Stimulated recall: problematising, challenging, and extending conventional application

Stimulated recall is a qualitative research process which holds significant potential to develop understanding(s) of the ideological, philosophical, perceptual, and emotional experiences that underpin observable social action (e.g., coaching practice). Typically, video and/or audio footage is used to prompt participants to relive and elicit introspective accounts of situations, events, and (inter)actions. Despite its potential to explicate concurrent thoughts, feelings and actions, as well as to generate critical reflections on (mal)alignments between beliefs and actual practice, stimulated recall research has most often followed long-standing positivist, univocal, and temporally isolated conventions. The purposes of this paper, then, drawing from the authors’ longitudinal experiences of using stimulated recall in their respective fieldwork, are two-fold. First, we critically examine and problematise some long-standing beliefs and uses of this method. Second, we tentatively map a progressive agenda for its future utility as a productive research method for scholars, students, and practitioners.