Reflexive journaling or diary keeping

When carefully managed, and with suitable co-operation from informants, the diary can be used to record data that might not be forthcoming in face-to-face interview or other data

collection encounters.

(Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995:164) The literature on the use of diaries for social research is growing, but does not yet match that on other commonly used social research methodologies (Alaszewski, 2006). In this study the purpose of asking the participants in the coaching pairs to keep a reflexive journal or diary was so that they could capture their thoughts on the relationship issues which were evolving as they occurred. The diaries were specifically created so that each of the coaches and coachees could write down their anticipated or reflective thoughts around their organized

142 coaching sessions. Such thoughts and observations might occur at any time and so the participants were provided with the means to capture their output as easily as possible and to transmit that output by confidential means. Alaszewski (2006) outlines the key issues a researcher should consider when designing a diary and these points were taken into account when setting up this part of the data collection process. The main elements of the design include:

Diary structure

o What data is to be collected?

o What instrument is to be used (established or self-developed)?

Instructions

o What overall instructions should be given to the participants?

o Structured or free text entries?

Contact with diarists

o How will the diary be given to the participants?

o When and where will be training be given?

o What are the mechanisms for answering queries and giving support?

Checking the quality of the data

o Can the data be checked?

o What sort of feedback will be provided?

The process of recording information using a diary method is widespread in psychological,

medical and social research (O'Connor and Ferguson, 2008) and allows for in situ

assessments of behaviour. Because of the real-time nature of data capture, diaries can reduce retrospective reporting bias and give the ability to examine research questions within the context of fluctuating situational processes. The process of recording data contributing towards research in a diary or reflexive journal is considered by Berg (2009) to be a ‘solicited document’. The example he gives is of a daily work journal kept by nurses in an intensive care unit at the request of researchers for the purpose of assessing staff and task

143 effectiveness. Alaszewski (2006) notes that naturalistic researchers try to access knowledge about social reality in a way that is not contaminated by the research process. Such a process is in accord with the purpose of the reflexive journal in this research which sought to capture the thoughts and feelings of the participants regarding the evolution and changes around the coaching relationship. These were examples of private documents which allowed the researcher to draw out complete pictures of their subjects’ perceptions. Berg notes (2009) that the use of such material is appropriate as part of a triangulated methodological framework in a case study design. The multiple value of the use of diaries in qualitative research is also supported by Gray (2004) who describes their usefulness as:

A detailed portrait of events to provide a ‘thick description’ for analysis A reflective account through which the researcher makes tentative interpretations of events

An analytical tool that could contain a framing of the research focus. O’Connor and Ferguson (2008) identify three different diary method protocols:

Interval contingent – the participant completes the diary at specified intervals e.g. end of each day. This type of protocol is especially useful for frequent behaviours without a definitive start and end.

Event contingent – the participant completes the diary each time a specific event happens. This type of protocol is especially useful to estimate event prevalence.

Signal contingent – the participant completes the diary in response to random ‘alarms’ or ‘beeps’ from some sort of device. This type of protocol is especially useful for recording data on the distribution, frequency and duration of events. For the purpose of this research, the most applicable protocol to use was the event contingent

protocol. The coach and coachee would be asked to record in a diary notes about the

coaching relationship after each session had been completed. Making further entries at other opportunities was very much encouraged, however, the requirement to do so would not be formally stimulated by the process.

144 The duration of diary keeping should also be considered. At the outset of this study it was anticipated that the diary would be kept following each of three coaching sessions and for a short period before and afterwards, up to the point of the review interview with the

researcher.

In order to enhance compliance and the avoidance of lagged reporting (O'Connor and Ferguson, 2008), participants would be offered the opportunity to email in their entries following each session. These would be recorded, confidentially, against the individual case concerned. The choice between collection of diary reflections via paper or electronic means has been examined by Green et al. (2006) and neither method has been found to produce significantly better compliance results. With that in mind the participants in this research were given a choice. Each was provided with a bespoke reflexive paper diary in which to record their reflections. This would be returned to the researcher at the end of their coaching relationship when all sessions had been completed and when they were happy that they had concluded their input by this method. Alternately, or perhaps in addition to this, a

confidential email address was created so that participants could send their reflections to the researcher in a real-time way. In order to preserve confidentiality access to the email address was available only to the researcher.

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