Developing an Autobiographical Elicitation Methodology to Explore Lived Religion among Evangelical Christians Working in Healthcare in England

Abstract

This article describes the rationale behind and development of a novel methodological combination of autobiographical reflection and semi-structured interviewing. The resulting “autobiographical elicitation” methodology was first used for a recent study of the relationship between work and faith as experienced by evangelical medics working in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. The article argues that autobiographical elicitation successfully fulfilled aims of facilitating lived religion research and generating qualitative data which was directed by what research participants deemed important and meaningful, while remaining conducive to comparative analysis. It also alleviated concerns regarding the limited reflection time offered by semi-structured interviews in isolation, and offered busy participants welcomed convenience and flexibility. The article concludes, therefore, that autobiographical elicitation is a promising methodological combination for lived religion researchers, and more broadly for those keen to generate rich qualitative insights in partnership with busy participants.

The racial hierarchisation of the isiXhosa language in South Africa

“…The importance and relevance of this methodological technique herein is that autobiographical methodologies are an educational approach that uses autobiographical narrative as an opportunity for self-care, to learn from one's own story and from the stories of others, to share with other people experiences, and reflections and visions of the world (Yeung et al, 2022;Pearson et al, 2023). The autobiographical technique uses various empirical sources which include life narratives, oral stories, direct and indirect personal experiences, documents -both official and personal (Riley, 2022;Monzel et al, 2022). In the process, existing literature or discourses that have been made by other scholars will be considered in an attempt contextualise the phenomenon.…”