Stepping Inside: On Participant Experience and Bodily Presence in the Held

Abstract

In this article the author argues for participant experience as a research method which is dialogically based on respect for the child. The researcher steps inside the landscape of the child to share a life-form. It is through an engaged body-presence that the researcher can experience the atmosphere and meanings from within as they are perceived in a common horizon. It is by sharing the intentions of children that the researcher can experience time and space relations as concrete life-world dimensions, with social and personal meanings. It is in this concreteness of experience that the human drama can become visible if the researcher is able to express his or her experiences in a thoughtful narrative. While it is important that the researcher reflects on the narrative experiences and situates them in a broader historical and socio-economic context, he or she should not lose sight of the inspiration embedded in the real life-world of the children. The life-world reality should form a ground structure for all interpretation.