This article highlights the use of direct scribing to gather special education narratives of homeless youth. Direct scribing is a method of qualitative research developed in child welfare practice and adapted for research with foster youth. Its strengths include offering voice, power, and ownership of narratives to participants using minimal technology and the framework of narrativity. The article improves on the rigor of this method, highlighting considerations about “working up” or attention to interactional processes leading up to direct scribing, and the need to offer narrative power to participants. It offers a different take on interview practices including eye contact, listening, and the use of a computer screen as an interface. Through an extensive illumination of the narrativity of one participant, the preparation, process, and outcome of direct scribing are highlighted. The fit between social work values and this method is in keeping with advancing an anti-oppressive focus in research and practice.
AdamsCAThompsonTL (2011) Interviewing objects: Including educational technologies as qualitative research participants. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education24(6): 733–750.
2.
AdlafEMZdanowiczYM (1999) A cluster-analytic study of substance problems and mental health among street youths. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse25(4): 639–660.
3.
AlviSScottHStanyonW (2010) “We're locking the door”: Family histories in a sample of homeless youth. The Qualitative Report15(5): 1209–1226.
4.
BaronSW (2004) General strain, street youth and crime: A test of Agnew's revised theory. Criminology42(2): 457–483.
5.
BennettSDworetDWeberK (2008) Special Education in Ontario Schools, 6th ed. Toronto: Highland Press.
6.
BorlandK (2004) “That's not what I said”: Interpretive conflict in oral narrative research. In: Hesse-BiberSNLeavyP (eds) Approaches to Qualitative Research: A Reader on Theory and Practice, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
7.
BriggsCL (1986) Learning How to Ask: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8.
CaputoTWeilerRAndersonJ (1997) The Street Lifestyle Study: Ottawa, Ottawa: Health Canada.
9.
CastanosCPiercyF (2010) The Wiki as a virtual space for qualitative data collection. The Qualitative Report15(4): 948–955.
10.
CauceAMParadiseMGinzlerJA (2000) The characteristics of mental health of homeless adolescents: Age and gender differences. Journal of Emotional & Behavioural Disorders8(4): 230–239.
11.
ChaseSE (2005) Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In: DenzinNKLincolnYS (eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
12.
CreswellJW (2013) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Desigh: Choosing Among the Five Traditions, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
13.
DenzinNK (2004) The art and politics of interpretation. In: Hesse-BiberSNLeavyP (eds) Approaches to Qualitative Research: A Reader on Theory and Practice, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 447–472.
14.
DenzinNKLincolnYS (1994) Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
15.
DiCicco-BloomBCrabtreeBF (2006) The qualitative research interview. Medical Education40: 314–321.
16.
EllisC (2004) The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel About Autoethnography, Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
17.
FontanaAFreyJH (2005) The interview: From neutral stance to political involvement. In: DenzinNKLincolnYS (eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
18.
FrankAW (2010) Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-narratology, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
19.
GaetzS (2004) Safe streets for whom? Homeless youth, social exclusion, and criminal victimizatoin. Canadian Journal of Criminilogy & Criminal Justice46: 423–455.
20.
GubriumJFHolsteinJA (2008) Narrative ethnography. In: Hesse-BiberSNLeavyP (eds) Handbook of Emergent Methods, New York: The Guilford Press.
Hesse-BiberSN (2004) Unleashing Frankenstein's monster? The use of computers in qualitative research. In: Hesse-BiberSNLeavyP (eds) Approaches to Qualitative Research: A Reader on Theory and Practice, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
23.
HydeJ (2005) From home to street: Understanding young people's transitions into homelessness. Journal of Adolescence28(2): 171–183.
24.
Kamel BoulosMMarambaIWheelerS (2006) Wikis, blogs and podcasts: A new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Medical Education6(41). Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/41.
25.
KarabanowJ (2004) Being Young and Homeless: Understanding How Youth Enter and Exit Street Life, New York: Peter Lang Pub.
26.
KarabanowJClementP (2004) Interventions with street youth: A commentary on the practice-based research literature. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention4(1): 93–108.
27.
KiddSA (2003) Street youth: Coping and interventions. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal20: 235–261.
28.
LevinsonDHRossM (2007) Homelessness Handbook, Great Barrington, Mass: Berkshire Publishing Group.
29.
LibertoffK (1980) The runaway child in America: A social history. Journal of Family Issues1(2): 151–164.
30.
MartinFE (1998) Tales of transition: Self-narrative and direct scribing in exploring care-leaving. Child and Family Social Work3(1): 1–12.
31.
MuskatBL (2008) Identity formation in early adolescents with learning disabilities. PhD Unpublished, University of Toronto, Toronto.
32.
NASW (2001) NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice, Washington, DC: NASW Press.
33.
NovacSSergeLEberleM (2002) On Her own: Young Women and Homelessness in Canada, Ottawa: Canadian Housing and Renewal Association Retrieved from WWW site of Status of Women Canada.
34.
NybellLM (2013) Locating “youth voice:” Considering the contexts of speaking in foster care. Children and Youth Services Review35: 1227–1235.
35.
PolandBD (1995) Transcription quality as an aspect of rigor in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry1(3): 290–310.
36.
RibbensJEdwardsR (1998) Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research: Public Knowledge and Private Lives, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
37.
RiessmanCK (1993) Narrative Analysis. In: HunterJL (ed.) Qualitative Research Methods Series: Vol. 30, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
38.
RiessmanCK (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
39.
RiessmanCKQuinneyL (2005) Narrative in social work: A critical review. Qualitative Social Work4(4): 391–412.
40.
SaldanhaKParenteauD (2013) “Well, if you can't smile you should go home!” Experiences and reflective insights on providing outreach to young sex trade workers. Children & Youth Services Review35: 1276–1283.
41.
SlesnickNDashoraPLetcherA (2009) A review of services and interventions for runaway and homeless youth: Moving forward. Children & Youth Services Review31: 732–742.
42.
TylerKCauceAMWhitbeckLB (2004) Family risk factors and prevalence of dissociative symptoms among homeless and runaway youth. Child Abuse & Neglect28(3): 355–366.
43.
WellsK (2011) Narrative Inquiry, New York: Oxford University Press.
