The Indirect Method seeks to understand young people's experiences in an equal and equitable way. The knowledge about equality literacy, habitus and school systems the students have gained through the previous sessions helped them form an understanding of how our research were to be carried out. To get a better understanding of the practical aspect of the method this session focused on “how to” and we learned more about the nature of happenstance.
Outline of the sessions program:
- Get to know each other’s experiences on the research target group.
- An thorough exposition of the theories and ideas behind the indirect approach
- A catch-up discussion on the participants’ understanding of the research methodology – questions.
The indirect approach put in to action
As an introduction we listend to each other’s experiences with young people living on the margins. There was great variation within the group. Some had extensive experience in working with young people whilst others were fairly new to the field. From there we moved on to introduce the theories and ideas that underpin the indirect approach.
Training interviewing skills – How to, and the effect of the techniques:
1. Starting
2. Communication
3. Seating
4. Body language
5. Perspectives
6. Timeout
7. Paraphrasing
8. Mirroring
9. Rephrasing
10. Silence
The nature of happenstances
How do we do good guesswork at meaning if our informant lives in a secret world? Doing research often includes awkward moments, unforeseen events and incidents. Here we name some of these “happenstances”. We suggest that happenstances may offer a solution to the problem of meaning discrepancies: The happenstance is one of those moments that allow the researcher to temporarily bridge into the meanings of his or her informant. Happenstances has turned out to be turning points in interviews conducted in previous and ongoing research on young people living on the margins carried out by some of the members of our group. These unforeseen events provided valuable insights into our informants’ contexts. Even though these happenstances appear to be a product of pure accident, they can become part of a systematic approach in discovering contextual knowledge (Eide & Moshuus, 2016).
Link to an article on the methodology (Moshuus and Eide, 2016).
