Purpose Qualitative researchers have long sought approaches that deepen rapport and facilitate access to participants' emotional worlds. This article advances music as an underutilized yet powerful elicitation tool in qualitative interviewing. Drawing on a study of queer college students' experiences of romantic heartbreak, participants were invited to submit songs representing their experiences prior to interviews. These songs served as relational entry points, narrative scaffolds and affective conduits. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a qualitative, semi-structured interview design grounded in interpretivist traditions, prioritizing participants' meaning-making processes (Creswell and Poth, 2018). To extend traditional interview approaches, this study intentionally incorporated music as a structured elicitation technique, positioning it as both a data-generation and relational mechanism. Unlike conventional elicitation methods that appear intermittently, music was embedded as the entry point and organizing feature of each interview. This design choice allowed investigation not only of participants' experiences of romantic heartbreak but also of how music shaped participants' articulation, emotional access and narrative construction. Findings Findings suggest that music enhanced rapport, enabled emotional articulation and supported participant agency in meaning-making. This article argues that music-based elicitation functions as both a methodological and relational intervention particularly when exploring stigmatized or emotionally complex experiences. Implications for qualitative research practice, especially in identity-based and trauma-adjacent contexts, are discussed. Originality/value Positioned at the intersection of qualitative inquiry, affect theory and arts-based research, this work examines how music shaped not only what participants shared, but how their experiences became speakable within the interview space. Through reflexive thematic analysis, the study identified several methodological functions of music, including emotional mirroring, narrative anchoring, indirect disclosure and co-interpretation between participant and researcher. The findings suggest that music operates as more than a creative supplement to interviewing; it can function as a relational methodology that restructures emotional access and meaning-making in qualitative research. As both a researcher and therapist, my investment in this work emerged from personal and professional experiences witnessing how music mediates emotional processing, particularly within queer communities where identity, intimacy and emotional expression are often shaped by cultural silence and stigma. This project contributes to growing conversations within arts-based inquiry by positioning music as a methodological and affective practice capable of deepening rapport, reflexivity and collaborative knowledge production.
Purpose This article explores ethnodrama as a methodological lens to understand teacher agency in Mauritius, a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), by examining how it helps researchers navigate the ethical, relational and representational challenges of conducting research in culturally intimate contexts characterised by managed intimacy. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on a qualitative inquiry into teacher agency during curriculum reform, combining interviews, observations and artefact elicitation activities within a narrative inquiry framework informed by interpretivist and posthumanist orientations. Within this framework, ethnodrama informed both the analysis and representation of participants' experiences through the construction of composite characters, while preserving relational complexity and reducing participant recognisability within a professionally interconnected context. Findings The study shows that conventional qualitative methods risk flattening complex, sensitive experiences in relationally dense contexts where professional proximity shapes what can be voiced. Ethnodrama functioned as an arts-based representational form and a methodological lens that illuminated contradictions, silences, ambivalence and negotiated agency by preserving the relational, affective and performative dimensions of participants' experiences. It also foregrounded the ethical tensions surrounding researcher positionality, participant recognisability and the co-construction of knowledge. Originality/value This article contributes to qualitative methodology by reconceptualising ethnodrama as more than a creative means of representing qualitative findings. It demonstrates how ethnodrama can function as a methodological lens that supports the ethical analysis and representation of complex qualitative data in relationally dense research contexts. By situating this discussion within a SIDS context, the paper offers methodological insights for researchers working in professionally interconnected settings where participant recognisability presents ongoing ethical challenges.
Purpose The academic paper reviews how a machine translation (MT) literacy programme worked and how particular design decisions, taken participatorily, shape the literacy that subsequently develops. Its case for review is drawn from participations of teaching assistants who translate on behalf of pupils, parents and institutions. Design/methodology/approach Participatory action research was implemented as an illustrative case across two training groups at learning centres in Mae Sot District, Tak Province on the Thailand–Myanmar border. Design memos, meeting notes, observational fieldnotes and follow-up reflections were used reflexively, each between-group revision being recorded together with the observation. Findings Text-operational skills proved largely absent from participants' accounts. What developed instead were judgements taken before and around translation: whether a text should be put into MT at all, which mode suits which situation and whom to consult. Trust became conditional upon topics. Checking the output was distributed among persons and bounded by time. Privacy was reframed as a duty owed to others. Practical implications Four principles are conceptually discussed and offered. Teaching time should focus on the concepts assistants understand the least. Activities should be simple enough for them to use in their own classrooms. Training materials should include examples relevant to their context. Checking should rely on local resources rather than a far-away expert. Originality/value As a contribution to Translation Studies, the participatory design concept with a case exemplar is useful for reflecting on how the finished programme can be adjusted according to contexts. Each adjustment should be done together with the person who proposed it. It also extends process-based accounts of MT literacy to mediators working with low-resource languages.
Purpose This study explores academic motivation as a mediating psychological process linking lecturer autonomy support and students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) in Indonesian higher education. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a qualitative design informed by self-determination theory. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 undergraduate students at a public university in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Participants were purposively selected based on their experience of autonomy-supportive learning practices. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase approach. Findings Three interconnected themes emerged. First, students experienced autonomy support as trust, intellectual recognition and guided freedom rather than unrestricted independence. Second, these relational experiences fostered autonomous motivation characterized by emotional comfort, psychological ownership and sustained engagement. Third, motivation functioned as a psychological bridge through which autonomy-supportive practices were internalized and translated into SRL behaviors, including planning, monitoring, time management, persistence and reflective evaluation. The findings indicate that autonomy support becomes behaviorally consequential when students internalize academic goals as personally meaningful. Originality/value This study extends self-determination theory by conceptualizing academic motivation not simply as a statistical mediator but as a lived psychological bridge between autonomy-supportive pedagogy and SRL. It also provides culturally contextualized qualitative evidence showing that autonomy in Indonesian higher education may be experienced as entrusted responsibility within respectful lecturer–student relationships.
Purpose This study examines how translation strategies, equivalence, and multimodal resources interact to construct cultural, moral, and pedagogical meanings in an Indonesian–English bilingual digital storybook for character education. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative descriptive approach, the study analyses 112 purposively selected translation units from an interactive digital storybook. Translation strategies are examined using Molina and Hurtado Albir's framework, while equivalence is analyzed at functional, linguistic and pragmatic levels. Multimodal analysis explores the alignment of verbal, visual and auditory elements. Findings Three patterns emerge: strategic hybridization combines literal translation with pragmatic adaptation to maintain narrative clarity and pedagogical relevance; dynamic equivalence involves cultural and ideological reframing to make culture-specific expressions and moral values accessible to young readers; and multimodal reinforcement distributes moral and educational meanings across verbal, visual and auditory resources. These patterns demonstrate that translation involves negotiating linguistic accuracy, cultural specificity and pedagogical purpose rather than simply transferring meaning between languages. Originality/value The study integrates translation strategies, equivalence and multimodal discourse analysis to conceptualize translation as a pedagogical and trans-semiotic practice. It extends text-centered approaches to equivalence by demonstrating how linguistic choices interact with multimodal resources in representing cultural knowledge and character-education values in digital children's literature.
