Tales of transition: self‐narrative and direct scribing in exploring care‐leaving

Abstract

Direct scribing is a technique that transforms oral discourse into written text, basically by typing oral material verbatim. It was developed in practice with youth in child welfare care and adapted for research data collection. The technique flattens the power imbalance in the interview situation and between oral speech and written text, supports self‐reflection, democratizes the ownership of written material, is potentially empowering, and is an efficient means to produce high‐quality text. The origins in practice are reviewed and a research application is discussed in detail. Thirty youths aged 18/19 from child welfare constructed self‐narratives about how they conceptualized and managed the adolescent transition, and collaborated with the researcher in analysing the narrative as a story. Each interview was direct scribed and printed copy given to the participant. Participants were introduced to direct scribing by completing a questionnaire presented on a note‐book computer, and some took part in a gender‐specific group discussion as a final data‐collection event, which was audio‐taped and transcribed. The value of direct scribing and self‐narrative in this research project and possibilities for other applications are discussed.