Solicited audio diaries in longitudinal narrative research: a view from inside

Abstract

The use of solicited audio diaries in longitudinal qualitative enquiry is rare. Moreover, an understanding of the unique insights that these diaries might give the qualitative researcher has largely been absent in our consideration of appropriate methods for data collection. This article aims to address this deficit by providing a critical reflection on the use of solicited audio diaries in longitudinal narrative research from practical, theoretical and analytical perspectives. The data is drawn from a longitudinal study investigating medical students' professional identity formation. In an attempt to reach the broadest audience, both structural aspects and communicative elements of talk within the data are considered alongside ethical issues and emotional work that the longitudinal audio-diary researcher might encounter. In addition to presenting extracts from a variety of diary entries, a single event narrative is presented in full, alongside an analysis, in order to demonstrate the powerful utility of this underused method.