Consider two qualitative approaches you could take to investigate a research scenario

The website of New Family Social, a charity which seeks to help LGBT+ people considering adoption, ran a story in December 2020 in which it cited adoption figures published by the Department for Education (England). These official UK government figures showed that the proportion of adoptions to same-sex couples increased for the third year in a row in 2020, to the highest number of adoptions by same-sex couples to date. In 2019/20, 16.6% of all adoptions were by same-sex couples, which is 1 in 6. The figures also revealed that more male, married/civil partnership same-sex couples adopted children in 2019/20 than female, married/civil partnership same-sex couples. In November 2021, the website updated the story to add that while overall adoption figures fell in 2021, the proportion of same-sex couple adoptions remained 1 in 6.

---

With this information in mind, imagine you are a researcher who has been asked to explore the topic of same-sex adoptions in England. You have decided to approach this topic using a phenomenological methodology and a critical discourse psychology methodology.

1. Briefly describe the approach a phenomenological researcher might take when researching this topic and state a suitable research question for a phenomenological inquiry into the topic. To answer this, describe some key aspects of the methodology that would be needed to research this topic (for example, the data source, the method of capturing this data and the analysis that would need to be used to satisfy the research question you have stated). 500 words.
2. A discursive psychologist has designed a project to research this topic using five focus groups, with five participants in each group. The researcher will be looking at the interpretative repertoires, subject positions and ideological dilemmas interpreted from the focus group data. State a suitable research question for this researcher to base their focus group questions on, and briefly discuss the strengths and limitations of using the discursive approach to research this topic. 500 words.