J.Finch@uel.ac.uk
Innovation or Imitation?
The Use of the Voice Centred Relational
Method in Social Work Research
Methods@Plymouth
Plymouth University, 19th & 20th May 2011
Jo Finch
J.Finch@uel.ac.uk
Innovation or Imitation?
Overview of Presentation
•
•
•
•
Professional Context
Research Undertaken
Context of Social Work Research
Voice Centred Relational Method (also known as The
Listening Guide)
• Imitation or Innovation?
• A method for innovative qualitative social work
research?
• Concluding Comments
Professional Context
• Senior Lecturer in Social Work (UEL)
• Associate Lecturer in Social Work
(University of Sussex)
• Freelance practice educator
• Former children and families social worker
and play therapist
Research Undertaken - Professional Doctorate in
Social Work (University of Sussex) completed in 2010
• Highly Qualitative
Can’t Fail, Won’t Fail
– Why Practice
Assessors Find it
Difficult to Fail Social
Work Students. A
Qualitative Study of
Practice Assessors'
Experiences of
Assessing Marginal
or Failing Social Work
Students.
http://eprints.sussex.ac.uk/2370/
• Utilised practitioner-research,
narrative and life story and
ethnographic approaches in its
design
•Data analysed using the Voice
Centred Relational method.
•Interviewed 20 practice
educators who had worked with a
struggling or failing student
Context of Social Work Research
Lack of
Capacity
Furlong &
Oancea, 2005
Participation,
& impact
Sharland, 2009
Need for
interstitial
research
Powell, 2002
Lack of
distinct
disciplinary
base
Current
Concerns
Purpose,
focus &
outcomes
contested
Shaw, 2003;
Sharland ,2009
Social
justice?
Butler, 2002; Powell,
2002; Sharland, 2009
Lacking
Innovation,
rigour &
quality
Growth of
ebp
Shaw, 2003;
Shaw &
Norton, 2007
Sheldon, 2001; Smith,
2004; Briggs, 2005;
Webb, 2006
Pawson et al, 2003; Sharland &
Taylor, 2006Shaw & Norton, 2007,
Voice Centred Relational Method
•
•
•
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Method associated with feminism
Relies on listening
Recognises centrality of relationships
Social constructivist epistemological position
Recognises that human experience bound up in
larger relational dynamics.
• Voice of narrators heard above researcher…
• …But recognises researcher’s story
Voice Centred Relational Method
Key Proponents
Gilligan, 1982
Brown and Gilligan, 1992
Mauthner & Doucet, 1998
Gilligan et al, 2003
Voice Centred Relational Method
Reading 1
Reading 2
Key Proponents
Gilligan, 1982
Brown and Gilligan, 1992
Reading
Reading
Mauthner3& Doucet,
1998
Gilligan et al, 2003
4
Voice Centred Relational Method
Reading 1
Reading 2
Key Proponents
Gilligan, 1982
Brown and Gilligan, 1992
Reading
Reading
Mauthner3& Doucet,
1998
Gilligan et al, 2003
4
Voice Centred Relational Method
Reading 1
Key Proponents
Gilligan, 1982
Brown and Gilligan, 1992
Mauthner & Doucet, 1998
Gilligan et al, 2003
Voice Centred Relational Method
Reading 1
Key Proponents
Gilligan, 1982
Brown and Gilligan, 1992
Mauthner & Doucet, 1998
Gilligan et al, 2003
Voice Centred Relational Method
Reading 1
Identify the
story or plot
Metaphors
and
Imagery
Contradictions
and subplots
Protagonists
Our own responses to
the text; Emotional
Intellectual and
Academic
Voice Centred Relational Method
Reading 2
Feels
Speaks
Thinks
IIIIIs
Voice Centred Relational Method
IIIIIs
I-Poem
Feels
I was deputy director
I
I became the manager of the
student unit
Reading
Speaks
I almost had 3 or 4 students on the
go at
I was responsible
I failed 2
Thinks
I think that it was to do with the
fact that it was a Masters
Programme
2
Voice Centred Relational Method
You
Stink!
Reading 3
Relationships
Who is being
spoken about?
How are others
spoken about?
Voice Centred Relational Method
Reading 4
THE ANGRY
forms
basis
STORY
The Stories –
findings chapter
of my
The Idealised Learner Story
The What is My
Role/Assessment Story
The Guilty Story
The Lack of Reflection
Story
The Dramatic Event
Story
The Internalising
Failure so I
Couldn’t Always
Failure them Story
THE ANGRY
forms
basis
STORY
The Stories –
findings chapter
of my
“I was really pissed off
with him….I felt angry”.
“I was just very
angry at times….I
was angry with
the student.”
(Jenny)
(Claire)
“…and I did actually think the
next time you shout at me, I
might actually shout back at
you because who the fuck do
you think you are…” (Daisy)
Voice Centred Relational Method
Advantages
• Allows full immersion in
the data
• Flexible & Adaptable
• Can be used with a
range of theoretical
perspectives
• Allows voice of
participants to be heard
•Promotes a highly
reflexive stance
•Promotes an inductive
approach
Disadvantages
• Very time consuming
• Danger of method not
reducing data enough
• Lack of clarity about how
to bring the 4 readings
together
• I struggled at times, to
differentiate between the
readings
• Too ambitious?
Innovation?
•The focus on listening?
•The nuanced readings?
•The relational aspects?
•The focus on reflexivity?
•The focus on emotions?
Imitation?
•Nothing more than a
narrative approach?
•Claims made for
method over stated?
A Method for Innovative
Qualitative Social Work Research?
•
•
•
•
•
Has resonance with social work values
Participatory
Reflexive
Creative
Rigorous
Conclusion
• Method has potential • Claims for innovation
to be useful for
are rather over stated
interesting and
• Time consuming
creative research in a
nature of approach
number of
may put researchers
professional contexts
off
• Good for exploring
• Still left with question,.
emotion and
Is method one
relationships
narrative approach
amongst others?
Conclusion
• Method has potential • Claims for innovation
to be useful for
are rather over stated
interesting and
• Time consuming
creative research in a
nature of approach
number of
may put researchers
professional contexts
off
• Good for exploring
• Still left with question,.
emotion and
Is method one
relationships
narrative approach
amongst others?
Bibliography
•
•
•
•
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•
Butler, I. (2002) A Code of Ethics for Social Work and Social Care Research, British
Journal of Social Work, 32, pp239-248
Butler, I and Pugh, R. (2004) The politics of social work research, in R. Lovelock, K.
Lyons and J. Powell (Eds.) Reflecting on Social Work, Avebury, Aldershot,
Brown, L.M & Gilligan, C. (1992) Meeting at the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology
and Girls Development, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Publishing
Gilligan, C. (1982) In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s
Development, Cambridge, Harvard University Press
Gilligan, C., Spencer, R., Weinberg, M.K & Bertsch, T. (2003) On The Listening
Guide: A Voice-Centred Relational method IN Camic, P., Rhodes, J.E. & Yardley, L.
(Eds) Qualitative Research in Psychology: Expanding Perspectives in Methodology
and Design, Washington D.C, American Psychological Society.
Mauthner, N. & Doucet, A. (1998) Reflections on a Voice Centred Relational Method
in Ribbens, J. & Edwards, R. (Eds) Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research,
London, Sage
•
•
Oancea, A. & Furlong. |. (2004) Developing Quality Criteria for the
Assessment of Applied and Practice-Based Research, ESRC
Pawson, R., Barnes, C., Boaz, A., Grayson, L. and Long, A. (2003) Types and
Quality of Social Care Knowledge. Stage One: A Classification of Types of Social
Care Knowledge. ESRC UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice, Working
Paper 17
• Powell, J. (2002) The Changing Conditions of Social Work Research, British
Journal of Social Work, 32, pp17-33
• Sharland, E. and Taylor, I. (2006) Social care research: a suitable case for
systematic review?'. Evidence and Policy, 2(4), pp.503-523
• Sharland, E. (2009) Summary Report to the Economic and Social Research
Council, Training and Development Board, ESRC
• Shaw, I.F. (2003) Cutting Edge Issues in Social Work Research, British
Journal of Social Work, 33, pp107-116
• Shaw, I.F and Norton, M. (2008) Kinds and quality of Social Work Research,
British Journal of Social Work, 38 (5) pp:953 - 970