Longitudinal Mixed Methods Research in the Study of the Careers of Professionals

Please join the Legal Professions Research Group and the Social Methods Research Centre for a seminar on longitudinal research methods.

Abstract:

Life course research necessitates the use of longitudinal research to trace the intersection of education, career trajectories, personal lives and health across time. In this presentation, I explore strategies used to track work and life histories over a near-30-year study of lawyers in Canada. The project involved surveys of 1,500 lawyers, repeated every 6 years, in combination with in-person in-depth interviews of 100 lawyers across three major cities in concert with the final three waves of survey data collection. I will share methodological tactics to achieve a strong rate of response and to develop panel data over time, how to employ work and life history calendars in the collection of dates, appropriate tools for statistical analyses of work and life history data, and finally, how mixed methods played a key role in this unique project. Longitudinal panel research (tracking the same respondents over time) is certainly labour-intensive and costly. However, this approach also yields tremendously rich data that allow causal determination and nuanced understanding of how life course events shape careers and how work experiences impact personal and family lives. 

Bio: 

Fiona Kay is Professor of Sociology at Queen’s University, Canada. Her research interests include the sociology of law, work and occupations, and regulation of professions. She is presently engaged in a longitudinal study examining career pathways of lawyers in civil and common law jurisdictions of Canada. A second study, in collaboration with Elizabeth Gorman, focuses on retention and advancement of racial minorities in corporate U.S. law firms. A third project explores the work and regulation of paralegals with attention to issues of access to justice. She has authored numerous articles on gender and racial diversity in the legal profession, mentorship, professional development, job satisfaction, career mobility, earnings attainment, and attrition from the professions. Her articles have appeared in American Sociological Review, Law & Society Review, Social Problems, McGill Law Journal, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Queen’s Law Journal, Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Policy, Annual Review of Law & Social Sciences, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Human Resources, Canadian Review of Sociology, and Advances in Life Course Research. She is co-author of Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers’ Lives (with John Hagan) and co-editor of Social Capital, Diversity, and the Welfare State (with Richard Johnston). Professor Kay has taught classes in research methods, criminology, sociology of law, and sociology of work classes at Queen’s University for over twenty years. In 2022 she was recipient of The Chancellor A. Charles Baillie Teaching Award at Queen’s University and in 2024 The Lorne Tepperman Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Award of the Canadian Sociology Association. In 2024, her article with Jean Wallace (2022) won top cited article in Canadian Review of Sociology and her article with Elizabeth Gorman (2024) won Best Paper Award in the Journal of Professions and Organizations. 

How to Attend: 

This seminar will be held in Room 1.08 of the Liberty Building

This event is jointly hosted by the Legal Professions Research Group and the Social Methods Research Centre.