Assignment Cover Sheet Candidate Number: JQHB6 Module: PHDE0071 - Qualitative Data Analysis 2019/20 Essay Title: “I just think it’s the journey that I’ve had” – Preparation for parent support: a narrative analysis Word Count: 5,488 Submission Deadline: 25.05.2020 Actual Date of Submission: 25.05.2020 Student Declaration: By submitting this coursework, I affirm that the work is my own and that any material derived or quoted from the published or unpublished work of other persons has been duly acknowledged. I confirm that I have read the UCL and Departmental guidance on plagiarism. 2 “I just think it’s the journey that I’ve had” – Preparation for parent support: a narrative analysis Introduction “As nations and governments construct preferred narratives about history, so do […] individuals” construct stories as “ways of knowing and communicating” (Riessman, 2005, p.1) about the world. Narrative research takes such stories as the basis for exploring social life. This essay focuses on an individual story and has a dual purpose, in both conducting a piece of narrative analysis, and reflecting on the process of conducting such analysis as a novice. Having set out the context for the research, I provide a short introduction to narrative analysis and describe how my own analysis was conducted. I then re-tell the story that Kate,1 the research participant, told me in response to my questions about her schooling and life afterwards, and discuss some of the issues raised. These include the ways in which she understands both her difficult family circumstances and her professional experience to have helped prepare her for her current work, as well as ways in which her work interacts with some key issues in education policy. I also point to some of the tensions in the ways in which Kate sees herself. In view of the second aim of the essay, I include a substantial reflexive section, considering in particular the issues around unexpectedly strong emotions arising in interviews. Background and research questions Kate is the manager of an innovative parents’ centre, The Haven:1 a former caretaker’s house on a primary school site in a relatively deprived London borough. The house has been renovated to act as a base for a variety of family activities (examples include ‘stay and play’ for parents with young children, massage therapy and parent and child cooking sessions). The centre is the subject of my planned doctoral research, exploring what parents and staff perceive to be its impact on their relationships with each other, and on the children. Parents’ engagement in their children’s schooling has been viewed as vital for supporting children’s attainment (eg Goodall et al., 2011), and in closing the ‘gap’ in attainment between disadvantaged children and their peers. Damien Hinds (2019), then Secretary of State for Education, recently claimed that “in the very earliest years, gaps appear in development […] and about a fifth of the difference in development of cognitive ability […] is to do with parental engagement”. Such policy discourse has been criticised for over-emphasising parents’ individual responsibility for educational outcomes (Vincent 2017), rather that of than wider structural factors (Mowat, 2018) and the differing resources that particular social groups can draw on to support their children’s learning (Edwards, 2010; Reay, 2010). Reay (2017) has highlighted how attempts by schools to involve parents in children’s learning too often result in widening, rather than narrowing, inequalities. 1 Pseudonyms. Kate’s is self-chosen. 3 The Haven is unusual in its strong emphasis on parent wellbeing, particularly at a time of austerity and policy focus on academic attainment. I recently began to observe activities at the centre, and to conduct interviews exploring its aims; the informal interview considered here was added to the end of a more formal interview with Kate. I had met her several times, and was struck by her passion for the centre and curious about her background and what had led her to this role. I therefore asked her to tell me something about herself, resulting in the data presented here, which I analyse in order to answer the research questions: • How does Kate view her past experiences as preparing her for the role of parents’ centre manager? • How does she construct her identity through the narrative? Narrative research If the purpose of qualitative analysis generally is to “enquire deeply into the meaning of different situations and different people’s understandings of the world” (Bold, 2012, p.2),2 and if narrative research in particular is interested in how narrative can be used to construct identity (Elliott, 2005), it seemed that this form of analysis was appropriate in facilitating the kind of deep enquiry that would enable me to address my research questions. Narrative is simply another way of understanding the world: “narratives carry traces of human lives that we want to understand […] [they] can help us describe, understand and even explain important aspects of the world.” (Squire, Andrews & Tamboukou, 2013, p.2). This is so not only for the audience or researcher: in telling their stories, people make sense of their experiences, “claim identities, and ‘get a life’” (Langellier, 2001, in Riessman, 2005, p.1). Indeed, in psychology, constructing a personal narrative has been seen as part of the development of a sense of self. This sense of “building personal identity and agency” (Squire, Andrews & Tamboukou, 2013, p.7) is characteristic of the holistic, ‘humanist’ approach to narrative, in which attention is focused on the individual. In this way, narrative research “complements and counteracts the ‘culture of fragmentation’ (Atkinson, 1992) that is so characteristic of data analyses based on coding and categorizing” (Coffey, 1996, p.80). By contrast, more post-structuralist approaches to narrative emphasise that stories and identities are formed by multiple subjectivities rather than “singular, agentic storytellers and hearers” (Squire, Andrews & Tamboukou, 2013, p.4). In this case, the importance of language and social interactions in identity formation is also emphasised, and “the storyteller does not tell the story, so much as she/he is told by it” (Squire, Andrews & Tamboukou, 2013, p.4). Whatever the approach, studying an individual’s story also provides an awareness of that individual within society (Plummer, 1983 in Elliott, 2005). As Riessman (2005, p.6), after C. Wright Mills, argues, “narrative analysis can forge connections between personal biography and social structure – the personal and the political”. There is no single approach to conducting narrative analysis (Elliott, 2005; Squire, Andrews & Tamboukou, 2013). The study of narrative, according to (Mishler, 1995), 2 Pagination for this publication refers to the downloadable pdf of chapter 7, ‘Analysing Narrative Data’, in Bold, 2012. 4 p.88), is “a problem-centered area of inquiry” which includes great diversity. The focus might be on “telling” as well as the “told” (Mishler, 1995, p.90) – for example, on the structural or linguistic features of a story – or on the context of the telling, such as the interaction between speakers (Riessman, 2005) and the social function it performs (Mishler, 1995). All approaches, however, require the researcher to “construct texts for further analysis, that is, select and organise documents, compose field notes, and/or choose sections of interview transcripts for close inspection.” (Riessman, 2005, pp.1-2). In the case of this research, I collected the initial data through a fairly opportunistic interview. I had previously mentioned to Kate by email that if we had time after my interview with her for my masters dissertation, I would like to ask her to tell me something about herself in connection with another assignment, if she was willing. At the conclusion of the formal interview I again explained about the assignment and asked if she would mind telling me her story. She spoke for around eight minutes, and this data forms the main focus of the analysis. However, concerned that it might be too slight for the purposes of the research, I decided to supplement it with some field texts (Creswell, 2005). These were the opening section of the formal interview, where Kate talks about how she came to manage the centre, and also my field notes from the day of the interviews. In this research I take the primarily humanist approach identified above, and the position typical for thematic analysts that language is “a direct and unambiguous route to meaning” (Riessman, 2005, p.2). While not embracing a post-structuralist approach, I am also interested in the meanings behind what is implied, or left unsaid. I agree with Tamboukou (2013) that narratives constitute, rather than merely representing, realities and shape the social rather than – or perhaps as well as – being determined by it. As Riessman (2005, p.6) also argues, “Narratives do not mirror, they refract the past […] Narratives are useful in research precisely because storytellers interpret the past rather than reproduce it as it was.” In this connection, I do not know how much Kate has already worked to interpret her past and ‘package’ this version of her story, or whether her account was spontaneous. As I reflect below, I cannot ignore the fact that she has apprehensions about the research which may influence her storytelling. On the other hand, my questions were relatively few and broad, leaving space for Kate shape her account. My “re-storying” (Creswell, 2005) below, of course, adds a further layer of interpretation, as Mishler (1995, pp.117-118) argues: “It is clear that we do not find stories; we make stories. We retell our respondents' accounts through our analytic redescriptions. We too are storytellers and through our concepts and methods […] we construct the story and its meaning.” (Emphasis in original) Analysis I began by producing a largely unfocused transcript of the main narrative interview, and immediately found it hard to decide what transcription conventions to use. This is no surprise, because transcription influences analysis and vice versa (Elliott, 2005) and, as a novice, I had left both variables undecided at this point. I settled on a system using three columns (for the speaker and occasional timings; speech; and any notes about how things were said), and an adaptation of some of the detailed 5 transcription conventions set out by Silverman (2001), simplified once I had decided to focus primarily on content. I read through this transcript several times, not least because I wondered whether I had enough data to carry out the research, before choosing to include the other field texts. I then explored whether it was possible to apply Labov’s (1972, 1982 in Coffey, 1996) framework to the data, initially thinking that it did not fit; indeed, it has been pointed out that people rarely give the kind of strict chronological account that would perfectly fit the framework (Mishler, 1997 in Elliott, 2005). However, I discovered that I could split the main interview into two sections, one focusing on Kate’s childhood and school years (lines 186-270), and one on her life subsequently (273-376), applying the framework to each. This made it easier for me to start considering some of the issues raised in the account; I thus found that, as Riessman (1993 in Coffey, 1996) argues, beginning with attention to structure can help avoid a narrow focus on content and provide a ‘way in’ to the text. I then chose to focus in particular on the opening section of Kate’s story, because in telling this she had quickly become upset and started to cry, which suggested that it was the part of her story that held much meaning for her. To aid this focus I re-transcribed this section (up to line 270) using a method based on that of Gee (1986) to break the text into “idea units” (Chafe, 1980 in Gee, 1986, p.394) (see Appendix). The units consist of single clauses (or less), each containing one new piece of information, grouped in related ‘stanzas’ (Mishler, 1995). These begin to indicate levels of meaning of the text and enable us to focus on how the speaker chooses to construct her story, selecting and ordering the events to produce her account (Mishler, 1995). I restricted the re-transcription to this highly personal section of the data, since this method is time-consuming and ill-suited to extended narrative (Elliott 2005). Nonetheless I found that, as I re-transcribed, I both began to identify themes in the narrative and to be moved by it, partly due to the similarity of the stanzas produced to poetry. I found that, as Reissman (1993 in Bold, 2012, p.3) suggests, the transcription process became part of the analysis, and that the “poetic structures” produced helped me to “see much more clearly the meaningful statements that the interviewee was making about her experience”. I include one example of this below, although for ease of reading, other quotations are set out in conventional lines, with pauses and hesitations removed. I therefore used a mixture of structural and thematic analysis, rather than focusing on the interactional (Mishler, 1995) or performative (Riessman, 2005) context of the narrative; this enabled me to focus partly on the “telling” and partly on the “told” (Riessman, 2005, p.2). However, my main interest remained in what was said rather than how, and with this in mind I set about re-storying (Creswell, 2005) Kate’s account. This is presented below, interwoven with discussion of some of the issues raised. As a child, Kate loved school, and her attendance record was perfect. She characterises herself as being part of a “popular group”, “a little bit challenging, but 6 also […] very well liked by the teachers”. Her mother was involved with her schooling, although her father was not, in keeping with typical patterns of parental involvement in schooling, particularly in working-class communities (Lareau, 2000; Reay, 2005) such as that in which Kate grew up. She did well academically and must have seemed to the school to be an ideal student. But throughout her childhood, her mother experienced domestic violence at the hands of her father, an alcoholic. In this section from my re-transcription, Kate sets the scene (‘orientation’ in Labovian terms), describes her father’s violence, and ties the experiences to the outcome for her mother. “So when I was a little kid I lived with my nan a lot of the time with my mum and my brother and erm yeah there was a lot of police presence you know my- my dad would smash the house up and the cars and so it’s no surprise that my mum is now a counsellor.” The family were police-protected and were moved, but one day Kate’s father followed her home from school and smashed up the new house. The house had to be secured with emergency boarding, and other children were told not to play with Kate and her brother. Kate’s school was completely unaware of all this; as she says, “we never aired our dirty laundry anywhere”; “nobody would ever have known what went on”. Her mention of “dirty laundry”, along with references to being “the family where none of the [neighbourhood] children were allowed to go near” hints at the considerable stigma and shame she must have experienced. Yet throughout this painful section of the narrative, and in contrast to the section that follows, Kate never describes how she felt – only the events. However, the way in which her eyes fill with tears almost as soon as she begins talking about her father; her slightly drawn-out “yeah”, which ends her first sentence about the violence and which seems to stand in the place of many words; and a short evaluative (in Labovian terms) section in the middle of this part of the story, leave no doubt as to its negative impact on her: 7 “…so we’ve had a lifetime of it but eventually my mum did manage to get rid of him. And, erm, so that has definitely had, like, reoccurring demons for me…” Kate describes her mother as a “warrior”. This description of her mother as a figure of power is striking; it is her mother, rather than the police, who “got rid of” her father, and she has clearly played an enormous supporting role in Kate’s life, including, presumably, ensuring her school attendance. Kate has continued to rely on her, even up to the present, as I record in field notes: “she says she was feeling quite nervous about the research because it feels somewhat as though The Haven is under scrutiny, and this is hard for her because she is hard enough on herself as it is. She says that her mum tells her she has no need to feel like that, because ‘what’s it to you’ (words to that effect) what the research says?” This crucial role of maternal support, seen also in the role played by Kate’s grandmother (presumably her mother’s mother), contrasts not only with the behaviour of her father but also with the fact that Kate makes no mention of a partner in her story, even when she later mentions her children. Kate achieved good GCSEs and continued to sixth form, but at the age of 16 she had an argument with her mother and moved into a flat with an 18-year-old friend, expecting to have “the best time of her life”: “I thought I was really really […] clever”. In fact, she would have a migraine every night, her mother would come to help and beg her to return home and, without her mother to get her out of bed, she would be late every day for school, even though “I never ever wanted to be late” – an uncomfortable departure from her ‘ideal’ student status. While she describes this as “a really bad time”, living in the “dirty old flat” which was as “rough as anything”, she is grateful now that she had this time with her friend, who later died from leukaemia. After a year of A levels, she decided on the spur of the moment to go with her friend to college instead, even though she had not enrolled: “I was very much like that – a very […] laid back, fly by the seat of your pants kind of person.” Kate took an NVQ in Business Administration at college and then worked as a secretary at Burberry, “did a bit of temping” and worked for a window company, before having her first child at the age of 20. She went back to work when he was four months old; she has four children now and says that she has “always worked”: “I like going to work, and I don’t ever feel like I could ever not be at work”. As with her emphasis on her ‘idealness’ in terms of school attendance, Kate seems to construct herself here as an ideal citizen- worker (Holloway & Pimlott-Wilson, 2012). While her recent career has involved supporting “disadvantaged” families, and she stresses her empathy for them, she constructs herself as ‘other’ in the sense of never having missed school (which would have marked her as a ‘problem’) or been unemployed (and thus reliant on state welfare). However, she does not claim any sense of superiority in this; rather, the knowledge that “I turned out ok” (field notes) gives her hope for people going through similar circumstances. 8 She worked for five years at a local secondary school, including in the special needs department, having been appointed from a very competitive field. Here she decided that she wanted to do more to support the families of children with special needs. This led her to apply for a job at a charity supporting carers, working with parents of children facing school exclusion. She characterises this as “a really really positive time of my life, because we were seen, in [borough], to have a really good result for families who were disadvantaged” in terms of overturning school exclusions, on various grounds: schools were not meeting children’s needs, or “were just trying to get rid of these kids.” This relates to a known political issue, whereby schools, lacking resources to provide extra support for children with special needs and mindful of the potential negative effect of such children on league table positions, seek to remove them (Gill, Quilter-Pinner & Swift, 2017). Kate was involved in a project with City Hall on these issues, which resulted in a publication for tuition centres on parental engagement – the focus of her role now. Kate ends her story with – in Labovian terms – an evaluation and coda that bring us up to the present: “And that was really good. Erm, and then that led me to here.” The field texts allow some expansion on this. Kate was employed at the current primary school as a Parent Support Adviser, working alongside an Attendance Manager – a dynamic she describes as “good cop and […] bad cop”; “she’s hard, and I’m soft”. The reason for her ‘softness’ was that “I came from a field of work where you know that attendance is not the sole root of the problem […] there’s always something else”. Because of this, she would feel “very awkward grilling a parent for their responsibilities.” This tension is apparent in her next comment, which seems to switch back to the perspective of the school, with its focus on attendance: “Although the child being at school is the crucial element that we got sorted.” Goodson (1995 in Coffey, 1996, p.78), points out that narratives can be used to reinforce dominant voices, or can highlight “oppositional stories” from those who might otherwise be silenced, and both sides of this seem to be evident in Kate’s account: the blanket insistence in education policy on attendance as the key to attainment and life chances (Department for Education & Gibb, 2016), and the acknowledgment that some parents struggle with issues so large they prevent them from fulfilling their “responsibilities”: “because there’s things going on, the parent’s got mental health, or they’re just lonely at home. So there’s so many different factors.” Her empathy here is based on her professional, rather than personal, experience. In addition to experiencing this tension in her job, Kate found it very difficult to manage the both the attendance and the parent support work within her three-day working week, which led to “some real low moments” and taking “some time out”: “I always felt like I wasn’t doing a good job […] I always felt like I was chasing my tail with that.” This sets the scene for a change of direction. When the plan for The Haven was put forward, members of staff suggested many ideas for its use; when one questioned who would manage it, Kate said, “Ooh – sounds like the perfect job for me”. She therefore claims agency in her current position: “I kind of just put myself out there, and then […] that’s how the role became mine”. Here Kate portrays herself as similar to her spontaneous teenage self. Managing the centre is now her entire role, in which she has been given considerable 9 freedom: the headteacher “didn’t put any restrictions” and said, “I don’t want to micromanage you”. This seems to have two sides for Kate: she has free rein for what she calls her “massive list of ideas”, but on the other hand she has “been left with this big house!”, which seems weigh heavily on her. Her solution is to tell herself that if she was doing something wrong, the headteacher would tell her (field notes). Although the issue of the tension in her job role is now resolved, she still hints at a sense of inadequacy, describing herself as “hard enough on herself as it is” (field notes). At several points in her story, Kate implies that her difficult childhood has made her who she is (I interpret her words “I think […] it’s actually a product of me” to mean this). It has prepared her for her current work: “I kind of think my role, the empathy, the […] making people feel welcome, I think stems from the way we were as a family”; “I […] feel like, I’m a non-judgemental person cos I know, full well, how we were”. As with her mother’s “journey” meaning that she has ‘ended up’ as a counsellor, she seems to see the course of events as almost inevitable or fated, claiming it is no surprise “how I’ve ended up here”, in a role that, while “rewarding”, can also mean she becomes burdened with other people’s cares: “[it] can sometimes be me taking on people’s challenges […] Because I just think that it’s the journey that I’ve had.” She presents herself as both the ideal person to do her job, and at the same time as somewhat oppressed by the work: carrying the weight of it and lacking reassurance that she is doing well, other than that provided by her mother. Reflection This was my first attempt at narrative analysis and it immediately raised a number of issues for me, particularly around ethics. This was a semi-opportunistic interview, snatched in a few spare minutes, although as Swain (2018) argues, this need not mean it does not yield valuable data. Nevertheless, I decided to supplement it with further data to provide something substantial enough for analysis. It was this snatched quality that particularly troubled me when, very soon after starting her story, Kate began to cry: was I to blame by not having prepared properly, or asked my question more sensitively? My field notes from the day reflect my confusion: “At this point I felt a mixture of strong feelings: shock that she was crying; concern (what have I done?!); elation – and then immediately guilt – that this was a ‘real’ thing, not just a nice neat little narrative [but something that would] give me something ‘meaty’ to write about; concern that Kate was ok and that I do the right thing ethically in terms of checking whether she wanted to go on.” I felt the kind of split described by Goodrum & Keys (2007), between maintaining a professional focus on the interview, and realising that here was a human person in need of comfort – a need precipitated by my questions. On reflection, I wish I had offered her some words of comfort as well as offering to stop the interview; Goodrum and Keys (2007, p.255) report one participant advising, “If your human instinct is to say, ‘I’m so sorry, that must have been terrible’, it would go down real well.” 10 I had been aware as I asked about Kate’s parents that it is always risky to ask about a stranger’s family background – a fact reflected in my stumbling over the question – but this experience has reinforced my wish to tread carefully in future. While “all interviews are potentially emotional experiences for participants” (Mitchell & Irvine, 2008, p.35), and although I was satisfied that Kate was happy to continue with the interview and for me to use the data (I checked verbally at the end of the interview and again in a follow-up email), I would want an interviewee to be better prepared in advance for the possibility that potentially sensitive topics could come up, and to consent to this. Kate twice remarked that she had not expected to get upset, the second time being after I turned off the recorder; it was at this point (see field notes) that she said that her experiences gave her empathy with, and hope for, the people she is working with. At this point her eyes filled with tears again, and I said, “Oh, you’ll start me off!” Again I was aware of a split within myself: while it was true her tears might have made me cry, I was also aware that in saying this I was building rapport with her – something that will be valuable for our ongoing research relationship. I immediately felt guilty again for thinking I might profit from her emotion. Holland (2007, in Mitchell & Irvine, 2008) refers to the “ethics of empathy” in this connection, and the possibility that researchers might use ‘empathy skills’ to encourage participants to say more than they might really want to. Conversely, as Mitchell & Irvine (2008) go on to point out, feminist literature stresses the importance of researchers developing relationships of trust and reciprocity with participants, suggesting that my desire consciously to build such a relationship was not in itself wrong. I remarked above that I found the poem-like lines of my re-transcription moving and that they enabled me to see meaning in the data. I also found it helpful to use Labov’s (1972, 1982 in Coffey, 1996) framework as a starting point, to help me see begin to see this meaning: for example, to see how Kate’s words, “not at one point did I miss school, I had great attendance, so it just shows what a warrior my mum really was […] Yeah, and still is. Yeah” act as an evaluation of the story so far and a coda bringing us up to date, so providing a clear end for the first section. This then enabled me to select that section for further analysis, at which point I chose to move my focus from structure to content as I believed it would yield richer results, and I was concerned I might spend too much time simply labelling elements of the narrative. However, in the light of Riessman's (2005, p.6) warning that “narrative research can […] pretend to offer an ‘authentic’ voice – unalloyed subjective truth”, I would not want to lose sight of the fact that I am also a storyteller here (Mishler, 1995). It was I who categorised the elements according to Labov’s (1972, 1982 in Coffey, 1996) framework, and then ordered and grouped the lines and ascribed meaning to them – meanings that Kate herself might not have agreed with. I have also talked about her “constructing” her identity, showing an epistemological assumption that identity is something we can construct for ourselves and project to others. Furthermore, Riessman (2015) argues that we must take note of the potential influence of the settings where narratives occur, as well as the resources that interviewer and participant bring to those settings. On one hand, The Haven might represent a liminal space in this respect, being neither school nor home. As an outsider in ‘her’ centre I felt very much that I was on Kate’s ‘turf’, and that she was 11 the one with power. On the other hand, I cannot ignore my positioning as a middle- class researcher and a representative of a powerful outside institution (the university), especially given her revelation that she is nervous about the research, and my knowledge (from an earlier session) that because I am studying for a PhD, she sees me as “very clever”.3 I have found it interesting to focus here on narrative; given that my data represented a life story from one individual, this seems to have been an appropriate approach, although I found it strange to focus in such detail on one story, whereas in other research I have typically compared several interviews in a more thematic approach. This meant that I sometimes wondered whether I was able to draw out anything of value: was this all narrative, and no analysis? On reflection, if I had taken an approach based on performative analysis (Riessman, 2005), this might have allowed me to look more closely at how Kate constructed her identity through storytelling and my role as her ‘audience’ in this, although I had felt that this would require more detailed notes on the non-verbal aspects of the telling than I had available. Nonetheless, this process has sensitised me to the ways in which people talk about themselves and the identities they project, and I hope to notice and draw on this more as I progress to my doctoral research. Conclusion This necessarily remains a partial account because it has not been through a crucial stage in determining its validity: the “re-storying” has not yet been verified by Kate herself. This is partly due to reasons of time, and also because I am nervous about the effect it might have on our future research relationship for Kate to read someone else’s speculations about her identity formation – no doubt a strange experience for anyone. I also worry that my use of academic language would alienate her just at a time when I am still seeking to build the relationship. For these reasons I have chosen not to share the account with her yet, although should I want to use it for any other purpose, I would do this. Based on the assumption that language reveals meaning, I have focused on the ways in which Kate chooses to describe particular events in her life and ties them to her present, allowing me to identify how she constructs herself in two ways. She sees herself as formed – in terms of character – by her childhood experiences, but also as successful – in her professional experiences – through her own agency in seizing opportunities and being able to succeed against competition. She sees both of these aspects as preparing her for her current role, giving her empathy for, and understanding of, those she works with, along with a crucial sense of hope that others might “turn[] out ok”, as she has. There is tension in her narrative: for example, between her role in promoting school attendance, and her empathy for families in their challenges; and between her view of herself as an ‘ideal’ student and worker, and her doubts about whether she is doing a good enough job. She emphasises the important role of her mother in helping her overcome these doubts, and in supporting her throughout her life. 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'‘The children have only got one education and you have to make sure it’s a good one’: parenting and parent–school relations in a neoliberal age'. Gender and Education, 29 (5), pp.541–557. 14 Appendix 1: Transcripts and field notes This is an unfocused transcription of the opening of my formal interview with Kate (undertaken for my MRes dissertation), followed by the whole of the informal interview (for this assignment) that followed. Below it is a retranscribed section of the informal interview. I have kept conventional orthography but transcribed the words verbatim. I have not attempted to note all intonation or where speakers talk over each other, except where it seems very relevant, or I think I really need to in order to render the speech faithfully (shown using [ ). I have used the symbols / and // to indicate short and longer pauses. I have not marked every time the participant takes a breath, except once or twice where it was very noticeable. The first section (up to line 183) is the initial part of a longer interview which I conducted for the purposes of my MRes dissertation. R = researcher; P = participant R 1 2 3 (Speaking about the mobile phone which is recording the conversation) Hopefully it picks us up alright. It’s quite good. P 4 Okay. She sounds nervous. R 5 6 7 8 9 10 Um, so. Starting at the beginning. Like, I know there’ll be some things that you’ll probably just say, “Oh, like, ask (headteacher) that one”, but I’m still interested in how much, like, you, like, heard, or [think about it, P 11 [Mmkay R 12 13 14 or whatever, so, like, as far as you know, like, how- where did the idea for this first come from? P 15 0:23 16 (clicks tongue) / Erm, // It was actually / we just had a team [meeting R 17 [Ah P 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 1:10 33 and it was just sprung / you know, that we was going to have this house, / and it was going to be used for the children, / but I had no idea, actually, you know, to what extent, / and // then when we had this meeting, we was actually all over here – we was downstairs, / erm, there was all different ideas of what we could use it for. So it was like a blank canvas. // Erm, / and one of the // members of staff over the other side said, “This all sounds very, / erm, you know, wonderful, all the ideas that we / we’re giving, but who is going to manage this? Because none of us all have the time.” / So I just said, “Ooh – sounds like the perfect job for me.” In a louder voice, going higher for “Ooh”. R 34 (Laughter) P 35 36 So I kind of just put myself out there, / and then that’s how, you know, that’s how the role Laughing on “kind” 15 37 38 39 40 41 42 became mine. But initially, we- you know, we knew that this was being renovated, and the council had te- you know, the business manager, / erm, and then (headteacher) did lots of work, but it actually started / with, / erm, (name) who was the previous head. R 43 Oh, okay. P 44 01:35 45 46 So, / yeah, so she started this venture and she kind of / had the / visions of what this may be. R 47 [Oh right. P 48 [Obviously being the old caretaker’s house. R 49 Yeah. P 50 Yeah. R 51 52 So when you said a member of staff on the other side, you mean, erm, P 53 [(name of other school site) R 54 55 56 57 [(name of other school site). Yeah. Right. / Just checking. Um, // so,/ the idea had come from (name). Like, what were people’s kind of reactions, like, / to / the idea of it? [Or like- P 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 [(Clicks tongue) / I kind- I think it was // it was quite a quiet process, you know? Not many people knew much about it, and even probably,/ erm, right u-up until we opened (name of centre) lots of members have staff have not even been over. / Erm, // yeah, s-so once they / know what’s going on, R 65 Mm P 66 67 They’re really surprised. Obviously all the different activities. R 68 Yeah. P 69 70 71 So / yeah so I don’t think it was, // (clicks tongue) / it wasn’t really / massively advertised, from / my experience. R 72 73 Right. And you were working as a Parent Support Adviser, anyway, [(inaudible)? P 74 2:42 75 76 77 78 79 80 [Yeah so I was doing- I was doing a lot of the attendance. / And all like, kind of, different meetings with the parents, erm, Team Around the Family meetings, / so I was still very much parent support, but I had the added role of / the attendance. Which / now obviously I’m not / R 81 Yeah P 82 I’m not doing. R 83 84 85 86 87 88 And you were saying to me before, / that you, like- there was maybe a bit of a p-pull two ways when you were doing that? Cos like, you had the attendance but you kind of knew, sometimes, what was going on at home, and [(inaudible) P 89 3:13 90 [Yeah, so it was- it was almost like- / there was two members of staff, there was myself 16 91 92 93 94 95 and (name), who’s the Attendance Manager, s-so we would often, / you know, not have d- disputes, but / I came from / a field of work where you know that / attendance is not the sole root of the problem. R 96 Yeah. P 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 That is just one tiny factor. And there’s always something else. The reason. Whether that be, you know, because there’s things going on, the parent’s got mental health, or they’re just lonely at home. So there’s so many different factors. / Erm, / so we’d go in the meeting and I was always good cop and she was bad cop. But between us both, we kind of got the balance, because I felt very awkward grilling a parent,/ R 107 Mm. P 108 3:54 109 110 111 / (sounds like she’s trying to find word) for their responsibilities. Although // the child being at school / is / the crucial element that we got sorted. So R 112 Mm P 113 114 I did understand all the reasons behind it, but / it made my job / a little bit tricky. R 115 Yeah. P 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 But they was always very // (clicks tongue) willing to talk and at the end of the meeting we’d always have a / good outcome, leave on a p-positive, you know, so I think, with (attendance manager), she would say to me, / “Oh I like you being in there”, because she’s hard, and I’m soft. R 123 (Laughter) P 124 So I kind of get around to R 125 (Laughter) P 126 Being a little bit softer with the parents. R 127 128 129 130 Ah, right. So coming back to like, this place, do you think, erm, there were any specific issues, that / it, like, was hoped that (centre) would address? P 131 / In what respects? Like, starting it all up? Or- R 132 133 134 135 Yeah, or, like, was there like a problem it was trying to solve? Do you know what I mean? / Or like, anything specific, any specific needs that / it’s trying to meet? P 136 137 / What, so within th-the activities, you mean? Or- R 138 4:57 139 / Yeah, either the activities, or just, like, // the idea of setting it up in the first place. P 140 141 No, I- / to be honest, I think (headteacher) was very, very laid back with this idea. R 142 (Laughter) P 143 144 And / he, / when I went in and spoke to him, and you know, I had a few issues with the job 17 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 because of only being here three days a week, and / you know, I had some real / low moments, erm, before Christmas, and I had some time out, and I said, / “I’m finding it really difficult to manage, both roles, within the time given.” Erm, because attendance is also a major job, when you’re sending out letters, setting meetings, and R 153 Yeah P 154 5:37 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 target reports, you know, the / erm, keeping on top of the attendance target, and then when the children are dropping / and I f-/ always found that on the day that I was off, / then there’d be a- / erm, / an absence, that I was supposed to record, and then I came back the next day and didn’t record / correctly, so I always felt like I wasn’t doing a good job. R 163 Right. P 164 165 166 Because I wasn’t here / to monitor it, / as much as you know, fi- five days a week I would’ve ha- had a full overview. R 167 Yeah. P 168 6:06 169 170 171 172 So I always felt like I was chasing my tail with that. Erm, // so when this- yeah, when this came up, (headteacher) sort of said, “I don’t want to micro-manage you”, / and that was a little bit like, “Oh! Okay.” Sounding surprised on “Oh”. R 173 (Laughter) P 174 175 176 177 178 179 Erm. So, yeah, he didn’t put any restrictions. I just said to him, “I’ve got lots of ideas”, I went in to him with a massive / list of ideas, / and he said, “Oh, I think you’ve, erm / got / enough ideas to keep you going for a little while” (laughter). R 180 (Laughter) P 181 182 And, erm, / he kind of just let me get on with it. R 183 Okay. / Cool. (Interview continues, focusing on establishing the parents’ centre.) (BREAK – I explain that I would like to ask her more about her own story and how school was for her (having already raised this over email and got her initial consent). She agrees, so I start recording again.) R 184 185 So, erm, tell me, like, er, how – like what school did you go to? Like, from primary? Since this was somewhat opportunistic, I had not prepared questions. I knew I wanted to ask her about her own educational background, but I hadn’t thought out the wording, as is very obvious. 18 P 186 187 188 Primary school – I went to (name), local school in (borough), and secondary school I went to (name). R 189 Ok. And did you enjoy school? P 190 Loved school. R 191 Really? (Laughter) I really hadn’t expected her to say this (I think because she has such a cheeky-seeming personality which made me assume she would have been a rebel) – this is why I laughed. P 192 Didn’t miss a day. R 193 (Laughter) P 194 195 196 I was in a popular group; I was a little bit challenging, but also // I think I was very well liked by the teachers. R 197 198 199 200 201 And what was, like, your – like obviously I don’t know anything about like your / background, but like, / wha- what was your parents’ relationship with the school like? (couple of syllables inaudible) Hesitating because I have no idea what her home circumstances were. P 202 00:43 203 Okay, well my- my dad was a – my dad was an alcoholic, “Okay” is falling-rising intonation, suggesting she is preparing for a story. R 204 Ah P 205 206 207 and we s- suffered domes- my mum suffered domestic violence, for the whole time that I was a child, / erm / (clicks tongue) // yeah. Final “yeah” is somewhat drawn out. As she got to the end here her eyes filled with tears. I am surprised because I didn’t expect that at all – and a bit scared (see reflection notes). R 208 209 / You don’t have to say anything you don’t wanna[ / go into, it’s fine. P 210 211 212 [No no no, I think it’s really – it’s actually // a product of me. // Erm / (clicks tongue) Oh, I didn’t expect to get upset. “Product of me” in a breaking voice. R 213 Do you want me to stop it? (inaudible) Indicating the phone which is recording us. P 214 01:12 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 No, no no no, it’s fine. / So, / when I was a little kid, I lived with my Nan a lot of the time, with my mum, and my brother, and erm, yeah, there was a lot of police presence, you know, my – my dad would smash the house up, and the cars, and / so, // it’s no surprise that my mum is now a counsellor. In a light tone. Still sounds tearful. R 222 Mm P 223 224 And so, her journey / led her to that, and I kind of think // my role, the empathy, the // all 19 225 226 227 228 229 of the, you know, making people feel welcome, I think stems from / the way we were as a family we never a-aired our dirty laundry anywhere, like the school was completely unaware R 230 Wow P 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 of all of this, you know, we was police protected, / we got moved, to erm, a house, / where / yeah basically the police moved us when I was eleven, and my dad followed me home on the school bus, and then he smashed up the new house, so / we’ve had a lifetime of it but eventually my mum did / (breathes in) manage to get rid of him. / And, erm, so that has definitely h-had reoccurring like demons for me R 241 Mm P 242 02:22 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 you know? // Erm. Yeah so I kind of feel like, I’m a non-judgemental person cos I know, full well, h-how we were, as, you know, we was / we was almost, like, the / the family where / none of the children were allowed to go near, like, the house, so one day my- my dad smashed all the boards and we had like all erm emergency boarding up at the house, and the children were told not to go and play with us. So I can, I – yeah, I feel like I’m in a very good position, to know the difficulties people face. Erm / and I don’t think it’s any surprise how I’ve ended up here doing- doing something like erm – that’s rewarding, that can sometimes be me taking on people’s challenges, me going home thinking, “Oh! How can I help that person?” Because I just think that it’s the journey that I’ve had. But yes, my dad was never ever, erm [clicks tongue] a part of schooling. / No, he didn’t / ever come to the school once. But my mum did. But, like I say nobody ev- would ever have known what went on, “my dad smashed … house” is in a quiet voice, as if telling a secret. From “yeah” is louder. R 265 Mm P 266 03:34 267 268 not at one point did I miss school, I had great attendance, so it just shows what a warrior my mum really was. R 269 Yeah. Wow. P 270 Yeah, and still is. Yeah. R 271 272 And… so / what did you do, after you left school? P 273 03:47 274 275 276 277 278 So, when I // I left (name of school), and I went to the sixth form. But I moved out – I moved out, with my friend, (name), erm, unfortunately she died of leukaemia, and I’m so grateful now that we had the time that we had. We lived in a dirty old flat in (street 20 279 280 281 282 283 284 name), it was rough as anything, and she got this place based on she was 18, and I was only like 16, and I’d had an argument with my mum and said “That’s it, I’m moving in with (name)”, and I thought this was gonna be the best time of my life. R 285 (Laughter) P 286 287 288 I had a migraine every single night I was there, my mum used to have to come up and like try and help- Can hear her smiling. R 289 290 (Laughter, continuing through P’s next sentence) P 291 292 293 294 295 296 - beg me to come home, and I was like, “No! I’m living here now!” So I thought I was really really like clever. Ended up / erm / getting up late every day for school, and sixth form, and I never ever wanted to be late but / cos I didn’t have the support of me mum “No! … here now” is in a loud, posher voice. R 297 Yeah P 298 299 300 04:49 301 302 303 304 305 306 getting me out of bed and / - oh, it was really a b- bad time, but I- I finished my first year of A levels, and then decided that I was gonna go to college. / So on the day of enrolling, everyone was starting the / actual course, I said to my friend, “Oh, I think I’m gonna come to college (laughter) and do your course”. And she said, “But you haven’t enrolled”, and I thought, “Oh let’s just go and ask.” R 307 308 (Laughter, continuing through P’s next sentence) I’m laughing because I admire her for being such a chancer – nothing like me. P 309 310 So I went and asked, and I was very much like that - R 311 Yeah P 312 313 314 315 316 - a very like sort of laid back, fly by the seat of your pants kind of person. / Went to (name) College, and I did Business Administration NVQ Level 3. Oh I did well in my GCSEs – I got, erm, eight A to Cs - R 317 Ah! P 318 319 05:28 320 321 322 323 - erm, we only did nine – I got an E in History cos I mucked around with the boy that sat next to me the whole time. / Erm, but then yeah, so I did my course in NVQ, then I- my first job was a shorthand secretary at Burberry’s. R 324 (Laughter) Something about her tone makes me laugh in this section. P 325 326 327 So I worked for a sales manager. / Erm / and then I d- did like- bit of temping and stuff, and then / worked for a window company - R 328 (Laughter) 21 P 329 05:45 330 331 332 333 I had my first child at age 20. / Erm, went back to work when he was four months old. And I always worked. / I went on to have four children, and I’ve always worked. So / I’ve got very good work ethic. Very definite falling intonation both times on “always worked”. R 334 Mm. P 335 336 337 338 339 340 I like going to work, and I don’t / I don’t ever feel like I could ever not be at work. / Erm. / Yeah, so, my – throughout my whole / job, the / you know, the- the job that for me kind of felt like it brought me here was working at Carers of (borough name). R 341 Mm. P 342 06:17 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 I worked at // erm (name) school, (name of area) – I was erm / the office manager actually – I started off / I was interviewed- like there was 50 people went for the interview, did all these tests, and I got the job. And the headteacher said, “Oh, (Kate), you’re exactly what we’re looking for”. So I worked there for five years. And that led me on to Carers, because I worked in the special needs department at (name of school), / and decided that I wanted to do more with special needs, and helping support the families. Job came up in the (name of local newspaper), / went for it, stayed at Carers of (borough name), supported parents with, erm, tribunals, / erm, exclusions, overturned lots of exclusions within (borough name), yeah, based on loads of different reasons that / the school weren’t meeting the child’s needs, the parents’ needs, erm, were just trying to get rid of these kids. So we had a really really successful erm turn-out with that. Went to, erm, / City Hall, did some / work on exclusions – that was a really really positive time of my life, because / we were seen, in (borough), to have a really good result for / families who were disadvantaged, / with children with- / who were excluded, and they did a big project, erm, (name of project), and it was published, and it was for tuition centres / to use, as a tool, how to engage parents. So whilst we was doing / the exclusions, we was also engaging parents through different courses. // And that was really good. Erm, / and then that led me to here. Her tone is bright, talking about the project. Final-sounding intonation. R 377 Okay. P 378 Yeah. R 379 380 8:00 Cool. I won’t ask you any more. That’s brilliant. 22 ‘Re-transcribed’ section Researcher questions in bold. So, erm, tell me, like, er, how – like what school did you go to? Like, from primary? Primary school I went to (name) local school in (borough) and secondary school I went to (name). Ok. And did you enjoy school? Loved school. Really? Didn’t miss a day. I was in a popular group I was a little bit challenging but also I think I was very well liked by the teachers. And what was, like, your – like obviously I don’t know anything about like your / background, but like, / wha- what was your parents’ relationship with the school like? (couple of syllables inaudible) Okay well my- my dad was a my dad was an alcoholic Ah and we s- suffered domes- my mum suffered domestic violence for the whole time that I was a child erm (clicks tongue) yeah You don’t have to say anything you don’t wanna go into, it’s fine. No no no I think it’s really- it’s actually a product of me 23 Erm (clicks tongue) Oh I didn’t expect to get upset. Do you want me to stop it? (inaudible) No, no no no it’s fine. So when I was a little kid I lived with my nan a lot of the time with my mum and my brother and erm yeah there was a lot of police presence you know my- my dad would smash the house up and the cars and so it’s no surprise that my mum is now a counsellor. Mm. And so her journey led her to that and I kind of think my role the empathy, the all of the you know making people feel welcome I think stems from the way we were as a family we never a- aired our dirty laundry anywhere like the school was completely unaware 24 Wow of all of this you know we was police protected we got moved to erm a house where yeah basically the police moved us when I was eleven and my dad followed me home on the school bus and then he smashed up the new house so we’ve had a lifetime of it but eventually my mum did manage to get rid of him And, erm, so that has definitely h- had reoccurring like demons for me Mm you know? Erm. Yeah so I kind of feel like I’m a non-judgemental person cos I know full well h- how we were as you know we was we was almost like, the the family where none of the children were allowed to go near like the house so one day my- my dad smashed all the boards and we had like 25 all erm emergency boarding up at the house and the children were told not to go and play with us. So I can, I– yeah, I feel like I’m in a very good position to know the difficulties people face. Erm and I don’t think it’s any surprise how I’ve ended up here doing- doing something like erm– that’s rewarding that can sometimes be me taking on people’s challenges me going home thinking “Oh! How can I help that person?” Because I just think that it’s the journey that I’ve had. But yes my dad was never ever erm [clicks tongue] a part of schooling. No, he didn’t ever come to the school once. But my mum did. But, like I say nobody ev- would ever have known what went on Mm not at one point did I miss school I had great attendance so it just shows 26 what a warrior my mum really was. Yeah. Wow. Yeah and still is. Yeah. Extract from field notes, 27.02.2020 Kate and I sit in one of the bedrooms. The room has little furniture – a couple of plastic chairs (nicer than school chairs), which we sit on – but has a few regular-sized cushions against one wall, and a small shelving unit. There is a small rug on the carpeted floor, and a few soft toys on the window sills. I start talking about the background to the research, saying that I won’t start recording yet, but Kate quickly starts talking about it in an interesting way so I soon switch the recorder on. Before that point she says she was feeling quite nervous about the research because it feels somewhat as though they are under scrutiny, and this is hard for her because she is hard enough on herself as it is. She says that her mum tells her she has no need to feel like that, because ‘what’s it to you’ (words to that effect) what the research says? She has decided to conclude that if she was doing something wrong the headteacher would tell her. I agree with her and try to reassure her that it’s not about scrutiny – I’m just interested in how the centre develops. She says it can feel like a big thing because she has so much freedom to develop The Haven the way she wants to: “I’ve been left with this big house!” and “I’ve been left!” – implying she is daunted by the scale of it and the potential. I write down this quote and then start the interview. At the end, I thank her, check the recording has worked, and then ask her, since we have time, if for five minutes she wouldn’t mind telling me about herself a bit. I explain that this is a favour to me, for another assignment where we have to analyse someone talking and one way we can do this is to analyse someone talking about their life. She agrees readily. Once she starts her story she quickly becomes tearful – see transcript. I check she’s happy to go on and she is. (At this point I felt a mixture of strong feelings: shock that she was crying; concern (what have I done?!); elation – and then immediately guilt – that this was a ‘real’ thing, not just a nice neat little narrative and would give me something ‘meaty’ to write about; concern that Kate was ok and that I do the right thing ethically in terms of checking whether she wanted to go on.) After I switch the recorder off she says again that she hadn’t expected to get upset. She explains that having been through what she went through gives her empathy for the parents she works with, and also – because “I turned out ok” – knowledge that there is hope for people going through similar circumstances. This makes her eyes fill with tears again and I say, “Oh, you’ll start me off!” – which is very true, but I’m also aware I’m saying it partly to build rapport with her, which makes me feel guilty again. 27 Appendix 2: Signed ethics form (approved for MRes dissertation research) Doctoral Student Ethics Application Form Anyone conducting research under the auspices of the Institute of Education (staff, students or visitors) where the research involves human participants or the use of data collected from human participants, is required to gain ethical approval before starting. This includes preliminary and pilot studies. Please answer all relevant questions in simple terms that can be understood by a lay person and note that your form may be returned if incomplete. Registering your study with the UCL Data Protection Officer as part of the UCL Research Ethics Review Process If you are proposing to collect personal data i.e. data from which a living individual can be identified you must be registered with the UCL Data Protection Office before you submit your ethics application for review. To do this, email the complete ethics form to the UCL Data Protection Office. Once your registration number is received, add it to the form* and submit it to your supervisor for approval. If the Data Protection Office advises you to make changes to the way in which you propose to collect and store the data this should be reflected in your ethics application form. Please note that the completion of the UCL GDPR online training is mandatory for all PhD students. 28 Section 1 – Project details a. Project title Facilitating relationships between schools and parents: can an on-site parent centre help? b. Student name and ID number (e.g. ABC12345678) Deleted (anonymised student example) c. *UCL Data Protection Registration Number Z6364106/2019/11/44 Date Issued: 14/11/2019 d. Supervisor/Personal Tutor Deleted (anonymised) e. Department Education, Practice & Society f. Course category (Tick one) PhD ☒ EdD ☐ DEdPsy ☐ g. If applicable, state who the funder is and if funding has been confirmed. ESRC: UBEL-DTP. Funding confirmed – 1+3 route. This application is for the initial MRes year only. h. Intended research start date October 2019 i. Intended research end date July 2020 j. Country fieldwork will be conducted in England k. If research to be conducted abroad please check the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and submit a completed travel risk assessment form (see guidelines). If the FCO advice is against travel this will be required before ethical approval can be granted: http://ioenet.inst.ioe.ac.uk/about/profservices/international/Pages/default.aspx l. Has this project been considered by another (external) Research Ethics Committee? Yes ☐ External Committee Name: Date of Approval: No ☒ go to Section 2 If yes: - Submit a copy of the approval letter with this application. - Proceed to Section 10 Attachments. Note: Ensure that you check the guidelines carefully as research with some participants will require ethical approval from a different ethics committee such as the National Research Ethics Service (NRES) or Social Care Research Ethics Committee (SCREC). In addition, if your research is based in another institution then you may be required to apply to their research ethics committee. 29 Section 2 - Research methods summary (tick all that apply) ☒ Interviews ☐ Focus Groups ☐ Questionnaires ☐ Action Research ☒ Observation ☐ Literature Review ☐ Controlled trial/other intervention study ☐ Use of personal records ☐ Systematic review – if only method used go to Section 5 ☐ Secondary data analysis – if secondary analysis used go to Section 6 ☐ Advisory/consultation/collaborative groups ☐ Other, give details: Please note: This application is for the initial, MRes year of my studies; I will make a new application when I begin the MPhil/PhD proper. Purpose, aims and research questions The purpose of my PhD research is to add to knowledge about how to close the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, and contribute to making schools places where more children thrive. The research will explore whether and how a parents’ centre based on a school site might support the development of harmonious relationships between parents and carers (henceforth ‘parents’) and school staff; and whether, in the perceptions of parents and staff, the centre might be linked with positive outcomes for the children involved (such as enjoying school, having a positive disposition towards learning, and achieving academically or in other spheres). Research participants will not include the children themselves. The setting is a newly developing (‘soft’ launch in spring 2019) parents’ centre on the site of a large primary school in a relatively deprived London borough. The headteacher estimates that around 10% of parents currently join in parental engagement activities. He intends that the parents’ centre will change this, becoming a mini-‘community hub’: an Please provide an overview of the project, focusing on your methodology. This should include some or all of the following: purpose of the research, aims, main research questions, research design, participants, sampling, data collection (including justifications for methods chosen and description of topics/questions to be asked), reporting and dissemination. Please focus on your methodology; the theory, policy, or literary background of your work can be provided in an attached document (i.e. a full research proposal or case for support document). Minimum 150 words required. 30 informal setting where parents can meet each other and take part in learning opportunities, and where parents and staff can build relationships. Activities will range from advice on supporting children’s learning to support with parenting skills and help with cooking and form-filling; other services will also be invited in to link with families. Staffing will include teachers and family support workers. The PhD research will aim to: • Identify what parents and staff understand to constitute harmonious relationships between schools and parents, and the role that class, race/ethnicity and gender might play in shaping these understandings. • Explore the participants’ perceptions of the centre, and whether and how attending it has changed attitudes and/or helped develop relationships, such as through building understanding and trust. • Explore perceptions of the impact of the centre and the relationships built on children’s schooling experiences. • Explore whether the centre facilitates access to support that helps parents address wider stressors in their lives. • Understand whether and how commonalities and differences in parents’ perceptions of the centre and the relationships developed relate to race/ethnicity, social class and/or other social dimensions. It will address the following questions: • How, if at all, does the parents’ centre develop harmonious relationships between schools and parents? • What are the perceptions of staff and parents of the centre’s impact on children’s schooling experiences? • How might parental race/ethnicity, social class and/or gender play a role in shaping the relationships built with the school, and between parents, including between parents from different backgrounds? For the MRes dissertation I aim to address the following questions: • What are the aims behind the establishing of the centre? • What discourses underpin these aims on the part of the different actors involved, and how do these relate to each other? • How do these aims and discourses relate to the activities run at the centre so far? Methodological approach Because the centre is new and still developing, I do not want to lose the chance to collect data in its first few months of being open. For this reason I will begin some informal observations of sessions and activities taking place at the centre during my MRes year, taking field notes which can contribute to the PhD in future years, as well as, I hope, giving me some qualitative data that I can use to complete some of my MRes assignments. I will not conduct any interviews with parents during this initial year, although it is possible that I may have casual conversations with them, and I will make notes on these. I will explain (or ensure that a member of school staff explains) my presence to parents at these sessions, 31 saying that I am a researcher studying how schools engage with parents and that I am interested in the centre because it is a new initiative. For the MRes dissertation I will conduct semi-structured interviews with the headteacher, the centre manager, and up to two other key individuals they identify: either another senior member of staff and/or a representative of the local authority, which provided the funding for the centre. The interviews will include discussion of how the initial idea for the centre came about, how this was conveyed to staff and parents, and the ideas for what the centre could achieve, including whether it aims to address any specific ‘problems’. They will also consider the process of setting up the centre, how the funding was obtained and any obligations that come with it (eg a focus on special educational needs), how the centre is currently being used and what the research participants currently understand its purpose to be – for example, whether participants make a clear link with the aim of raising children’s attainment, and/or discuss hopes that parents will change in some way. If possible I will explore with the LA the context of the funding being awarded, and what the authority hopes to achieve by it. I plan to supplement this with a documentary analysis of the school’s grant application for the funding to refurbish the centre (the headteacher has indicated that this can be made available), which I expect to provide an indication of the LA’s broad aims in awarding the funding, as well as further insights into the school’s aims for the centre and, potentially, discourses around parent involvement. The interviews will be audio-recorded, with participants’ permission, and transcribed. The data will be coded and analysed using an approach informed by grounded theory, in order to begin theorising about how the stated aims behind the establishing of the centre, and the actual activities being undertaken, reflect particular discourses. For the PhD, I will review literature that discusses the schooling experiences of disadvantaged children, focusing on social determinants, parents’ relationships with schools (including the significance of wider issues in their lives). I will use this review, alongside the field notes already collected, to develop the focus for the primary qualitative research. This will be carried out through pilot interviews with individuals in the first year of PhD study, with the main data collection phase from the end of the first and into the second year of study, so building relationships with participants over time. I aim to complete semi- structured interviews with a sample of up to 20 parents including those who do and do not use the parents’ centre, and up to 10 teachers and other school staff (such as senior leaders and parent support advisers). The research will take into account parents’ own experiences of school, and what the school can do to help overcome negative experiences. Interviews will be recorded with the consent of participants and transcribed. Transcripts will be analysed using thematic analysis, drawing on a grounded theory approach, to identify themes and core concepts which will be related to the findings of the literature review. The school’s headteacher has agreed in principle to this approach, including my beginning observations in the MRes year. In this ethics review I am seeking approval only for the observations and up to four initial interviews with senior staff and local authority members, not the interviews with parents. I 32 will submit a follow-on ethics form for the main interview stage of research, including the research instruments to be used then. Section 3 – research Participants (tick all that apply) ☐ Early years/pre-school ☐ Ages 5-11 ☐ Ages 12-16 ☐ Young people aged 17-18 ☒ Adults please specify below ☐ Unknown – specify below ☐ No participants School staff, including teachers and others such as parent support advisers Parents of pupils at the school Local authority (funder) representative Potentially: staff from other organisations running services from the parents’ centre Section 4 - Security-sensitive material (only complete if applicable) Security sensitive research includes: commissioned by the military; commissioned under an EU security call; involves the acquisition of security clearances; concerns terrorist or extreme groups. a. Will your project consider or encounter security-sensitive material? Yes* ☐ No ☐ b. Will you be visiting websites associated with extreme or terrorist organisations? Yes* ☐ No ☐ c. Will you be storing or transmitting any materials that could be interpreted as promoting or endorsing terrorist acts? Yes* ☐ No ☐ * Give further details in Section 8 Ethical Issues Note: Ensure that you check the guidelines carefully as research with some participants will require ethical approval from a different ethics committee such as the National Research Ethics Service (NRES) or Social Care Research Ethics Committee (SCREC). 33 Section 5 – Systematic reviews of research (only complete if applicable) a. Will you be collecting any new data from participants? Yes* ☐ No ☐ b. Will you be analysing any secondary data? Yes* ☐ No ☐ * Give further details in Section 8 Ethical Issues If your methods do not involve engagement with participants (e.g. systematic review, literature review) and if you have answered No to both questions, please go to Section 8 Attachments. Section 6 - Secondary data analysis (only complete if applicable) a. Name of dataset/s b. Owner of dataset/s c. Are the data in the public domain? Yes ☐ No ☐ If no, do you have the owner’s permission/license? Yes ☐ No* ☐ d. Are the data special category personal data (i.e. personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation)? Yes* ☐ No ☐ e. Will you be conducting analysis within the remit it was originally collected for? Yes ☐ No* ☐ f. If no, was consent gained from participants for subsequent/future analysis? Yes ☐ No* ☐ g. If no, was data collected prior to ethics approval process? Yes ☐ No* ☐ * Give further details in Section 8 Ethical Issues If secondary analysis is only method used and no answers with asterisks are ticked, go to Section 9 Attachments. 34 Section 7 – Data Storage and Security Please ensure that you include all hard and electronic data when completing this section. a. Data subjects - Who will the data be collected from? Headteacher of the school; parents’ centre manager; potentially another senior member of staff; potentially a representative from the local authority (the funder). Field notes will be made from observations of sessions with parents and carers, along with school staff, at the parents’ centre. Additionally, there may be staff from outside organisations (eg community groups) involved in sessions. b. What data will be collected? Please provide details of the type of personal data to be collected Is the data anonymised? Yes ☐ No* √ Do you plan to anonymise the data? Yes* √ No ☐ Do you plan to use individual level data? Yes* √ No ☐ Do you plan to pseudonymise the data? Yes* √ No ☐ * Give further details in Section 8 Ethical Issues c. Disclosure – Who will the results of your project be disclosed to? During the MRes year, the raw data will be disclosed only to my supervisors, ---- and ---- . The data will be used, in anonymised/ pseudonymised form, in assignments (seen by module assessors) and the dissertation for the MRes (seen by assessors and made available in the UCL IOE library). I expect that the data will also feed into my MPhil/PhD. If used, this will again be in anonymised/pseudonymised form. Disclosure – Will personal data be disclosed as part of your project? No. While I expect to note participants’ ethnic/racial background (as I am interested in how their experiences differ by factors including race, class and gender) and/or information about their health (if they discuss this), I will not write about this in a way that allows individuals to be identified. When taking notes I will identify people by first name or initials only, and when writing up I will pseudonymise the data. I will also pseudonymise the name of the school, and not name the London borough in which it is located. Should I take any notes of personal data – for example, full names or phone numbers, with a view to re-contacting individuals who might take part in the 35 interviews I plan to undertake as part of the PhD, I will type these up in a separate password-protected file and destroy (shred) the handwritten note. d. Data storage – Please provide details on how and where the data will be stored i.e. UCL network, encrypted USB stick**, encrypted laptop** etc. Field notes will be handwritten and the notebooks kept in a locked filing cabinet in my home. I will type them up on my personal laptop (anti-virus and firewall- protected) and password-protect the files, and will move them off my laptop and on to the UCL network (which I can access from my laptop) as soon as possible thereafter. As above, I will store any notes of personal data separately from the field notes. Interviews will be recorded on my mobile phone; the files will be moved to the UCL network as soon as possible after the interview, and then deleted from my phone. Transcripts will be stored as password-protected files on the UCL network. ** Advanced Encryption Standard 256 bit encryption which has been made a security standard within the NHS e. Data Safe Haven (Identifiable Data Handling Solution) – Will the personal identifiable data collected and processed as part of this research be stored in the UCL Data Safe Haven (mainly used by SLMS divisions, institutes and departments)? Yes ☐ No √ f. How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format? The notebooks will be kept in the locked filing cabinet until completion of my PhD thesis (due September 2024). They will then be shredded. The files of notes, transcripts and audio recordings will be kept in password- protected form on the UCL network until completion of my PhD thesis, and then deleted. Will personal data be processed or be sent outside the European Economic Area? (If yes, please confirm that there are adequate levels of protections in compliance with GDPR and state what these arrangements are) No Will data be archived for use by other researchers? (If yes, please provide details.) No g. If personal data is used as part of your project, describe what measures you have in place to ensure that the data is only used for the research purpose e.g. pseudonymisation and short retention period of data’. 36 As above: any personal identifying data will be stored separately from the field notes. In writing up, all participants will be pseudonymised, as will the school name. * Give further details in Section 8 Ethical Issues Section 8 – Ethical Issues Please state clearly the ethical issues which may arise in the course of this research and how will they be addressed. All issues that may apply should be addressed. Some examples are given below, further information can be found in the guidelines. Minimum 150 words required. - Methods - Sampling - Recruitment - Gatekeepers - Informed consent - Potentially vulnerable participants - Safeguarding/child protection - Sensitive topics - International research - Risks to participants and/or researchers - Confidentiality/Anonymity – describe pseudonymisation and personal data etc. - Disclosures/limits to confidentiality - Data storage and security both during and after the research (including transfer, sharing, encryption, protection) - Reporting - Dissemination and use of findings - Gatekeepers / informed consent: The headteacher has given his consent to the initial interviews and the observations, but I will also seek consent from the individual(s) leading the sessions I wish to observe, taking their advice as to whether a session is likely to raise particularly sensitive issues and mean that my presence might not be appropriate. I will ensure that the session leader explains my presence in the room to the parents so that they do not assume that I am another parent. I will seek verbal consent from the parents present to my joining the session as an observer, and will encourage them to ask any questions they might have. I will also provide information sheets explaining who I am and the purpose of my research: that I am studying parents’ relationships with schools and am interested in the parents’ centre as it is a new initiative. I have discussed with the headteacher whether the 37 information sheets should be translated; his opinion is that they should not be, as there is such a range of languages spoken at the school, and the school’s usual approach is to help individuals to understand the information rather than to provide translations. Should a parent strongly object, I will work with the school and the parent to explore what the concerns are, aiming to find a way to make my presence acceptable but prioritising the right of the parent to benefit from the session. - Methods: It is my intention that by undertaking observations, I can begin to gain an understanding of how the centre works and is used in the least intrusive way possible. Nonetheless, there is the risk that some parents could feel uncomfortable with my presence without being willing to say so. I will endeavour to speak with both parents and session leaders to ascertain whether this is a problem and find a solution, recognising that relying on session leaders’ interpretations of how parents are feeling is also imperfect. The centre is a new venture for the school, which will potentially be building new and perhaps fragile relationships with parents. The research process itself, and especially the questioning of the overt and perhaps more implicit aims of the school in establishing the centre, has the potential to be disruptive – both of the school’s desired gentle and informal approach to working with parents, by the mere fact of a researcher’s presence on the school site, and of the enthusiasm on the part of school staff for their new initiative. It is possible that the centre manager, a former parent support adviser at the school who has been given the responsibility of shaping the centre, might feel pressure to present it in a certain light during the interview. Attention will therefore need to be paid to the research relationship: the research could result in findings that the school might not welcome, but at the same time I wish to preserve an ongoing relationship. I have so far positioned myself as being supportive and wanting to undertake research that is of some benefit to the school, and want to find a way to continue this while maintaining the ability to think critically. - Safeguarding/child protection: it is possible that a participant could disclose an issue relating to safeguarding or child protection at a session or in conversation. Should this happen in a session, I will check with the person running the session that they plan to report it to the school’s safeguarding lead. I will also make sure that I know who this is, should I have any concerns that I feel I should raise directly. Should I suspect that someone is about to make a disclosure in conversation, I will remind them that if I believe someone to be at risk of harm I will need to tell the appropriate person. I have applied for a DBS check and will not begin the observations until it is received. - Risks to participants: see above for the risk of parents feeling uncomfortable without their being willing to ‘make a fuss’. In view of the potentially new relationships that are being built between the school and parents, I will work with session leaders to ensure that I am only present where all participants are comfortable. 38 - Confidentiality/Anonymity: When introducing myself to participants, I will assure them that their identities will be kept anonymous in the assignments and thesis based on the research. As stated above, I will pseudonymise any participants I write about and will identify them in my notes only by first name or initials. I will keep any notes of full names or contact details separate from the rest of the field notes. Please confirm that the processing of the data is not likely to cause substantial damage or distress to an individual Yes √ Section 9 – Attachments. Please attach the following items to this form, or explain if not attached a. Information sheets, consent forms and other materials to be used to inform potential participants about the research (List attachments below) Yes √ No ☐ Information sheets for school and LA participants attached. Consent form for interviews (MRes) attached. Interview schedule (MRes) attached. b. Approval letter from external Research Ethics Committee Yes ☐ No √ c. The proposal (‘case for support’) for the project Yes √ No ☐ d. Full risk assessment Yes √ No ☐ Section 10 – Declaration I confirm that to the best of my knowledge the information in this form is correct and that this is a full description of the ethical issues that may arise in the course of this project. I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my supervisor. Yes √ No ☐ I have attended the appropriate ethics training provided by my course. Yes √ No ☐ I confirm that to the best of my knowledge: The above information is correct and that this is a full description of the ethics issues that may arise in the course of this project. Name Date 17 January 2020 39 Please submit your completed ethics forms to your supervisor for review. Notes and references Professional code of ethics You should read and understand relevant ethics guidelines, for example: British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct Or British Educational Research Association (2018) Ethical Guidelines Or British Sociological Association (2017) Statement of Ethical Practice Please see the respective websites for these or later versions; direct links to the latest versions are available on the Institute of Education Research Ethics website. Disclosure and Barring Service checks If you are planning to carry out research in regulated Education environments such as Schools, or if your research will bring you into contact with children and young people (under the age of 18), you will need to have a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) CHECK, before you start. The DBS was previously known as the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). If you do not already hold a current DBS check, and have not registered with the DBS update service, you will need to obtain one through at IOE. Ensure that you apply for the DBS check in plenty of time as will take around 4 weeks, though can take longer depending on the circumstances. Further references The www.ethicsguidebook.ac.uk website is very useful for assisting you to think through the ethical issues arising from your project. Robson, Colin (2011). Real world research: a resource for social scientists and practitioner researchers (3rd edition). Oxford: Blackwell. This text has a helpful section on ethical considerations. Alderson, P. and Morrow, V. (2011) The Ethics of Research with Children and Young People: A Practical Handbook. London: Sage. This text has useful suggestions if you are conducting research with children and young people. 40 Wiles, R. (2013) What are Qualitative Research Ethics? Bloomsbury. A useful and short text covering areas including informed consent, approaches to research ethics including examples of ethical dilemmas. Departmental use If a project raises particularly challenging ethics issues, or a more detailed review would be appropriate, the supervisor must refer the application to the Research Development Administrator via email so that it can be submitted to the IOE Research Ethics Committee for consideration. A departmental research ethics coordinator or representative can advise you, either to support your review process, or help decide whether an application should be referred to the REC. If unsure please refer to the guidelines explaining when to refer the ethics application to the IOE Research Ethics Committee, posted on the committee’s website. Student name Deleted- anonymised- for purposes of sharing assignment in anonymised form on moodle. Student department EPS Course MRes followed by doctoral study (ESRC studentship) Project title Facilitating relationships between schools and parents: can an on-site parent centre help? Reviewer 1 Supervisor/first reviewer name Deleted Do you foresee any ethical difficulties with this research? The ethical dimensions of this study have been carefully thought through and addressed. Supervisor/first reviewer signature Deleted- anonymised Date 04.02.2020 Reviewer 2 Second reviewer name Deleted- anonymised Do you foresee any ethical difficulties with this research? The ethical issues have been addressed Supervisor/second reviewer signature Deleted-anonymised Date 5th Feb 2020 Decision on behalf of reviews Decision Approved x Approved subject to the following additional measures Not approved for the reasons given below Referred to REC for review Points to be noted by other reviewers and in report to REC 41 Comments from reviewers for the applicant Once it is approved by both reviewers, students should submit their ethics application form to the Centre for Doctoral Education team: IOE.CDE@ucl.ac.uk.















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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