Trouble on Memory Lane: Adults and Self-Retrospection in Researching Youth

Abstract

Ethnographers of youth often invoke adolescent memories in relation to their informants. This article examines memory as a concern for ethnographers who study young people. It suggests that this rhetorical strategy heightens the narrator’s authority and authenticates the author’s speaking position, pulling the center of the story from the youthful informants toward the adult researcher. At the same time, this strategy ignores power relations between adults and youth. The article explores multiple representations of memory, the social construction of youth, and these effects in an example of research. The article argues that memory is not a form of bias but a problematic that must be addressed to provide adequate attention to the youthful informant’s legitimacy and authority as an interpreter of experience.

A counter-narrative of a ‘failed’ interview

“…Educational research in schools means researching across age differences. Given that we do not have a culture of adults listening to young people (Lansdown, 1994), then adults listening to children and young people is a political act, and one that we need to continually improve (see for example, Biklen, 2004;McDowell, 2002;Tuhiwai Smith, 2001;Yates, 2003). We would argue that the research interview offers one space for teacher-like Pākehā adults (such as the interviewer in this article) to defy the usual circumstances of adults' encounters with young people in schools and to find ways of being worthy listeners (Tuhiwai Smith, 2001).…”

A Host, a Guest, and our Lifetime Relationship: Another Hour with Grandma Havitz

“…Some are recent and others not-so-recent. Biklen (2004) cautioned that personal memory is a complex problematic that must not be taken for granted or over-extended to account for the experience of others. Ellis (1999) noted "there's no such thing as orthodox reliability in autoethnographic research.…”

Being In-Between

“…Given the structural issues surrounding an individual accruing the requisite academic resources to become a researcher in academic contexts (e.g., research training, academic credentials that take years to acquire, and academic appointment), the primary investigator studying emerging adults (EAs) is likely to be considerably older than the individuals being studied. Even well-intentioned adult researchers who engage in extensive self-retrospection may need to monitor biases in order to limit imposing their own memories from adolescence or emerging adulthood onto their current research of youth (Bilken, 2007).…”