I sympathise with your surprise! (shock horror probe). However, most PhD students seem to be able to get their universities departments to pay for this component of their professional training. Obviously we don’t hear from the others.

 

Best wishes

 

Tom

 

 

 


From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Storey AI
Sent: 16 April 2006 11:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A new interviewing method - BNIM - Biographic-narrative-interpretative method - interested?

 

"Designed for PhD students" -- at £650 a pop?

-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 15/04/2006 17:14
Subject: A new interviewing method - BNIM - Biographic-narrative-interpretative method - interested?

 

Ninth (June 06) Intensive BNIM Short Course

in the Biographic-Narrative-Interpretive Method (BNIM)

5 days for 6 people:   June 15th and 16th, and 19th-21st  2006 in London

 

BM__Toc5341422BM__Toc125193666Summary

 

Designed for PhD students and professional researchers, the course
provides a training in doing BNIM biographic narrative interviews,
together with   ‘hands-on experience’ of following  BNIM interpretation
procedures.  Students develop a sense of how their own research projects
might use  such aspects  and components. The cost is £650 (£600 for
early-birds who pay in full 5 weeks in advance, i.e. by May 1st  ).
Taught by Prue Chamberlayne and Tom Wengraf  in North London., the
course’s  small number of students ensures close coaching and support
for the intensive work that is needed for you to fully acquire both the
understanding of  principles and the practical capacity for  proceeding
with the  systematic practices involved in BNIM -- both for BNIM and
for other types of  narrative interviewing and interpretation.

 

You will be expected to have looked at  (not read!)  chapters 6 and 12
of Tom’s  textbook, Qualitative research interviewing: biographic
narrative and semi-structured method (2001: Sage Publications), Examples
of the use of BNIM can be found in the case-studies from the European
Union  7-country SOSTRIS project in our (edited)  Biography and social
exclusion in Europe: experiences and life-journeys (2002: Policy Press)
and other items in this Short Guide to BNIM .  Preliminary and
supplementary material will be provided. More recent debates and
developments in theory and method are integrated into the programme.
Before the course starts, you are expected to have studied the most
recent version of the Short Guide to BNIM which will be sent to your
email address.

 

Programme (subject to revision)

 

Thursday 15th–  Friday 16h  June 2006

We start with a short introduction to the
Biographic-narrative-interpretive method,  a very brief history of its
development in Germany and then in Britain, and an indication of the
principles behind its practice. The  point and timing of  using
open-ended biographic narrative interviews rather than (only) the more
conventional semi-structured and attitude-and-argument focused ones is
clarified.  The bulk of the  two days is then almost entirely devoted to
learning the craft of  BNIM interviewing practice. This involves
learning to  ask  narrative-pointed questions (both topic-focused and
also open) and not inadvertently interrupting or deflecting the
interviewee. Apparently simple, it rapidly becomes clear that such a
craft requires repeated and careful practice to be successfully
achieved.  Pencil-and-paper and repeated practical exercises ensure such
success is achieved by the end of the 2nd day.  

 

 Monday 19th- Wednesday  21th  June 2006

We outline the principles and you engage in  the  key practices of BNIM
interpretive work . We explain the twin-tracks of ‘lived life’ and ‘told
story’ analysis, and micro-analysis,  and how you convert the raw
transcript into two series of processed data for each track. You learn
the significance of the future-blind chunk-by-chunk approach peculiar to
BNIM by practice – by doing parts of a narrative text analysis, a
micro-analysis  and   biographical data analysis. Finally, on the basis
of case-presentations, you practice case-comparison and the comparative
theorising towards which BNIM work is typically oriented. The course
ends with our looking again at how you might best use all or part of the
BNIM approach for your individual research projects, and how to defend
your choice to use a low-N in-depth sample in arguments with sceptical
research and policy audiences.

 

To get a copy of the ‘Short Guide’, to ask any questions or to book a
place, contact  [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> . Places
tend to go quite fast, so if interested, please don’t delay too long!
Provided there are still places left, £100 refundable deposit secures
your place on the course of your choice.

 

 Tenth course: (5 day or maybe 9 day 3+3+3)  in/from February 2007

PLUS Courses in Sydney (September 2006) and Slovenia (November 2006)