As it turned out, the meticulously planned choice of schools was a success. These three institutions, located in different neighbourhoods, are characterised by various everyday mobility habits. We invited parents of children attending the 1-3 and 4-8 grades of the primary schools participating in the project to join the interviews.
We managed to carry out two in-person focus groups in the classrooms. The next ones, due to the COVID-19, were held remotely. Each group lasted about two hours and was moderated by an experienced professional following a predetermined interview scenario. The discussions were interesting, valuable and exciting, and, most importantly, we received a lot of valuable research material for in-depth analyses, which we have already started conducting.
It was not an easy task to gather parents at one time and place in the current busy world. Therefore, we are thankful to all those who agreed to devote their time and participate in our discussions. We know that respondents have fond memories of these meetings: “We felt great. I did not think that these two hours would pass so quickly and that transport and mobility are such interesting topics … “said one of the fathers,” I hope that our voice and opinion will be useful and that there will be changes for the better, we will wait for them,” added another participant. Yes, we are also convinced that these discussions were worthwhile. The results are coming at the beginning of 2022!
Focus groups close the qualitative analyses’ stage (including also individual interviews with experts and expert panels). We will use the insight to develop qualitative conclusions and support the construction of the quantitative questionnaire later in the project.
