THE BAREFOOT SPEAKER

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Literature reviews


Literature reviews

1/
The main body of the book covers John Van Maanen’s views on the three main ways of presenting your cultural findings in print; realist, confessional or impressionist tales. As well as discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each of these styles he makes the point that as much thought, care and skill is required to be employed in the method of presenting your findings as to the facts them selves. Awareness of your angle/biases, overall tone/style, bearing in mind your audience, as well as the authenticity of the facts gathered during your research is of equal importance. His aim is not to enforce one way of recording cultural stories, avoiding putting down the various sociological and anthropological methods of recording cultural data, merely to encourage the writer to make the decisions over their choice of voice to portray their work in a conscious one. The book is quite humerous at times and, although it discusses in depth topics, is written in a conversational way making it more accessible and enjoyable to consume his ideas. He refrains from rubbishing the various sociological and anthropological methods of recording cultures and merely presents his opinion that more of the writers feeling/personality should be used. 
This epiphany is of vital importance to my enquiry. If I am to succeed in approaching this enquiry from a sensitive angle, paying homage to my interviewee’s lives, then all of the above factors must be managed purposefully to ensure the correct end result is achieved.
I could not agree more with the views of this book, I personally feel that the importance of putting “self” into what ever you do, obviously at an appropriate level, is of paramount importance. I have no desire to produce merely a dry, factual document. For me it must be from my point of view and clearly express as such.
This book has been a great introduction for me into this field of recording cultural/biographical interviewing. It has provided me with a great grounding to explore this field of research in greater depth.

I did however take a short break from it to consult a more immediately accessible methodological book.

2/
It’s written from the point of view of University Lecturer in Psychology and so this sets the general tone and angle from which all the information is presented. It is put forward in a highly accessible way and is obviously designed with students in mind as it has a self-test glossary, key terms and exercises at the end of each section. Despite this point of view each of the sections, in particular the one on research methods are written and concepts discussed in a well balanced way presenting both the experimental and non-experimental designs. For instance the subject of qualitative over quantitative results is covered fully.
Although this book was immediately useable and very useful for the technical aspects and methodology of gathering and analysing data, the personal and subtle premise of Tales of the field will, I think, prove to be of much greater value and importance to the soul of this enquiry.

3/
A fantastic website that I have just found. It does not seem to have an obvious angle, selling something etc, that I have discovered yet and appears to be a great wealth of unbiased information. Wendy is an established Life Coach who is openly discussing and sharing her experience with those who wish to become Life Coaches. Her main aim appears to be just to share her knowledge and experience. The site consists of 5 sub headings: How to Become a Life Coach, Building your practice, Working with clients, Goal setting and Important information. Contained within each of these main headings are sub headings such as: coaching articles, becoming a life coach, expert interviews a well as a whole section dedicated to her coaching tips and goal setting ideas. It is very unusual that someone, without wanting something in return, willingly gives so freely of their time, energy and hard earned wisdom. For me this is a wonderful beacon of hope that there could be coaches out there who truly are interested in merely helping people. This sites information will be a great source to layer on top of my interview data, adding much warmth and colour.

4/
An article written by Tom Mitchelson, a journalist who seems to have a decidedly negative/skeptical view of the LC industry, “it seems that all he's done is announce his intention of riding it.” he commented in response to a persons decision to begin cycling more on his bike.
His main premise of the article is that there is currently no supervisory body regulating the quality/qualifications of Life Coaches. “When you see a doctor, you can be pretty sure he's got a medical degree or two. But if you see a life coach, they may have 'qualified' in just a few hours and have less ability to assist you than your next door neighbour or the woman from the Post Office.”
He embarks on a 6 day Life Coaching course and explains that “On day one we learn what a life coach is - someone who helps people help themselves. The tutors define what a coach does, or rather, doesn't do.
We are not mentors, counsellors or consultants. We don't direct, advise, analyse, judge or look into the past. All our questions should be open- ended and not leading or suggestive…The client should provide all the answers to their problems themselves.”
He goes on to explain that the type of person that is attracted to becoming a LC:
“Most of the fellow students I talk to are dissatisfied in their jobs. They all have something in common: they want to change their lives and are attracted to the idea of being their own boss, helping others and qualifying for a professional career within a week.”
He felt that it didn’t matter how bad or even if you attended all the days of the course you would still get the qualification.
The topic of the piece was about being qualified/job capable. He is definitely of the opinion that many who claim to be LC’s are neither.
It’s a great thought provoking article and it’s good to view other peoples opinions. Especially those who are not currently very impressed by the LC role. Only by understanding both sides can you better understand the topic as a whole. I agree with the article, there are currently no formal qualifications/qualifying process for becoming a LC. This damages the credibility of the job role, one, because its not seen as difficult or skilled and two, it is bound to attract less than able people to it, doing a terrible job for people leading to many other LC’s being tarred with the same brush. However it does pose an opportunity for those who are good, and find a niche they can excel in, to stand head and shoulders above the rest.



No comments:

Post a Comment