Rowland,
I too would love to hear others' answers to your question. I don't have
any suggestions about references, but can simply tell of an experience I
had recently. My research relates to school children whose parents are
itinerant fruit pickers. I planned to make contact with the parents via a
school - the principal was going to contact the parents and, if the parents
were willing, set up a time and a place for me to meet individually with
families. However, I was lucky and the process became a very simple one.
The school was holding an event (a fancy dress ball, to be exact) which the
children and most parents were attending, so I went along too. With the
help of many teachers, who introduced me to children and to their parents,
I was able to make contact with many families and organised follow-up home
visits with those who were willing to become involved in my research.
I think the whole thing was simply a stroke of luck - I was in the right
place at the right time - and, of course, I was already known by the school
community. If I had been a researcher who was an "outsider" to the whole
community and to the school community, I know this would not have worked.
Perhaps the message here is to identify people who might be able to help
you and to spend time building relationships and trust with them. I
suspect this will take time and, of course, there are a lot of ethical
issues to be considered. cheers, robyn
At 14:00 16/10/00 +0100, you wrote:
>Dear All
>
>Im trying to collate any material relating to doing research with people
>that are hard to track (such as homeless, the displaced and other
>migrants). Does anyone have references or general methodological insight
>into strategies for obtaining interviews with such groups? The main problem
>with these groups (apart from maintaining contact) would seem to be finding
>them in the first place i.e. displaced groups have already left! Literature
>on this seems to be sparse at best.
>
>Sorry for the slightly off-topic query,
>
>Rowland
>
________________________
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Robyn Henderson
School of Education
James Cook University
Townsville QLD 4811
Phone: 4781 4761
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