Booming clangs and whispering ghosts: Attending to the reflexive echoes in IPA research

ABSTRACT

In this article, we propose reflexivity can be revealed through a deliberate adjunct to the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) process. This adjunct, which we refer to as “echoes,” is a mixture of the participant’s and researcher’s words and experiences resonating with each other during the research process. We argue that explicitly recognising echoes gives a heightened sensitivity to both the researcher’s own place and being in the research, and to the other in relation to the researcher. Exploring the echoes enables the researcher to work with, rather than dismiss, his or her own presuppositions and exposes greater phenomenological sensibility toward the research subject and is-ness of that phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to outline how attending to echoes is a strategy for IPA researchers to promote and overtly journal reflexivity as central within their research practices. To exemplify how echoes can be used, practical examples from a doctoral research project are given to demonstrate how resonance can explicate reflexivity in the IPA process.

KEYWORDS:

• Interpretative phenomenological analysis
• qualitative research
• reflexivity
• rigour
• writing

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sally Goldspink

Sally Goldspink is a Senior Lecturer and distance learning course lead. She originally trained as an Occupational Therapist and has worked in higher education since 2003, specialising in mental health.

Hilary Engward

Hilary Engward is a Senior Lecturer, she works on an EdD/PhD courses and is a Senior Research Fellow in the Veterans and Families Institute for Social Military Research, Anglia Ruskin University.