Adapting the voice-centred relational method of data analysis: reading trainees’ accounts of their learning on a pilot programme for practitioners working with parents

Abstract

In this paper, the author reflects on the process of analysing and interpreting what trainees said about their learning during an external evaluation of an innovative training programme for practitioners working in the emerging field of parenting education and support. Applying the ‘voice-centred relational’ method of qualitative analysis to a training evaluation context, qualitative accounts from trainees were read through four different lenses: the plot and evaluator responses to the narrative; the voice of the ‘I’; relationships; and placing people within cultural contexts and social structures. The use of this framework is then illustrated by an analysis of an interview with one trainee. The importance of the evaluator being emotionally and intellectually reflexive and aware of the impact of the content and process of the learning on the trainees is stressed.