Engaging with Narrative and IPA in Youth and Community Work Research. Graham Bright (York St John University) and Karen McCarthy (MMU)

Transcription

1 Engaging with Narrative and IPA in Youth and Community Work Research Graham Bright (York St John University) and Karen McCarthy (MMU)

2 Coverage Discusses and justifies the bricolage (McLeod, 2007) of narrative and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approaches in Youth and Community Work research. Draws upon our experiences of using these approaches

3 Narrative it s what we do and who we are Narrative and storytelling are at the centre of youth and community work practice: relationally with young people, in professional discussions, with funders, policy makers etc. In Defence of Youth Work (2009) The compelled ubiquity of narrative in varying aspects of life (Alleyne, 2015). The webbed, symbiotic reciprocity of narratives: we are shaped by them, and shape others by our own we live our lives through the creation and exchange of narratives (Murray, 2015:87). Narrative selfhoods and the construction of individual and collective meaning and identity Narrative as individual and collective anchorage: as meaning-making in the liquidity, uncertainty, precarity and possibility of late modernity (Bauman, 2000). Narrative as giving expression to Foucauldian projects of the self (Lawler, 2014:76).

4 Narrative: capturing something and releasing it in new directions. Narrative as making sense of life at the nexus of structure and agency and of the intersections that lie between private meaning and public purpose (Goodson and Gill, 2014:22). The changing narratives of youth and community work: individual, collective, organisational, political, professional etc. (Counter-)narratives as catalysing collectivity, resistance and possibility. Narratives when critically illuminated, hold the potential to catalyse learning and develop alternative trajectories that re-shape stories in new directions For Säfström (2012:11-12), narration challenges the hegemony and fatalism of totalisiation and absolutism in which possibility is suffocated By drawing [therefore] not only on the phenomenology of narrative, but by locating and hermeneutically co-interpreting life histories in the context of wider social, political and cultural forces, critical forms of narrative are able to understand how personal lives traverse social change (Squire et al, 2013:4) (Bright, 2015). The importance of understanding the influence of characters, events and plots

5 Narrative possibilities Critical approaches to narrative therefore enable stories from micro (individual), meso (collective) and macro (sociopolitical) layers to be juxtaposed in order to promote interstrata insight that takes account of the influence of time (chronos) on people s lived experiences. Thus narrative, holds the potential to give equal credence to individual and social processes in framing the lifeworld (Phoenix, 2013). Here, the pedagogical possibilities of narrative become evident. Life narratives are shaped by context, and context by individual and collective agency. Thus paying attention to context within phenomenologically-grounded approaches which foreground the importance of individual experience enables the development of a critical hermeneutic that examines the structural contexts in which narratives are produced. Such an approach enables a fruitful synthesis of biography and context which attend simultaneously to small and big stories in the pursuit of a living narrative (ibid.:73) (Bright, 2015).

6 Some narrative approaches Biography and life history work (Goodson and Gill, 2011, 2014; Sikes, 2010). Labovian narrative (events-orientated work) (Squire, 2013) Experience-centred and socio-cultural approaches (Phoenix, 2013) Foucauldian approaches (Loots et al, 2013) Rhizomatic ideas (Hyden, 2013) Blending concepts The interconnectedness of Rhizomatic learning

7 IPA IPA is relatively new methodology, developed by psychologist Professor Jonathan Smith and colleagues in the 1990s. It is underpinned by an ontological and epistemological commitment to phenomenology, hermeneutics and ideography. Phenomenology is a broad church, which is unified by a commitment understanding the essence of lived experience (Creswell, 2013) in such a way that not only recognises through rich description the individual subjectivity of experiencing regarding a given phenomenon, but which generates work that collects individual experience towards the expression of universal essence (Creswell, 2013; van Manen, 2014) (Bright, 2015). Growing appeal across the social sciences

8 Phenomenology: underpinning ideas phenomenological research approaches seek to offer a transcendental vehicle through which individual and collective meanings are richly expressed and understood Phenomenology is therefore concerned with the essence of experience, and with seeking to convey the essential nature of meaning to others (Bright, 2013:88). Pays close attention understanding and conveying others experience empathy. In understanding the self therefore we understand experience, and in understanding experience we understand the self (Zahavi, 2008). Humans therefore make sense out of experience and experience out of sense. (ibid) Phenomenological bracketing off or epoche.

9 Phenomenology: some beginnings The work of Edmund Husserl German philosopher and psychologist who sought to challenge the reductionist views in behaviourism. Promoted the idea that each human being is unique and therefore experiences a unique perceptual reality. Reality is therefore subjective ontological nominalism. Concerned with providing rich description of lived experience (Denscombe, 2010) or what Husserl described as lifeworld.

10 Roots of IPA.. IPA is rooted in a long history of phenomenological research Husserl: phenomenological inquiry - individual s conscious experience as a focus. Heidegger: developed a more interpretive approach linking personal experience into our relationships to the world and others (Smith et al, 2009: 21). M. Ponty & J.P. Sartre: focus on our embodied experience of Others. Heidegger: phenomenology as an interpretative activity. Foreconception Weber s verstehen: the researcher as interpreter seeks to explain their research subject, despite differences in different cultural traditions. (Hughes et al, 2003)

11 Elevating phenomenology beyond descriptiveness Much phenomenological thought leans towards description, rather than to considering explanations, interconnections and analyses regarding these experiences as they relate to, or are located within the individual s own life story, and the various structural layers which impact upon them. The challenges of this position have been recognised by van Manen (1990, 2014) who has argued the importance of a critical hermeneutical slant to phenomenology which allows experience to be understood, interpreted and analysed within the texts of life (Cresswell, 2013:79). In this sense, Husserl s essentialist phenomenological worldview is insufficient. Phenomenological researchers need to pay attention not only to the description of experience, but to how it might be interpreted by research participants themselves. Indeed, in writing about IPA, Smith et al (2009:41) contend that phenomenological researchers are engaged in layers of hermeneutic endeavour the reader making sense of the writer making sense of the participant making sense of X It is here that the work of Heidegger (1962) and Gadamer (1977) have moved phenomenological thought beyond expressing the purity of transcendent essence towards a more interpretive endeavour which recognises that as human beings we live in an interpretative and interpreted world (Bright, 2013:89) (Bright, 2015).

12 IPA: a resultant methodology Synthesises phenomenology and hermeneutics (Smith et al, 2009; Smith and Osborn, 2015). Seeks to get close to the purity of lived experience, whilst interpreting it within the context of particular social constructs which frame (and regulate) the lifeworld Bridges essentialism and constructivism (concomitant with narrative work) Ideographic commitment Reflexivity and the open-mindedness of a phenomenological attitude are required

13 Characteristics of IPA Idiographic, inductive, interrogative, iterative The iterative process of IPA engages the researcher in a double hermeneutic, echoing Weber s verstehen, where: The researcher is trying to make sense of the participant trying to make sense of their personal and social world (Smith, 2004) Induction rather than deduction: research is grounded firstly in the data rather than in theory rich seams of meaning (Smith, 2003: 46) IPA is a labour intensive approach to analysis of data, The researcher s own perspectives and conceptions are essential to in the interpretive process

14 Semistructured interviews Detailed analysis that attempts to understand individual experience. IPA Process (Bright, Claringbull and Harrison, 2013:137)

15 Iterative process Listen Repeat at LEAST twice for each individual then across cases Subordinates Clusters Identify themes Transcribe

16 Summary: Fusing Narrative and IPA IPA s ideographic commitment: but experience often not located within life contexts Describing life as lived within the context of layered, ecological (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) biographies. Shared narration of experience in critical pedagogy Narration of this nature enables the possibility of conscientization (Goodson and Gill, 2011, 2014) Interpretative element enables the understanding of experience to be critically elevated beyond mere description (Smith et al., 2009; van Manen, 2014). A shared axiology with youth and community work: narrative and critical phenomenological respect for persons IPA as an approach to and mechanism for the interpretation of narrative data The phenomenological attitude and the open-mindedness of reflexivity. Narrative and IPA represent the possibility of convergent ideas (Griffin and May, 2012).

17 Our research Graham s PhD uses IPA to analyse the (life) narratives of student and professionally qualified youth and community workers (n=c.16). Heuristically framed (Moustakas, 1990). 3 interviews: Life history Vocation and routes into the profession Description of professional practice, use of self and discussion regarding the person of the practitioner: interplays between personal and professional selfhoods/identities (Rogerian congruence versus Goffman s role playing). Experiences of personal and professional formation on professionally qualifying awards How changing policy environments are shaping experiences of practice, vocation and identity Stories about potential professional futures Storied conscientization and catalytic validity

18 Karen s MA dissertation What is the experience of lesbian asylum seekers of living their sexuality in their home countries and in the UK? Home Office/courts do not consider how sexuality is culturally constructed/ differently lived in different cultures (people disowned from families etc); the differences of how people express their sexuality before coming to UK; how this is different to the Western model the court expects who is a lesbian? ( LISG members chosen focus for my dissertation) 8 semi-structured interviews already carried out was a good match for Smith s suggestions as was the topic of lived sexuality, IPA is particularly suited to researching sex and sexuality in that it can challenge understandings which are based around othering people, (Smith, 2009: 143)

19 Occurrence of themes for participants after further subsumption Theme Anna Blessed Grace Jane Molly Razia Sandra Success No. of part. 1. Identity and Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes All self Social context Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes All 2. Impact of Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes All homophobia Struggle X Yes Yes X Yes Yes Yes X 5 Voice X Yes X Yes Yes Yes Yes X 5 Danger Yes yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes All Emotional Life/ Mental health/ Sexuality Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes All 3. Power X Yes X Yes X X X Yes 3 4. Knowledge X Yes Yes X Yes Yes X Yes 5 No. of themes per participant

20 Selected Resources Alleyne, B. (2015) Narrative Networks. London: Sage. Goodson, I. and Gill, S. (2011) Narrative Pedagogy. New York: Peter Lang Goodson, I. and Gill, S. (2014) Critical Narrative as Pedagogy. London: Bloomsbury Smith, J.A. and Osborn, M. Interpretive phenomenological analysis in Smith, J.A. (ed.) (2003) Qualitative Psychology.Sage London Smith, J.A (2004) Reflecting on the development of interpretative phenomenological analysis and its contribution to qualitative research in psychology Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1:1, Accessed March 15 th 2015 Smith, J. A. (2008) Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods, 2nd edn, London: Sage. Smith, J.A. & Osborn Osborn, M. Interpretative phenomenological analysis in J.A. Smith, (2008) Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods, 2nd edn, London: Sage. Smith, J.A., Flowers, P. & Larkin, M. (2009) Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method and Research, London: Sage Publications Ltd. van Manen, M. (2014) Phenomenology of Practice. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.