Secondary analysis in reflection: some experiences of re-use from an

oral history perspective

Novella ESRC seminarInstitute of Education

4 June 20134 June 2013

Secondary analysis: reuse of one’s own o r another’s archived data - why?

• assess the credibility of new research and/or the generalisability of small studies by looking at established data

• supplement one’s own primary data, e.g. as exploratory analyses prior to new data collection

• provide rich descriptive information, e.g. to provide an historical perspective

• reveal new methodological insights by reflecting on previously conducted research

• generate new findings by analysing ‘old’ data from a ‘new’ research context and/or lens

• gain further insight on hard to reach populations or sensitive topics without further intrusion into vulnerable populations

Or simply to:share datatake part in a natural

research activityto undertake research in

cash-limited times

Early encounters with secondary analysis - 1970s onwards - unreflected borrowing and an ethical question

Researching the history of the geriatric specialty

The Jefferys dataset54 oral history interviews carried out with doctors who

pioneered the geriatric specialty by Professor Margot Jefferys and colleagues in 1990-1 (Wellcome funded, deposited in British Library)

The South Asian geriatricians dataset

60 oral history interviews carried out in 2007-09 with retired and serving geriatricians, all overseas-trained (ESRC funded, Bornat, Henry & Raghuram, deposited in British Library)

Noting a presence

Well, yes. One of the problems has been that staffing of geriatric departments hasn't always been easy, we have had to appoint quite a lot of doctors from the Indian sub-continent to be registrars and even senior registrars, so for quite a period the only applicants for consultant jobs were in fact not British citizens trained by British methods.

They had been to respectable geriatric departments and learnt the trade but when they got appointed to x, y, z, they had Indian or Pakistani names or whatever else. And it tended to get known as the sort of, you know, dark-skinned specialty.

John Agate Jefferys interview b.1919

The overseas trained doctor’s perspective

First of all in the initial days they filled the jobs when nobody else would take it. And they tried to copy the best leaders. And implement changes in their own patch like the best leaders had done. So there were geriatricians in hospitals where facilities were so poor I probably wouldn’t work in those even today. And so that’s one of the things that they went to the areas where local doctors didn’t go. And they filled those jobs where local doctors weren’t interested. It wasn’t that the local doctors didn’t get those jobs. They weren’t interested in those jobs.

DS, Male, SAG interviewee, consultant physician in general medicine, interviewed 2008, born India 1945, arrived in UK 1973

Ethical issues in re-interpretation

Does asking new questions and finding new interpretations in the archived data of another researcher raise ethical issues? But: ‘[i]f you only work on the basis of your own personal history...your one-person-panel sociological imagination will be weak and partial’ (Wengraf, 2001: 258)

The Oldest Generation: a Timescapes project

Over an an eighteen month period, autumn 2007 to summer 2009

Twelve diverse families, each including at least one person aged 75 or more, recruited through the UK-wide Open University network

One member of the family aged 75 or more, nominated as the Senior

One member nominated as the Recorder

Life history interviews with the 12 seniors, autumn 2007

Diaries kept by the 12 recorders over an 18-month period

Photographs taken by the recorders and others

Monthly contact with the recorders

(Data archived at: http://timescapes.leeds.ac.uk)

Two examples of insights from reconsidering the TOG data

Family communications - from ‘Intergenerational Exchange’ projectWays of becoming a father - from the ‘Men as Fathers’ project

Developing guidelines - the Timescapes approach

The 7 Timescapes projects - differing histories:

- earlier waves of data ready for deposit- differing experiences of ethical

requirements from ‘light touch’ to ‘conservative scientific norms’

- levels of access the chosen solution

Continuing discussion points

Knowability of dataStrategies for sharingDissemination of findingsResearcher reputation

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