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Rob O’Connor

Rob O’Connor. Fingerprints on the Research Process: Using BNIM in Social Research. ‘the research process is not so much a means to an end but an integral part of that end’ (Lohan, 2000 p. 182). Outline of Presentation. Background to the research Aims Research design

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Rob O’Connor

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  1. Rob O’Connor Fingerprints on the Research Process: Using BNIM in Social Research

  2. ‘the research process is not so much a means to an end but an integral part of that end’ (Lohan, 2000 p. 182).

  3. Outline of Presentation • Background to the research • Aims • Research design • The use of narrative enquiry • Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method • The role of the Interviewer • Benefits of method • Challenges of method • Conclusion/questions/discussion

  4. Background to Research • Researchers biography • Research Question: How do separated fathers represent their experiences of parenting in Ireland? • Rationale: Change • Wider gender order (Connell, 1995; Tovey & Share, 2000) • Socio-demographic family (Binchey, 2004; Giddens, 1992) • Fathering culture (Dermott, 2008; Featherstone, 2009) • Research ‘dislocation’ or ‘detachment’ (Sprague & Kobrynowicz, 2004) l • Lack of accessibility eading to a ‘sterile, irrelevant discussion without connection to social life (Alcoff, 1993, p. 715).

  5. Aims • To investigate how separated fatherhood is represented in Irish legislation and social policy. • To examine the positions of separated fathering in relation to dominant constructions of masculinity and family. • To discover how separated fathers construct their own self identities as fathers. • To develop the use of Narrative and BNIM in research on separated fathers. • To explore the ‘form’ of the narrative told by separated fathers. • To make recommendations for future policy/practice development.

  6. Research Design Address the gap, how fathers themselves feel about fathering? No theoretical positioning on fathers (Marsiglio, 1993; Richards, 1982) Feminist Research Approach (process as well as result ) Interviewee as Expert/ Valuing the Personal (Harding, 2004; Brooks, 2007). Challenge Interviewer objectivity/power (Letherby, 2003) Reflexivity (locating the self, Riessman, 1993) Narrative Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM)

  7. Research Design Cntd. • Purposive Sample: which is a sample ‘selected purposefully to permit inquiry into and understanding of a phenomenon in depth’ (Patton, 2002, p. 46). • 15 Separated Fathers aged 20-55 • National Support Organisations • Local Projects • Snowballing Difficult Group to Access!

  8. The Use of Narrative Enquiry • ubiquitous throughout society (KY Lai, 2010). • less contrived method • Recognises participant expertise as narrator (Elliot, 2005) • Focus on lived experience & interpretation (Riessman, 1993) • Acknowledges interviewer influence (Hardy, Gregory & Ramjeet, 2009)

  9. Narrative Research • Structure When telling a narrative some aspects are illuminated and some excluded and this is a conscious choice (East et al, 2010). • Meaningful Life is given meaning and becomes comprehensible by expressing it thorough narrative (KY Lai, 2010). • Identity Construction ‘in the telling, in the talk, substantial identity work was going on’ (Byrne, 2000, p. 152). • Social ‘Communities are woven together by narratives that invigorate their common understanding of good and evil, happiness and reward, the meaning of life and death’ (Christians, 2008, p. 206)

  10. BNIM • Focus on the life experiences, worthy of research • ‘Biography is seen as an alternative narrative, the voice of the non-professional’ (Chamberlayneet al, 2000) • Person must be an expert in their own life as subject, lead • Fatherhood constructed through lived experiences • Lends itself best to principles of subjectivity and participation • Berlin Quatext group: Fritz Schütze built upon phenomenological and interactionist work of Gabriele Rosenthal, Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal and others as part of the. Brought to the U.K. and expanded upon by Chamberlayne and also by Wengraf.

  11. BNIM • Feminist Phenomenological Interviewing (Reinharz, 1992) • ‘methods or techniques are not allowed to determine the research situation but are adapted to the ongoing activity’ (Daly, 2000, p. 63). • gaining access to ‘people’s ideas, thoughts and memoirs in their own words rather than in the words of the researcher’ (Reinharz, 1992, p. 19). • The subtleties within the speech itself • focused on gathering the life story and lived experiences of an individual and apply a direct framework to achieve this (Wengraf, 2009).

  12. BNIM • Single Question Used to Induce Narrative (SQUIN) (in every day language, Narrativised) • deliberate vagueness, or ‘pro-subjective vagueness’ (Wengraf, 2001, P. 124) • Interview Stage 1 –SQUIN & Topic notes, 5-6 markers • Interview Stage 2 – Info on topics (same words & order) • Interview Stage 3 – Qs from 1&2 and theoretical purpose

  13. Interviewer Role • Story facilitator • Active Listening ‘listening around and beyond words’ (DeVault, 2004, p. 233). • Non-Directional support ‘neutral probes’ (Hesse-Biber, 2007, p. 126) • ‘the researcher must stay on his or her toes and listen intently to what the interviewee has to say, for the researcher must be prepared to drop his or her agenda and follow the pace of the interview’ (Hesse-Biber, 2007, p. 132).

  14. Benefit • Less ‘artificial fragmentation’ (Elliot, 2006) • Less intrusive & judgemental • Interviewee framework (Patton, 2002) • less manipulated, Best self, Hawthorne Effect (Goffman, 1959) • ‘when people tell their life stories they can often be concerned to offer a kind of coherent narrative to others, somehow moving over the breaks, disappointments and displacements’ (Seidler, 2006). • Not unguided - tangible, clear, auditable framework (Wengraf, 2009) • Shed light on social norms & beliefs, assumed and therefore manipulated less

  15. Challenges • Too much rich data to be manageable. • Data so in-depth no room for generalisation/relativist vacuum Lohan, 2000/validity. Neutrality vs Objectivity • Frye (1998, p. 43) ‘has never been anything but an anthology, a collection of tales unified, like any yarn, only by successively overlapping threads held together by friction, not riveted by logic. There is no reason to predict or require that it must forever hold together at all’. • Requires certain amount of training on part of interviewer. • Single question can still appear contrived as does not follow ‘normal’ conversation. • Iterative approach can prove challenging • Power Parity? • Situating the ‘I’

  16. Questions/Discussion Points • 1. What counts as an explanation/theory in in qualitative research? • 2. How to locate the personal in: a) analysis b) writing • 3. Who is the research for?

  17. What Counts? • How is qualitative data judged to be credible • Need for some social facts? • Trustworthiness & Authenicity vs. Objectivity & Subjectivty (Patton, 2002). • A strong positivist tradition was, and some would argue still is, present in Irish research (Byrne & Lentin, 2000).

  18. The use of the ‘I’ First Person Third Person Ownership Patton (2002, p. 64) conveys ‘the personal voice of qualitative analysis’. Objectivity The voice of academic rigour

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