What is the place of reflective learning in researching farming couples’ retirement decision making?

Abstract

The large body of literature concerning couples’ decision making highlights the complexities faced by couples, and the potential challenges for social work practitioners. With population ageing, more people are living longer, many in long-term relationships, thus facing a range of critical later life decisions together. Yet, little is known about the challenges of interviewing couples together. This paper seeks to address this gap by reporting on a reflection on the process of conducting a constructionist narrative study of older farming couples’ retirement decision making. Drawing on Ruch’s (2000) model of reflective learning, this article considers research into couples’ decision making in a reflective cycle, including reflection on the supervisory relationship enabling transition from practitioner to researcher. This paper highlights the value of a reflective and reflexive supervision model when examining contexts dominated by a powerful discourse, such as the generational family farming narrative. The collection of data across two time phases permits exploration of change concerning rapport building and trust, relationships, decision making and participants’ construction of the interviewer. Findings from this study have implications for practitioners and researchers seeking to understand the process of interviewing older couples.