Experiment in Reflexive Research Collaboration

Becoming reflexive researchers: An experiment in research collaboration Catherine Walker Postgraduate researcher on Family Lives and the Environment, NOVELLA, Institute of Education Joe Winter Postgraduate researcher on Parenting Identities and Practices, NOVELLA, Institute of Education NOVELLA Conference, 07/07/14 In association with the University of Sussex

23/01/14 Phone call to discuss our joint presentation The imperative to be reflexive - Taking this seriously has been aided by research relationships with supervisors, peers, NOVELLA team members. -Imperative comes from the research cultures (both the broad and the particular) that we are being trained into. - Narrative research for us has involved examination of the self as a co-constructor of knowledge.

Development of Becoming reflexive researchers: An experiment in research collaboration Experiment would involve: - Recording and reflecting on monthly phone conversations over a three to four month period. - Listening back and each individually selecting a short extract of a phone call that we felt had been generative in moving forward our thinking about our research. - Transcribing our extracts, writing on these and sending to one another. We were inspired by Bell and Bell s (2012) and Salmon and Riessman s (2008; 2013) written exchanges and sought to experiment with what Salmon and Riessman term a dialogic process (2013, p.200).

Excitement, uncertainty and self- consciousness Concern to avoid solipsism and self-absorption where social researchers are continually examining their own discrete and sometimes stale professional cultures (Back, 1998) One way we sought to avoid this was through opening up the material generated for insights from other NOVELLA team members Molly Andrews and Heather Elliott.

Data extract Context: Near end of second telephone conversation- 1.53 1.56 hours Comparing notes on research approaches and datasets thematic analysis. Theme of extract: Supervision receiving and accepting advice.

Data extract Joe The bit of advice that I always remember and it was when I was in the first year and really just not being able to (.) begin somehow was (from supervisor 1) to do one thing at a time. I definitely held onto that really tightly but at the same time (supervisor 2) has also said to me a couple of times y know the nature of a PhD being about sort of spinning- when I ve said things like Oh I m just trying to spin a lot of plates, or trying to do too much at once she sort of said Well that s the very nature of a PhD and both of them are really good bits of advice and it s just (C - yeah they are, they are) knowing when to foreground whichever one (C- yep) I s pose/ Catherine Completely yeah/ No I ve had the exact same thing like I felt like I was spinning plates and I still am to a certain extent because I am still finishing off all the transcription and the analysis at the same time but um I also wanted to be doing writing at this stage and literature review and (supervisor 1) and (supervisor 2) said at this stage like don t do that and I think because I think because they could probably recognize that I was quite overwhelmed by it all (J- mmm) and just needed to properly get into a task an account of oneself is always given to another, whether conjured or existing, and this other establishes the scene of address as a more primary ethical relation than a reflexive effort to give an account of oneself . (Butler 2005 : 21)

Data extract C - the days when I m able to just concentrate on (.) this particular child and what he s telling me at a particular point in an interview that just feels really, really productive (and) the days when I just think about how much I ve got to do and try and manage my time and try and think about how I m gonna balance everything those are write off days because I just get so overwhelmed by it all that I don t do anything at all (C laughing) (J- mmm yeah) you know so I think there is something to be said for just concentrating on one thing J- yeah yeah definitely that was definitely a good bit of advice (C mm) I didn t necessarily find it easy to do initially but I ve definitely learnt something from that I think (C - yeah) that I feel I could- almost to the point where I feel I could impart it to others you know. Who knows? (small laugh) C- No I would actually impart it to others (J yeah) I think I just tried to impart it to you. (laughs) J- Oh thanks thanks C- (laughs) but y knowI think I m speaking to the converted so it s OK J - (laughs) / ummm/ it s always best- oh I mean not best- always easier (laughs) C- Well, yeah yeah- but you know maybe that s my kind of power to convince as well (J - yeah maybe) or my attempts to it yeah

Extract from Joes reflection Throughout the telephone calls we echo one another s experiences because we are in similar boats but, of course, they are not exactly the same. This means that, while enabling a very welcome opportunity for mutual validation, this process of collaborative reflexivity and reflection is also an educative space. By mutually contemplating both our own and one another s research practices and experiences we are not simply validating each other but we are also learning from one another through this thinking together.

Extract from Catherines written response to Joe I also found that it was only when transcribing and reading back the extracts that I could see the subtle but important differences in how we articulated what it what it was that we found difficult I think the recognition of difference stops these phone calls as coming across as simply kind and encouraging words and takes them to a point of more critical engagement with our own and one another s research practice. [Your reflection also] picks up on the pattern [that] we ve discussed elsewhere as refracted advice (wherein we impart advice from others but through the lens of our own experience). The validating echo[es] that carry this pattern along ( absolutely ; I had the same thing etc) are important, even when it turns out with hindsight that they are as revealing of differences than they are of similarities in what we have struggled with .

Layers of learning and self reflection enabled through the experiment Synchronous exchange of ideas, experiences and advice in the phone calls as a form of learning and self reflection in its own right. Through recording the calls, transcribing short extracts and looking at these in depth, we were able to analyse something of how we co- constructed support in this space and consider the value of this. Writing and exchanging reflections on extracts of the phone calls enabled us to try out what it means to take seriously the imperative to be reflexive but also test the boundaries of the usefulness of published self-reflexivity Self-reflexivity should work in the service of better understanding the phenomena at hand (Riessman, in publication, p.17)

Thinking together Cultivating humanity: Critical self-examination. Interdependent human beings bound by mutual concern. Narrative imagination capacity for empathy. (Nussbaum, 1997)

We welcome feedback Joe Winter / Catherine Walker Email: J.winter@ioe.ac.uk / C.Walker@ioe.ac.uk Twitter: @JolyonWinter / @c_l_walker @NOVELLAUK / http://www.novella.ac.uk/ Thomas Coram Research Unit Institute of Education 27/28 Woburn Square London WC1H 0AA Institute of Education University of London 20 Bedford Way London WC1H 0AL Tel +44 (0)20 7612 6000 Fax +44 (0)20 7612 6126 Email info@ioe.ac.uk Web www.ioe.ac.uk 1 2

References Back, L. (1998). Reading and Writing Research. Bell, M.E. & Bell, S.E. (2012). What to do with all this stuff ? Memory, family and maternal objects. Storytelling, Self, Society. 8: 63-84 Butler, J. (2005). Giving an Account of Oneself. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nussbaum, M. (1997). Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. USA: H.U.P. Riessman, C.K. (in press). Entering the Hall of Mirrors: Reflexivity and Narrative Research In DeFina & Georgakopoulou (eds). Handbook of Narrative Research. Wiley Salmon, P & Riessman, C.K. (2013). Looking back on narrative research: An exchange In Squire, Andrews & Tamboukou (eds). Doing Narrative Research. London: Sage.