The Interkula have received some queries about the recently published report on the results of our survey trying to assess how the Triratna Community feels now about allegations of past misconduct – “Triratna: How are We Doing Now?” .
We have compiled the various queries raised and publish our responses in this FAQ.
You can download a pdf copy of the FAQs by clicking HERE or read it below:
“Interkula Survey “Triratna: How are We Doing Now?” FAQs
Who wrote the survey and report?
The nine members of the Interkula wrote the survey and the report. Writing was a collective process and included input from everyone on the kula. All of us are Order members. Some of us have institutional responsibilities while others do not. Two of us have scientific training in data collection and analysis. One of us has experience in digital data protection. Our names are at our website http://www.interkula.net/who-we-are/
Did you consider administering this jointly with the Adhisthana kula?
The Interkula operates independently of any other Triratna organization, kula, or institution. Our primary aim is to facilitate discussion within the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community. We work primarily by producing Discussion Papers and surveying the Community about its perspectives and experiences, then communicating those findings to the Community. Therefore, independence from any other kula or institution is an important part of the survey process. Because the report included opinions about and recommendations for their work, members of the Adhisthana kula and of the Restorative Working Group were emailed the report in advance of its publication.
How were comments themed? Were they peer reviewed? Why weren’t they all included?
Comments were exported to an Excel spreadsheet and grouped according to question, then further themed based on comments. After excluding the comments we did not have permission to include, we chose the comments that best reflected the themes in their relative proportions. Four kula members independently themed and selected the comments then compared and agreed on those included. Thus, internal validity of themes and comments has been thorough and has been done to minimise researcher bias. Usually, only one or two additional coders would be expected to do this for research that was to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and this is not always possible due to resources. All members of the kula reviewed and agreed the final report.
Queries about whether this report was subject to peer review are a category error as this survey and its results were never intended for submission to a professional journal for an academic audience. Our quantitative data (the %’s and bar graphs) are not subject to researcher bias and provide useful information independently of the comments.
Comments were excluded if we did not have explicit permission to include them, if they were redundant to other comments that were reported, didn’t add significantly to the report (i.e, “Thanks”), or contained descriptions of misconduct graphic enough to be triggering to readers.
Could you tell us how just one cohort (i.e., Order members, Mitras, Friends, etc..) responded?
We have not reported the data for just one cohort of the Triratna Community because the Survey did not set out to collect that information as the entire community is potentially affected by this issue, not one specific cohort.
Do you know where the respondents are from, either geographically, or from which link they accessed the survey?
No, we did not collect that information, nor did we ask Survey Monkey to collect IP addresses of respondents.
Why didn’t the report mention issue x, person y, or event z?
The survey and report were not an investigation into the facts of Triratna’s past, a review of the Adhisthana kula’s work – or any other kula’s work – nor an analysis of every issue Triratna faces. It was a survey about how the community feels about the very specific topics of alleged sexual misconduct in Triratna’s history and Triratna’s response to it. Surveys can get very unwieldy to score and interpret if they include many different topics. (We are experiencing this right now with our parenting survey, which was much longer than this one. We are still intending to make recommendations based on that survey, but we have a lot of information to sort through first.) For the current survey we designed questions that we felt would best elicit what people in the community were thinking and feeling at the time the survey was given. If we did not include something in our report, it is either because the survey was not designed to collect that information, it was not mentioned it in the comments at all, or it was not mentioned in high enough numbers to be included in our themed analysis.
I know a topic for a survey. Can you do it?
Maybe. ? Please keep in mind we are volunteers with no resources doing this in our free time. Contact us at [email protected]
Download the FAQs here: Interkula – Triratna_How Are We Doing Now – FAQs.pdf
