Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Interviewing for Education and Social Science Research: The Gateway Approach,
Carolyn Lunsford Mears, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009, page 9

So why did Carolyn Mears call her approach to interviewing and analysis the "Gateway Approach"?

I decided to use the tem gateway in describing the approach, since it provides a means of connection, a way towards deeper understanding of a metaphorical 'community' of experience.

This method provides a bridge for communication:

With direct access to the complex internal responses and the significance that study participants take from their life events, those outside of that experience have the potential to achieve a deeper understanding of what it feels like to be inside.

Those outside, who might otherwise be prevented from seeing the inside by the trauma membrane, can gain an understanding of the inside.

Similarly, the gateway approach provides a means for those inside to cross the boundaries and communicate with those outside who want to learn from the situation.

Possibly too, methinks, it enables a measure of cathartic release.