Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
the study. The advantage of focusing on specific incidents is that,
in addition to facilitating recall, participants can identify and clarify
feelings and meanings which they may attach to these, but
otherwise be unable to articulate (3). It can provide a powerful
vehicle for stimulating transformative learning because they are so
closely connected to the personal experience (11: Cranton, 1994).
Finally, it can provide a unique and effective means of leading
participants from the “specific to the general in understanding their
underlying assumptions and beliefs” (11: p. 189). The value for
fostering critically transformative learning is twofold: CITs’ are
accounts written by people about actions in their own lives and they
are undeniable sources of data representing participants’ existential
realities, thus providing primary data that gives insight into the
participants’ assumptive worlds in expressions that are specific for
that individual (8).
In a CIT study, sample size is not determined by the number
of people but by the number of incidents collected. The number of
incidents needed cannot be predefined (1) with each participant
usually contributing one or two incidents (9). As with most
qualitative studies, sample size is usually small, thus the critical
incident technique utilized must be written very concisely to allow
the participants’ to answer it as descriptively and clearly as
possible.
However, all forms of methodology must declare their
limitations. Even though the CIT is a versatile tool, it is dependent
on the “memories of participants and their ability to recollect
specific examples of the concepts in question” (12: Care, 1996, p.
28). The issue of reflection in the CIT has raised both positive and
negative comments. This can be viewed as a limitation whereby it
is dependent on participants’ ability to accurately provide a detailed
account of an event. Though researchers’ should be confident in
their participant’s ability to ‘tell their story’, there is always the
element that embellishment might occur. In spite of this, CITs have
the capability of assisting participants to reflect upon their
experience and expand on personal insight into their personhood.
Transforming one’s frames of reference through critical reflection on
assumptions supporting the content and/or process of problemsolving,
and transforming one’s habits of mind by becoming
critically reflective of the premises defining the problem (13:
Brookfield, 2000) can lead to a transformative learning experience
where the participant can gain a more comprehensive awareness of
the experience and their actions. CITs’ guide participants through a
factual description, as well as reflection, of the event (14: Rosenal,
1995).
Finally, the CIT is “less equipped to explore those situations in
which there was no decision or act, or where the user was unaware
of the information need or suppressing (consciously or
- 685 -