Presentation by Prue Holmes, Richard Fay, Jane Andrews, and Mariam Attia

1. Researching multilingually (RMTC)
project
Glasgow Symposium
26 May 2014
Prue Holmes (Durham University)
Richard Fay (The University of Manchester)
Jane Andrews (The University of the West of England)
Mariam Attia (Durham University)

2. Overview
1.Background to AHRC-funded “Researching Multilingually” network
project
2.The role of the RMTC hub in the RM-at-borders project
3.Methodology
4.Getting started (Phase 1, Literature Review, June to October, 2014)
5.How we plan to engage with the Case Study researchers/sites and CATC
hub

3. 1. Background to the AHRC-
funded Researching
Multilingually network project

4. Our research network objectives
1. Examine the experiences of researchers in translating,
interpreting, and writing up collected and generated data
(dialogic, mediated, virtual, textual) from one language to another;
2. Explore ethical issues in the representation of data across
more than one language;
3. Identify methods and techniques that improve processes of
researching multilingually;
4. Develop a conceptual framework of researching
multilingually processes; and
5. Explore recommendations and guidelines for researching
multilingually that can be implemented by all researchers,
and research training programmes.

5. Definition
• Researching multilingually –
“the use of more than one language in the
research process and its dissemination”
• Cf. researching multilingualism,
researching ML contexts
Holmes, P., Fay, R., Andrews, J., Attia, M. (2013). Researching
multilingually: New theoretical and methodological directions.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 23(3), 285-299.

6. Methodology
- Initially…
- Seminars (35)
- Researcher network (more than 50)
- Profiles of researchers (narratives)
- And later…
- Policy document analysis
- RM workshops for doctoral researchers

7. Researcher Network
Focus on researcher thinking in relation to RM-ly
Corpus RM-ly website
[www.researchingmultilingually.com]
The profiles as outward-facing performances of reflection-
on-action (Boud & walker, 1998; Schön, 1983, 1987)
What the profiles suggest in terms of Developing
Researcher Competence, and in terms of evidence for
researcher intentionality [as ‘purposefulness’] (Stelma &
Fay, 2012)

8. Two Prompts
The profiles were produced in response to two prompts:
1) What is your experience of doing research multilingually?
2) What is your experience of becoming aware of the
complexities in this area?

9. Two Prompts
.. In other words:
1) RM-ly in practice
2) Trajectories into awareness
Researchers who become aware
How does awareness happen?
What intentionality is behind?
What are they aware of?

10. Data Analysis
Thematic analysis of each profile separately
Looking across the profiles
Identifying particularities and commonalities

11. Data Analysis

12. Findings
Experiences of RM-ly develop across varying research areas
and settings
Researchers who are aware, may do so through different
trajectories
They are aware of various complexities
We have a better idea about how they become aware, how
their awareness manifests itself, and what complexities
they are aware of

13. The New Profiles

14. Project outcomes
• Researcher profiles (a conceptualisation of them as
performances of developing researcher competence)
• Seminar papers (and analysis of them)
• An analysis of research policy documents (with
suggestions for enrichment to better accommodate
RM-ly)
• Pedagogic materials (for doctoral researchers)
• A developing conceptualisation of the possibilities
for and complexities of RM-ly.

15. Emergent conceptualisation
1) Intentionality (a 3-step process)
triggering realisation
developing awareness
informed thinking and practice
2) Relationality
Researcher, supervisor, participants,
translators/interpreters/transcribers
Trust, ethics, power
3) Spatiality
Research; researched; researcher; re/presentation
Interdisciplinary insights

16. 2. The role of the RMTC hub

17. Roles
- Co-I Prue Holmes (RMTC hub leader)
- Co-Is Jane Andrews, Richard Fay
- PDRA Mariam Attia
- 2 PhDs Melissa Chapman, Omar
Kemperman

18. RMTC hub objectives
1. How do researchers generate, translate, interpret and write up data
(dialogic, mediated, textual, performance) from one language to
another?
2. What ethical issues emerge in the planning and execution of data
collection and representation (textual, visual, performance) where
multiple languages are present?
3. What methods and techniques improve processes of researching
multilingually?
4. How does multimodality (e.g. visual methods, ‘storying’, performance)
complement and facilitate multilingual researcher praxis?
5. How can researchers develop clear multilingual researcher practices
and yet also be open to emergent research design?

19. 3. Methodology

20. Methodology – data sources
(i) the five case studies (data generated by the methods outlined
in each case and other emergent methods)
(ii) reflections and narratives gathered from researchers’ journals,
virtual communication tools, and multilingual researcher
practice
(iii) data generated within interactive social media and other virtual
sites (e.g., the project blog)
(iv) performative data (generated by the CATC hub)
(v) RMTC hub members’ dialogues, reflections, observations, and
where necessary, their own data collection with researchers
and participants, and with documents
(vi) RMTC hub researchers’ synthesis and insights drawn from
researching multilingually practices and representation across
the project

21. Methodology – data generation
(i) narrative inquiry – meaning-making as ‘the narrative
construction of reality’ (Bruner 1991): participants narrate their
lives; narratives are embodied in the context of the research
sites; researchers reflect on and narrate their researching
processes; narratives of dissemination (dialogic, textual,
visual, performance) are spaces for meaning making
(ii) multimodal methods of data generation, developed in
collaboration with the CATC hub to establish sensitive and
site responsive researching multilingually practices
(iii) ethnographic fieldwork and dialogic encounters in case study
sites with researchers
(iv) dialogic and multimodal workshops (where the RMTC and
CATC hubs and researchers come together to share and
make sense of multilingual research practice)

22. Methodology – data analysis methods
(i) The software MAXQDA, which is sensitive to non-Romanised
scripts such as Arabic and Ge’ez, to collate and analyse these
data
(ii) Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006)
(iii) Critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2010; Gee 2011) for
textual and dialogic data
(iv) multimodal methods of analysis (Jewitt 2011) for visual and
performance data analysis

23. 4. Getting started
(Phase 1, Literature Review,
June to October, 2014)

24. Getting started
Phase 1 – Literature Review
(i) Our own lit review, drawing on
• earlier RM-ly thematic analysis of lit
• lit in other languages
(ii) Monitoring lit reviews in CS sites
(shadowing, drawing on researcher
reflections via narratives)
(iii) Collaborating with CATC hub who will
‘translate’ research data into performative
data
=> Close links and communication with
researchers in CATC and CSs

25. 5. How we will engage with the
project partners

26. Engaging with project partners
Case study sites?
• Ongoing dialogue
• Content (CS) vs. process
(RMTC hub)
• Process – we observe to
develop
– Methodology
– Pedagogy
– Theory generation
– Ethics
– Policy
• CS expectations about
engaging with us?
CATC hub?
• Ongoing dialogue
• CATC hub seeing us doing
our work (how we develop,
analyse, present data)
• RMTC hub seeing CATC hub
doing their work
• CATC hub expectations
about engaging with us?
… and Alison?

27. Thank you!
From the RMTC hub