Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>Qualitative</strong> research <strong>in</strong> practice<br />
Anne:<br />
Well, <strong>the</strong> first one was that I got re-orientated and that<br />
was because, actually, <strong>in</strong> my field journal you can see<br />
that <strong>the</strong>re was a level of tension and expectation about<br />
me go<strong>in</strong>g back <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>re, and that was about my be<strong>in</strong>g<br />
<strong>in</strong> a very different role ...I was aware that even<br />
though I’d talked to people about <strong>the</strong> fact that I was<br />
com<strong>in</strong>g back as a researcher, for most people, as soon<br />
as <strong>the</strong>y saw me, I was Anne <strong>the</strong> social worker not<br />
Anne <strong>the</strong> researcher. So it gave me a chance to reorientate<br />
myself and o<strong>the</strong>r people to that new role. It<br />
also gave me a chance to see clearly what I suspected,<br />
that <strong>the</strong>re were some spaces <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Valley that already<br />
were shared public spaces, where <strong>in</strong> fact homeless<br />
people and ma<strong>in</strong>stream community people did have a<br />
reasonable level of <strong>in</strong>teraction, but that those spaces<br />
had changed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> four years that I hadn’t been<br />
work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Valley. It gave all sorts of people a<br />
chance to get used to me and that was really important<br />
. . . One of <strong>the</strong> th<strong>in</strong>gs that happened all <strong>the</strong> time<br />
was that constantly people would come up to me and<br />
say, ‘What are you do<strong>in</strong>g? What’s <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> book? What<br />
are you writ<strong>in</strong>g down <strong>the</strong>re?’ A lot of <strong>the</strong>m were<br />
homeless people I knew but a great number of <strong>the</strong>m<br />
were just local people who felt that this was <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
space too and <strong>the</strong>y wanted to know who I was, writ<strong>in</strong>g<br />
<strong>in</strong> this book, and what I was writ<strong>in</strong>g about ...<br />
Informal <strong>in</strong>terviews <strong>in</strong> public spaces<br />
Anne:<br />
Phase two was like <strong>the</strong> active engagement—I was <strong>in</strong><br />
those public spaces I’d identified <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> first phase and<br />
my purpose was to talk to anybody that used those<br />
spaces. ‘What do you th<strong>in</strong>k about this place? What do<br />
you like about <strong>the</strong> Valley? Why do you come here? Is<br />
it <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g? Does it make you feel scared?’ Anyth<strong>in</strong>g<br />
that people wanted to tell me about <strong>the</strong> Valley, I<br />
wanted to hear . . . So <strong>in</strong> between encounters I’d be<br />
sitt<strong>in</strong>g down tak<strong>in</strong>g some notes and if I was just sitt<strong>in</strong>g<br />
around look<strong>in</strong>g for some <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g people to have a<br />
talk to I’d be tak<strong>in</strong>g a note of what I was see<strong>in</strong>g. So it<br />
82