SFAA presentation on Rapid Assessment Process (RAP)

1. Rapid Assessment Process RAP
Based on First Edition. Please see
Rapid Qualitative Inquiry
for the Second Edition
Rapid Qualitative Inquiry: Field Guide to
Team-Based Assessment
James Beebe
SfAA March 2013

2. SECOND EDITION
Rowman and Littlefield
have announced a release
date of mid-October for the
Second Edition. It can be
preordered from Rowman
and Littlefield or from
Amazon.com
The Rowman and Littlefield
web site includes
prepublication reviews and
other updates.
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9
780759123212

3. Rapid Assessment Process
A way to investigate complicated
situations:
Where issues are not yet well
defined.
Where there is not sufficient time
or other resources for long-term,
traditional qualitative research.

4. Rapid Assessment Process
Is Qualitative Research.
Shares many of the
characteristics of case study and
ethnography.
The goal is better understanding,
not truth.

5. Differs from traditional qualitative
research
INSTEAD OF LONG-TERM
FIELDWORK
Uses intensive, team interaction.
Explicitly divides time between
data collection and data review/
analysis before additional data
collection.

6. Rapid Assessement Process
and participatory research
 One approach to Participatory Action
Research (PAR).
 Both PAR and RAP/RQI share the goal
of finding out about local situation, pay
attention to context, are facilitated by
outsiders, and recognize local people as
the main actors and source of
understanding.

7. Rapid Qualitative Inquiry
differs from participatory research
 Participatory research focuses more on
the empowerment of local participants
who have responsibility for changes that
meet local needs.
 Rapid Qualitative Inquiry focuses more
on methodological rigor and producing
results for outside decision makers.
 Differences are a matter of degree.

8. RAP is defined as:
intensive, team-based qualitative
inquiry based on a case study
approach using multiple techniques
for data collection and iterative data
analysis and additional data collection
to quickly develop a preliminary
understanding of a situation from the
insider’s perspective.

9. RAP cannot be done by
one person.

10. RAP can be used
• to make preliminary decisions
about interventions or changes.
• to make decisions about
additional research.
• for monitoring and evaluation.

11. Usually RAP should NOT be used
for estimating numbers or percents.

12. Results can be produced in
• as few as about five days,
• but usually requires several
weeks.
• Longer time in the field
produces better results.

13. Definitions of rap that apply to
RAP
To talk freely and frankly.
To communicate with participants
using their vocabulary and
rhythm.

14. Stories NOT Answers
The goal is to get the
insiders to tell their stories
and NOT answer the
questions of the outsiders.

15. RAP as a Case Study
Case studies seek to provide an in-depth
understanding of a case or a
comparison of several cases.
Cases have identifiable boundaries.
 Cases can be an individual, several
individuals, a program, an event, or an
activity.

16. RAP as a Case Study
 Cases are selected to show different
perspectives on the problem.
 Purposeful sampling is used to select
cases.
 Data typically is drawn from multiple
sources including observations,
interviews, documents, physical
artifacts.

17. RAP as a Case Study
 RQI/RAP analysis often focuses on
specific aspects of a single case.
 The goal is to increase understanding
and produce lessons learned from the
case that are sometimes called
assertions, patterns, or explanations.

18. The RAP/RQI and Purposeful
Sampling
As part of Purposeful Sampling,
the team should seek out:
• the poorer,
• less articulate,
• more upset, and
• those least like the members of
the RQI/RAP team.

19. Teamwork
The success of RAP
depends upon the quality of
the teamwork.

20. Intensive teamwork
Intensive teamwork for both
the data collection and
analysis is an alternative to
prolonged fieldwork.

21. Intensive teamwork
Intensive teamwork helps
produce an improved
preliminary understanding of a
situation from the insider’s
perspective.

22. Team interaction
• Team interaction is critical for
having multiple approaches to
data collection.
• Team interaction is critical for
understanding the insiders’
categories and definitions.

23. Team interaction
• The RAP team should be
together most of the time.
• All team members should be
involved in data collection and
data analysis, including the
preparation of the report.

24. Team interviewing
RAP uses group discussion
involving the entire team and
the local participants (team
interviewing),
NOT sequential interviewing
by individual members of the
team.

25. Teams should be composed of
insiders and outsiders.
• At least one team member of the
RAP team should be an insider.
• After the rest of the team leaves,
the insider continues to be called
upon to clarify results, resolve
pending issues, and help
organize local responses.

26. Cultural differences and
diversity
• Sensitivity to cultural
differences is essential.
• Team diversity improves
cultural sensitivity and helps
establish credibility with local
communities.

27. Flexibility critical for use in a
variety of situation.
Some specific techniques have
proven to be especially effective,
but they are NOT the only
techniques that can be used.

28. Flexibility critical for use in a
variety of situation.
Relaxed, semi-structured interviewing
that provides respondents with time to
think is often effective in eliciting
stories.
Several hour-long or shorter
interviews are usually more
productive than single interviews that
are very long.

29. Flexibility critical for use in a
variety of situation.
There may be limited situations
when interviews or other data
collection is done by less than the
full team. These situations should
be documented.
Data analysis and the write up of
results should be a team effort.

30. Audio recording of interviews
• Usually interviews should be
tape-recorded.
• Tape recorders should be
expected to fail.
• Digital recorders allow
overnight transcribing.

31. RAP Sheet
• A “RAP Sheet” should be used
to document what was done.
• A RAP Sheet allows the
reader of a RAP report to
judge the quality of the work.

32. Successful RAP
Members of the RAP team need to
recognize:
• They don’t know enough to ask
questions,
• They don’t know enough to provide the
answers, but
• They do know enough to want to
empower others to solve their own
problems.

33. Iterative Analysis and
Additional Data Collection
Time is divided between
• blocks used for collecting information
and
• blocks when the team does data
analysis and considers changes in
the next round of data collection.

34. Iterative Analysis and
Additional Data Collection
Team interaction before each
new cycle of data collection is
essential.

35. Analysis
Analysis begins with the first round of
data collection.
Analysis involves:
• Coding the data,
• Displaying relationships in the data,
and
• Drawing conclusions.

36. Field Notes: Critical beginning
point for analysis
 “Jottings” or “memos” by RAP team
members to recall memories.
Notes taken in the field to capture
details about events, people, places,
meaning attributed to interactions, and
researcher reflections.
 Need to differentiate observations from
reflections.

37. Text as proxy for experience:
Transcripts of interviews as data for
analysis
When transcripts are not
available, the first step is
consolidating the field notes from
all team members.
When transcripts are available,
the first step is review by the
entire team and the addition of
information from field notes.

38. Transcripts are more useful
If typed, double-spaced with
every sentence beginning on a
new line.
With VERY wide margins on both
sides
Often codes are placed in the left
margin and comments in the right
margin.

39. Coding
Coding involves dividing what
participants have said into
thought units and applying a
few labels to selected units.

40. Some techniques for
understanding data
• Identifying patterns and themes
• Seeking plausibility
• Clustering
• Metaphor making, and
• Counting

41. Member checking
Sharing conclusions before
they are final with the people
who have provided the
information is a critical part of
the iterative analysis process.

42. Ethical Issue: Involving outside
decision makers
 RAP assumes non-local decision
makers should be part of the research
effort.
 Even when outside decision maker are
not part of the team, research should be
designed with sufficient rigor to inspire
confidence in the results.

43. Ethical Issue: Shifting Burden
Excessive focus on local
participation can lead to shifting of
the burden onto the poor and the
relinquishing by outsiders of their
responsibilities.

44. Ethical Issue: Unrealistic
Expectation
Research can raise unrealistic
expectations about future actions.

45. Ethical Issue: Bogus
Empowerment
 Encourages people to falsely believe that
their input will be acted upon.
 The RAP team needs to keep their
promises and make promises that they
can keep.
 The RAP team needs to avoid the
temptation of engaging in hyperbole about
the democratic nature of the situation.

46. The major challenge
Confusing rapid
with rushed.

47. RQI/RAP is an idea whose
time has come.
?
Only if it not oversold and only if it
is implemented rigorously.

48. Learning to RAP
Mini-RAP
 A Mini-RAP is not research, inquiry, or a
way to collect or analyze information.
 A Mini-RAP is an educational activity for
learning how to do a RQI or RAP.

49. Learning to RAP
Practice Team Interview
 Practice team interviewing before doing
the Mini-RAP.
 Participants are divided into teams with at
least three members. One member
becomes the person being interviewed. A
topic is agreed to. A topic that often works
has to do with changes in how gender
equality is defined in institutions.

50. Learning to RAP
Mini-RAP
ONE POSSIBLE MODEL
 Team of two or three people.
 15 minute interview with two individuals
(Informed consent, etc.).
 A minimum of two cycles of data collection
analysis, with review of process.
 Identification of one or two VERY
TENTATIVE conclusions.

51. Additional Information
 Visit the web site:
http://www.rapidassessment.net
 Contact me:
beebe@gonzaga.edu