Philosophy becoming practical

If you've read my profile you know that I am concerned with ensuring that what I do in my research supports my research philosophy (which kind of came to me while I was doing my MA rather than being something I consciously developed but which has definitely been of huge significance and relevance since). Having submitted it to a number of interrogations, I concluded a while ago that life history research would be the way to ensure I was faithful to this idea of 'praxis'. And I still believe this is the case. However, I did have a bit of a wobble the other day (yes another one).

My supervisor sometimes asks me to be a 'critical reader' for some of the stuff she writes. I always feel this is more to my benefit than hers but I picked up on a point which led her to respond that life history isn't for everyone. They might not feel comfotable with, indeed might not be able to handle, all the stuff that comes up. So I had a big think about how I was 'doing' my life history research. I have sometimes been concerned that I can be quite 'hard' when participants cry for example. Now in 'real life' I am known to 'fill up' at the drop of a hat. It concerned me that I was maybe doing the kind of thing I abhor - along the lines of stop crying and give me the data. However, thinking through the question 'who might life history be for?' as a research methodology, led to the realisation that the reason I didn't cry in the research interviews was because I was doing what I had been trained to do as a life coach, that is 'holding safe'.

Now I have been very quiet about being a coach since re-joining the academy in 2006. There is so much rot on the telly that comes under this heading which I would be mortified to be associated with. I found it tiresome to constantly explain what I was doing when I was doing it and it is a relief not to have to get in to that any more. And I also feel that academics can be most disparaging, particularly when it is about something they have the luxury of not needing to know anything about (a kind of metaphorical loosening of the intellectual corsets). So I keep silent. But I know now that if I had not had this background and the practice of creating a space in which people feel comfortable to talk I would not have heard the stories I have heard. Of course there is a danger that participants reveal more than they intended. I hope I can mitigate this possibility by asking them to check transcripts and amend as they see fit (although amendments have been rare so I'm not entirely convinced this is a useful anti-dote).

The point of the blog today - when I should be transcribing - is that I now feel quite resolute in my conviction that, regardless of what I produce in the way of a thesis, at least how I produced it will be congruent with what I set out to do. And that gives me a very warm glow.