Honouring the no comment position: unexpected learnings from the process of researching users' views

Abstract

The following account describes the outcome of an attempt to elicit the views of service users attending for a first session of solution focused therapy in a child mental health setting. A commitment to social constructionist and post modern influences on social research led to unexpected results. These influences also inspired an unconventional structuring of the account itself. Through the course of the account attention is drawn to: the ethics of involving adults and children in social research; assumptions which may influence researchers seeking feedback on therapeutic interventions; and the potential experience of recipients of solution focused therapy. Introduction Social constructionism, based on the belief that knowledge is socially generated, determined and developed, has presented a major challenge to those who conduct social research. To quote Keeney (1983) as cited by Atkinson & Heath (1988, p.9) ‘observers are always part of the system they observe.’ And hence part of the knowledge creation process which brings about the discoveries of an enquiry. So, when I used the opportunity of a M.A. in Systemic Practice course to explore users’ views on solution focused therapy (deShazer 1988), I strove to act in accordance with this, opening my thinking to the challenges of others, especially those who would otherwise have been thought of as the ‘subjects’ of the study. In this way I hoped that whatever J ultimately discovered would be more than I might have found through more conventional research methodologies. But how might I give an account of what happened? Lather (1991) has argued that social constructionism challenges not only how social research is carried out, but also the manner in which it is written up. My own study involved a number of contributors, each voicing ideas which shaped my thinking, forming part of a rich reflexive process culminating in an end point quite different from what I had imagined at the outset. In determining a format for tellin