Clinging to a knife’s edge: the Live-in Caregiver Program

Since the 1900s, Canada has heavily relied on foreign domestic workers. This program has evolved over the years into what is currently known as the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). It is rooted in our colonial history and has reproduced power imbalances between employers and caregivers. Challenging dominance is a difficult task given that immigration policies perpetuate inequalities through the denial of social, economic and political rights to caregivers. I selected this topic based on my experiences as a live-in caregiver with this program. This study uses anti-colonialism and feminist thought to examine the experiences of three former LCP workers. Through narrative interviewing, the findings indicate that the live-in requirement of the LCP has contributed to the abuse, exploitation and marginalization of these caregivers. The study concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the structure of the program can be modified to prevent further exploitation and human rights violations.

Clinging to a knife’s edge: the Live-in Caregiver Program

Since the 1900s, Canada has heavily relied on foreign domestic workers. This program has evolved over the years into what is currently known as the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). It is rooted in our colonial history and has reproduced power imbalances between employers and caregivers. Challenging dominance is a difficult task given that immigration policies perpetuate inequalities through the denial of social, economic and political rights to caregivers. I selected this topic based on my experiences as a live-in caregiver with this program. This study uses anti-colonialism and feminist thought to examine the experiences of three former LCP workers. Through narrative interviewing, the findings indicate that the live-in requirement of the LCP has contributed to the abuse, exploitation and marginalization of these caregivers. The study concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the structure of the program can be modified to prevent further exploitation and human rights violations.

INTERCULTURAL EXPERIENCES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF NARRATIVE INTERVIEWING: METHODOLOGICAL PITFALLS AND CHALLENGES IN THE EYES OF THE STUDENT AND THE TEACHER

This paper attempts to take a critical look at the narrative interview in order to identify the methodological pitfalls and challenges posed by this widely-applied research tool. It analyses the research process in a project involving sixty-four 3rd year students of applied linguistics at a large university in western Poland in the summer term of the academic year 2018/2019. The project included three stages: (1) interviewing a person from another country studying in Poland about their intercultural experiences; (2) transcribing the interviews and (3) presenting the results of their analysis in the form of a written report. On completion of their assignments, the students were asked to share their reflections on all stages of their research in an anonymous survey study. The questionnaire data was juxtaposed with analysis of the student transcripts and reports in order to identify and compare the student and the teacher perspectives on methodological aspects of narrative research. The outcomes of the survey study show that the students, as inexperienced or even first-time researchers, mostly focused on their language proficiency and technical aspects of the interview, while the teacher/researcher pointed primarily to flaws in the formulation of the interview questions and lack of subsequent probing questions, which resulted in superficial responses or even at times deprived the interview of a narrative character. The study also documented the evolution of students as researchers and its results might be applicable for teachers offering courses in academic writing or BA/MA seminars.

Narrative feminist research interviewing with ‘inconvenient groups’ about sensitive topics: affect, iteration and assemblages

This article has been written for qualitative researchers inclined towards in-person, narrative interviewing with members of groups designated ‘inconvenient’ or ‘hard to reach’, about sensitive or controversial topics. The aim is to critically reflect on narrative research interviewing practices we have undertaken in Australia with (1) women who had recently survived domestic violence and had relocated with ‘their animal companions’; and (2) dairy farmers discussing challenges to their wellbeing and that of ‘their livestock’. The themes of affect, iteration and assemblages guide our discussion. Affect speaks to emotions; iteration to researchers raising prior interview content with subsequent participants; and assemblages to the process of piecing together an analysis that later appears seamless. With some caveats, we argue that (in-person) narrative interviewing has the potential to generate rapport with diverse participants that enables the production of ‘good data’, that is, data that are rich in detail but also politicised.

Using biographical narrative interviewing methodology to research adults’ experiences of disclosing childhood sexual abuse

Disclosure of sexual abuse can be a process rife with barriers, setbacks and trauma. Those who have experienced sexual abuse in childhood tend to delay disclosure, possibly until adulthood, and can be silenced by structural, societal and personal barriers. Those who do disclose are often referred to as the ‘tip of the iceberg’, highlighting the potentially large hidden population who never come forward. This paper is drawn from a wider study which presented narratives of adults who have disclosed their experiences of childhood sexual abuse to social work services in the Republic of Ireland. In Irish child protection policy such disclosures are called ‘retrospective disclosures’. Recent reports by Irish State bodies have shown that those who have reported their childhood experiences to child protection authorities have not always received the response they would have hoped for (Office of the Ombudsman, 2017; Health Information and Quality Authority, 2016). Since the ‘narrative turn’ in social work research a rich body of work has been produced which explores the use of narrative approaches to address pertinent issues affecting social work practice. Biographical Narrative Interviewing Methodology (BNIM) is one such approach to narrative research and focuses on the presentation of voice and life experience. This paper presents the BNIM data collection process as it was used in the wider study and justifies the rationale for using such a methodology as a means of conducting research on a sensitive topic with a population that are too often silenced. This paper presents how an awareness of the socially constructed environment, the dynamics of abuse and the use of appropriate methodologies can bring such silenced and marginalised voices to the fore.

A discredit to internal affairs bodies and its influence on the formation of professional awareness of internal affairs officers

The research subject is a discredit to internal affairs agencies as a negative social phenomenon threatening both the positive image of internal affairs bodies as a whole, and the honour, dignity and reputation of their particular employees. The research methodology is based on the dialectical approach to the problem under consideration, together with general scientific (formalization, analysis, modeling, and the empirical-inductive method) and theoretical methods of modern social sciences and the humanities (the structural-functional and the systems methods). The empirical part of the research is based on the quantitative and qualitative methods of sociology: the method of focus-groups, the method of narrative interviewing, and the method of sociological questioning which helps to trace back the influence of discrediting on the formation of professional awareness of internal affairs officers. The research helps to identify the most common forms of discrediting of internal affairs officers by citizens and the main mechanisms hampering effective counteraction to discrediting actions of people, and to establish the cause-and-effect relation between discrediting as a negative socio-legal phenomenon and the peculiarities of formation of professional awareness of internal affairs officers. The author concludes that in case if internal affairs officers are lenient with discrediting, their professional awareness becomes deformed which results in the unwillingness to perform their duties properly, the sensation of the absence of the prestige of the profession in the public eye, the prospects of career growth, and the formation of negative attitude towards citizens.   

THE NARRATIVE COMPONENT OF THE LIFE SCRIPTS ANALYSYS

The article is devoted to the analysis of awareness in life scripts based on verbalization of life experience by the subject in the process of narrative interview. A narrative approach aims to make visible phenomena which has already shaped our identity. The purpose of the article is research of narrative psychology opportunities for understanding by the individual the existing life scenario and possibilities of its freeing and expanding, building an autonomous life path, full of responsibility and creativity. It has been pointed out that according to the representatives of the transactional analysis theory the life scenario influences the life path of the personality. The comedy, the victory of life over death, romance, idealization of the past and traditions; tragedy, that shows the defeat of the hero and his expulsion from the society; irony which is to question all previous narrative structures were distinguished as the narrative structures of personality. It has been discussed that the study of the life scenario has its difficulties and limitations. The use of narrative interviewing creates wide opportunities for a deep understanding of the specifics of the individual’s life scenario. The use of this method allows to determine the scriptural beliefs of the person, the further analysis of which is a prerequisite for understanding and correcting the scripted life path.