Chapter 4: Methodology and approach
4.1 Research design: epistemological, theoretical and practical considerations
Qualitative research is grounded in a philosophical position which is broadly ‘interpretivist’ in the sense that researchers are concerned with how the social world is interpreted, understood, experienced, produced and constituted (Mason, 2002, p. 3). Blaikie (2000, p. 115) explains how “interpretivists are concerned with understanding the social world people have produced and which they reproduce through their continuing activities”. This approach assumes that knowledge can be seen as an interpretive understanding of ‘realities’ of research participants, and that multiple unique but potentially overlapping realities can thus exist. When considering the research questions of this project and the overall title, it is apparent that a key concern of this project is to explore the social world and lived experiences of non-resident fatherhood with a strong desire to illuminate areas that non-resident fathers consider to be important. The research process of this project therefore involved entering the participants ‘worlds’ and re-producing an interpreted portrayal, rather than an exact picture (Gubrium and Holstein, 2012). Mason (2002, p. 24) argues that “qualitative research is characteristically exploratory, fluid and flexible, data-driven and context-sensitive” and these approaches are reflected in the methods undertaken in this research.
The approach taken by Doucet (2007) in her study of fathers in Canada which recognised and respected feminist research approaches influenced this research. This approach works toward challenging sex-based asymmetries of care and employment, and encourages and embraces active fathering whilst realising and valuing traditions of women’s work and female identities of caregiving (2007, p. 30). In this thesis, this extends to recognising women’s role in caregiving in separated families. The emergence of feminist research
theories desired to consider women and their roles in new lenses rather than those designed by and for the study of men. As such, research undertaken from a feminist standpoint exercises caution when attempting to understand the voices of one sex within a landscape designed by the other (see Sevenhuijsen, 2000; Edwards, 1990). Doucet (2007) similarly argues that these concerns should also be considered when we study men in female-dominated areas of social life. Care work, both paid and unpaid, is, despite changes recognised in the literature of this thesis, a female dominated sphere which builds upon traditionally feminine identities. The discussions in the previous chapters highlight how motherhood and fatherhood are not interchangeable and gender norms continue to play a significant role in understandings of parenting. As such, when studying men’s caregiving, nurturing and parenting practices, it is important to resist the urge to evaluate them through female standards. Feminist and critical family studies methodologies recognise that research interviews themselves involve power dynamics which permeate the interview and consequently the data collected within it (Miller, 2017b). This leads to much deliberation about the importance of, and practise of, reflexivity within the research process, particularly in this research the process of being a female researching men’s lived experiences. This will be explored further in section 4.5.3. Fatherhood, particularly non-resident fatherhood, is an often controversial or politicised topic, with audiences expecting findings to follow one of two approaches, “as condemning fathers or claiming they are oppressed” (Dermott, 2008, p. 2). This provocative nature means that discussing their fathering practices can be a highly emotive topic for many fathers (Bradshaw et al., 1999). This thesis, whilst taking a father- centric approach, does not aim to validate or champion certain actors in separated families over others, but rather to develop a better understanding of non-resident fatherhood within the heterogeneity of family practices and formations. The topic’s emotive and controversial nature was recognised throughout the research process, including when sourcing literature, interacting with external organisations for recruitment and dissemination purposes, when interacting with fathers during data collection, and when writing up this thesis.
4.1.1 Developing research questions
The initial phases of PhD qualitative research involve moving from a focal yet broad area of interest to formulating focused research aims and questions. My background, but also the disciplines of the previous research exploring fatherhood and non-resident fathers directed this project to straddle the disciplines of sociology and applied social policy. Whilst drawing from both sociological and social policy traditions, this work sought to contribute to both disciplines as well. As highlighted in the literature review, to date, most academic explorations of fatherhood have been based on resident fathers, with non-resident fathers tending
to be neglected within academic research (Poole et al., 2016; Miller, 2011a; Dermott, 2008; Doucet, 2007). Writings that have focused on non-resident fathers have tended to focus on the problematic nature of this group of fathers. Other research has focused on quantitative features such as volume of contact or child maintenance payment amounts. However, there has been little research exploring the everyday family and social relationships of non-resident fathers more broadly, including studies that recognises the heterogeneity amongst this group of fathers. This lack of research is significant, because, as argued by Skinner (2013, p. 262) and discussed in the introduction, norms of fatherhood may differ between resident fathers, whom most studies of fatherhood have been conducted with, and non-resident fathers. There was therefore scope for more in-depth qualitative research into fathering and the lived experiences of parenthood amongst non- resident fathers in the UK. This research recognised that fathering, and parenting and family relationships more broadly, encompass a range of complexities; just as similarities and differences can be drawn about resident fathers, similarities and differences are expected of non-resident fathers in the sample. As demonstrated through the two previous chapters, whilst there are several studies exploring non-resident fatherhood, there are few in-depth qualitative studies of non-resident fathers that aim to explore lived experiences with a broad sample, and with sociological and social policy objectives. This project as such stemmed from a perceived ‘gap’ in knowledge about a contemporary social issue, with the specifics of this reflected in the three research questions:
1. How do men perceive, construct and negotiate their role as ‘fathers’ in the context of being a ‘non-resident father’ and how do they practise this role? And in what ways do fathers perceive that their social and family relationships and circumstances influence their construction and negotiation of non-resident fatherhood?
2. How do fathers perceive, negotiate and engage with the ways in which non-resident fathers are constructed and positioned in policy and social discourses?
3. What is the significance of statutory agencies and social services, in the broad sense of the terms, in the everyday narratives and lives of non-resident fathers? According to fathers, should and could these be developed in more ‘father-friendly’ or supportive ways?
The first research question stemmed from a desire to understand not only fathers’ aspirations for fathering, but also to explore any factors they felt restricted this. As such, this demonstrates a desire to understand not only what fathers do, but to ask what they want to do. Including exploration of fathers’ personal relationships and family relationships, and their socio-demographic characteristics and other circumstances (e.g. home, location, work, working hours) aimed to give a broader understanding of non-resident fatherhood and the
uniqueness of each father, that highlights how their fathering is not solely influenced by their residency status.
The second of these questions emerged from a desire to understand how fathers feel they are portrayed in policy and social discourses. This includes debates by politicians around the ‘problems’ associated with separated families, but also portrayals in popular culture such as the media. In order to explore this research question, I had to first answer the question “How are non-resident fathers positioned in current social policy debates, discourses and developments targeted at families, parents and parental separation?”. This question is arguably a research question that spans the entire thesis, however, as it is rooted in literature, and heavily explored in the literature review, but not explored in the empirical data, this question was removed from the three overall research questions.
The third question not only aided in understanding the everyday experiences of fathers, but also enabled me to look at whether the government’s agenda for non-resident fathers (and separated families as a whole) and issues considered as important to them, is in tune with the feelings of fathers themselves. The part of the questions referring to ‘according to fathers’ not only means presenting fathers’ actual spoken words about changes i.e. extracts from interviews, but also interpreting what could be father-friendly developments from the discussions had in interviews.
4.1.2 Choosing semi-structured interviews
The interpretivist epistemological positioning adopted in this research required methods of data generation which were flexible and sensitive to the social context in which data was produced as well as methods of analysis, explanation and argument building which involves understandings of complexity, detail and context. As a key driving factor in the research rationale was a desire to hear ‘stories’ of non-resident fatherhood, and with consideration of where and who could act as a source for the generation of this data, in-depth interviews were deemed the most appropriate method (see Head, 2004; Mason, 2002; Arendell, 1997). From the early stages of this project’s design, it was planned that the study would be based on semi- structured interviews with non-resident fathers. Despite variations in style, qualitative interview approaches and techniques tend to include an interactional exchange of dialogue and have a relatively informal style of conversation or discussion rather than formal question and answer scenarios such as in journalism. Semi- structured interviews are guided by interview questions but allow for flexibility, meaning that interesting threads of conversation can be explored in more depth. Interviewing can be claimed as the most common research method, and in its simplest form can be labelled as providing empirical data about the social world
by asking people about their lives - asking questions is a common form of conversational inquiry to find out answers (Fielding and Thomas, 2008; Holstein and Gubrium, 2004). Enosh and Buchbinder (2005) explain how when involved with qualitativeinterviewing one should understand that interviewees are developing their own understanding and sense-making of her or his reality during the interview, rather than driving toward getting the interviewee to reveal the ‘hidden reality’ of their lives. As such, as a researcher my aim was not to work out where to ‘find’ my data or to presume my data already existed in a collectable state. Instead through evaluating my theoretical and practical considerations, I decided that semi-structured interviews would be the ‘best’ way to generate data from my chosen data sources. In other words, factual data about the social world is not being reported or uncovered in interviews, rather meanings and understandings of the social world are created or constructed in an interview setting, and co-produced by both participant and me, the researcher, who is asking and responding to the participant (see Mason, 2002). As interviews tend to be the most common method of research, there can be a tendency to assume one’s study will involve interviews without considering how other methods might be more useful or incorporated into a study. Other methods of enquiry, such as focus groups were considered in the research development stage, however there was concern that these would not reflect the research aims, because it could be difficult to elicit and separate individual data on lived experiences from group data (Barbour, 2007). There was a concern that more intimate topics would not be disclosed during a group interview, and also that what can be an emotive topic would lead to digression in group discussion, making it difficult for an inexperienced PhD social researcher to manage. In a practical sense, finding a time that was convenient for all focus group participants was expected to be difficult. A longitudinal study, or interviewing fathers on at least two separate occasions was considered. This would allow for a better understanding of how time interacts with fathering when non-resident (one example being Miller, 2011a). Another example of the interaction of time and changes to fathering practices is the longitudinal study ‘Following Young Fathers’ by Bren Neale and colleagues (Neale et al., 2015). This project carried out research with 12, and then a further 19 fathers aged between 16 and 25 between 2010 and 2015, engaging in many interviews and group exercises with participants. However, it was felt that the commitment required from participants for more than one research interview could act as a deterrent in recruitment. Moreover, the limited time given for data collection in a PhD was another factor that meant a longitudinal design was rejected.