TELLING THE UNTELLABLE
Researching emotionally
challenging and sensitive topics
ESRC ANNUAL RESEARCH METHODS
FESTIVAL 2014
ST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE, OXFORD
DR DENISE TURNER
DEPT OF SOCIAL WORK &
SOCIAL CARE
UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
CLAIRE BENNETT
CENTRE FOR
POPULATION CHANGE
UNIVERSITY OF
SOUTHAMPTON
Aims of the session….
 To explore the challenges of researching subjects that
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may be painful for audiences to hear.
To investigate the potential implications of these for
knowledge construction
To contemplate research from differing insider and
outsider stances
To consider how different forms of methodology and
analysis may affect ways of ‘telling the untellable.’
To work in groups discussing the issues raised and how
these may be relevant to participants’ own research
experiences
A couple of questions to begin…!
 What is a ‘challenging’ topic?
 What is an ‘emotionally sensitive’ topic?
 Can you relate these to your own work and
experience?
Two Personal Experiences
1. Denise’s Research
DESIGN…
‘Telling the Story : What can be learned
from parents’ experiences of the professional
response following the sudden, unexpected
death of a child.’
‘Rapid Response’
 Immediate investigation by the police to gather
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‘crucial evidence before it can be lost or
contaminated.’
First hour after death – ‘the golden hour.’
Police treat all sudden , unexpected child deaths as
‘potential crimes.’
Child’s room and body are known as ‘crime scenes.’
Investigating police teams called ‘child abuse teams.’
Child’s body immediately becomes property of the
coroner
Three major contexts for research:
Professional
Cultural
Personal
Working with the personal in research…
‘Whether your own
experience will
affect the research
is not the question –
it will. For all researchers
the big question is
how to place that
experience’
(Richards and Morse, 2007)
On the inside looking out:
Some Advantages
Possible Recruitment Benefits:
‘I only agreed to talk to you
because you’d been through it’
Access benefits (double edged):
‘Whole professional lifetimes
have been devoted to this…’
Epistemological/knowledge benefits:
Pushing the boundaries of what is known/ how it is known:
‘Dangerous knowledge’ (Cooper & Lousada, 2005)
On the inside looking out: Some Pitfalls:
Ethical Issues:
‘Then you know how I feel’ (Ellingson,1998)
A ‘friendly façade’ (Thompson, 2002)
Personal Issues:
‘Not behaving as a grieving mother should’ (Maggie)
Academic/credibility Issues:
‘ The risk of having the work dismissed as some sort of victim
art or confessional’ (Bochner,2000)
CULTURAL CONTEXT:
The ‘Kennedy Report’ 2004
(‘Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy’ : Royal College of Pathologists and Royal College
of Paediatrics and Child Health.)
‘Parents suffering terrible tragedy need sensitive support to
help deal with their loss……appropriate training was a
recurring theme in our work –for police officers, for
doctors, for nurses, for social workers and for coroner’s
officers. Good communication between professionals and
parents is vital, but professionals should also be
sensitised to emotions being experienced by
parents. …much of this can be learned. Simple,
practical training is important.’
Final Sample :
 Eight parents (7 women and one man) : All had
experienced sudden, unexpected death of their child
and investigation but without charges.
 Time since death: Between 10 months and 21 years…
 Six recruited through adverts on Charity websites.
One known to me. One the relative of a friend – all
assigned pseudonyms – Cathy, Andy, Julia, Laurie,
Ellie, Hafsa, Chrissie and Terri.
METHODOLOGY
 Unstructured narrative interviews based on
Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM)
(Wengraf, 2011)…. All interviews began with a
‘SQUIN’ (Single Question aimed at Inducing
Narrative ) :
‘Please tell me the story of…..’s death…all the events and
experiences that have been important to you personally.
Begin wherever you like. I’ll just listen, I won’t interrupt. I
will just take some notes for afterwards.’
 Interviews transcribed
ANALYSIS
 BNIM uses data analysis panels to ‘kick start’ the interpretive
procedure and ‘challenge researcher autism’ (Wengraf, 2011, p.104)
 Researchers should select ‘gold star interviews’ for panel analysis.
 Panels presented with ‘chunks’ of the interview selected by
researcher in ‘future blind way .’
 BNIM Guide (2011, p.104) advises the use of data analysis panels
are :
‘for all concerned - as a personal and professional learning experience
both insightful and often funny.’
‘CATHY’
Cathy is a young, white woman in her mid twenties. She is
married and lives with her partner, the father of all four of
her children, including twin boys. Her narrative concerns
the death of her youngest child , Dylan at 8 weeks. Dylan
was born premature and had been hospitalised for
breathing difficulties after birth before discharge.
Cathy’s interview focussed on her urge to do something
that would ‘make a difference’ which contradicted her
assertion that the investigation of Dylan’s death had left
her believing there ‘was no framework for society.’
From Cathy’s Story…
‘I am someone who likes to have facts, like the MMR, I researched the MMR before it
happened and I knew which treatment I wanted because I believe in being proactive
and having facts. I don’t go into things blindly but this time I just sort of sat whilst
everything was taken away from me. I wish that the Doctor had been able to talk to me
first and that Doctors were taught to deal with bereaved parents. You lose all control
and you are not who you are so I was really passive and to see Dylan and to not know if
this was the moment he was going to die, was really hard. ……
…When he did actually die it was really bad. They pulled the curtains round and I was
thinking that perhaps I watch too much telly because there you’re taken off into a room
and left in a bit of privacy. When Dylan died there was a baby next to us on a ventilator
who we knew was better than Dylan because his arms and legs were moving. Dylan was
just a body and then they turn him off and you know that you’re watching your son die.
And there’s a separate self that’s watching you watching your son die and therefore that
part of me was aware that there were nurses going about their business in the curtain
next to me, walking past and then the other part of me is just watching him die and I
thought this is his dignity. He is dying in a curtained hospital cubicle.’
CATHY’S PANEL
 ‘This is an aggressive story’
 ‘She is not behaving as a bereaved mother should’
 ‘I am really struggling with this belligerent woman’
 ‘A rehearsed interview’… ‘A lack of emotion’… ‘She is never off the
stage.’
 ‘Not the story I expected to hear.’
 One panel member later reported feeling ‘chronically polluted’ by
‘picking over’ Cathy’s words…not ‘funny.’
DISSEMINATION
AND FINALLY……
 ‘What’s it like to do Research you can’t talk about?’
Claire’s Research…
Perspectives of Lesbian Asylum Seekers
 Doctoral Study
 How women reflect upon their experiences of
seeking asylum in the UK
 All women had fled persecution because of their
same sex experiences/identity and sought
international protection in the UK
 All women had experienced physical and/or sexual
violence
Legal Context
Article 1 (a) of the 1951 refugee convention states that a
refugee is a person who:
“Owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for
reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group or political opinion, is outside the
country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such
fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that
country;”
The Asylum Process
 Complex legal process
 Subject to various restrictions
 Dispersal
 Detention
 Work
 Monitoring
 Financial
The UK Asylum Process
Application for asylum
Screening Interview
Substantive Interview
Decision
Status
granted
Refusal
Appeal
Status
granted
Refusal
Removal or voluntary
return
Methodology
 Telling Sexual Stories, (Plummer 1995)
 Background working within NGO refugee/asylum
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sector
Use of gatekeepers – access to support groups
Pilot interviews
Three repeat interviews
The Sample: 11 women from Uganda, Nigeria, The
Gambia, Jamaica, Pakistan & Saudi Arabia
Creating a safe space, tools, participatory approaches
Analysis
 Thematic
 Voice-Centred Relational Method
 1) Plot, Chronological Narrative
 2) The voice of the I & I Poems
 3) Personal and Professional Relationships
 4) Social, Cultural and Legal Context
Insider/Outsider
 Complex & Fluid – areas of differences and commonality
 Open to interpretation
 Motivations
I feel comfortable talking to you (…) so thank you (…) it
needs to be documented (…) it’s good for me to give you
my time and talk to you, to help, this might help somebody
else one day to (…) it’s good that you know what happened
to me, to do something good with it, I’m pleased I did it.
Penny, Jamaica.
Researcher Subjectivity and Emotionality
 My role as a researcher – Boundaries - Expectations
 Listening to accounts of abuse, rape, torture,
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persecution – reflect on impact
Important to recognise & acknowledge own emotions
– throughout research
Stanko (1997) ‘harbouring anger, frustration, fear,
and pain’
Difficulties and advantages
Gilgun (2008) ‘Connected knowing’
Dissemination
 Unexpected responses:
 “Depressing”
 “How do you do it”
 “Too emotional”
 “Do you think they’re ‘genuine’”?
Audience views on the participants/impact on
researcher
Some themes for discussion…please add your
own….
 Researcher positioning: What are the benefits/ pitfalls of
including personal information within research?....for
researchers? For potential audiences or beneficiaries? For
knowledge construction?
 Are there forms of research ‘you cant talk about?’ Is some
knowledge simply unsuitable/untellable in research terms? Is
that always the case? How might that be changed?
 Does including the personal in research ‘muddy the academic
waters’ and render the research less rigorous/reliable?
 Should research and personal stories be kept far apart? Or is
there a place for this form of ‘personal telling?’
Thank you for listening and discussing…..
 Mail to: Denise Turner: D.M.Turner@sussex.ac.uk
Claire Bennett: C.M.Bennett@Soton.ac.uk