Exploring intimate lives through qualitative research

The philosophical and methodological roots of feminist research promote that “…a focus on narrative has been argued to better help the social scientist understand individual accounts of more complex daily living, and projects of self” (Miller, 2017:

41). I was attracted towards blending deaf feminist standpoint epistemology with aspects of narrative inquiry in this exploratory study as I felt it offered an appropriate theoretical and conceptual fit for gaining an in-depth, rich description. It assists with hearing and understanding the complex intimate experiences of deaf women. It also serves to reduce power imbalances (Creswell, 2007).

Kim (2016: xv) describes narrative inquiry as methodologically “an interdisciplinary, qualitative research that pursues a narrative way of knowing by exploring the narratives or stories of participants”. It is a complicated approach and there are many ways in which it is understood and methods by which it is carried out. I follow Kim’s understanding of narrative inquiry as an approach that prizes the stories of laypeople and within section 4.4, ‘honouring complexity of lived experience’ I set out how following this stance influenced actions I took during the research.

113

Additionally, I draw being influenced by aspects narrative inquiry together with my worldview, positioning and approach to the research with my background as a community worker. In my research practice I draw on community work values and principles of collectivity, participation, empowerment, equality and anti-discrimination and realisation of social justice and human rights (Ledwith, 2011; CWI, 2016). My research practice is infused and guided by a commitment to the same principles. As Ledwith writes, “community development begins in the everyday lives of local people”

(2011: 2) and my research takes this as a necessary starting point. For example, to embed the principle of equality in this research I engaged with spaces that deaf women participate in to disseminate information about the research, such as online spaces on Facebook for deaf women and a conference for deaf women. I further discuss how being influenced by community work values and principles informed the choices and decisions made as well as practical actions carried out during this research in section 4.7

‘ethically reflexive research practice’, in this chapter.

Conversations with deaf women during the preparation stage of this research led me towards the value and importance of qualitative research designs for collecting stories of intimate lives. Qualitative researchers “study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them” (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005: 3). It is used to understand how individuals make sense of and experience their world and what meaning their experiences hold for them. Mason (2002: 3) maintains that qualitative research strives to develop “contextual understandings on the basis of rich, nuanced and detailed data”. This approach then is useful for gaining insight into the everyday lives and experiences of research participants. A qualitative research design supports the development of an in-depth, rich, and contextualised account of lived experiences. Using qualitative research commits to using participants’ words to tell stories (Hartley and Muhit, 2003). This design aims to put marginalised voices at the centre of the research, avoids essentialising marginalised voices and counters dominant voices. Stone and Priestly (1996) contend that this is important in disability related research as research has traditionally been oppressive and perpetuated marginalisation of disabled people and

‘become part of the problem’. Through this approach voices, that may otherwise be silenced, can be heard and express their own views about their experiences and social worlds.

114

Qualitative research draws on the interpretive tradition of social research. Interpretivism seeks out the subjective experiences of individuals. This stands in contrast to the positivist tradition which Bryman (2012: 28) describes as “an epistemological position that advocates the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality and beyond”. This stance is associated with promoting the notion of objectivity whereby the researcher remains impartial from that what is known. It is also described as promoting a realist ontology which subscribes to the notion that reality is external, reliable and stable (Ransome, 2013).

Interpretivism challenges the epistemological and ontological perspectives of positivism. Bryman (2012) maintains that it moves from a focus upon ‘explaining human behaviour’ to ‘understanding human behaviour’ - to the subjective meaning of social action and a consideration of the context that individuals lived experiences take place in. This approach emphasises the need to interpret meaning from the point of view of individuals and understands that reality is multiple and relative (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). It avoids imposing constraints on knowledge. In taking this stance the researcher aims to understand new knowledge through an interdependent relationship with the research participants and try to understand and explain, rather than predict, participants’

world (Black, 2006).

As part of my preparation I immersed myself in deaf culture and over this time through talking with women and hearing their stories, I realised that a qualitative approach was appropriate and required for the realisation of my research objectives. Through a reflexive process and extended engagement with deaf women I continued to shape the methodology in response to research challenges. However, the ‘described account’ I present here is not the research as it was ‘experienced’. I state this to dispel misleading myths of ‘hygienic research’ (Stanley and Wise, 1993: 153). Research takes twists and turns and the direction I faced at the end was not the one I started with. As Bell (2002:

209) writes “narrative illuminates the temporal notion of experience, recognising that one’s understanding of people and events changes”.

115