This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Valentine, C. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Methodological Reflections

Attending and Tending to the Role of the Researcher in the Construction of Bereavement Narratives

University of Bath, UK, C.A.Valentine{at}bath.ac.uk

This article explores the co-constructed nature of interview narratives in the context of a qualitative bereavement study and the implications of adopting a `collaborative paradigm'. This approach encompasses the emotional impact of the interview on the researcher as much as the participant. It considers the importance of and difficulties encountered in engaging with this aspect. It argues that not only is this essential to achieving an ethical stance, but an invaluable methodological tool for enhancing an understanding of one's findings. Only when I was able to `appreciate' the nature and extent of my own part in narrative constructions did I start to `hear' and `appreciate' more fully the meanings that were being shaped. This process was intimately related to the cultivation of an ethical stance, something that cannot be a once and for all position. Rather it develops from an ongoing reflexive engagement with the research endeavour.

Key Words: emotional impact of research • ethics • interviewing as participation • methodology • reflexivity

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?