Enhancing Qualitative Research and Social Service Delivery
This topic has been discussed extensively, highlighting the difficulties in translating questions about the abstract nature of language into the more common questions found in qualitative research. Finally, it should be added that cultural distance can hinder the delivery of appropriate support to individuals seeking social services. Cultural taboos, often linked to situations of departure or exclusion, frequently lead respondents to self-censorship when reporting their problems. Consider the cases of Muslim women who may be subjected to ill-treatment or harassment. Firstly, communicating such a sensitive situation, especially when it develops under different cultural settings or involves interactions with the opposite sex, requires significant effort.
Reviewing the initial interview in social services work undoubtedly highlights the importance of advisory services.
Advisory Interviews in Social Services
The overall objective of these interviews is to give the client the opportunity to explore, discover, and address ways of living with more resources and a greater sense of well-being. Leaving aside some theoretical approaches to advisory work, we focus on two popular models: those of Carl Rogers and Gerard Egan.
Carl Rogers’ Non-Directive Approach
Rogers initially proposed non-directive therapy approaches that evolved into extremely open methods, based on the belief that the client is the sole expert on themselves. This approach hoped that individuals would experience personal growth with the unique help of a consultant who would demonstrate empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard. Thus, therapy focused more on the individual than on solving the problem. Success lay in encouraging the person to revise their perceptions and open themselves to new experiences.
Gerard Egan’s Skilled Helper Model
For Egan, not all clients are willing to resolve their problems, which revalues the role of the counselor and increases the use of their influence and professional authority.
His advisory model identifies four stages:
- Exploration: During this stage, open-ended questions are used, which helps establish a working commitment and explore the thoughts, behaviors, and feelings of the advisee.
- Understanding: In this phase, the practitioner helps the client establish a new interpretive frame of reference and discover their potential and resources.
- Action: This stage focuses on setting goals to address the problem.
- Evaluation: Finally, evaluation is carried out by the professional to assess the effectiveness of the preceding process.
Coulshed and Orme, however, identify common features for the independent counselor’s interaction model:
- Empathy: Seeing through the eyes of those seeking advice.
- Respect
- Specificity in self-expression
- Congruence: Alignment between words and body language.
- Authenticity
They also emphasize showing the connection between what happens in the interview context and the individual’s daily life.
Oral History: Capturing Past Events
Oral history holds a prominent position in qualitative social research. It currently enjoys special vitality, stemming from the scientific interest among historians and researchers tasked with the arduous recovery of historical memory. This involves rescuing and amplifying the voices of many who were silenced in official history. In the same vein, women’s studies have found oral history to be an invaluable working tool for reinterpreting culture and history from a gender perspective.
The Life Story Method
Within the broader concept of oral history, the life story stands out. It ensures that the subject under observation narrates their life experience. The subject thus acquires a greater role, as they are entrusted with the ability to chronicle and recall their own life trajectory. The subject provides the temporal order, with full freedom of expression, while the investigator’s task is relegated to helping set dates between events the narrator considers relevant.