MSc Psychology - Session 3: pm, 12 th October, 2011, NLT

Overview  Origins  Features  (Participant) Observation  Interviews  Focus groups  Multi-media methods  Key Issues  Ethics  Access  Analysis  Example  Does Every Child Matter, post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods

 Origins  Roots in sociology and anthropology  Used in social sciences and humanities  Used in applied areas eg: education & medicine

 Key Texts  Tedlock, B. (2000) Ethnography and Ethnographic Representations in Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research 2 nd Edition, London: Sage pp  Malinowski, B. (1922) Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea, London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.

 ‘To grasp the native’s point of view…’  (Malinowski, 1922: 25)

 Thinking point  What criticism might be made of research that sets out to grasp the native’s point of view?

 "There is nothing so strange in a strange land, as the stranger who comes to visit it."

Criticisms of Malinowski’s approach  Researcher may take up complete membership of the groups they are studying;  Going ‘native’ risks ‘moral degeneration’;  Reveals ethnography’s colonial past  Behar (2003: 3) has argued that ethnography has its origins in ‘flagrant colonial inequalities’

 Ethnography and marginalised groups  ethnography has focused on ‘extraordinary individuals’ (Spradley, 1979), with the associated dangers that ‘minority’ and/or ‘marginalised’ groups have been both exoticsed and/or oppressed;  Potential for emancipatory research  Eg: Vlachou, 1997; Goodley, 2000  ‘make the strange familiar’ yet ‘render the familiar strange’ (Goodley, 2002: 4).

 Key Features  it explores the nature of social phenomenon through first-hand observation in natural settings (Atkinson and Hammersley, 1994);  researchers respond to the field, rather than entering the field with pre-conceived hypotheses or analytic categories into which they code the data.  researchers seek to ‘relinquish’ their will and to find the ‘unexpected stories’ Behar (2003:16);  there is detailed exploration of a small number of cases, perhaps only one (Atkinson and Hammersley, 1994);  the analysis explores meaning making and produces ‘thick’ descriptions (Hammersley, 1990). .

 (Participant) Observation

 Interviews

 Focus groups

 Multi-media methods

 Participatory Rural Appraisal

 Netography

 Thinking point  Can you think of the key ethical issues for ethnographers?

 Issues  Consent, anonymity, confidentiality  Access  “insider/outsider” researcher  What happens when you finish the project?  ‘Validity’??  Analysis: Grounded Theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967)

Questions and comments?

Does Every Child Matter, post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods

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Does Every Child Matter, post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods  The research team listened to disabled children and young people, their parents/carers and professionals to discover what it means to be a disabled child in England in the 2000s. The project employed a variety of ethnographic approaches including: participant and non- participant observation, interviews, focus groups, and multi-media methods.

Does Every Child Matter, post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods  Children and disabled people have traditionally been constructed as ‘vulnerable’ and ‘passive’ in research;  Project offered chance to try to deconstruct ethnography;  De-colonizing methodologies;  Research with not on;  Emphasis on potential and aspirations.

September 2010University of Leeds29

September 2010University of Leeds30 Taken from Runswick-Cole, 2008

Does Every Child Matter, post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods  Parental/carer consent  Child assent – on-going process (Cocks, 2006);  Clear information;

Adoption Activity Days – what do you think? My name is Katherine, I work at Manchester Metropolitan University and I would like to know what you what you think about Activity Days Activity days are organised by the British Association of Adoption and Fostering and social workers for children looking for families. At the activity day, you can: Meet new people (including families thinking about adoption); Make new friends; Meet other children looking for a family Learn more about what is being done to find you a family; Have fun trying the activities including; baking, games, photography and art. After the activity day, we would like the person who looks after you to ask you some questions about the activity days. We’d like to know if you enjoyed yourself and had a nice time. We’d like to know if you liked meeting other children and grown ups. We’d like to know whether you think activity days for children looking for families are a good idea. If you took any photos or made any art work, you might want to tell the person who looks after you about them. Remember: you can choose whether or not to talk about the activity day or not. It is up to you to decide. If you don’t want to talk about the activity day, you can still go and have fun. Thank you for thinking about answering the question.

If you would like to ask me any questions you can ask your carer or you can send me an Activity Days …

Adoption Activity Days – what do you think? My name is Katherine, I work at Manchester Metropolitan University and I would like to know what you what you think about Activity Days Activity days are organised by the British Association of Adoption and Fostering and social workers for children looking for families. At the activity day, you can: meet new people; meet other children who are waiting for adoption; meet families who are thinking of adopting children make new friends; learn more about what is being done to find you a family; have fun trying the activities including; craft activities, games, photography, climbing, abseiling, trying out the adventure playground, and pond dipping. After the activity day, we would like the person who looks after you to ask you some questions about the activity days. We’d like to know if you enjoyed yourself and had a nice time. We’d like to know if you liked meeting other children and grown ups. We’d like to know whether you think activity days for children looking for families are a good idea. If you took any photos or made any art work, you might want to tell the person who looks after you about them. Remember: you can choose whether or not to talk about the activity day or not. It is up to you to decide. If you don’t want to talk about the activity day, you can still go and have fun. Thank you for thinking about answering the question.

If you would like to ask me any questions you can ask your carer or you can send me an Adoption Activity Days …

Does Every Child Matter, post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods  Confidentiality – unless risk of harm;  Anonymity;  Participatory ethnography;  ‘photovoice’ (Booth and Booth, 2003)

Monkey and dad 26th-28th May, NNDR, 2011

Rosie’s story 1st July, 2011RIHSC Conference,

Analysis  fracturing the data (Charmaz, 2001) and reducing the potential impact of the powerful images the children have presented.  ‘to watch our watching, to read our readings’ Titchkosky (2007)  simply revealing marginalised voices does not necessarily bring about change.