Debates In Feminist Research Weblog

We were asked to design a possible person-centred piece of research for this seminar. The reading for this week was:

Summerfield, P (2004) ‘Culture and composure: Creating narratives of the gendered self in oral history interviews’. Cultural and Social History 1 (2004): 65-93.

Person-centred research is something that I am most used to because Sociology employs this type of research much more often than textual methods. There are many ways to research people: not just through interviewing. Researchers often use ethnography, which involves becoming part of a group or observing the group just on the sidelines until they receive enough information to be able to write it up and present it as a research project. Other methods may involve a large amount of people taking part in surveys or interviews, or smaller projects (for example, the types of project more suited to MA dissertations tend to be small scale), or using focus groups, letters and internet interviews or surveys. It is basically research that centres on the experiences of people recounted by those people themselves (as opposed to reading about them from a secondary text).

An example of a possible research project

Researching the differences between ‘mainstreaming’ deaf children and going to schools for the deaf (where total communication may be used). I would want to research whether deaf adults who were ‘mainstreamed’ feel that their experience was positive or negative, to identify improvements that could be made and to talk about their experiences. The same would be done with deaf adults that went to schools for the deaf. I would then compare the two experiences and find out what would need to be done for support provision for deaf people in secondary education.

Methods: I would ask the participants to write down their experiences with support provision, their experiences with peers, teachers and other people in the school environment and so on. I would also interview them if time and money would allow as many of the deaf people may need BSL interpreters, and I would need a note-taker in order for us both to be able to access an interview.

I would find subjects by contacting deaf organisations such as the NDCS (National Deaf Children’s Society), RNID (Royal National Institute for the Deaf) or the JDA (Jewish Deaf Association). I already have knowledge of many deaf people who would be willing to take part and would also inform other people to ask them if they want to take part. Snowballing seems to be the best way of contacting people when it is a group that are often invisible (as being deaf is an invisible thing!). I would also get in touch with schools to ask them to pass on my details to alumni if they still have their details. I am not sure whether you can ask Audiology departments in hospitals (such as the Nuffield Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London) to put up notices to find participants, but this may be worth a try.

Reflections

The session was quite useful but I found that there did not seem to be much knowledge about how deaf people interact in interviews. Often, deaf people prefer to take part in written research using questionnaires or internet research because it can be hard to find interpreters at the last minute. It can also be expensive to transcribe or interpret interviews (from video), and despite this being fine if it was a PhD or research undertaken for the government, it would be expensive if done for a Masters dissertation.

As a result, I have been thinking about using email, letter writing, questionnaires or instant messaging for my dissertation about deaf women. Sometimes, people do not want to recount personal and possibly emotional information face to face in interviews, and often find it easier to write it down. I appreciate the merits of interviews and face to face contact though, and it may be possible to find out how deaf people are interviewed from universities with deaf studies as a subject (where they may be undertaking research with deaf people).

I already have contacts from organisations and deaf people because I did my project essay for my first degree about deaf people. However, the information that we got from the seminar about where to find participants, such as official documents, private documents, institutions (schools, hospitals, clubs, etc) or even universities (where it may be possible to get hold of people that are deaf via the disability services).