17).

The 2% of a full-time allocation is accorded to the PPI worker because 2–5% is the time typically costed for leadership roles or for roles with a circumscribed remit (e.g. statisticians). However, this allocation, in making PPI workers’ labour visible either as oversight (what project leads do) or as methodological expertise (what statisticians do), ends up producing the wrong kind of visibility: the 39 h mentioned here might make sense when the role mainly involves chairing weekly meetings or delivering statistical models but are in no way sufficient for the intense and ongoing labour of trust-building and alignment between institutions and public contributors in PPI.

Indeed, such costings, by eliding the complexity and duration of involvement, may reinforce expectations that PPI can be simply conjured up at will and delivered on demand:

A researcher will say to us, “I would really like you to help me to find some people with lived experience, run a focus group and then I’ll be away”. To them, that is the half-hour meeting to talk about this request, maybe 10 minutes to draft a tweet and an email to a charity that represents people with that condition […] the reality is it is astronomically more than that, because there is all this hidden back and forth. […] [researchers] expect to be able to hand over their protocol and then I will find them patients and those patients will be … representative and I will be able to talk to all of those patients and … write them up a report and …send it all back and they will be able to be like, “Thanks for the PPI”, and be on their merry way (P13).

What P13 communicates in this story is the researcher’s failure to perceive the difference between PPI work and institutional norms for project delivery: the researcher who asks for “some people with lived experience” is not simply underestimating how long this process will take. Rather, involvement work is perceived as homologous to metricized and institutionally recognizable activities (for example, recruitment to trials or producing project reports) for which there already exist standard procedures. Here, the relational complexity and improvised dynamic of involvement is turned into a deliverable (“the PPI”) that can be produced through following an appropriate procedure. When PPI workers are expected to instantly deliver the right contributors to fit the project needs, PPI labour is essentially black boxed and in its place sits “the PPI”, a kind of magical object seemingly conjured out of nowhere.

Such invisibility, however, may also be purposefully produced by the PPI workers themselves. One participant spoke of this at length, when detailing how they worked behind the scenes to ensure public contributors have input into research documents:

When we get a plain English summary from a researcher, we rewrite them completely. If the advisory group [see] … a really bad plain English summary, they are just going to go, “I don’t understand anything”. I might as well do the translation straight away so that they can actually review something they understand. [Researchers then] think, “Oh, [the public advisory group] are so good at writing” … and I am thinking, “Well, they don’t … write, they review, and they will say to me, ‘Maybe move this up there and that up there, and I don’t understand these’”, … They are great, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t write it. And it is the same with a lot of things. They think that [the group] are the ones that do it when it is actually the team (P7).

Here, the invisibility of the PPI worker’s labour is purposefully wrought to create good will and lubricate collaboration. Several participants said that they chose to engage in such purposeful invisibility because they knew that resources were not available to train researchers in plain writing and public contributors in academic writing. PPI workers, in ghost-writing accessible texts, thus effect a shortcut in the institutional labour required to generate alignment between researchers and public contributors. However, this shortcut comes at a price: in effecting it, PPI workers may collude in conjuring “the PPI” – they may themselves make their own work disappear.

“Not a 9 to 5”: PPI work as more than a job

Most participants reported that overtime working was common for themselves and their teammates, whether they were on a fractional or full-time contract. Overall, participants saw undertaking extra work as a necessary consequence of their commitment towards public contributors, a commitment which made it difficult to turn work down:

Everyone loses if you say no: the public contributors aren’t involved in a meaningful way, the project won’t be as good because it doesn’t have meaningful PPI involvement (P20).

While overwork was a common result of this commitment, some participants described such overwork as the feature that distinguished PPI work from what one commonly understands as a “job”, because, in this case, over-work was seen as freely chosen rather than externally imposed:

It is me pushing myself or wanting to get things done because I started it and I think I would get less done if I worked less and that would bother me, but I don’t think it is a pressure necessarily from [line manager] or [the institution] or anyone to be like, “No, do more” (P13).

Participants presented relationship building not only as the most time-consuming but also the most enjoyable aspect of PPI work. Community engagement was a key site for this and once again participants tended to represent this type of work as freely chosen:

I did most of the work in my free time in the end because you have to go into communities and you spend a lot longer there. […] So, all of that kind of thing I was just doing in my spare time and I didn’t really notice at the time because I really enjoyed it (P6).

Thus, time spent in relationship building was constituted as both work and not work. It did not lend itself to metricization via workplace time management and additionally, was not perceived by participants themselves as labour (“I didn’t really notice it at the time”). At the same time, out-of-hours work was rationalized as necessary for inclusivity, set up to enable collaboration with public contributors in so far as these do not have a contractual relationship to the employer:

That is not a 9–5. That is a weekends and holidays sort of job, because our job is to reduce the barriers to involvement and some of those barriers are hours – 9–5 is a barrier for some people (P17).

If working overtime allows PPI workers to reduce barriers and enable collaboration with those who are not employed by the institution, that same overtime work also serves to conceal the contractual nature of the PPI workers’ own labour, which now becomes absorbed into the moral requirements of PPI.

“Caught in the middle”: accountability without control

Participants repeatedly emphasized that their ability to contribute to research delivery was stymied by their lack of control over specific projects and over broader institutional priority setting:

… as a PPI lead we are not full member of staff, we are not responsible for choosing the research topics. We […] can only guide researchers who come to us and tell us what they are doing … we don’t have any power to define what the public involvement looks like in a research project (P6).

Tasked with creating alignments and partnerships between the publics and institutions, participants argued that they did not have the power to make them “stick” because they are not “really” part of the team. However, even as PPI workers lacked the power to cement partnerships, any failure in the partnership could be ascribed to them, perceived as a failure of the PPI worker by both funder and public contributors:

Often you have to hand over responsibility and the researcher [who] can let the panel down and … I feel like I have let the panel member down because … I am the one who said, “Oh yes, this person wants to talk to you”, and I find that really challenging, getting caught in the middle like that (P21).

This pairing of accountability with lack of control became more pronounced in grant applications or reports to the funder:

It is also quite frustrating in the sense that, just because I advise something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it gets implemented or even included in the final grant. [even so] whatever the feedback is still reflects on us, not necessarily on the people who were making the wider decisions […] As PPI leads, we are still usually the ones that get the blame (P10).

Several participants testified to this double frustration: having to witness their PPI plans being rewritten to fit the constraints (financial, pragmatic) of the funding application, they then often found themselves held accountable if the PPI plans fail to carry favour with the funder. PPI workers then become the site where institutional accountability to both its public partners and to the funder gathers – it is as though, while located outside most decision-making, they nevertheless become the attractors for the institution’s missing accountability, which they experience, in the words of P21, as “ being caught in the middle ” or, as another participant put it, as “ the worry you carry around ” (P16).

“There to just get on with it”: delivering change without changing

Participants recognized that effective collaboration between research institutions and various publics requires fundamental institutional changes. Yet they also argued that while PPI workers are not themselves capable of effecting such change, there is nevertheless considerable institutional pressure to deliver on promises made in grant applications and build PPI strategies on this basis:

So, there is that tension about […] pushing this agenda and encouraging people to do more [….] rather than just accepting the status quo. But actually, the reality is that it is very, very hard to get everybody in [grant name] to change what they do and I can’t make that happen, [senior PPI staff] can’t make that happen, nobody can. The whole systemic issue … But you have got, somehow in the strategy and what you say you are going to do, that tension between aspiration and reality (P4).

This tension between aspiration and reality identified here could not be spelled out in reports for fear of reputational damage. In fact, the expectation to have delivered meaningful PPI, now routinely set up in NIHR applications, could itself militate against such change. For example, a frequently voiced concern was that PPI was being progressively under-resourced:

I feel the bar is getting higher and higher and higher and expectations are higher and we have got no extra resource (P16).

However, annual reports, the mechanism through which the doing of PPI is evidenced, made it difficult to be open about any such under-resourcing.

We will allude to [the lack of resources]. So, we will say things like, “We punch above our weight”, but I am not sure that message gets home to the NIHR very clearly. It is not like the annual report is used to say, “Hey, you’re underfunding this systematically, but here’s all the good stuff we do”, because the annual report is, by essence, a process of saying how great you are, isn’t it? (P3).

The inclusion of PPI as a “deliverable” meant that, in a competitive ecosystem, the pressure is on to report that PPI has always already been delivered. As another participant put it, “ no one is going to report the bad stuff ” (P17). Hence reporting, in setting up PPI as a deliverable, reinforced new zones of invisibility for PPI labour and made it harder to surface any under-resourcing for such labour. Furthermore, such reporting also played down any association between successful PPI and system transformation. Another participant described the resistance they encountered after arguing the organization should move away from “last-minute” PPI:

I think it is really hard when […] these people are essentially paying your pay cheque, to then try to push back on certain things that I don’t think are truly PPI ….[A]s somebody who I felt my role was really to show best practice, for then [to be] seen as this difficult person for raising issues or pushing back rather than just getting things done, is really hard [….] I get the impression, at least within the [organization] … that I am not there to really point out any of the issues. I am there just to get on with it (P14).

This opposition between pointing out the issues and “getting on with it” is telling. It names a contradiction at the heart of PPI labour: here, the very act of pushing back – in this case asking for a commitment to more meaningful and ongoing PPI – can be perceived as going against the PPI worker’s responsibilities, insofar as it delays and undoes team expectations for getting things done, for delivering PPI. Here, then, we find an exemplary instance of the incommensurability between the temporal demands of research and those of meaningful PPI practice.

How do the five themes we have presented help open out how policies around public participation are put into practice—as well as the contradictions that this practice navigates – in health systems organized by the rhetorical suturing of performance management onto public benefit? We have argued that the development of a dedicated workforce represents an attempt to “repair” the tension experienced by researchers between the administrative, facilitative and emotional work of PPI and the kinds of deliverables that the institution requires them to prioritize. We argue that our findings indicate that insofar as PPI workers’ role then becomes one of “delivering” PPI, this tension is reproduced and at times intensified within their work. This is because, as actors in the health research ecosystem, PPI staff are tethered to the very regimes of performance management, which give rise to an institutional misapprehension of the actual labour associated with delivering PPI.

This misapprehension surfaces in the instruments through which the funder costs, measures and generates accountability for PPI – namely, the requirement for a costed PPI lead and the mandatory inclusion of a PPI section in applications and regular reports to funder. The NIHR requirement for a costed PPI lead, intended to legitimize the undertaking of PPI as an integral part of a research team’s responsibilities, may instead continue to position the PPI worker as a site for the research team’s wholesale outsourcing of responsibility for PPI, since this responsibility, while in tension with other institutional priorities, cannot nevertheless be refused by the team. Furthermore, the use of titles such as lead, manager or co-ordinator not only signal an orderly distinction between junior and senior roles, which often does not apply in practice, but also reframes the extra-institutional work of PPI (the forging of relationships and administrative support with public contributors), through the intra-institutional functions of performance/project management. This reframing elides an important difference between the two: public and patient partners, for the most part, do not have a formal contractual relationship with the institution and are not subject to performance management in the way that contracted researchers and healthcare professionals are. Indeed, framing the relationship between PPI workers and public contributors through the language of “management” fundamentally misrecognizes the kinds of relationalities produced in the interactions between PPI workers and public contributors and elides the externality of PPI to the “logic of deliverables” [ 36 ].

The inclusion of a detailed PPI section in grant applications and annual reports to funder further consolidates this misapprehension by also representing public involvement as if it is already enrolled within organizational normative procedures and therefore compels those in receipt of funding to evidence such delivery through annual reports [ 37 ]. This demand puts PPI workers under increasing pressure, since their function is to essentially present PPI objectives as not only achievable but already achieved, thus essentially bracketing out the process of organizational transformation which is a necessary prerequisite to establishing enduring partnerships with patients and the public. This bracketing out is at work in the organizational expectation to “just get on with it”, which structures the labour of delivering PPI in NIHR-funded research. Here, the demand to just get on, to do the work one is paid to do, forecloses the possibility of engaging with the structural obstacles that militate against that work being done. To the extent that both role designation and reporting expectations function to conceal the disjuncture that the establishment of public partnerships represents for regimes of performance management, they generate new invisibilities for PPI workers. These invisibilities radically constrain how such labour can be adequately undertaken, recognized and resourced.

In suggesting that much of the labour of staff in public involvement roles is institutionally invisible, and that organizational structures may obstruct or block their efforts, we concur with the arguments made by Watermeyer, Mathie and colleagues about the position of staff in public engagement and public involvement roles, respectively. However, our account diverges from theirs in our interpretation of how and why this labour is experienced as invisible and how that invisibility could be remedied. Mathie and colleagues in particular attribute this invisibility to a lack of parity and an institutional devaluation of what are perceived as “soft skills” – facilitation and relationship building in particular [ 50 ]. They therefore seek to raise PPI work to visibility by emphasizing the complexity of PPI activities and by calling for a ring-fencing of resources and a development of infrastructures capable of sustaining such work. While we concur that the invisibility of PPI labour is connected to its devaluation within research institutions, we also suggest that, in addition, this invisibility is a symptom of a radical misalignment between regimes of performance management and the establishment of sustainable public partnerships. Establishing such partnerships requires, as a number of researchers have demonstrated [ 18 , 59 , 60 ], considerable institutional transformation, yet those tasked with delivering PPI are not only not in a position to effect such transformation, they are also compelled to conceal its absence.

Recognizing and addressing the misalignment between regimes of performance management and the establishment of sustainable public partnerships becomes particularly pressing given the increasing recognition, in many countries, that public participation in health research and intervention development is an important step to effectively identifying and addressing health inequalities [ 19 , 61 , 62 ]. Calls for widening participation, for the inclusion of under-served populations and for co-designing and co-producing health research, which have been gathering force in the last 20 years, have gained renewed urgency in the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic [ 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 ]. In the United Kingdom, Best Research for Best Health: The Next Chapter, published by the NIHR in 2021 to define the direction and priorities for NHS Research for the coming decade, exemplifies this urgency. The document asserts that a radical broadening of the scope of PPI (now renamed “public partnerships”) is essential for combatting health inequalities: it explicitly amplifies the ambitions of its 2006 predecessor by setting up as a key objective “close and equitable partnerships with communities and groups, including those who have previously not had a voice in research” [ 68 ]. Here, as in other comparable policy documents, emphasis on extending partnerships to so-called underserved communities rests on the assumption that, to some degree at least, PPI has already become the norm for undertaking research. This assumption, we argue, closes down in advance any engagement with the tensions we have been discussing in this paper, and in so doing risks exacerbating them. The document does recognize that for such inclusive partnerships to be established institutions must “work differently, taking research closer to people [..] and building relationships of trust over time” – though, we would suggest, it is far from clear how ready or able institutions are really to take on what working differently might mean.

Our study engages with and emphasizes this need to “work differently” while also arguing that the demands and expectations set up through regimes of performance management and their “logic of deliverables” are not favourable to an opening of a space in which “working differently” could be explored. In health research systems organized through these regimes, “working differently” is constrained by the application of the very templates, instruments and techniques which constitute and manage “business as usual”. Any ongoing effort to transform health research systems so as better to respond to growing health inequalities, our study implies, needs to combat, both materially and procedurally, the ease with which the disjuncture between embedding public partnerships and normative ways of undertaking research comes to disappear.

Limitations

We focus on the labour of the PPI workforce and their negotiation of performance management regimes, which means that we have not discussed relationships between PPI staff and public contributors nor presented examples of good practice. While these are important domains for study if we are to understand the labour of the PPI workforce, they lie outside the scope of this article. Furthermore, our focus on the UK health research system means that our conclusions may have limited generalizability. However, both the consolidation of NPM principles in public sector institutions and the turn to public and patient participation in the design and delivery of health research are shared developments across countries in the Global North in the last 40 years. Therefore, the tensions we discuss are likely to also manifest in health systems outside the United Kingdom, even as they may take somewhat different forms, given differences in how research and grants are costed, and roles structured. Finally, this project has elements of “insider” research since both authors, while working primarily as researchers, have also had experience of embedding PPI in research studies and programmes. Insider research has specific strengths, which include familiarity with the field and a sense of shared identity with participants which may enhance trust, facilitate disclosure and generate rich data. In common with other insider research endeavours, we have sought to reflexively navigate risks of bias and of interpretative blind spots resulting from over-familiarity with the domain under research [ 69 ] by discussing our findings and interpretations with “non-insider” colleagues while writing up this research.

Our qualitative study is one of the first to investigate how the UK PPI workforce is negotiating the current health research landscape. In doing so, we have focused on the UK’s NIHR since this institution embodied the redirection of performance management regimes towards public benefit by means of public participation. If PPI is set up as both the means of enabling this redirection and an outcome of its success, then the PPI workforce, the professional cadre evolving to support PPI, becomes, we argue, the site where the tensions of attempting this alignment are most keenly experienced.

We suggest that, while such alignment would demand a wholesale transformation of organizational norms, the regimes of performance management underpinning research ecologies may also work to foreclose such transformation, thus hollowing out the promise of patient-centred research policies and systems. Recognizing and attending to this foreclosure is urgent, especially given the current policy emphasis in many countries on broadening the scope, ambition and inclusivity of public participation as a means of increasing the reach, relevance and potential positive impact of health research.

Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

S.P. presented earlier versions of this paper at the 8th annual conference of the Centre for Public Engagement Kingston University, December 2021; at the Medical Sociology conference of the British Sociological Association, September 2022; and at the annual Health Services Research UK Conference, July 2023. They are grateful to the audiences of these presentations for their helpful comments. Both authors are also grateful to the generous participants and to the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Public Involvement Community for their sustaining support and encouragement during this time. S.P. also wishes to thank Felicity Callard for her comments, advice and suggestions throughout this process: this paper would not have been completed without her.

S.P. is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

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S.P. developed the original idea for this article through earlier collaborations with L.M.B. whose long-term experience as a PPI practitioner has been central to both the project and the article. L.M.B. contributed to conceptualization, wrote the first draft of the background and undertook revisions after the first draft including reconceptualization of results. S.P. contributed to conceptualization, undertook data analysis, wrote the first draft of findings and discussion and revised the first draft in its entirety in consultation with L.M.B. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Papoulias, S., Brady, LM. “I am there just to get on with it”: a qualitative study on the labour of the patient and public involvement workforce. Health Res Policy Sys 22 , 118 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-024-01197-5

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Michael Quinn Patton

Michael Quinn Patton is author of more than a dozen books on evaluation including Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, 4th ed (2015), Blue Marble Evaluation (2020), Principles-Focused Evaluation (2018), Facilitating Evaluation (2018) and Developmental Evaluation (2011). Based in Minnesota, he was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years and is a former president of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). Michael is a recipient of the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award, the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Evaluation Theory Award, and the Research on Evaluation Award, all from AEA He has also received the... More About Author

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Drawing on more than 40 years of experience conducting applied social science research and program evaluation, author Michael Quinn Patton has crafted the most comprehensive and systematic book on qualitative research and evaluation methods, inquiry frameworks, and analysis options available today. Now offering more balance between applied research and evaluation, this Fourth Edition illuminates all aspects of qualitative inquiry through new examples, stories, and cartoons; more than a hundred new summarizing and synthesizing exhibits; and a wide range of new highlight sections/sidebars that elaborate on important and emergent issues. For the first time, full case studies are included to illustrate extended research and evaluation examples. In addition, each chapter features an extended "rumination," written in a voice and style more emphatic and engaging than traditional textbook style, about a core issue of persistent debate and controversy.

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Michael Quinn Patton  is author of more than a dozen books on evaluation including Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, 4th ed (2015), Blue Marble Evaluation (2020), Principles-Focused Evaluation (2018), Facilitating Evaluation (2018) and Developmental Evaluation (2011). Based in Minnesota, he was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years and is a former president of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). Michael is a recipient of the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award, the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Evaluation Theory Award, and the Research on Evaluation Award, all from AEA He has also received the Lester F. Ward Distinguished Contribution to Applied and Clinical Sociology Award from the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology. In 2021 he received the first Transformative Evaluator Award from EvalYouth. He is an active speaker, trainer, and workshop presenter who has conducted applied research and evaluation on a broad range of issues and has worked with organizations and programs at the international, national, state, provincial, and local levels. Michael has three children―a musician, an engineer, and an evaluator―and four grandchildren. When not evaluating, he enjoys exploring the woods and rivers of Minnesota, where he lives.

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Michael Quinn Patton lives in Minnesota where, according to the state's poet laureate, Garrison Keillor, "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." It was this lack of interesting statistical variation in Minnesota that led him to qualitative inquiry despite the strong quantitative orientation of his doctoral studies in sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He serves on the graduate faculty of The Union Institute, a nontraditional, interdisciplinary, nonresidential and individually designed doctoral program.

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Parents’ learning in family literacy: a mixed-Methods evaluation

Das Lernen der Eltern in der Familienalphabetisierung. Eine Mix-Methods-Evaluation

• Originalbeitrag
• Open access
• Published: 03 September 2024

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You have full access to this open access article

• Carol Clymer   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0000-0098-647X 1 ,
• Jungeun Lee 1 ,
• Elisabeth L. McLean 1 &
• Esther Prins 1  

In the USA, comprehensive family literacy programs integrate adult education and parent education, interactive parent-child literacy activities, and early childhood education or school for children. Although parents’ learning is central to family literacy, research overwhelmingly focuses on children’s outcomes or positions parents as conduits of children’s learning. Thus, we know little about changes in parents’ language and literacy capabilities, self-concepts, social support systems, or other benefits. This study reports findings from a multi-year, mixed-methods evaluation of five family literacy programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Participants were primarily immigrant mothers. Qualitative data, along with statistically significant quantitative data from a pre-post survey ( n  = 139), demonstrate learning in four domains: educational, personal, social, and parenting. Specifically, parents developed literacy and language skills; enjoyed reading more and spent more time reading alone and with children; were more involved in everyday literacy practices; increased their self-confidence and self-esteem; provided support for each other, developed friendships, and built a sense of community; and increased support for and involvement in their children’s development, literacy, and education. These results build on prior research on parental outcomes and illustrate the value of using multi-faceted, holistic measures to examine how parents benefit from family literacy.

Zusammenfassung

In Alphabetisierungsprogrammen für Familien in den USA werden Erwachsenenbildung und Elternbildung, interaktive Eltern-Kind-Aktivitäten und frühkindliche Bildung oder Schule für Kinder integriert. Obwohl das Lernen der Eltern im Mittelpunkt der familiären Alphabetisierung steht, konzentriert sich die Forschung überwiegend auf die Ergebnisse der Kinder oder betrachtet die Eltern als Vermittler des kindlichen Lernens. Daher wissen wir nur wenig über die Veränderungen in den Sprach- und Lesefähigkeiten der Eltern, ihr Selbstverständnis, ihre sozialen Unterstützungssysteme oder andere Vorteile. Diese Studie berichtet Ergebnisse einer mehrjährigen, mix-methods Evaluierung von fünf Alphabetisierungsprogrammen für Familien in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Die Teilnehmenden waren hauptsächlich Mütter mit Migrationshintergrund. Qualitative Daten sowie statistisch signifikante quantitative Daten aus einer Pre-Post-Umfrage (n = 139) belegen Lernfortschritte in vier Bereichen: Bildung, Persönlichkeit, Soziales und Elternschaft. Insbesondere entwickelten die Eltern Lese- und Sprachkenntnisse, hatten mehr Freude am Lesen und verbrachten sowohl allein als auch mit ihren Kindern mehr Zeit mit dem Lesen, beteiligten sich stärker an alltäglichen Lese- und Schreibpraktiken, steigerten ihr Selbstvertrauen und ihr Selbstwertgefühl, unterstützten sich gegenseitig, schlossen Freundschaften und bauten ein Gemeinschaftsgefühl auf und verstärkten ihre Unterstützung und ihr Engagement für die Entwicklung, die Lese- und Schreibfähigkeiten und die Bildung ihrer Kinder. Diese Ergebnisse stützen sich auf frühere Forschungen zu elterlichen Ergebnissen und veranschaulichen den Wert der Verwendung vielschichtiger, ganzheitlicher Maßnahmen, um zu untersuchen, wie Eltern von familiärer Alphabetisierung profitieren.

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1 Introduction

The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) indicates that the USA and Germany are two countries where respondents’ literacy scores are most closely associated with their parents’ educational attainment, creating “the most entrenched multigenerational literacy problem among countries in the PIAAC survey” (Lunze and Paasche-Orlow 2014 , p. 17). Family literacy programs hold promise for alleviating such intergenerational disparities. There are many models of family literacy programs in the USA (Lynch and Prins 2022 ). The prominent four-component or Kenan model integrates adult education, parenting education, interactive parent-child literacy activities, and early childhood education or school. These comprehensive programs support parents’ development of literacy and language skills and equip them to engage in their children’s learning. Although adult education and parents’ learning are central to family literacy, research overwhelmingly focuses on children’s outcomes or position parents as conduits of children’s learning, not learners in their own right (Prins et al. 2020 ). Thus, we know little about changes in parents’ language and literacy capabilities, self-concepts, social support systems, or other benefits.

Accordingly, this paper examines how parents Footnote 1 (mainly mothers and grandmothers) have learned and grown through participating in five family literacy programs in Philadelphia, known as the Family Literacy Initiative (FLI). As the program evaluators, we have collected four years of mixed methods data on adult and child outcomes. Here, we present qualitative data and statistically significant quantitative data that demonstrate parents’ outcomes in four domains: educational, personal, social, and parenting. The results show that parents developed literacy and language skills; enjoy reading more and spend more time reading; are more involved in everyday literacy practices; increased their self-confidence and self-esteem; provided support for each other, developed friendships, and built a sense of community; and increased support of their children’s development, literacy, and education. These results build on prior research on parental outcomes and illustrate the value of using multi-faceted, holistic measures to examine how parents benefit from family literacy.

2 Parental outcomes in family literacy

There is scant but growing research on how parents benefit from participating in various types of family literacy programs (Brooks et al. 2008 ; Cara and Brooks 2013 ; Carpentieri 2012 ; Lynch and Prins 2022 ; Swain et al. 2014 ). To review the literature and analyze our data, we drew on Lamb’s ( 2009 ) typology of educational, personal , and social “domains of progression” (we did not collect data on economic progression). We added another domain, parenting , because it includes outcomes that are important to the family literacy model we studied. Although few studies on parental outcomes have used longitudinal designs, comparison or control groups, or direct measures, the extant research reveals common findings.

Educational progression involves development of language, literacy, and numeracy skills, greater involvement in everyday literacy practices, and pursuit of further education. Prior research—mainly self-report data and some direct measures—shows that parents in family literacy improve their reading, writing, and numeracy (Brooks et al. 1997 , 2008 ; Hulme et al. 2022 ; Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2009 ); change their literacy practices, such as reading enjoyment or reading more kinds of texts (Brooks et al. 2008 ; Furness 2012 ; Phillips et al. 2006 ; Rodríguez-Brown 2009 ); and achieve national qualification levels or obtain accreditations (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2009 ; Swain et al. 2013 ). A few studies report English language gains for immigrant/refugee parents using direct measures (Rodríguez-Brown 2009 ; Sommer et al. 2020 , 2023 ) or self-report (Gilman 2021 ; Halpern et al. 2019 ; Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2009 ).

Studies also show that in many cases, parents in family literacy programs planned to continue studying or pursue training (Brassett-Grundy 2002 ; Swain et al. 2014 ). Retrospective or follow-up research—including a study with a comparison group (Sylva et al. 2004 )—suggests that a high percentage did so (Brassett-Grundy 2002 ; Brooks et al. 1997 ; Carpentieri 2012 ; Chase-Lansdale et al. 2019 ; Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2009 ; Primavera 2000 ; Swain et al. 2013 , 2014 ).

Some studies, however, reveal mixed results, with gains in some literacy indicators but not others (Brooks et al. 2008 , p. 132), gains only for certain groups, or contradictory quantitative and qualitative data. For example, a Canadian longitudinal study with control groups showed self-reported gains in reading frequency and literacy confidence but no statistical difference in reading scores (Phillips et al. 2006 ). In England, an evaluation of 74 programs found small but significant gains in writing but not reading in standard courses (60–72 h), and only English language learners in short courses (30–49 h) significantly improved their reading (Swain et al. 2013 ). The authors hypothesized that parents in the standard courses and native English speakers started with high reading scores. In the USA, a randomized controlled trial revealed gains in English reading, but not writing or speaking (Sommer et al. 2023 ).

The personal domain entails psychological well-being and intrapersonal growth. Many studies have documented, mainly through self-report, how participating in family literacy enhances parents’ confidence, self-esteem, and self-efficacy (Brassett-Grundy 2002 ; Brooks et al. 2008 ; Burkhardt et al. 2020 ; Furness 2012 ; Halpern et al. 2019 ; Macleod and Tett 2019 ; Primavera 2000 ; Sommer et al. 2020 ). The few studies with control groups had contradictory findings: two showed a significant increase in self-esteem (Bekman 1998 ) or self-efficacy (Chase-Lansdale et al. 2019 ), and two found no difference in self-efficacy (Sylva et al. 2004 ) or self-esteem and psychological distress (Sommer et al. 2023 ).

Other types of personal progression include learning how institutions work (Furness 2012 ), communication skills (Bekman 1998 ; Brooks et al. 1997 ; Furness 2012 ), and ability to advocate for oneself and one’s family through interactions with children’s teachers, community agencies, or other institutional representatives (Schoorman et al. 2020 ).

The social domain refers to interpersonal relationships (friendships, social networks, social support) and community involvement. The few studies on this topic suggest that family literacy can increase parents’ voluntarism and community involvement (Furness 2012 ; Macleod and Tett 2019 ) and expand their social networks and social support, leading to numerous psychosocial benefits (Prins et al. 2009 ; Brassett-Grundy 2002 ; Furness 2012 ; Halpern et al. 2019 ; Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2009 ; Primavera 2000 ). However, the only comparison group study we could locate on this topic found no difference in social support between the family literacy mothers and the comparison group (Sylva et al. 2004 ).

Finally, the parenting domain pertains to adults’ learning about parenting, child development and literacy, and related topics (e.g., talking with teachers), along with changes in their parenting and parent-child literacy practices. Research shows that participating in various kinds of family literacy programs improves parent-child interactions (Burkhardt et al. 2020 ); parents’ support for and involvement in children’s literacy activities (Hulme et al. 2022 ; le Roux 2021 ; Sommer et al. 2020 ); and knowledge of child development (Burkhardt et al. 2020 ; Primavera 2000 ). For example, in their review of 15 empirical studies Terlitsky and Wilkins ( 2015 ) concluded that parents “gained confidence in their abilities to help their children” (p. 1), which increased their involvement in their children’s education, which in turn enhanced children’s literacy advancement and positive behaviors.

Focusing on 12 immigrant and refugee mothers in a Canadian family literacy program, Gilman’s ( 2021 ) qualitative dissertation illustrates how one program fostered educational, personal, social, and parenting benefits. The mothers gained competence and confidence in their English and parenting abilities and came to see themselves as “better parents,” for example, by supporting their children’s literacy learning and education and adopting new, helpful communication strategies. Learning English helped them feel integrated in their communities. Through the program’s family-like social space, mothers also shared advice and support, which strengthened their “confidence and self-esteem and validated their efforts to be ‘good’ mothers” (p. 154). In sum, the program provided mothers with educational, social, and material resources to transform their identities in beneficial ways.

3 Background

The Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy at The Pennsylvania State University launched a multi-year Family Literacy Initiative in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2018. Funded by the William Penn Foundation, the FLI aims to deepen and expand connections between adult and child literacy programming and improve parents’ and children’s language and literacy skills and practices. Five programs (see Table  1 ) provide family literacy services (adult education, parent education, interactive parent-child literacy activities, and early childhood education or school) to underserved families (e.g., low educational attainment, immigrants and refugees, low-income) who have children aged birth to eight. Organizations implement the components differently (e.g., class and session length, modalities, program partners) but each strives to offer high-quality programming.

Each program independently plans the FLI components based on the needs of participating families. Programs integrate topics such as learning about the community, understanding social-emotional learning, visiting libraries and museums, and connecting to schools across the components. All programs encourage parents to read to their children in the language(s) of their choosing. Programs provided three to seven hours per week in FLI components. Throughout the duration of the FLI, the median hours of participation per week were 2.1 and the median total hours of participation were 49.3.

4 Research methods

We used a complementary mixed-methods evaluation design (Greene et al. 1989 ) to measure parental and child outcomes that were aligned with the programs’ instructional goals. Here, we focus only on parents’ outcomes. Data has been collected since July 2019 to examine parents’ development of literacy, language, print, and digital literacy; involvement in everyday literacy practices; support for and involvement with their children’s education; and support for and involvement in their children’s language and literacy and growth and development. In creating the research instruments, we drew upon sociocultural and multiliteracies perspectives (Lynch and Prins 2022 ; Perry 2012 ) that value not only reading books, but many other intergenerational language, literacy, and learning activities such as singing and storytelling. A multi-faceted conception of literacy is needed to capture the language and literacy practices of culturally and linguistically diverse families who are learning to read and speak in English.

4.1 Pre-post survey

The pre-survey was administered upon program enrollment and the post-survey every spring or upon program exit. Footnote 2 In addition to collecting demographic data, the pre-post survey asked about parents’ self-reported frequency of daily literacy activities, reading, engaging in activities with their children, and participating in their children’s school-related activities (additional topics such as comfort with digital literacy are not analyzed here). Surveys were administered by trained program staff who read the survey aloud and recorded answers on paper or electronically. When needed, a translator was present to assist. Parents also completed Weekly Home Activity Logs (WHALs), but these are not analyzed here due to space constraints. The pre-post survey and WHALs Footnote 3 were translated into Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, Karen, Nepali, Pashto, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Uzbek, Zomi Tedim Chin.

4.2 Qualitative methods

We conducted site visits at each program in fall 2019 (in person), spring 2021 (remote only), and fall 2022 (in-person and remote). At each visit, we observed adult education, parent education, and interactive literacy activity classes; interviewed administrators and teachers; and conducted parent focus groups. The observations focused on how the class unfolded and how learners interacted with each other and engaged with the lesson. Staff interviews focused on instructional and program implementation, how they knew parents were learning, and related topics. Administrator interviews covered program oversight, partnerships, and notions of success, among other topics. Parents were asked about their experiences with the program and any perceived benefits. Interviews and focus groups were recorded and transcribed, and one was translated from Spanish to English. Interviews lasted 45 to 60 min and focus groups lasted about an hour. Between 2019 and 2022, interviews and focus groups included 17 administrators, 26 teachers, and 62 parents.

4.3 Data analysis and quality

We used Lamb ( 2009 ) educational, social, and personal domains of progression plus parenting as an organizing framework for data analysis (not during data collection). The qualitative data covers all four domains, whereas the quantitative data includes education and parenting.

4.3.1 Quantitative data analysis

Pre- and post-surveys were collected from 268 parents who participated in at least one class period (spring, summer, or fall) from 2019 to summer 2023. Quantitative analysis was restricted to individuals who participated for 12 or more hours and completed both pre- and post-surveys ( n  = 139). Descriptive analysis was performed using a paired sample t‑test to compare pre- and post-survey data. Depending on the scale, a Chi-squared test was conducted to investigate any variations between the pre- and post-surveys. Pairwise deletion was used as cases with response such as “don’t know,” “prefer not to answer,” or “not applicable” were treated as missing values.

4.3.2 Qualitative data analysis

Using NVivo software, we categorized qualitative data as an educational, personal, social, or parenting outcome. Within each category, we used in vivo coding to create sub-codes (e.g., language and literacy skill development, involvement in literacy activities, types of activities that supported children’s learning). Here, we use only data from the third site visit because one agency dropped out after the first site visit and another was added, and the second site visit focused on implementing family literacy during the pandemic. The data analysis included all participants from the third site visit, whether or not they completed a post-survey.

4.4 Parent demographics

Within our sample, most participants were women (94%), primarily in their 20s (26%) and 30s (42%). The majority were foreign-born (83%), with half having lived in the USA for five years or fewer. Education levels varied: 34% had not completed high school, 28% had a secondary degree, and 38% had some college education. Most parents (65%) were not in the labor force, whereas 21% were employed. Approximately one-third of parents who reported their income had a total income of less than $50,000. The sample’s demographic characteristics are listed in Table  8 .

4.5 Data quality

Limitations of our data included the possibility of self-report and social desirability biases. Triangulation of data sources helped mitigate these limitations. For instance, interviews with teachers and administrators and classroom observations helped corroborate parents’ comments in focus groups. The quantitative and qualitative results were also closely aligned, with one minor exception (parents helping children with homework, see below).

5.1 Educational outcomes

5.1.1 quantitative findings.

The pre-post survey analysis unveiled statistically significant improvements in parents’ reading enjoyment and reading time, changes in language used when reading to their children, and increased frequency of certain literacy activities. After participating in the FLI, parents increased their reading enjoyment and reading time. Table  2 shows the results of paired sample t‑test, where self-reported reading enjoyment significantly increased (M Pre  = 2.53 vs M Post  = 3.54; p  < 0.001). Furthermore, there was a 26% increase in the number of parents ( n  = 12) reading to their children in English, and a 21% decrease in the number of parents ( n  = 11) reading to their children in other languages (c 2  = 70.6, df  = 4, p  < 0.001).

Table  3 presents the results of paired sample t‑test for daily literacy activities such as reading diverse materials, writing, and completing forms. Pre-post analyses showed a significant increase in parents’ engagement in specific literacy activities between the pre- and post-survey. For example, they more frequently read books ( t  = −3.47, p  < 0.001) and health or parenting-related information and other materials online ( t  = −2.51, p  < 0.05). However, no statistically significant differences were found in the frequencies of reading or writing on social media.

5.1.2 Qualitative findings

Across the five sites, FLI classes provided an array of lessons that helped parents develop skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and digital literacy; expand vocabulary; and learn English. Qualitative analysis supported our quantitative findings on parents’ development of literacy and language skills. For example, parents reported reading more because their comprehension had improved. For instance, one parent stated, “Oh, I understand all the book.” (Since most of the parents are learning English, we have chosen not to correct grammatical errors.) According to another parent,

“I also learned something very important and that is that I thought you could only read books by the letters [reading words]. And I learned in the program that you can read through the images, and [daughter] also likes it very much.”

Parents also noted how their vocabulary improved, which helped them to read and speak English better. One parent reported, “… so we read and know more vocabulary from here [USA] and we read the story.” Another parent commented:

“And thanks to this class, thanks to this lessons because since doing these lessons, I discovered many things. I mean different fields, different vocabulary. Like musical vocabulary, like what tutors, academic vocabulary and yeah, different kinds of vocabulary that we use... for example, what you have at home, so everything. It helps me to improve my language.”

Learning English was also an important outcome, as illustrated by this comment: “Now it’s easy to speak with Americans to understand what they say because at first, they are talking but nothing, it’s like a bird when he is singing in his room. Everything is ambiguous, but now it is okay.”

Several parents reported greater ability and comfort speaking with teachers and doctors and less reliance on translators. This outcome is tremendously important to many immigrant parents who often wait for interpreters when they go to the hospital. A parent related that she could talk to the doctor: “Now you can understand, you can speak.” And sometimes the parent realized that their words were translated incorrectly:

“So I need the translator, so she make a call and then she translate in Urdu and English, like that. So it’s very hard for me. Sometimes she didn’t tell same thing what I tell, what I want. But now I know how can I talk. So it’s very helpful.”

Increased understanding of English also helped parents with medical appointments. For instance, one parent commented on learning vocabulary, which increased her understanding of health issues. Others indicated they could answer simple questions such as their name, age, telephone number, or address. And another parent noted that she was less frustrated because the doctor did not have to repeat information. She stated, “I can understand the general idea because before even I say I don’t understand that the doctor repeat the same thing.”

Across programs, teachers indicated that parents were improving their English pronunciation, and practicing speaking was a popular class activity. As one teacher stated,

“I think just hearing the ESL students speak English, that really warms my heart because initially, when I had to do the pre-caregiver survey and they really couldn’t say much in English. And already—it’s only November and some of them are speaking really good English.”

Parents also mentioned the importance of learning English with their children because their children also want to learn English. One parent commented on this intergenerational learning: “because I learn English, my son improve English.”

Parents noted improvement in digital literacy skills. The pandemic likely helped because the organizations began offering FLI components online in 2020, and they each still use online modalities for some components. In addition to learning how to use digital platforms such as Zoom, Google Classroom, Burlington English, Duo ABC, and various apps (e.g., WhatsApp, Duolingo app for children, language apps), parents became more technologically savvy and learned how to use device features (e.g., microphone, chat, mouse, camera, uploading/downloading documents) and how to search for online digital books.

“What we want to say is that we’ve learned about technology too because we’ve learned how to connect [to class] more easily with Zoom. We learned how to use the computer, the camera, which many times some of us perhaps didn’t know how to do. So now we have the ability to connect, in other words, to be able to learn through the medium of technology, such as the computer, the tablet, or the phone.”

Parents developed writing skills through increased emailing and text messaging, and grew more comfortable communicating online, especially with schools and teachers. Grandparents learned about texting to classmates (“Everyone is getting group texts”) and using phones to talk with grandchildren (“I was able to talk to my grandchildren a lot. I was able to use the apps and the phones”). One parent could communicate online better in English with her supervisor, and another could complete employment applications online.

Finally, parents reported increased involvement in everyday literacy practices such as knowing food names, reading food labels for ingredients or nutrition, or shopping with grocery lists. Other parents practiced English at home as they learned about rooms of the house, furniture names, or home repairs. As one parent put it, “For me it’s become a routine of learning every day.” Another stated, “English not perfect, but I try every day.” Other parents noted that they could complete forms at the hospital or that their new vocabulary helped them fill out job applications.

5.2 Personal outcomes

The pre-post survey did not ask about personal outcomes, but this was a clear theme in the qualitative data. Across the FLI, parents described their personal growth in various areas, including self-esteem and confidence. Interviews with teachers and administrators corroborated focus group data on parents’ positive feelings about attending the program and their personal growth. Instructors and administrators believed the FLI enhanced parents’ personal growth, using such terms as self-confidence, empowerment, and sense of pride. For example, a teacher noted that grandparents increased their self-esteem and confidence about their relationships with their grandchildren, including how to approach and talk to them.

Empowerment and self-confidence also included parents’ ability to read report cards, communicate with teachers, and help their children with homework. As one parent stated, “Yeah. I do homework with my kids because they need help. So, before I don’t know how to do that; now I understand what’s the question.” Further, one program provided information to grandparents about their grandchild’s Individual Education Plan (IEP, typically for special education services). This allowed them to have voice and learn the school’s IEP process, which boosted their confidence supporting their grandchildren with special needs.

Parents also believed the FLI contributed to their well-being and personal growth:

“It makes you feel good. It gives you a feeling of well-being because you are doing something positive and productive both for the mental and emotional health of your child, who also knows that their mom is there and she is supporting them and helping them to grow and advance. And all of that generates a sense of well-being and you truly feel like you are among family.” (translated from Spanish)

Several parents mentioned increased confidence talking with teachers (e.g., “I can talk my child’s teacher, whatever”). The growth in self-confidence led one parent to attend a community college. She stated, “Now I can face any obstacle. So that’s why I enroll in community college,” later adding, “Yeah, I want to do something good for me, for my family, for my kids … So now I trust myself. I’m so confident.”

Parents also expressed pride in their accomplishments, such as writing, speaking, and reading with their children. For example: “I was very happy because I read in the book in the night for my daughters” and “I can understand … I can speak proudly, fluently.” Several parents felt hesitant about speaking because of how others might view them: “Sometime I am scared to speak because when you talk sometimes is, laughing with you. That’s why I have a difficult sometime to talk.” However, a parent stated that after attending the program, “I trust myself, trust on myself when speaking. No problem, I can go ahead without fear.”

5.3 Social outcomes

Social outcomes were discussed only in qualitative data, which showed that parents viewed the program as providing support for themselves and their families. A principal at one of the elementary schools noted, “The program shows how to build a community and make it better for families.” Parents consistently described their classes as a “family” that provided a support system:

“Just, we have to help each other. We are like a family. We are a family. Not like a family, are family. This program, very important to me … is my family.”

Parents provided each other support such as translating for other families at the elementary school or at the doctor’s office, helping each other with adult education homework assignments, or offering a ride to class. Parents shared ideas for class and communicated with each other on WhatsApp. One parent stated, “We have some questions or we cannot understand sometimes we can question over there [WhatsApp]. We put question over there. So, all friends give answers,” thus helping them better understand the lesson. One parent summed it up by saying, “I am so happy to help others.”

Parents provided each other emotional support in and out of the classroom because of the friendships they formed. For example, parents encouraged each other in class, especially when speaking English. Outside of the FLI, parents in several focus groups mentioned the importance of friendships and that they often pick their kids up from school together and talk, go to the park together with their children, or contact each other by phone. A teacher stated that “they create a support group with each other and friends.” One parent noted that after speaking with her classmates on Zoom during the pandemic and only knowing them as a box on her screen, “it warmed her heart” to meet them in-person for the first time. The friendships also brought some parents out of the isolation of the homes, and the family literacy program and going to class, “was like a refuge for me, to liberate myself and not feel so alone … and the program has helped me a lot to have friendships, which truthfully, I didn’t have.”

5.4 Parenting outcomes

5.4.1 quantitative findings.

The pre-post survey descriptive statistics and paired sample t‑test analysis revealed a significant change in parents’ involvement in their children’s learning and education between pre- and post-surveys. This encompassed several literacy-related activities, family participation in cultural or community events, and engagement in their children’s school-related or educational activities.

Table  4 shows a significant increase in parents’ involvement in their children’s literacy, numeracy, and oral communication. For example, parents practiced reading ( t  = −4.49, p  < 0.001) and writing with their child ( t  = −3.44, p  < 0.001) more frequently than before attending the FLI. Various kinds of talking, singing, and storytelling with children also increased significantly, as did learning activities and using digital devices together.

As presented in Table  5 , parents’ engagement in activities such as visiting the library ( t  = −2.88, p  < 0.05) or museum ( t  = −2.48, p  < 0.05) and attending community activities ( t  = −4.40, p  < 0.001) with their children also significantly increased.

Table  6 presents the descriptive statistics on parents’ support for their children’s reading. Parents spent significantly more time reading to their children each week (M Pre  = 3.37 vs M Post  = 4.59, p  < 0.001). The number of parents who usually ask questions or talked about stories while reading with their children also increased 67% (c 2  = 18.32, df  = 4, p  < 0.05).

The results of paired t‑test showed parents’ involvement in their child’s education and school-related activities significantly increased between the pre- and post-survey (see Table  7 ). They more often checked if their children’s homework was done (M Pre  = 3.92 vs M Post  = 4.32, p  < 0.05). More parents attended parent-teacher conferences (M Pre  = 3.24 vs M Post  = 3.65, p  < 0.05), read information online about their children’s school or education (M Pre  = 2.55 vs M Post  = 3.39, p  < 0.001), and read communications from schools (M Pre  = 3.47 vs M Post  = 3.95, p  < 0.001). However, there were no statistically significant differences in parents’ helping their children with homework or projects, or volunteering in schools or classes.

5.4.2 Qualitative findings

The qualitative data supported the quantitative findings related to parents’ increased interactions with their children and support of their child’s development and education. Parent education covered many topics, including how a child develops, health and safety, brain development, nutrition, social and emotional development, trauma, and how parenting has changed since they were children. As stated by one parent, “you can learn a lot of things, you can share more with your daughter, you can learn more about her, too, and you can have improved development as a mom.” The family literacy program helped parents understand that it is important to make learning a part of every day and to have patience while reading a book to their children.

Parents indicated that they learned about supporting their children in school, including how to read report cards, engage in parent-teacher conferences, talk with teachers (e.g., “we communication easily with teachers”), understand the language about IEPs, and how to help their children with homework (e.g., “now it’s better, because I help my child with homework, read the books”). Although the importance of helping their children with homework was mentioned by several parents in the qualitative data, this finding was not significant in the quantitative analysis. Parents also mentioned that they made more contact with the schools and teachers, particularly during the pandemic, to know better what is going on in the school and in the classroom.

Reading, talking, singing, and playing games with children was the primary focus of the interactive literacy component of the family literacy program and parents felt that these opportunities helped them engage and interact with their children during daily activities (e.g., nature walks, talking in the car, going to the grocery store).

Parents mentioned that they learned the importance of activities that promote language and literacy development, including singing songs, playing games, coloring, drawing, reading books, and talking together. After attending the FLI, parents stated that they try to read each day with their children, “and especially when kids at home, nighttime, we read the books together” or “Yesterday I was very happy because I read in the book in the night for my daughters.” Learning English was also important to parents because they could now talk with their children, who were learning English faster, while simultaneously improving their own English-speaking skills. As one parent stated, “now I can speak with my kids”.

6 Discussion

The mixed-methods evaluation findings build on research showing that family literacy programs enhance adults’ language and literacy growth, self-concept, social support systems, and parental knowledge and practices. Both our quantitative and qualitative data indicated that FLI parents expanded their literacy and language capabilities and increased parenting practices that support children’s development and literacy growth. The qualitative analysis demonstrated parents’ personal growth, such as self-esteem and confidence (e.g., speaking English in public, contacting and interacting with schools), and revealed that parents developed friendships and built community or “family” through the FLI. Parents also noted the value of sharing social support, such as helping each other with translation, transportation, and adult education homework. Another way to frame the results is that FLI programs enabled parents to develop cultural and social capital (Bourdieu 1986 ), particularly the kinds that are valued in U.S. schools and community institutions.

This evaluation can inform family literacy practice, policy, and research in several ways. First, implementing programs that address the four domains of progression—educational, personal, social, and parenting—is critical for parents who are immigrants and grandparents and who must navigate unfamiliar education or health systems to support their families. Although there is some federal and state funding to support comprehensive family literacy programs in the USA, far more dedicated funding is needed.

Second, this study shows the multi-faceted ways parents benefit from family literacy, yet the narrow evaluation measures used by government and other funders (focusing on test scores, employment, transition to higher education) do not capture these outcomes (Lynch and Prins 2022 ). Thus, we need measures that focus on a broader range of outcomes, including psychosocial well-being and multiple ways of using oral language and print and digital literacies. Self-report measures have limitations but can be combined with various qualitative and quantitative measures to provide a richer portrait of parents’ learning.

Third, the findings suggest that the four domains of parents’ learning are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. For instance, as parents learned more English, they gained confidence, learned with their children in new ways, and began speaking more in public, while also experiencing well-being and supportive friendships in their programs. Further quantitative research could assess whether changes in the personal and social domains are supported by statistical analysis. Finally, this study did not use a comparison group because the FLI was new. Future research should use comparison or control groups to gauge whether the findings hold true. This study offers one of the most comprehensive analyses of how parents learned and benefitted from a family literacy program. We hope it will inform other efforts to understand and elevate the importance of adults’ learning in family literacy.

For simplicity, “parents” is used as an umbrella term that includes any adult who is a significant caregiver. All adults enrolled in the FLI were parents, grandparents, or other custodial caregivers.

For parents who participated in the FLI for longer periods and completed multiple post-surveys, we included the most recent post-survey for analysis.

The parental data also includes attendance, weekly instructional hours, and Weekly Home Activity Logs (WHALs), where parents indicated the frequency of various parent-child interactions listed in the pre-post survey.

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• Family literacy
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Propaganda in focus: decoding the media strategy of ISIS

• Yuanbo Qi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9541-8220 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1123 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Cultural and media studies
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This investigation employs the analytical framework established by Braddock and Horgan to conduct a comprehensive content analysis of 79 official English-language propaganda videos disseminated by ISIS, with the objective of quantifying the thematic composition and the evolutionary trajectory of ISIS’s international media operations and propaganda machinery from 2014 to 2017. The findings reveal that a predominant portion of the videos articulate narratives extensively centred around themes of the adversary and religious discourse, with the Sharia (Islamic law) emerging as the most prevalent theme. This research concludes that at a global scale, the propaganda apparatus of ISIS has orchestrated an intricate narrative, incorporating adversarial, theological, and emotional elements, thereby delineating the advanced sophistication of ISIS’s global propaganda endeavours.

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Introduction.

Between 2014 and 2017, pivotal years in the trajectory of the Islamic State (ISIS), the group witnessed a meteoric rise and subsequent decline in territorial control (al-Lami, 2019 ; Barnard and Saad, 2017 ; Chulov, 2019 ; Curry, 2014a ; Damon et al. 2017 ; Gilsinan, 2014 ; Phippen, 2017 ). Throughout this period, ISIS strategically utilised media, particularly through its official English-language videos, to propagate its message worldwide. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s proclamation of a caliphate at Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque marked a significant milestone for ISIS, symbolically hearkening back to a perceived Islamic golden age and galvanising Muslims to join their cause (al-Lami, 2019 ; Chulov, 2019 ). The extreme measures employed by the group, along with the global military response, accentuated the multifaceted nature of contemporary extremist movements (Curry, 2014b ; Gilsinan, 2014 ; Malik, 2014b ).

Understanding ISIS’s media strategy is a vital piece of the puzzle in the broader fight against global terrorism. The English-language videos produced by ISIS from 2014 to 2017 underscore not just the group’s media acumen but also their ideological engagement with a global audience. These videos aimed to intimidate adversaries, recruit sympathisers, and affirm the group’s narrative, showcasing a new dimension of digital terrorism that manipulates psychological, rhetorical, and theological elements to wield influence (Dearden, 2015 ).

This study examines ISIS’s video propaganda to decode its key narratives, rhetoric device, and implications for counter narratives. The increased reliance of ISIS on propaganda as their territorial grasp expanded underscores the imperative to scrutinise and interpret their communicative strategies. By delving into the content of these videos, this research seeks insights into how ISIS’s messaging evolved in response to military setbacks, territorial losses, and shifts in the geopolitical landscape.

This enquiry is of paramount importance for scholarly exploration and practical counter-terrorism measures. Recognising the patterns, themes, and shifts in ISIS’s propagated content enables security analysts and policymakers to anticipate and counteract the tactics of ISIS and similar entities. The insight derived from this study has the potential to inform counter-narratives and deconstruct extremist messaging strategies, thus curtailing the reach and impact of jihadist propaganda on a global scale (Gerges, 2019 ).

The confines of this study are set strictly within the official English-language video propaganda disseminated by ISIS from 2014 to 2017, a period marking the zenith of the group’s influence (al-Lami, 2019 ; Barnard and Saad, 2017 ; Chulov, 2019 ; Curry, 2014a ; Damon et al. 2017 ; Gilsinan, 2014 ; Phippen, 2017 ), thus permitting an analysis of its narrative amidst changing geopolitical realities. By focusing solely on these materials, the research delves into the intricacies of ISIS’s marketing strategies and the ideological underpinnings aimed at a global, primarily English-speaking, audience. The study’s deliberate temporal and linguistic boundaries enable a concentrated examination of the group’s communication tactics during a critical juncture of its existence. The study posits the following specific inquiries:

What intrinsic narrative motifs emerge with the greatest prominence in the videos?

The lens of the videos’ intrinsic narratives, in what manner is the worldview inherent to ISIS ideology articulated and represented?

How does the thematic distribution within these videos reflect an evolution or transformation in the period from 2014 to 2017, and what does this shift signify about ISIS media strategy?

A thorough examination of the corpus of research reveals a trend of tactical and thematic complexity in ISIS’s English-language propaganda (Colas, 2017 ; Winter, 2015 ; Winter, 2018 ). First, many studies do not differentiate their examination of ISIS propaganda between Arabic and English-language content, thereby overlooking the group’s nuanced and targeted messaging aimed at reaching a global audience (Abrahms et al. 2017 ; Fisher, 2015 ; Lakomy, 2021a , 2021b ; Salem et al. 2008 ). Assessments like those by Qi ( 2020a , 2020b ) focus on English-language propaganda, primarily highlighting production aspects or performed speech acts without exploring the thematic richness of the content (Colas, 2017 ). Secondly, there is a lack of studies documenting how these themes have evolved in response to the group’s changing circumstances and the global environment. The thematic evolution within the English text remains unexplored (Al-Rawi, 2018 ; Colas, 2017 ; Fisher, 2015 ; Kuznar, 2017 ; Qi, 2020b ; Winter, 2018 ). By providing a detailed study of the themes and substance found in ISIS’s English-language videos, this research bridges the gaps by analysing how these videos have changed to reflect global dynamics and the group circumstances. This study narrows its focus to provide a necessary perspective on ISIS’s strategic use of English-language materials aimed at global audiences, highlighting the specificity of their media strategy and deliberate use of language in terrorist propaganda.

Literature review

The evolution of isis media strategy and its historical context.

ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, surged to global prominence under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who proclaimed a caliphate in 2014, with the ambition of restoring what they considered the golden age of Islam and calling for global Jihad (al-Lami, 2019 ; Chulov, 2019 ). This group quickly gained infamy for its brutal tactics, including the persecution of minorities and conducting high-profile terror attacks, while seizing vast territories in Syria and Iraq (Curry, 2014b ; Gilsinan, 2014 ; Malik, 2014a , 2014b ). By 2017, concerted military efforts significantly diminished ISIS’s territorial control, leading to the loss of their critical strongholds, Mosul and Raqqa (Barnard and Saad, 2017 ; Chulov, 2019 ; Damon et al. 2017 ; Phippen, 2017 ). Despite their territorial defeat and the declaration of the caliphate’s end in 2019, ISIS continues to represent a threat through dispersed networks and sleeper cells globally (Forrest, 2019 ). For instance, nearly a decade after the 2015 terror attacks in Paris, an ISIS affiliate, known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-Khorasan), claimed responsibility for a devastating attack at the Crocus City concert hall in Moscow, which killed 137 people in 2024 (Roth and Sauer, 2024 ; Schmitt, 2024 ). The persistence of the group’s radical ideology suggests that, without addressing the root causes of its emergence, the potential for resurgence remains (Gerges, 2019 ). The transformation of ISIS into a more diffuse entity, which inspires global violence through its propaganda, underscores the enduring challenge of neutralising its impact (al-Lami, 2019 ; Votel et al. 2017 ).

ISIS’s media strategy has a complex history that has developed over time due to strategic adjustments and technology breakthroughs (Gerges, 2016 ). ISIS has recognised the power of the media from the beginning, using it as a recruiting tool and a psychological warfare weapon (Atwan, 2015 ). Their activities at first resembled conventional jihadist communication channels, but they quickly changed into an advanced media machine that made use of social media and excellent video production.

ISIS propagandised mostly in Arabic in the phases, focusing on the local populace as well as the larger Middle East. There was a noticeable change, though, as the group looked to broaden its international appeal and attract members from Western nations. The group’s magazine “Dabiq,” and subsequently “Rumiyah,” as well as a number of videos meant for Western audiences, signalled the appearance of English-language material (Milton, 2020 ). The deliberate change in strategy to add English-language content indicated that the campaign was intended to be multinational.

In addition to being linguistic, the shift from local to international media was both thematic and stylistic. In their analysis of the narrative structures and cinematic devices used in these videos, Venkatesh et al. ( 2020 ) highlight how the “Cinemas of Attraction” and “Pornography of violence” models were created with the intention of shocking as well as attracting viewers. Meanwhile, Sweeney et al. ( 2020 ) emphasised the positive relationship that exists between ISIS’s ability to govern territory and the complexity of the media that it produces, directly connecting the group’s perceived legitimacy and power to the calibre of its output.

ISIS media strategy analyses have changed in tandem with the group’s output. According to Kruglova ( 2020 ), ISIS propaganda utilised narrative advertising by appropriating marketing research, especially on social media platforms. This change is especially significant in light of the group’s deliberate use of stories to elicit strong feelings from the audience; these stories are made much more engaging when they are told in the language of the intended audience. Furthermore, an examination of how the group’s employment of cutting-edge tactics, such as drone images, improved the perceived power and legitimacy of the ISIS brand in these propaganda operations was presented (Archambault and Veilleux-Lepage, 2020 ).

A crucial element in the development of ISIS’s tactics is the interaction between the medium and message content. Toguslu ( 2019 ) examined the ways in which ISIS propaganda—particularly that seen in their magazines—constructs and presents storylines to support their ideology. ISIS’s media activities have seen a substantial metamorphosis with the conversion of these tales into video format and English translation (Fisher, 2015 ). These kinds of materials aim to appeal to Western audiences, frequently imitating Western media styles to give the propaganda a more recognisable sentiment (Qi and He, 2023 ).

The development of ISIS’s media strategy demonstrates a purposeful and strategic shift from local Arabic material to a more inclusive, wider media strategy that aims to interact with English-speaking viewers. This shift highlights how terrorist organisations are adaptable in the digital era and emphasises how crucial it is to thoroughly examine their media outputs to comprehend their influence and reach. Even if they are comprehensive, the earlier studies on ISIS’s media tactics have gaps that need for more research, especially when it comes to the topic of English-language video propaganda and its peculiar characteristics (Cottee and Cunliffe, 2020 ). Comprehending this evolutionary process is essential to crafting counter-narrative tactics and reducing the group’s impact on vulnerable English-speaking communities.

ISIS Propaganda’s thematic and tactical development

The tactical strategies and subject matter of ISIS’s English-language propaganda videos evolved significantly as their media apparatus grew (Winter, 2015 ). After analysing these themes, academics found recurring themes including victimisation, cruelty, utopianism, martyrdom, and apocalypse, all of which were intended to accomplish certain tactical goals (Johnston, 2022 ; Lakomy, 2020 ; Price and Mooney, 2022 ; Winter, 2015 ).

Early examination of the content of ISIS revealed a duality between images of horror and utopia—a dualism meant to arouse and terrify. The contrast of violent activities against the backdrop of an Islamic utopia promised was noticed by Venkatesh et al. ( 2020 ). ‘Cinematic charms’ combined with pictures of a dreamy caliphate lifestyle were intended to justify violence by painting it as a means of achieving a holy purpose.

In their investigation of the “Theatre of Terror,” Sweeney et al. ( 2020 ) and Qi ( 2020b ) contended that the staged violence in ISIS films was a deliberate strategy to represent authority and engender terror rather than being merely for spectacular. According to their study, those videos demonstrated the group’s ability to avenge its adversaries and were an example of a low-cost, high-effect tactic that maximised the symbolic value of violence and self-justification.

This topic was expanded upon by Kruglova ( 2020 ) to include the marketing-like techniques employed in these videos. She emphasised how skilled ISIS is at using social media as a platform to attract and radicalise potential recruits by creating narratives that play on emotions and identity. ISIS was able to connect with a larger audience by using English to tell a compelling tale that spoke to the needs and grievances of those who were remote from the fighting.

Milton ( 2020 ) looked into another facet of ISIS’s propaganda, which involved the deliberate manipulation of pictures. Using a dataset of 1700 ISIS images, he concluded that violent images, especially those of adversaries, greatly boosted attention. In addition to showcasing the group’s military might, the carefully chosen video also showed ISIS government and everyday life, appealing to viewers’ feeling of order and community.

With time, there was a noticeable change in the quality of ISIS propaganda—from widely circulated messages to more specialised information. In their audience perception research, Cottee and Cunliffe ( 2020 ) brought to light ISIS’s acute comprehension of its Western audience. ISIS’s English-language videos were an effective recruiting tool because they were crafted with tales that spoke to certain frustrations or ideological inclinations.

Qi and He ( 2023 ) has conducted an evaluation of English-language videos with an emphasis on their production and semantic attributes. These studies provide insight into how the videos’ production value and thematic distribution strategies have changed over time, despite criticism for their cursory presentation of the subject matter. This kind of study is essential to comprehending how, despite its military decline on the ground, ISIS managed to stay relevant and active in the digital sphere.

By concentrating on the performative element of ISIS narratives, Toguslu ( 2019 ) exposed the group’s deft use of religious texts to justify its crimes. ISIS attempted to provide its supporters with a spiritual purpose and a theological rationale for their atrocities by utilising passages from the Quran and Hadith in their propaganda.

ISIS propaganda’s thematic and tactical growth demonstrates a deliberate progression that aims to shock and persuade. By skilfully utilising English-language videos, the group was able to reach a wider audience and have a more profound effect, appealing to deeper themes of identity, religion, and political grievances than the surface-level appeal of violence. Therefore, analysing these advancements offers crucial insights into the workings of contemporary terrorist propaganda and serves as a foundation for developing potent counterstrategies.

Theoretical framework

In this study, we adopt the theoretical framework of content analysis as outlined by Braddock and Horgan ( 2016 ), which serves as a methodological cornerstone for dissecting the narratives utilised by extremist groups like ISIS. This framework builds upon the understanding that these groups use specific communicative strategies, including narratives imbued with extremist ideologies, values, and beliefs, to achieve strategic objectives and potentially foster radicalisation (Braddock and Horgan, 2016 ; Braddock and Dillard, 2016 ). The persuasive power of extremist media, and its role in radicalisation, has been acknowledged in various studies (Horgan, 2014 ; Jackson, 2007 ), highlighting the urgency of crafting counter-narratives based on a profound understanding of terrorist narratives.

Braddock and Horgan ( 2016 ) advocate for content analysis as a pivotal tool for this endeavour, enabling researchers to identify themes central to an extremist group’s ideology through a detailed examination of their media productions. Their proposed method includes both quantitative assessments of overt message characteristics and a more nuanced thematic analysis aimed at uncovering underlying values, views, and ideologies (Krippendorff, 2012 ). This approach facilitates the recognition of patterns within texts, serving as a crucial step in understanding extremist narratives.

Following the analytic procedures suggested by Braddock and Horgan ( 2016 , pp. 387–388), our study undertakes a systematic exploration of ISIS and other jihadi groups’ narratives. This involves multiple readings of the narratives to grasp their theme, style, and meaning; generating and consolidating codes that reflect the terrorist group’s ideology; sorting codes into overarching themes to identify higher-order concepts; and quantifying these thematic elements to ascertain the most prevalent themes. Such a structured analysis allows for a comprehensive understanding of the narratives, supported by a pilot-coding to ensure objectivity (Boyatzis and E, 1995 ; Patton, 2002 ).

Sampling rationale

Since there has been a substantial quantity of ISIS media production (Atwan, 2015 ; Colas, 2016a ; Cottee, 2015 ; Stern and Berger, 2016 ; Winkler et al. 2016 ; Winter, 2015 ; Zelin, 2015 ), there must be a feasible solution for sampling the data into a manageable corpus (Colas, 2016a ). Through the existing literature, it is observable that, first, studies have largely focused on the written texts, even though empirical studies on ISIS media output have clearly shown that ISIS relies more on visual propaganda than on written propaganda (Zelin, 2015 ). Second, the corpus might need to vary chronologically in terms of release dates to comprehend the evolution and changing dynamics of ISIS media in response to real-world events (Kuznar, 2017 ). Third, English is the second most commonly used language next to Arabic in ISIS propaganda and is the most commonly used foreign language (Fisher, 2015 ). Finally, in its intentional use of such a worldwide, accessible language, the official English-language video, from the organisation’s perspective, represents ISIS’s global ambitions and central strategies. This, in turn, sheds light upon ISIS’s worldview, how ISIS sees itself, and how ISIS wishes to be seen (Colas, 2016a ; Fisher, 2015 ). Ultimately, this fourfold rationale that leads to the sampling criteria sharpens data into a manageable size while remaining quantifiable and comparable with others’ studies of ISIS media production, leading to a more comprehensive, if counter-intuitive, study.

Sampling criteria

The 79 official English-language videos from ISIS were selected based on the following criteria: (1) timing: the video productions must have been released from April 2014 to July 2017, a timeframe that fully captures the Fall and the Liberation of Mosul (10 June 2014–10 July 2017), which symbolises the geographic controllability and territorial power of ISIS (Burke, 2017 ; Forrest, 2019 ; Gamal-Gabriel and Dunlop, 2017 ); (2) language: the video must either be narrated in English or have subtitles in English; (3) sources [for selecting those that represent official ISIS material]: the video productions must be from official ISIS media centres or from provincial-level centres accredited by official media centres. The criteria were implemented to collect English-narrated/subtitled videos released within the established time period that were produced/recognised by the official media centres at al-Hayat , al-Furqan , and al-I’tisam (Barr and Herfroy-Mischler, 2017 ; Zelin, 2015 ). To ensure that the English-language used in the videos released from provincial media centres was officially authorised by ISIS, as opposed to being a private translating effort from pro-ISIS supporters, the videos must have been promoted by the video series Selected 10 and Featured 3 , both of which represent or highlight periodic exaltations of exemplary provincial videos productions by al-Hayat media centre.

The criteria of timing in this study might be worth particular attention to further clarify. The designation of 2014 to 2017 as the peak period of ISIS activities is substantiated by a detailed examination of their territorial control and pivotal events, with a significant focus on the strategic city of Mosul. This era marks ISIS’s swift territorial expansion, reaching its apogee in 2014, characterised by the capture of Mosul, a major urban centre that symbolised their operational and administrative capabilities (Chulov, 2019 ; Curry, 2014b ; Gilsinan, 2014 ). The occupation of Mosul not only demonstrated ISIS’s military prowess but also established a geographical and ideological centre for the caliphate (al-Lami, 2019 ; Boffey and Jalabi, 2014 ; Dearden, 2014 ).

The subsequent decline of ISIS, leading to the liberation of Mosul in July 2017, underscores the importance of this timeframe. The battle for Mosul, which began in October 2016, represented a turning point in the international effort to dismantle ISIS’s territorial hold, highlighting a concerted counter-terrorism strategy that significantly diminished their control and influence (Barnard and Saad, 2017 ; Chulov, 2019 ; Damon et al. 2017 ; Phippen, 2017 )). The liberation of Mosul is widely regarded as a critical indicator of ISIS’s waning power, marking the end of their most significant territorial possession (Burke, 2017 ; Forrest, 2019 ).

Given these considerations, the period between 2014 and 2017 is selected as the focal point of this study, reflecting the zenith and subsequent reduction of ISIS’s territorial and operational command. This timeframe is crucial for understanding the dynamics of ISIS’s rise and fall, providing a comprehensive overview of their impact and the global response to their activities (Burke, 2017 ; Forrest, 2019 ).

Data collection

It is worth noting the distinction between the period of data collection (October 2015 to August 2017) and the video release date criteria (April 2014 to July 2017) for the sake of clarity. This study collected data between 1 October 2015, and 1 August 2017, leveraging Jihadology.net , a renowned repository for jihadi primary materials. During this period, MP4 files of ISIS videos were gathered from digital archives curated by scholars. The collection prioritised anonymity in sourcing to safeguard security while ensuring the authenticity and reliability of the data through cross-verification. Among a broad dataset of 1025 videos, 79 official English-language ISIS videos were chosen based on stringent criteria. Empirical evidence supports data collection via digital media, establishing them as promising research channels for the social sciences (Okereka et al. 2024 ).

Analytical procedure

Extremist organisations use varied communication strategies, including crafting narratives to embed ideologies and values (Braddock and Horgan, 2016 ). The effectiveness of these media in radicalisation is debated. Certain studies suggest narrative exposure can be persuasive, while others see no consistent link (Hong and Park, 2012 ; Peracchio and Meyers-Levy, 1997 ). However, it’s recognised that extremist narratives might potentially lead to radicalisation (Horgan, 2014 ).

Braddock and Horgan focus on developing counter-narratives to extremist ideologies. Understanding terrorist narratives is crucial for crafting effective counter-narratives and strategic communication to prevent radicalisation. These narratives, complex in ideological and emotional content, fulfil several roles: identity, justification for violence, and presenting a skewed reality that influences behaviour. Dissecting them is key to understanding their resonance and potential to foster extremist ideologies.

Development of the coding instrument

The initial phase of the analytical process was the development and enhancement of the coding scheme, which serves as the backbone for thematic analysis. This began with the construction of a provisional list of codes, which are essentially interpretative tags assigned to segments of the meaningful organisations within the videos. These segments to which the codes are applied could vary in length, thereby providing the flexibility to code discrete elements or broader sections of the narrative as necessary.

The analyst used their expertise and preliminary observations to form an initial list of themes present in the videos. This list was dynamically refined to align with established thematic frameworks in extremist propaganda research, ensuring a scholarly foundation for the coding instrument.

Relevant literature, including works by Winter ( 2015 ), Pelletier et al. ( 2016 ), and Gråtrud ( 2016 ), contributed established thematic codes to the analysis. This comparative approach refined the coding list, eliminating redundancy and ensuring a robust, comprehensive coding structure.

The analysis then shifted to a quantitative phase, systematically applying the refined codes to the video narratives. This quantification measured the frequency and prominence of themes, providing empirical insights into ISIS’s strategic messaging priorities during the study period. This approach moved the analysis beyond subjective interpretation towards a data-driven understanding of the thematic content in the ISIS videos.

Application of codes and content analysis

The analytical stage for examining ISIS videos involved a detailed and systematic coding process. The analyst analysed 79 videos, totalling 915 min, by breaking them down into one-minute increments, resulting in 915 distinct units for granular analysis.

Each minute unit was scrutinised using a set of thematic codes, identifying, and recording occurrences of specific themes, termed ‘segments.’ This led to the cataloguing of 799 segments of varying lengths. The prevalence of themes was assessed by calculating the cumulative duration of these segments, quantifying both the frequency and the temporal span of themes in the dataset. The total duration of all segments was 1707 units. Themes with a significance level of 0.06 or higher, roughly equivalent to 100 units or more, were considered substantially prevalent.

Additionally, the analysis explored the ‘asymmetric nature’ of ISIS media operations. This involved using the SKEW function, a statistical measure of distribution asymmetry, to understand the uneven thematic distribution over time, highlighting the dynamic nature of ISIS’s propaganda focus.

The outcome was a comprehensive thematic overview, showing both the frequency and variability of themes in ISIS’s video propaganda. The results were then visually represented in tables and graphs for clearer interpretation and discussion. At the conclusion of this rigorous process, the analyst had at their disposal a comprehensive list of themes, along with detailed insights into the frequency and changing patterns of these themes within ISIS’s video propaganda. The findings from this stage of analysis were then translated into tables and graphs, which facilitated a clear visual representation of the data, allowing for more accessible interpretation and discussion of the results.

Inter-coder reliability

The methodology for analysing ISIS video narratives involved enhancing reliability through an independent expert coder’s review, aligning with Schreier’s ( 2012 ) conflict resolution guidelines. The initial thematic categorisation has been scrutinised to ensure balanced and accurate coding. Braddock and Dillard’s ( 2016 ) methodical evaluation approach guided the determination of theme presence, with coder reviews forming the basis of final decisions.

To verify coding consistency, a pilot test aimed for at least 0.80 inter-coder reliability, following Cohen’s ( 1960 ) benchmark for high reliability. This standard reduces subjective bias, ensuring systematic and replicable coding. After pilot testing and discussions, two significant coding instrument revisions were made, leading to a final list of 26 thematic codes. This process established the credibility and rigour of the analysis.

The research includes three appendices in its online archive for transparency and replication. Appendix 1 details the data collection sources, Appendix 2 presents the final 26 thematic codes, and Appendix 3 contains example tables showing segment cataloguing and duration calculations. These appendices underpin the methodology and analysis, offering detailed insights into the study’s mechanics and coding process.

Thematic dissection of ISIS propaganda: enemy, religious, and emotive narratives

Figure 1 in the study categorises primary narratives in ISIS’s English-language videos into three groups: enemy, religious, and emotive, based on 26 thematic elements.

This figure presents the statistical compositions of the narratives identified in ISIS English-language videos, detailing the specific prevalence of each associated theme.

Figure 2 shows the ‘enemy’ narrative, comprising 40.83% of the content, focuses mainly on portraying ISIS at war (9.02%), captives confessing ‘sins’ (7.26%), and depicting the West as aggressive and oppressive (6.09%). It also highlights Western failures (4.22%) and alliances against ISIS (2.69%), with lesser emphasis on terror attacks (1.52%) and domestic vice and punishment (1.17%).

This figure illustrates the statistical thematic distribution of the enemy narrative within ISIS English-language videos, showing the relative frequency of each theme.

Figure 3 indicates the ‘religious’ narrative forms a substantial portion, led by themes of Sharia law enforcement (9.31%). Other key themes include incitement for jihad (6.39%), Islamic references (6.27%), and calls for emigration (4.16%). Lesser themes include allegiance to the leader (1.29%) and apocalypse (1.05%).

This figure shows the statistical thematic distribution of the religious narrative in ISIS English-language videos, highlighting the prevalence of each associated theme.

Figure 4 signifies the ‘emotive’ narrative, at 21.15%, highlights ‘happiness’ living within ISIS territory (5.74%) and victories at battlefield (4.98%). It also covers martyrdom and Muslim suffering (3.81%; 2.46%; 2.05%), with infrequent mentions of restoring honour of Islam (1.23%) or feelings of humiliation (0.88%).

This figure depicts the statistical thematic distribution of the emotive narrative in ISIS English-language videos, indicating the frequency of different themes.

Prevalent themes in ISIS propaganda: a detailed thematic breakdown

In the detailed analysis of ISIS English-language videos, ‘sharia and governance’ was the most prevalent theme, accounting for 9.31% of the content. This was followed by ‘combat’ (9.02%), ‘captives and confession’ (7.26%), ‘jihad’ (6.39%), ‘support from Quran and Sunnah’ (6.27%), and ‘Western malevolence’ (6.09%). Other notable themes included ‘happiness and wellbeing’ (5.74%), ‘strength and victory’ (4.98%), and ‘execution’ (4.45%).

Figure 5 in the study ranks these 26 themes based on their segment duration in the video corpus. Themes with a significance level of 0.06 or higher, such as ‘sharia and governance’, ‘combat’, and ‘captives and confession’, are highlighted, indicating their central role in ISIS propaganda.

This figure ranks the prevalence of 26 individual themes according to the total duration of segments in 79 ISIS English-language videos, presenting the relative importance of each theme.

Temporal shifts in ISIS narrative focus: analysing the stability of thematic content

The temporal analysis of ISIS English-language videos from 2014 to 2017 reveals fluctuating narrative themes, with six—‘vice and punishment’, ‘terror attack’, ‘apocalypse and prophecy’, ‘support from scholars’, ‘combat’, and ‘obedience to God’—showing significant variability. For example, ‘Terror attack’ was minimal until mid-2015, then became frequent, peaking in January 2016 and coinciding with portrayals of the November 2015 Paris attacks in ISIS videos.

However, as represented by Fig. 6 , themes like ‘jihad’, ‘West colluding with enemies’, ‘happiness and wellbeing’, ‘captives and confession’, ‘support from Quran and Sunnah’, and ‘sharia and governance’ remained stable and recurrent, reflecting ISIS’s core ideological appeals.

This figure displays the skewness in the distribution of the 26 themes in ISIS English-language videos. From left to right, the figure ranks the themes based on their instability, from the highest to the lowest.

Binary worldviews and theological legitimacy in ISIS propaganda

The prevalence of enemy narratives in ISIS propaganda creates a stark ‘us versus them’ dichotomy. Gerges ( 2009 , 2016 ) and Mahood and Rane ( 2016 ) discuss how ISIS portrays itself as the ‘good’—upholders of Sharia and the true path of jihad—while anyone opposing them is depicted as the ‘evil’ doomed to fail due to their disbelief. The narrative is given legitimacy by anchoring it in the historical and contemporary experiences of Muslims. Such binary opposition is a classic psychological warfare technique, fostering a collective identity among ISIS followers and justifying the group’s violent actions (Cantey, 2017 ; Gråtrud, 2016 ).

ISIS ideologues use theological language to assert that the group is on a divine mission, with violent jihad being the sole path to rectify the world (Mahood and Rane, 2016 ). They claim to be guided by a ‘prophetic methodology,’ deriving their understanding from the Quran and Sunnah, and present their jihadists as ‘lions of the caliphate’ and ‘warriors in upholding the rules of God’ (Gerges, 2016 ; Mahood and Rane, 2016 ). This religious narrative is fundamental in legitimising ISIS’s actions and in recruiting followers by weaving theological justifications into its narrative framework.

The strategic use of emotive content in ISIS propaganda is discussed as being less prevalent compared to the enemy and religious narratives. This strategic choice could indicate a focus on ideological and combative aspects, particularly in content aimed at Western audiences (Colas, 2016b ; Spier, 2018 ). However, when emotive content is utilised, it is designed to resonate with feelings of injustice and discrimination, appealing to a sense of identity and grievance (Mahood and Rane, 2016 ; Olidort and McCants, 2015 ).

The discussion further situates ISIS’s propaganda strategy within the broader debate on the role of Islam in its ideology, referencing Graeme Wood’s influential essay (Wood, 2015 ) that contends ISIS is intrinsically Islamic, sparking a debate on the relationship between Islamism and terrorism (Cottee, 2017a ). This debate pits those who view ISIS as representing true Islam (Ali et al. 2020 ) against those who vehemently disagree (Coles, 2015 ; Hasan and Mehdi, 2015 ; Tharoor, 2016 ). This ongoing argument examines whether the violence enacted in the name of religion is inherently religious or if it is politically motivated and sometimes can be secular in character.

Wood’s essay challenges the notion that ISIS’s violence is purely psychopathic, suggesting instead that it is rooted in early medieval Islamic ideology (Remnick, 2014 ). Meanwhile, critics like Coles ( 2015 ) argue that ISIS’s interpretation of Islam is a deviation, and others like Coolsaet ( 2016 ) and Roy ( 2016 ) attribute the violence to political rather than religious motivations.

The empirical evidence from this study, which shows a significant emphasis on religious narrative in ISIS’s English-language videos, adds a critical dimension to this debate. The frequent recurrence of themes such as sharia law and violent jihad in official media suggests that ISIS’s theological underpinnings are significant and that the group’s ideological foundations are vital to understanding its allure and the motivations of its adherents (Makdisi and John, 1985 ; Mutahhari, 2014 ).

The integration of empirical findings with the broader discourse on ISIS’s propaganda strategies provides a more comprehensive understanding of how the group uses enemy and religious narratives to construct a worldview that legitimises its actions, while also participating in a broader debate about the role of religion in political violence. This complex narrative strategy serves multiple functions within the group’s ideological battle, solidifying its identity, justifying its violent actions, and recruiting followers.

Strategic emphasis and media diversity in ISIS’s propaganda narrative

The findings in ISIS’s English-language videos, as identified in the study, affirm the thematic elements highlighted in other research on ISIS’s propaganda (Gråtrud and Henrik, 2016 ; Kuznar, 2017 ). Emotive language, moderately employed in ISIS’s videos, is a common thread throughout jihadist propaganda, which is also prevalent among groups like the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and its affiliates AQIM and AQAP. However, ISIS’s unique emphasis on certain themes distinguishes its propaganda from others (Abrahms et al. 2017 ; Gendron and Angela, 2016 ; Salem et al. 2008 ).

The study supports Kuznar’s observation that the thematic elements of ISIS propaganda are present in other jihadi propaganda but emphasises that ISIS has a distinctive approach to these themes. While the general message across ISIS’s various media formats—magazines, leaders’ speeches, public statements, and Nasheeds —remains coherent, the intensity with which certain themes are highlighted varies. ISIS’s English-language videos, in particular, consistently emphasise religious and enemy narratives in line with ‘Dabiq,’ the group’s official English-language magazine, while emotive narratives are less pronounced (Colas, 2016a ).

In contrast, the leaders’ speeches seem to focus more on emotion-provoking themes, suggesting a strategic use of emotional appeal to strengthen the group’s core narratives, with religious and enemy narratives taking a secondary role (Spier, 2018 ). Gråtrud’s analysis suggests that the effectiveness of ISIS’s media, such as Nasheeds , could be attributed to its emphasis on a select number of broadly appealing themes. This targeted approach likely extends beyond Nasheeds to other media productions, indicating a nuanced strategy to engage with various target audiences effectively.

When we consider these findings alongside the comparative analysis of other extremist groups, it becomes evident that ISIS has carved out a unique space in jihadist media strategy. While the shared use of recruitment, indoctrination, enemy construction, religious justification, and calls to action are common jihadist media narratives, ISIS’s distinct approach lies in its media production quality, modern communication tool utilisation, apocalyptic messaging, and tailored language use.

The thematic emphasis and diversity in ISIS’s media productions, juxtaposed with the broader landscape of jihadist propaganda, underscore the group’s sophisticated media strategy. ISIS’s ability to maintain thematic consistency across different media forms while varying the intensity of certain themes reveals an intention to optimise the impact of its messaging. This adaptability and tailored emphasis not only differentiate ISIS’s propaganda from other groups but also potentially enhance its effectiveness in recruitment and ideological dissemination.

By understanding these nuances, counter-terrorism efforts can be better tailored to address the specific strategies employed by ISIS and other extremist groups, acknowledging the shared tactics while targeting the unique aspects of each group’s propaganda approach.

Adaptive themes and consistent ideology in ISIS propaganda

The research of Pelletier et al. ( 2016 ) aligns with the findings from this study, suggesting that jihadist groups like AQAP and ISIS exhibit major thematic shifts in response to real-world events while maintaining a consistent overarching thematic structure. In the case of ISIS, the primary and most fundamental themes—those at the core of ISIS’s ideology—tend to remain stable over time. Conversely, the less recurrent themes display more dynamism, often aligning with specific geopolitical or operational developments that ISIS encounters.

For example, the theme of ‘Terror Attack’ in ISIS videos became more prominent following high-profile attacks that ISIS claimed responsibility for, such as the Paris attacks in November 2015. Foster ( 2014 ) notes the depiction of the perpetrators as heroes in ISIS’s narrative, which marked a peak in the terror attack theme’s prominence. The ‘Apocalypse and Prophecy’ theme’s activity aligns with the group’s control over the town of Dabiq, believed to be a prophesied battlefield, and its eventual loss of the town in 2016 (Withnall, 2016 ). These shifts illustrate how ISIS’s media strategy is interwoven with its operational successes and setbacks, using thematic content to reflect and amplify its real-world narrative.

Despite the responsiveness to events, the more recurrent themes, particularly those propagating violent jihad and Islamic law—pillars of the ISIS ideology—remained consistent. These themes are critical for maintaining a steady ideological message for recruitment, indoctrination, and asserting the group’s identity.

However, the theme of ‘Combat’ presents an interesting case. Although it is one of the most recurrent themes, it exhibited significant instability. The two major peaks in this theme’s prominence not only reflect specific events but also disproportionately affect the theme’s overall statistical stability. This instability may serve a strategic purpose, as Zelin ( 2015 ) indicates, potentially highlighting the asymmetric nature of ISIS media operations. The aim could be to project an image of ongoing struggle and resilience despite real-world setbacks, thereby maintaining morale and commitment among its followers.

The skewness in the distribution of themes across ISIS’s videos supports the notion of an asymmetric media strategy. This asymmetry is not arbitrary but appears to be a calculated response to real-world events. Themes that exhibit significant shifts correspond to specific incidents, underscoring ISIS’s intent to manipulate media narratives in line with operational objectives and challenges.

Counter-terrorism strategies implications

Counter-narrative campaigns are crucial in combating the binary enemy narratives that ISIS propagates. ISIS frames the world in terms of black and white, good and evil, believers and non-believers. To counter this, it’s important to develop narratives that showcase the complexity and diversity of Muslim identities and the peaceful, pluralistic nature of Islamic teachings. Educational initiatives can play a pivotal role in this area, as they can foster a more nuanced understanding of Islam that goes beyond the simplistic and extremist interpretations offered by ISIS (Gerges, 2016 ; Mahood and Rane, 2016 ).

By highlighting the rich tapestry of Islamic scholarship and the diversity of interpretations that have coexisted within Islamic history, these campaigns can undermine the theological foundations upon which ISIS builds its legitimacy. It is also essential to promote voices within the Muslim community that speak to the religion’s core messages of peace and compassion, drawing on both historical and contemporary sources of Islamic thought (Makdisi and John 1985 ).

ISIS has demonstrated an ability to adapt its messages in response to changing circumstances, be they losses on the battlefield or shifts in geopolitical alliances. A successful counter-terrorism approach must be equally flexible, employing real-time intelligence to detect and respond to changes in ISIS’s narrative strategies (Pelletier et al. 2016 ). Developing predictive models based on this intelligence can help anticipate the group’s future shifts in narrative and allow counter-terrorism efforts to stay one step ahead.

At its core, radicalisation often stems from socio-political factors such as alienation, discrimination, and injustice—elements that ISIS exploits to recruit and radicalise individuals. Counter-terrorism efforts must, therefore, also focus on the root causes of radicalisation. This involves creating inclusive policies that address unemployment, provide educational opportunities, and promote social cohesion within marginalised communities (Coolsaet, 2016 ; Roy, 2016 ). Programs that target these areas can reduce the susceptibility of individuals to extremist ideologies by improving their socioeconomic conditions and fostering a sense of belonging within their societies.

In summary, ISIS has created a complex global propaganda apparatus comprising comprehensive narrative themes that span adversarial, theological, and emotional artefacts. The primary conclusion is fourfold: first, within the scope of ISIS propaganda, the extent to which ISIS emphasises certain themes is distinctive from that of other media releases; second, the two most important narratives for ISIS propagandists are the enemy and religious narratives, which reflect a binary worldview of ISIS ideology. ISIS represents the ‘good’ whereas those who oppose ISIS are its enemies and the ‘evil’; third, the ratio of the religious narrative in ISIS English-language videos elucidates one of the hottest debates regarding ISIS’s Islamic nature by supporting and reinforcing the arguments that the religious artefacts of ISIS are important and cannot be neglected if the narrative and underlying ideologies are to be understood (Pelletier et al. 2016 ; Wood, 2015 ); finally, the most fundamental themes promoted by ISIS remain consistent over time whereas the least recurrent themes are more dynamic and might shift significantly in response to a series of real-world events that ISIS faces on the ground.

However, this study is merely the first step. There have been some limitations and many other research trajectories of which future studies might be aware. Most apparently, due to the resource restraints and unstable circumstances in the region, it has been difficult to claim the complete collection of ISIS-produced videos has been archived in this field. Second, this study does not account for the audience perception of ISIS videos – it demands a separate study, although some research in this domain is already underway, and such work is beneficial for our understanding of ISIS propaganda (Cottee, 2017b ). Third, the effectiveness of ISIS narratives might not only depend on what the narrative contains but also on the style in which the content is vividly presented (O’Keefe, 1997 ). Further studies could provide another perspective by, for instance, examining cinematography or semiotics. Finally, the use of content analysis might restrain our understanding of the sophistication of ISIS rhetoric and reasoning devices; further research could offer an interpretation of ISIS English videos beyond locution and thematic analysis of extremists’ messages. For example, ISIS’s use of language as a means to achieve objectives through words and deeds.

Nevertheless, contributing significantly to the discourse on jihadist media strategy, this study undertakes a detailed examination of narrative motifs found in the official English-language videos of ISIS. It renders an original, comprehensive content analysis of ISIS’s propaganda, and facilitates a highly inclusive range of thematic elements that are also applicable to other extremists’ visual texts. Dissecting these videos’ narrative constructs enables a deeper counterpoint to the narratives that have found traction in jihadist online propaganda. By doing so, insights into the group’s strategic narrative constructions and worldviews are gleaned. These insights are crucial for demystifying ISIS: discerning its self-image, presentation style, and desired perception among international audiences. Moreover, this research augments existing studies on ISIS’s global media reach by providing an exhaustive analysis of its official English-language videos and adopts a dynamic perspective on the group’s media offerings, tracking how ISIS tailored its propagandist responses to various global events during the important period. The methodological rigour applied herein lays the groundwork for future explorations into the propaganda of other terrorist organisations. Exposure to jihadist propaganda might not be a sole radicalising force; rather, it is the confluence of ideological currents within broader social, political, and cultural frameworks that is critical (Winter, 2015). ISIS’s media arsenal, encompassing literature, videos, social platforms, and discussion forums, is curated to mirror these undercurrents. The analytical method developed through this study’s examination of ISIS’s videos paves the way for scrutinising a broader array of extremist communications.

Data availability

The dataset generated during and/or analysed during the current study is submitted as a supplementary file and can also be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods Integrating Theory and Practice

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Drawing on more than 40 years of experience conducting applied social science research and program evaluation, author Michael Quinn Patton has crafted the most comprehensive and systematic book on qualitative research and evaluation methods, inquiry frameworks, and analysis options available today. Now offering more balance between applied research and evaluation, t his Fourth Edition illuminates all aspects of qualitative inquiry through new examples, stories, and cartoons; more than a hundred new summarizing and synthesizing exhibits; and a wide range of new highlight sections/sidebars that elaborate on important and emergent issues . For the first time, full case studies are included to illustrate extended research and evaluation examples. In addition, each chapter features an extended "rumination," written in a voice and style more emphatic and engaging than traditional textbook style, about a core issue of persistent debate and controversy.

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Drawing on more than 40 years of experience conducting applied social science research and program evaluation, author Michael Quinn Patton has crafted the most comprehensive and systematic book on qualitative research and evaluation methods, inquiry frameworks, and analysis options available today. Now offering more balance between applied research and evaluation, this Fourth Edition illuminates all aspects of qualitative inquiry through new examples, stories, and cartoons; more than a hundred new summarizing and synthesizing exhibits; and a wide range of new highlight sections/sidebars that elaborate on important and emergent issues. For the first time, full case studies are included to illustrate extended research and evaluation examples. In addition, each chapter features an extended "rumination," written in a voice and style more emphatic and engaging than traditional textbook style, about a core issue of persistent debate and controversy.

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"The content itself, based in years of thinking, reading, doing, conversing, is a huge strength. Reading the chapters is like sitting at the feet of one of the masters."

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Michael Quinn Patton  is author of more than a dozen books on evaluation including Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, 4th ed (2015), Blue Marble Evaluation (2020), Principles-Focused Evaluation (2018), Facilitating Evaluation (2018) and Developmental Evaluation (2011). Based in Minnesota, he was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years and is a former president of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). Michael is a recipient of the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award, the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Evaluation Theory Award, and the Research on Evaluation Award, all from AEA He has also received the Lester F. Ward Distinguished Contribution to Applied and Clinical Sociology Award from the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology. In 2021 he received the first Transformative Evaluator Award from EvalYouth. He is an active speaker, trainer, and workshop presenter who has conducted applied research and evaluation on a broad range of issues and has worked with organizations and programs at the international, national, state, provincial, and local levels. Michael has three children―a musician, an engineer, and an evaluator―and four grandchildren. When not evaluating, he enjoys exploring the woods and rivers of Minnesota, where he lives.

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Michael quinn patton.

Michael Quinn Patton lives in Minnesota where, according to the state's poet laureate, Garrison Keillor, "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." It was this lack of interesting statistical variation in Minnesota that led him to qualitative inquiry despite the strong quantitative orientation of his doctoral studies in sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He serves on the graduate faculty of The Union Institute, a nontraditional, interdisciplinary, nonresidential and individually designed doctoral program.

He was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years, including five years as Director of the Minnesota Center for Social Research, where he was awarded the Morse-Amoco Award for innovative teaching. He won the University of Minnesota storytelling competition and has authored several other books which include Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Creative Evaluation, Practical Evaluation, How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation, and Family Sexual Abuse: Frontline Research and Evaluation.

He edited Culture and Evaluation for the journal New Direction in Program Evaluation. His creative nonfiction book, Grand Canyon Celebration: A Father-Son Journey of Discovery, was a finalist for 1999 Minnesota Book of the Year.He is former President of the American Evaluation Association and the only recipient of both the Alva and Gunner Myrdal Award for Outstanding Contributions to Useful and Practical Evaluation from the Evaluation Research Society and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for Lifelong Contributions to Evaluation Theory from the American Evaluation Association. The Society for Applied Sociology awarded him the 2001 Lester F. Ward Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Sociology.

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" Good resource at the premise and prospectus writing stage, some time the input of examples were a tad distracting from the core info, but overall..." Read more

" Great textbook .... Love the quotes!! So qualitative!" Read more

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Project phase

Alignment diagram.

Visually combining the user side and the business side

Alignment Diagrams designates a diagram type that visually combines the user side and the business side. Alignment diagrams are suitable for identifying values at the interface of both sides and can therefore make an important contribution as a means of communication in the development of strategic innovations. 

Examples of Alignment Diagrams are Customer Journey Maps, Mental Model Diagrams and Service Blueprints.

Anything to improve with the method description? Just send an e-mail with your suggestion. Thank you!

• Brainstorming
• Content Design and UI Mapping
• Mental Models
• Use Case Modelling
• User Interview
• Event Tree Analysis
• Experiencing Information (Jim Kalbach)
• Mapping Experiences (book by Jim Kalbach)

The Design Method Finder is a UX and PM method data base with quick access to a lot of interesting and potentially helpful methods.