How was your day? Exploring a day in the life of probation workers across Europe using practice diaries

Abstract

This paper presents a reflection upon the preliminary analysis of diary research conducted during the period 2014-2015 in five European countries (England and Wales, France, Norway, Romania and Slovakia). The authors gathered and analysed data from a pilot project which used semi-structured diaries to generate data on probation workers' daily lives with a view to understanding 'a day in the life' of probation officers across jurisdictions. The findings open up questions in relation to diary research in probation practice (diary format, follow-up interview etc.) and we use this article to discuss the relative advantages and benefits of using diary research in this area. We conclude with the argument that diaries as a method of social research hold considerable potential for conducting research in the context of probation but acknowledge that the method we employed requires some development and greater clarification in terms of the aims of the research.

Untitled

“…Resilience diaries can provide a snapshot of the participant's perceptions and experiences related to the challenges they face and resolve. The diary is a journal of events and activities that the diary writers consider relevant to their lives for some specific reason (Rokkan et al, 2015). Diary writing is used as an interpretative testing method in educational research (Engin, 2011;Sá, 2002), and as a childfriendly testing method in child research (Lämsä et al, 2012;Punch, 2002).…”