Can we do research without writing it down

Can we do research without writing it down?

Paper presented at SCUTREA, 32nd Annual Conference, 2-4 July 2002, University of Stirling

Julia Clarke, Sandra Shears & Emma Yates:

Open University and Sure Start, South East Ipswich

Introduction

This paper is about research and writing, or rather, it is about trying to do research without writing. There is a paradox in writing about not writing, and the production of this text suggests a negative answer to the question in our title. But this does not negate the value of the question, any more than falling short of our aspirations for innovative research negates the value of trying to think and act beyond the realistic constraints of time, resources, expectations, distractions and technological expertise. The most immediate time constraint is the deadline for submitting this paper – time has run out for collaborative authorship. So I, Julia, take on the presumptuous role of representing a project which depends a great deal on contributions from Sandra, Director of the Sure Start programme in South East Ipswich and from Emma, part-time researcher for the local evaluation project that is the focus of this paper. My impressions of this particular Sure Start programme are drawn from one staff meeting that I attended recently and from verbal accounts and documents provided by Sandra. Written records of conversations with parents, staff and volunteers involved in the programme are provided by Emma, through her field notes. Emma is also engaged in the generation of visual data, of which only one example is included here, for reasons that will be discussed below.

The paper begins with an account of our collective interests in an action research project that seeks to engage adults, who live in an area targeted for a multi-agency approach to social inclusion, in local evaluation of service provision. I go on to explain my particular interest in getting around literacy, and relate this to a general discussion of the ‘visual turn’ in educational research. In our attempts to privilege non-literate forms of data collection and representation, we have been exploring the opportunities and constraints afforded by different media for participants to represent their own interests in their evaluation of the Sure Start programme. At the time of writing, we are still collecting data, and both the conceptual framework and proposed strategies are subject to continuing modification. Since it is too early to present a summary of findings, or a coherent analysis, aspects of the research are represented below in a parallel text. The purpose of this layout is to invite a non-linear reading that retains the complexity of the diverse goals and interests at play in the early stages of a small project.

The tyranny of literacy

In addition to a shared interest in social arrangements for the care of young children, our research team combines academic interests in language, literacy, knowledge and power, with practical experience in community education, performing arts and media production. As local Sure Start manager, Sandra is interested in both finding out what works in relation to Sure Start’s goals and targets as well as finding out how particular strategies and approaches achieve particular results. Prior experience in theatre and media education predispose her towards imaginative and ephemeral forms of representation, but she is also accountable to those whose expectations include more conventional outcomes from social science research. Emma has come to the project with a degree in time-based media and several years of work experience in media research and film production. She is interested in the possibilities for using these skills for social research and has quickly established an easy rapport with Sure Start participants. Emma’s current situation, as a mother of a young child, living on a low income, is not unlike that of many of the parents who she is talking to about the evaluation of Sure Start in South East Ipswich.

My own interest in exploring alternatives to literacy arises from a growing conviction, after working for over twenty years in adult literacy and basic education, that, for many people, literacy will always represent tyranny and oppression rather than power and emancipation. For many people who have failed to acquire functional literacy after ten years of compulsory schooling, the failure is only compounded when they come back for more of the same thing. In England and Wales, a new adult literacy curriculum is served up to those who are not lucky enough to find work in areas where they can develop other cognitive and practical skills, and perhaps discover hidden talents (West, 1991). This curriculum concentrates on remedying deficiencies and limits aspirations to the achievement of certificates in ‘basic skills’, which simply confirm the holders’ low status in the hierarchical order of what it means to be ‘educated’. In attempting participatory research in an area where we cannot presume competence in literacy or success in formal education, we want to pose questions about the meanings and purposes of literacy. For literacy is ‘a continually contested and unfinished concept, an empty canvas where anxieties and aspirations from the popular imagination and public morality are drawn’ (Green et al, 1994). The title of this paper is therefore not simply a rhetorical question. Nor is it a question to which we expect an unequivocal answer. It is a question guiding our approach to evaluation at every stage of the project. When we ask why things need to be written down, we are posing questions about who writes what, and for whom?

This challenge to the pre-eminence of language and literacy has been taken up by Gunther Kress (2000), who argues that our understanding of the material and social world is constricted by current theories of meaning. As a product of the high value placed on written language in the public domain, the assumed dominance of language ‘…constitutes a major impediment to an understanding of the semiotic potentials of, among other modes, the visual and its role in cognition, representation and communication’ (Kress, 2000, p. 159). Kress therefore calls for new theories of meaning based on a concept of Design, in which individuals become the transformers of diverse representational resources instead of being regarded as merely the users of stable systems. In drawing upon a wider range of resources, and using these to pursue our particular interests, we engage in the transformation of these resources, the effects they produce and of ourselves as active ‘designers’. It is thus possible that providing access to diverse opportunities for communication and self-expression may foster cognitive skills and creative talents that have been suppressed in a culture dominated by the word. My approach to this local evaluation project is underpinned by an interest in exploring this possibility.

Is a picture worth a thousand words?

We have had the ‘linguistic turn’ and the ‘cultural turn’ in social sciences, and now we find references to the spatial, the visual and the pictorial turn in the literature of the arts, humanities, social and cultural studies. In the nomadic tradition of educational research, we are accustomed to wandering across disciplinary boundaries, picking up phrases and concepts, observing ritual practices, dipping into sacred texts, combining different methods and experimenting with new tools for analysis. This can provide us with a rich collection of resources for research. But Doreen Massey (1999:8) warns us that the freedom of our multi-disciplinary roaming is accompanied by certain dangers. Just as the gullible tourist can be conned by mass-produced artefacts sold as local craft work, we need to be on our guard against an uncritical acceptance of those disciplinary products which we least understand.

Another cautionary note is sounded by Gustavo Fischman (2001:32), who warns against reducing visual research methods to the flaunting of ‘…eye-catching illustrations whose only objective is to help in the marketing of a research project’. While the old saying claims that ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’,

… it should be noted that if a picture is worth a thousand words, in order to understand it, reflect on it, or explain it, we might need to use a thousand and one words. And even then there is nothing transparent or inherently truthful in the world of images (Fischman, 2001: 31)

Sandra Weber (2002:2) asks, ‘When is an image worth a thousand words?’ (my emphasis). This raises further questions about the material resources available for the production and reproduction of visual images as well as questions about the interests and cultural resources that constrain our vision and the interpretations available to our audience. Gillian Rose (2001) relates these questions to three modalities: the technological, the compositional and the social. The outcomes for our project will represent pragmatic decisions and negotiations at the intersections between these three modalities. A technological question for the composition of this paper is related to the fact that, in terms of computer memory, a picture has to be worth three thousand words. With computer technology, the decision to include graphic images limits the transportability of the document and constrains its reproduction. This in turn raises social questions involving the editors of these conference proceedings about the relative merits of the words and pictures. Until we have assembled the images that, in our opinion, merit the time, the space, the kilobytes, projection facilities or display boards needed for their dissemination, we have confined ourselves mainly to the written word. The words that follow should therefore be read as a series of notes and observations to be threaded together with research findings that are yet to be generated, translated and represented in other ways.

Sure Start South East Ipswich: the context for local evaluation

Sure Start’s ‘Map of Poverty’

Since 1999, the government has been spending over £200m a year on Sure Start programmes in 500 UK areas, selected on the basis of a 1988 Index of Local Deprivation. This includes comparative statistical records of household income, (un)employment, educational achievement, average birth weights, domestic accidents, teenage pregnancy and crime. The aim is to bring together the resources of health service, social services, education, and the voluntary sector in order to ‘break the cycle of disadvantage for the current generation of young children’.

The scientific gaze?

In 1889 Charles Booth published a ‘map of poverty’ based on a household income survey in the East End of London. Gillian Rose describes the powerful visual effect of Booth’s map, which ‘seemed to lay the East End bare to a scientific gaze that penetrated what others described as its darkest recesses’ (Rose, 2001:154).

‘How many maps, in the descriptive or geographical sense, might be needed to deal exhaustively with a given space, to code and decode all its meanings and contents?’ (Lefebvre, 1991: 85-86)

Sure Start South East Ipswich

In South East Ipswich, Sure Start is managed within the Area Health Authority. Sandra manages the Sure Start budget to fund projects which enable agencies and service users to work together for the benefit of children and families in the area. Over 35 separate projects have been set up in the area under the Sure Start umbrella, with staff and volunteers employed through health, social services, education, community development and other statutory services and voluntary agencies.

Projects and Places

The Sure Start Shop on Clapgate Lane is a small place with two rooms, a kitchen and an outside area. The front room has children’s clothes, toys, and safety equipment (fireguards, stair gates, smoke alarms) available for a small donation… People seem to hang out and chat in the shop, it may be a good place to record some conversations…’ (Emma’s notes, 21.2.02)

HOW CAN THIS BE REPRESENTED FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES?

Involving service users in evaluation

Sure Start targets focus on child health, safety and learning, and on building the community’s capacity to ‘create pathways out of poverty’. National evaluation programmes, combined with local monitoring procedures, are generating quantitative data for evaluation against Sure Start’s measurable targets (http://www.ness.bbk.ac.uk/). The value of more descriptive studies of impact from the perspective of service users is recognised in the provision of separate budgets for local qualitative evaluation. A commitment to parent participation in both project development and evaluation is linked to strategies for ‘strengthening families and communities’.

Representing service users?

The expectations, even for qualitative evaluation, are that we must have something to show for it. But the coherent report or presentation, with tidy conclusions, can only be achieved through a process of translation. Can this be achieved without suppressing diversity, ambivalence and contradictions?

‘To translate is to displace… But to translate is also to express in one’s own language what others say and want, why they act in the way they do and how they associate with each other: it is to establish oneself as a spokesman. At the end of the process, if it is successful, only voices speaking in unison will be heard’ (Callon, 1986: 223).

Building social capital

Sure Start’s rationale for targeting a geographical area is based on a desire to avoid stigmatising individual families, invoking the positive mission of building social capital in a whole community rather than providing remedies for individual deficiencies.

Mapping a community?

What are the effects on those who are included within, or excluded from this bounded territory? What can we learn from maps generated from different interests and experiences that cut across these boundaries?

Drawing to think

The research team is geographically dispersed and each of us has limited time to spend on the project. We therefore welcomed the opportunity to spend a day together at a workshop organised by the Centre for Social and Organisational Learning as Action Research (SOLAR) http://www.northampton.ac.uk/solar/solar.htm. After learning some techniques for writing and drawing on a large scale with chalk and coloured pens, we embarked on a ‘group graphics’ exercise. This enabled us to ‘draw out’ our respective interests in the project, the questions we needed to both ask and elicit from local service users and ways to explore these questions. This is the kind of conceptual mapping which, as Rolland Paulston argues, enables us to ‘see something different’ in what we already know (Paulston, 2000:310). The resulting Research Plan, illustrated below in a poor reproduction, (Figure 1) provides us with a document that retains the complexity of our thinking at this early stage.

We began to think about ways to represent the process to various stakeholders, taking account of technological constraints and opportunities. I wonder whether starting out with an interest in the end product is a feature of visual approaches to research, or is it no different from the unspoken assumptions that underpin any choice of research methodology? The ethnographer collects ingredients for a ‘thick description’. The experimental psychologist must have a persuasive argument in mind when arranging to account for variables and bias. The oral historian knows what makes a good story, and the quantitative researcher will set out with ideas about the representation of ‘significance’ in statistical graphs and tables. When we talked about producing a film, a digital video, a Compact Disk, a live performance, a photographic display, a quilt, a collection of maps and written documents, the technological questions were intricately bound up with questions about access, control and participation.

Field Work

We agreed that Emma would begin to work with parents attending a monthly Community Lunch, and with members of the Bengali women’s sewing group. Sandra felt these represented innovative and successful projects, which would be of interest to other stakeholders. Among the large numbers of parents involved in the Community Lunches, it would be easy to find people who would like to be involved in the evaluation. But if we wanted to ask questions about inclusion and exclusion, Emma would need to talk to people in other places as well.

Can we do research without writing it down?

The following extracts from Emma’s field notes are selected and arranged to invite particular readings. These written accounts of Emma’s experiences have already passed through several stages of selection, interpretation and representation. How does writing construct our knowledge about these people and events? This raises questions about what counts as knowledge; about memory, learning and communication; and about the relative power and durability of different forms of representation.

Community Lunches

‘The Community Lunches are organised and run entirely by parents… they’re given a budget each week and they do all the cooking and clearing up as a team… When I arrived… there were about two hundred people eating and talking and a play area with toys for children… …the theme this week was Teenage Mums, but there were no teen mums present’ (Emma’s notes, 14.2.02)

Whose community?

‘… inclusion/exclusion isn’t just going to be the debate around the agencies and the families, it’s going to be about the communities that feel included and excluded’ (Emma’s notes of a conversation with Sandra, 28.3.02)

‘I went to the young mums club… in the library… the teenage mums said they often felt judged for being young in larger groups and felt they could relax more with their peers’ (Emma’s notes, 28.2.02)

We hoped the women in the sewing group might be interested in making a quilt to represent some aspect of their lives. A first step would be to engage them in more immediate forms of representation, using a polaroid and disposable cameras.

The sewing group

‘The women were learning how to make Shalwar Kameez (trouser suits). They told me, through Sulama, that there was only one shop in Ipswich that makes them and it’s very expensive… Sure Start is planning a trip in the summer with the mums and children. They will go to London Zoo in the morning and shop for material in the afternoon’

Taking ‘natural’ pictures

‘Using the polaroid was very successful. At first they all stopped doing any sewing and stood posing with arms round each other. Everybody liked using the camera. After a while people picked up the camera every so often and photos were much more natural’ (Emma’s notes, 7.2.02)

Conclusion?

There is a growing literature on the incorporation of visual culture and imagery into educational research (Prosser, 1998) and in this climate, there is a temptation to introduce images as fashionable accessories without reflecting on the process of production and representation. In these few notes, comments, questions and observations, we touch upon just a few of the problems and methods of data collection, interpretation and translation. Given our limited resources, we know our project is over-ambitious. In flouting the advice of methodology textbooks to be realistic, however, we hope that an unfinished product will suggest directions and dimensions in which it would be worth investing more resources in future. In asking whether we can do research without writing it down, we are constantly having to ask who can produce what kinds of image, how images create meaning, and what social, cultural, or political knowledge is needed for people to make sense of these images? These are new questions for educational research, even if we fall back on our allocated 3000 words to explore them.

References

Callon M (1986), ‘Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay’ in Law J (ed) Power, action, belief: a new sociology of knowledge, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Green B, Hodgens J and Luke A (1994), ‘Debating Literacy in Australia: a documentary history, 1945-1994’, Australian Literacy Federation http://www.alf.edu.au/deb-lit accessed 18/9/00.

Fischman G (2001), ‘Reflections about Images, Visual Culture and Educational Research’, Educational Researcher Online, 30, 8 pp.28-33.

Kress G (2000), ‘The futures of literacy’, RaPAL Bulletin, No.42, Lancaster, RaPAL.

Lefebvre H (1991), The production of space, Oxford, Blackwell.

Paulston R (ed) (1996), Social cartography. Mapping ways of seeing social and educational change, New York, Garland Publishing.

Massey D (1999), 'Negotiating disciplinary boundaries', Current Sociology, 47, 4, pp.5-12.

Prosser J (ed) (1998), Image-based research, London, Falmer Press.

Rose, G (2001), Visual methodologies: an introduction to the interpretation of visual materials, London, Sage.

Weber S (2002), Using images in qualitative research, IIRC Image-based research on http://www.iirc.mcgill.ca/about.html accessed 21/01/2002.

West T (1991), In the mind’s eye: visual thinkers, gifted people with learning difficulties, computer images and the ironies of creativity, New York, Prometheus.

Figure 1. This is a scanned photograph of our Research Plan. The original, in full colour and measuring approximately 1m x 2m was produced through a dynamic ‘group graphics’ process. Two people talked about our interests in the research, while the 3rd person drew what she was hearing. Each of us took a turn at drawing.

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Appearing in Public

We wanted to include pictures on our local evaluation web page, so Emma asked the women in the sewing group for permission to use their photographs. In most of the pictures which Emma had described as ‘natural’, the women were not wearing headscarves, and they could not allow us to display these images in public. So instead of the lively images of women interacting in a group, the sewing group is represented by one of the few pictures in which a woman’s head is covered.

� 1000 words takes up around 30 kilobytes of computer memory, while a single photograph of the kind included below takes up almost 80 kilobytes.

� Emma is employed on this project for 2 days per week over six months while Julia and Sandra contribute little more than half a day per week to the research.

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