Ideal Dialogues | Dr. Lory Dance on the JEQR podcast

CAS Author

10/09/2019 Added

79 Plays

Description

Dr. Lory Dance on the podcast for the Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research talks about her article "Ideal Dialogues with Immigrants of Color in Sweden and the U.S.: A Participatory-Ethnographic Approach."

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.189](light calm music)
[00:00:03.580]Qualitative researchers understand
[00:00:05.810]that the communication between a researcher and participant,
[00:00:09.360]and the way this communication unfolds,
[00:00:12.170]is particularly important in the process of
[00:00:14.430]collecting meaningful data.
[00:00:16.800]Dr. Lory Jenelle Dance is an associate professor
[00:00:19.910]of sociology and ethnic studies
[00:00:22.070]at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln,
[00:00:24.630]who's considered this question of ideal dialogues
[00:00:28.150]between researcher and participant in depth.
[00:00:32.080]She, along with Dr. Lisa Johnson
[00:00:34.530]of California State University Chico,
[00:00:37.450]explored this question specifically
[00:00:39.460]as it related to their work with immigrants of color,
[00:00:42.720]both in the United States and in Sweden.
[00:00:45.640]Here's Dr. Dance describing what they found.
[00:00:48.790]I noticed that there was a hole...
[00:00:52.274]That there were conventional approaches to working
[00:00:57.075]with vulnerable populations.
[00:00:57.908]And some of those approaches worked really well,
[00:00:59.730]but there were things that just weren't working so well.
[00:01:02.840]So, as I became an assistant professor
[00:01:06.370]and you know, now an associate professor,
[00:01:08.790]I looked more at participatory ways of interacting.
[00:01:12.190]So I wanted to come up with--
[00:01:13.210]well you've got a research design.
[00:01:15.431]What happens if you take it to persons,
[00:01:19.480]who are from these backgrounds?
[00:01:20.970]From vulnerable community backgrounds.
[00:01:23.090]But put them in the feed as consultants
[00:01:25.650]and initially they're shy, but then,
[00:01:28.330]once they say you're serious about this,
[00:01:30.080]they start talking.
[00:01:32.080]Yeah.
[00:01:32.913]So it sounds like involving them as consultants
[00:01:34.920]was really important.
[00:01:36.270]Is there anything else that you are particularly
[00:01:38.960]surprised to find?
[00:01:40.870]I can speak on the behalf of my co-writer,
[00:01:43.480]cause you know she worked with--
[00:01:44.460]I worked with Middle Eastern immigrants in Sweden.
[00:01:46.702]Uh huh.
[00:01:47.535]And she worked with South Sudanese
[00:01:49.370]immigrants in the U.S.
[00:01:52.710]And so one of the things that jumps out
[00:01:57.150]in my conversations with her,
[00:02:00.270]is how much the persons in her group
[00:02:05.270]wanted her to be with them.
[00:02:09.180]Wanted her, not to just interview them or do focus groups,
[00:02:12.400]but wanted them to come to dinner.
[00:02:13.900]Uh huh.
[00:02:14.733]Wanted her to come to dinner with them.
[00:02:16.590]Wanted her to spend time just hanging out with the families.
[00:02:19.230]Wanting her, you know that became so important.
[00:02:24.010]That, even though she and they,
[00:02:26.370]they share kind of this notion of African diasporicness.
[00:02:30.240]They're both black in quotes,
[00:02:32.160]but very different in terms of national orientations.
[00:02:34.930]So that was surprising.
[00:02:36.520]The one thing that wasn't surprising so much,
[00:02:39.240]but that I think ended up being very important,
[00:02:42.540]was that when as--
[00:02:45.010]cause you know, with me, I don't speak Farsi,
[00:02:47.240]I don't speak Arabic, I don't speak Sorani.
[00:02:50.740]Sorani is a Kurdish language.
[00:02:52.130]I don't speak Turkish.
[00:02:53.423]Uh huh.
[00:02:54.256]And so I trained project assistants
[00:02:57.070]who spoke those languages, to work,
[00:02:59.320]to do the focus groups.
[00:03:01.130]And there was kind of a careful thinking about
[00:03:04.240]who you match to do the focus groups
[00:03:06.887]and I had done that very carefully.
[00:03:08.923]Uh huh.
[00:03:09.780]And as opposed to naively.
[00:03:11.920]And that also came up.
[00:03:13.730]That the project assistants were saying things
[00:03:16.110]like just because I speak Turkish
[00:03:18.720]and I'm interviewing Kurds from Turkey,
[00:03:21.030]Kurdish people from Turkey,
[00:03:22.680]doesn't mean that they'll like me.
[00:03:25.680]That they'll talk to me.
[00:03:26.628]Right.
[00:03:27.461]It was more important that I build
[00:03:28.720]a relationship with them,
[00:03:30.260]that they had access to my political views, you know?
[00:03:32.880]Cause they we concerned about--
[00:03:35.350]And so I already had recognized that,
[00:03:37.940]but I thought that that was a very important finding
[00:03:40.910]and sharing with my co-PI's.
[00:03:42.522]Uh huh.
[00:03:43.355]That you can't just think,
[00:03:44.360]oh that person is Iranian, that person is Iranian,
[00:03:48.620]they'll talk to each other.
[00:03:50.080]So, I'm proud to say that I didn't think that way
[00:03:51.910]but- Right.
[00:03:52.743]To have that come up, again,
[00:03:54.140]repeatedly, was a good thing.
[00:03:56.980]Because then I could say look it's not just me,
[00:03:58.860]I did these focus groups and this came up as a finding.
[00:04:02.729]Right.
[00:04:03.680]That when you're trying to be careful,
[00:04:05.160]you gotta go beyond national orientations as a match for--
[00:04:10.660]and language. Right.
[00:04:11.790]As a match for getting people
[00:04:13.620]to speak to each other.
[00:04:15.110]Yeah.
[00:04:15.943]And that reminds me of something else
[00:04:17.600]I wanted to ask you about.
[00:04:18.710]So you mentioned that at first participants are often shy
[00:04:22.820]and I was gonna ask you about suggestions you'd have
[00:04:28.580]sort of for overcoming that.
[00:04:29.940]And it sounds like one of the things you probably suggest
[00:04:32.538]is kind of sharing part of your background
[00:04:35.250]or part of yourself as the researcher.
[00:04:37.660]Yeah, they just give it--
[00:04:38.520]I think that's what the South Sudanese participants
[00:04:43.590]were saying to my co-author.
[00:04:45.410]You know? Uh huh.
[00:04:46.570]That look, we wanna talk to you.
[00:04:48.370]We wanna get you in a space where we feel comfortable.
[00:04:51.670]Right.
[00:04:52.503]We want to have, you know
[00:04:53.336]and I think that then that would differ
[00:04:55.540]from place to place,
[00:04:56.490]but it's just giving people the access--
[00:04:58.290]you're gonna ask them these questions.
[00:05:00.780]Then giving them the opportunity
[00:05:03.073]and access to ask you questions.
[00:05:05.130]Right.
[00:05:05.963]And that's also a lot of listening.
[00:05:07.040]Like when you are doing something, listening.
[00:05:10.390]Both of what's being said and what's not being said.
[00:05:13.750]You know?
[00:05:14.583]Listening for the...
[00:05:18.270]You say something and people just stopped
[00:05:21.970]and there was this kind of blank stare, you know?
[00:05:25.140]So I think listening becomes very important too.
[00:05:27.734]Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:29.010]And one of the thing I wanna make sure I ask you here,
[00:05:31.130]as we wrap up, is do you have any suggestions
[00:05:35.520]or kind of hopes for where future researchers
[00:05:39.480]who are interested in this topic can focus their efforts?
[00:05:44.710]Yeah, we'll actually, we're--
[00:05:46.490]I'm working with some colleagues here in
[00:05:48.290]the University of Nebraska system.
[00:05:51.190]And we're going to be--
[00:05:53.230]they're looking also at populations that
[00:05:55.910]would fit under the category of vulnerable
[00:05:57.990]due to citizenship status, or economic status
[00:06:03.580]and that sort of thing.
[00:06:04.530]And so its the continuation of asking questions
[00:06:10.520]about...
[00:06:12.124]I think that our findings speak specifically
[00:06:15.900]to the groups we worked with
[00:06:17.140]and may be applicable to other groups.
[00:06:19.484][Interviewer] Uh huh.
[00:06:20.317]But it's kind of raising that question.
[00:06:21.720]Where are--
[00:06:23.800]What are other formats that are, you know,
[00:06:26.210]approaching some sort of ideal situation?
[00:06:28.930]Which I see as a journey instead of a destination.
[00:06:32.058](calm music)
[00:06:35.727]As the general of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research,
[00:06:39.060]I am professor Lory Janelle Dance
[00:06:42.733]at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Ideal Dialogues | Dr. Lory Dance on the JEQR podcast

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments