Signing up for the university of life

Putting yourself at the mercy of those you are trying to study may not sound an entirely sensible idea, but Ruth Emond, a teaching fellow from Stirling University's applied social science department, was left with little choice when her subjects invited her to come and live with them.

In order to explore how young people operate as a group, Ms Emond visited a selection of local authority-run residential units in the north of Scotland. Having completed pilot interviews, she asked her interviewees for constructive criticism, which resulted in her moving into one of the children's homes for a six-month period - at its residents' request.

"One of my main concerns was that the young people had too great a knowledge of my research and that they would act up for my benefit," Ms Emond said. "But they knew that I wanted to find out what it was like to live in the unit and invited me in."

Noting that the young people felt a degree of ownership because they had helped shape the research, Ms Emond said: "Because the young people were involved from the beginning, the research became more meaningful to them and increased the access and openness they afforded me." Suitable methods of data collection were decided by group discussions, improvements were suggested and final conclusions were challenged by the young people, who gained confidence in their new role as experts in the field. "The group consensus was that I was actually in need of their help. This was influenced by the fact that as a PhD student, I was seen as less of a threat."

The sharing of experiences as a researcher with those being researched served to improve the data generated, Ms Emond said. "We should actively encourage participants to enter the world of sociology, not in an accidental way. By providing them with the knowledge to understand and fully participate in the process, our own research process will be enhanced."