Power and politics in migration narrative methodology: Research with young Congolese migrants in Uganda

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Clark-Kazak
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Narrative Research ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Personal Boundaries ◽  
Migration Narratives ◽  
Narrative Methodology

This paper explores the power dynamics inherent in qualitative research involving migration narratives. Drawing on the author’s experiences collecting life histories and constructing narratives of Congolese young people in Uganda, this article addresses the ethical and methodological issues of representivity, ownership, anonymity and confidentiality. It also explores the importance of investment in relationships in migration narrative research, but also the difficulties that arise when professional and personal boundaries become blurred.

Interviews with Young People using Online Chat

2011 ◽  
pp. 403-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elza Dunkels ◽  
AnnBritt Enochsson
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Immigrants ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Online Chat ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Over Time

When we first started using online interviews as a method for qualitative research, we had no thoughts about it being any different from face-to-face interviews. Being naturalized digital immigrants (Prensky, 2001), having not used computers and the Internet from childhood but having become accustomed to them over time, we did not give the methodological issues much thought. However, when we started getting questions about our research, we understood that we took too much for granted. The questions that were raised made us question our approaches.

‘Keen as fuck’: youth participation in qualitative research as ‘parallel projects’

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Arnold Lohmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
Youth Participation ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Ethics Review ◽  
Active Research ◽  
Participation In Research

Youth researchers continue to pursue the ideals of youth participation in research. This pursuit reflects a broader concern for the problems of participant-researcher power dynamics in qualitative research. Youth researchers develop and adopt a variety of techniques and ethical principles that attempt to position young people as active research participants. However, these methods and principles have not solved the challenges of participation. In this article, I argue that there is a need to accept that some of the power asymmetries of participation might be unsolvable, and to reposition the power relationship between young people and researchers. A central concern in this article is the paradoxically unethical outcomes produced by adult-centric ethics review processes. I argue that youth participation in qualitative research can be understood as parallel projects and that in doing so researchers can value young people’s reasons for participation. In fact, young people might be ‘keen as fuck’ (participant quote) to participate.

scholarly journals POPULAR EDUCATION AND YOUTH: THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT AS AN EDUCATIONAL SPACE

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (174) ◽  
pp. 290-315
Author(s):  
Hadassa Monteiro de Albuquerque Lucena ◽  
João Carlos Pereira Caramelo ◽  
Severino Bezerra da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Popular Education ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Participatory Citizenship

Abstract This study aims to understand how individuals, in the course of their life histories, and mainly through experiential learning processes, build knowledge through the participation in a social movement. To this end, a qualitative research was conducted, using semi-structured interviews, to obtain life narratives from six participants of a Brazilian movement that brings together young people across the country: the Levante Popular da Juventude [Popular Youth Uprising]. The research allows us to understand how the educational experience lived in social movements favors the emancipation of individuals who experience it and lead to an awareness about participatory citizenship in face of local and global realities.

scholarly journals The governance of vulnerability: regulation, support and social divisions in action

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 667-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Brown
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Divisions

Purpose Diverse narratives and practices concerned with “vulnerability” increasingly inform how a range of social issues are understood and addressed, yet the subtle creep of the notion into various governance arenas has tended to slip by unnoticed. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of vulnerability in responding to longstanding and on-going dilemmas about social precariousness and harm. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on in-depth qualitative research into how vulnerability was operationalised in services for “vulnerable” young people in an English city, prominent narratives of vulnerability are traced, which operate in relation to a variety of often-dissonant service user responses. Findings The paper shows the governance of vulnerability as a dynamic process, informed by policy developments and wider beliefs about the behaviours of “problem” populations, interpreted and modified by interactions between practitioners and young people, and in turn shaping lived experiences of vulnerability. Patterns in this process illuminate how vulnerability narratives re-shape long-running tensions at the heart of social welfare interventions between a drive to provide services that might mitigate social precariousness and an impetus towards regulating behaviour. Originality/value The paper argues that although gesturing to inclusivity, the governance of vulnerability elaborates power dynamics and social divisions in new ways. Resulting outcomes are evidently varied and fluid, holding the promise of further social change.

Methodological Issues in Qualitative Research on Chinese Americans With Diabetes

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. L. Kwan ◽  
Kevin M. Chun ◽  
Catherine A. Chesla
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Chinese Americans ◽  
Methodological Issues

THE TROUBLED JOURNEYS OF SCHOOL DROP-OUTS: WASTAGE, REDEMPTION AND POLICY CONSIDERATIONS

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Andile Dube ◽  
Mokubung Nkomo
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Training And Development ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Second Chance Education ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Drop Outs ◽  
Second Chance

The study traces the pathways of young people who dropped out of school between grades 1 to 11 as they seek re-entrance to the education, training and development (ETD) system, or entrance into the labour market. Particular attention is given to the factors that determine the choices that drop-outs make in either re-entering the ETD system or entering the labour market. An analysis of the experiences of the interviewed sample of drop-outs is presented. The study employs a qualitative research methodology, using interviews to elicit the experiences of drop-outs and school managers. Through snowballing, 14 youths and three principals were selected from a township south of Durban. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted. The findings provide insights into the drop-outs’ perceptions regarding the value of investing in education. They are discussed further in relation to the respective theories used in the study. The concluding section suggests the need for investments in second chance education by government and the private sector, and proposes an integrated model to assist young people who re-enter psychologically and emotionally.

scholarly journals Shifting power dynamics in interviews with children: a minority ethnic, working-class researcher’s reflections

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879412110347
Author(s):  
Imane Kostet
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Minority Ethnic

This article aims to contribute to the literature on power dynamics and researchers’ positionality in qualitative research, by shedding light on the experiences of a minority ethnic researcher with a working-class background. Drawing on Bourdieusian concepts, it discusses how middle-class children confronted the researcher with language stigma and how they, while drawing boundaries vis-à-vis those who ‘lack’ cultural capital, (unintentionally) drew boundaries against the researcher herself. In turn, it illustrates how during interviews with working-class children, manners had to be adopted with which the researcher is no longer familiar. This article calls on ethics committees to more strongly consider how researchers might become ‘vulnerable’ themselves during fieldwork and to acknowledge intersectional experiences that potentially cause power dynamics to shift, even in research involving groups that are socially believed to have little power, such as children.

Verhalend onderzoek

KWALON ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cees Grol
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Narrative Research ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Civic Dialogue ◽  
Complex Phenomena ◽  
Appropriate Education

Story research. Doing justice to the complexity of stories from the field Story research. Doing justice to the complexity of stories from the field The article derives from the author’s thesis Exploring voices exploring appropriate education: practitioners’ discourse and focuses on its methodological part.Cilliers claims that scientific research needs new approaches in order to understand complex issues. Lefebvre and Letiche assert that managers and policymakers simplify the complexity of everyday life in their reorganization proposals from higher levels. Smaling sketches what the role of qualitative research can be in studying complex phenomena. In the article it is explained how story research as a form of narrative research methodology can do justice to the complexity of stories from the field.Boje’s ‘antenarrative’, ‘antinarrative’ and ‘narrative’ form the conceptual framework to search for diversity within and between told and transcribed stories from the field. A ‘paragrammatic’ (Gabriel) use of deconstructive tools may help to find the diversity.Boje’s ‘emplotment’ and Holman Jones’ ‘civic dialogue’ offer clues to present the diversity of everyday life in a way that does justice to the complexity of stories from the field. The form of a polylogue was chosen to represent the different stories from the field.

You are never too old to be happy. What has life taught the elderly?

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-198
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Sygulska
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
Older People ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Family Health ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Research Interview ◽  
Elder People

Elder people have knowledge and experience – they can share them with other people. Seniors can teach young people different things. Their stories can indicate what is important in life and what should be avoided. The article presents the results of qualitative research (interview) on the lessons learned from the life experiences of the older people. The analysis of own research is preceded by the theoretical introduction about wisdom of life. Respondents highlighted mostly the importance of family, health, self-care and relationships with other people (friendship, honesty and respect towards others). Life showed them how important are: faith in God, enjoying every moment, patience in pursuing a goal, independently deciding about own life, realising your dreams, and work. Life experiences showed them how to deal with problems and that a person learns all life. They learned rules such as: money does not bring happiness, you cannot trust everyone, live the present and the good comes back. The elderly said that a person should make efforts to be happy.

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