Exploring Multiple Religious Identities through Mixed Qualitative Methods
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v7i1.29Keywords:
identity, mixed methods, qualitative methods, religion, youthAbstract
This article offers a reflexive account of the process of researching religious identity with young people, and considers how combining methods may enable young people to explore their own identities in different ways. Drawing upon three participant case studies it explores the public–private spectrum produced as part of discussion groups, semi-structured interviews and an innovative online e-Journal research activity. As participants moved through each stage of the research process, the way in which they represented their religious identities shifted as they encountered differing social environments, became more practised at telling their own lives, or had evolved their own perspectives over time. Employing mixed methods contributes a more nuanced understanding of the role of religion in young people’s lives yet also raises important ethical implications surrounding participant confidentiality in research.
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References
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Monahan, T., and J. A. Fisher. 2010. “Benefits of ‘Observer Effects’: Lessons from the Field,” Qualitative Research, 10.3, 357–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794110362874
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Nesbitt, E., and E. Arweck. 2010. “Issues Arising from an Ethnographic Investigation of the Religious Identity Formation of Young People in Mixed-Faith Families,” Fieldwork in Religion, 5.1, 8–31.
Olson, E. 2009. “‘What Kind of Catholic Are You?’ Reflexivity, Religion and Activism in the Peruvian Andes,” Fieldwork in Religion, 3.2, 103–21.
O’Sullivan, C. 2005. “Diaries, On-line Diaries, and the Future Loss to Archives; or, Blogs and the Blogging Bloggers who Blog them,” American Archivist, 68, 53–73.
Panelli, R. 2002. “Young Rural Lives: Strategies beyond Diversity,” Journal of Rural Studies, 18.2, 113–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0743-0167(01)00047-X
Schutz, A., and T. Luckmann. 1974. The Structures of the Life-World. London: Heinemann.
Schweber, S. 2007. “Donning Wigs, Divining Feelings, and Other Dilemmas of Doing Research in Devoutly Religious Contexts,” Qualitative Inquiry, 13.1, 58–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 1077800406295483
Somers, M. R. 1994. “The Narrative Constitution of Identity: A Relational and Network Approach,” Theory and Society, 23.5, 605–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00992905
Valentine, G. 2000. “Exploring Children and Young People’s Narratives of Identity,” Geoforum, 31.2, 257–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7185(99)00047-0
Warren, J. T., and D. L. Fassett. 2002. “(Re)constituting Ethnographic Identities,” Qualitative Inquiry, 8, 575–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107780002237005
Worth, N. 2009. “Making Use of Audio Diaries in Research with Young People: Examining Narrative, Participation and Audience,” Sociological Research Online, 14.49, http://www.socresonline.org.uk/14/4/9.html.
Aarsand, P. A., and L. Forsberg. 2010. “Producing Children’s Corporeal Privacy: Ethnographic Video Recording as Material-Discursive Practice,” Qualitative Research, 10.2, 249–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794109356744
Bagnoli, A., and A. Clark. 2010. “Focus Groups with Young People: A Participatory Approach to Research Planning,” Journal of Youth Studies, 13.1, 101–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 13676260903173504
Bauman, Z. 2005. “Identity for Identity’s Sake is a Bit Dodgy,” Soundings, 29.1, 12–20.
Burgess, J., M. Limb and C. M. Harrison. 1988. “Exploring Environmental Values through the Medium of Small Groups. Part One: Theory and Practice,” Environment and Planning A, 20, 309–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a200309
Chaney, D. 1996. Lifestyles. London: Routledge.
Coles, R. 1990. The Spiritual Life of Children. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Day, A. 2009. “Researching Belief without Asking Religious Questions,” Fieldwork in Religion, 4.1, 86–104.
Denscombe, M., and L. Aubrook. 1992. “The Ethics of Questionnaire Research on Pupils in Schools: ‘It’s Just Another Piece of Schoolwork,’” British Educational Research Journal, 18.2, 113–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141192920180202
Erricker, C., J. Erricker, C. Ota, D. Sullivan and M. Fletcher. 1997. The Education of the Whole Child. London: Cassell.
Gal, S. 2002. “A Semiotics of the Public/Private Distinction,” Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 13.1, 77–94.
Hall, S., and P. Du Gay. 1996. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage.
Hodkinson, P., and S. Lincoln. 2008. “Online Journals as Virtual Bedrooms: Young People, Identity and Personal Space,” Young, 16.1, 27–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 110330880701600103
Holt, L. 2004. “The ‘Voices’ of Children: De-centering Empowering Research Relations,” Children’s Geographies, 2.1, 13–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1473328032000168732
Hookaway, N. 2008. “‘Entering the Blogosphere’: Some Strategies for Using Blogs in Social Research,” Qualitative Research, 8.1, 91–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 1468794107085298
Hopkins, P. E. 2009. “Women, Men, Positionalities and Emotion: Doing Feminist Geographies of Religion,” ACME: AN International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 8.1, 1–17.
Jackson, A. Y. 2004. “Performativity Identified,” Qualitative Inquiry, 10.5, 673–90. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800403257673
Jenkins, S. 2010. “New Technologies, New Territories: Using the Internet to Connect with Sex Workers and Sex Industry Organisers,” in K. Hardy, S. Kingston and T. Sanders, eds. New Sociologies of Sex Work. Farnham: Ashgate, 91–108.
Kaun, A. 2010. “Open-ended Online Diaries: Capturing Life as it is Narrated,” International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 9.2, 133–48.
Kincheloe, J. L., and P. McLaren. 2005. “Rethinking Critical Theory and Qualitative Research,” in N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln, eds. Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage, 303–42.
King, K. 2013. “Choosing their own Paths: Mobile Methodologies for Understanding Youth Lifestyles. In T. Duncan, S. Cohen and M. Thulemark, eds. Lifestyle Mobilities: Intersections of Travel, Leisure and Migration. London: Ashgate.
Kitzinger, J. 1994. “The Methodology of Focus Groups: The Importance of Interaction between Research Participants,” Sociology of Health & Illness, 16.1, 103–21. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11347023
Kvale, S. 1996. Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Leyshon, M., and J. Bull. 2011. “The Bricolage of the Here: Young People’s Narratives of Identity in the Countryside,” Social and Cultural Geography, 12.2, 159–80. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2011.545141
Marshall, C., and G. Rossman. 2011. Designing Qualitative Research. London: Sage.
Martinson, D. 2003. In the Presence of Audience: The Self in Diaries and Fiction. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.
Mason, J. 2006. “Mixing Methods in a Qualitatively Driven Way,” Qualitative Research, 6.1, 9–25.
McGinnis, T., A. Goodstein-Stolzenberg and E. C. Saliani. 2007. “‘indnpride’: Online Spaces of Transnational Youth as Sites of Creative and Sophisticated Literacy and Identity Work,” Linguistics and Education, 18, 283–304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2007.07.006
McKay, S., C. Thurlow and H. T. Zimmerman. 2005. “Wired Whizzes or Techno-Slaves? Young People and their Emergent Communication Technologies,” in A. Williams and C. Thurlow, eds. Talking Adolescence: Perspectives on Communication in the Teenage Years. New York: Peter Lang, 185–203.
Moinian, F. 2006. “The Construction of Identity on the Internet: Oops I’ve Left my Diary Open to the Whole World!” Childhood, 13.1, 49–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0907568206058610
Monahan, T., and J. A. Fisher. 2010. “Benefits of ‘Observer Effects’: Lessons from the Field,” Qualitative Research, 10.3, 357–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794110362874
Nesbitt, E. 1998. “British, Asian and Hindu: Identity, Self-Narration and the Ethnographic Interview,” Journal of Beliefs and Values, 19.2, 189–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 1361767980190203
Nesbitt, E., and E. Arweck. 2010. “Issues Arising from an Ethnographic Investigation of the Religious Identity Formation of Young People in Mixed-Faith Families,” Fieldwork in Religion, 5.1, 8–31.
Olson, E. 2009. “‘What Kind of Catholic Are You?’ Reflexivity, Religion and Activism in the Peruvian Andes,” Fieldwork in Religion, 3.2, 103–21.
O’Sullivan, C. 2005. “Diaries, On-line Diaries, and the Future Loss to Archives; or, Blogs and the Blogging Bloggers who Blog them,” American Archivist, 68, 53–73.
Panelli, R. 2002. “Young Rural Lives: Strategies beyond Diversity,” Journal of Rural Studies, 18.2, 113–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0743-0167(01)00047-X
Schutz, A., and T. Luckmann. 1974. The Structures of the Life-World. London: Heinemann.
Schweber, S. 2007. “Donning Wigs, Divining Feelings, and Other Dilemmas of Doing Research in Devoutly Religious Contexts,” Qualitative Inquiry, 13.1, 58–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 1077800406295483
Somers, M. R. 1994. “The Narrative Constitution of Identity: A Relational and Network Approach,” Theory and Society, 23.5, 605–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00992905
Valentine, G. 2000. “Exploring Children and Young People’s Narratives of Identity,” Geoforum, 31.2, 257–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7185(99)00047-0
Warren, J. T., and D. L. Fassett. 2002. “(Re)constituting Ethnographic Identities,” Qualitative Inquiry, 8, 575–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107780002237005
Worth, N. 2009. “Making Use of Audio Diaries in Research with Young People: Examining Narrative, Participation and Audience,” Sociological Research Online, 14.49, http://www.socresonline.org.uk/14/4/9.html.
Published
2012-12-14
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
King, K., & Hemming, P. (2012). Exploring Multiple Religious Identities through Mixed Qualitative Methods. Fieldwork in Religion, 7(1), 29-47. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v7i1.29
