Doing a research is a gradual process of threading one
piece of a study on others, as if it is a shashlik on skewer. It is impossible
not to fulfill even one piece, because in such a case the dish will be
deficient and a gourmet will stay hungry. Realizing that the part of findings
tastes like the most delicious piece on skewer, I was looking forward to our
data collection week, which would reveal to me the sense of art therapy’s role
for children with special needs (CWSN).
Fortunately, I did not have big problems with a gate
keeper and recruitment of participants.
The doors of art therapy center where I conducted my research were
always opened to me and all art therapists, whom I interviewed, were very
friendly and helpful. However, except experts of art therapy, I had other
participants such as parents and their children’s teachers, who were a bit more
difficult to “catch” and interview due to several reasons.
Despite the fact that the art therapy center was
working during Nauryz holiday, one mother who was unsuccessfully being waited
by me for two days, did not turn up there. Luckily, I took her phone number from
the centre and called her the next day, explaining who I was and arranging time
and day of an interview. Before meeting with her I was a bit nervous because I did
not know how she would answer my questions: willingly or reluctantly. However, she
was brilliant in responding to me and nearer to the end of our interview we
were chatting on other topics, which did not refer to my research but were very
interesting. Then I realized that parents of CWSN often experience difficult
emotions and, having the whole suitcase of different stories about their
children, they are eager to share them.
An interview, which was done with another participant,
made me feel like a journalist, because we met… in participant’s car. It was in
the evening and she was going from work, so I worried about her time and desire
to answer the questions. However, again, as in the first time, I worried all
for nothing. My participant was enthusiastic and gave vivid examples instead of
answering “yeas” or “no” and constantly clocking her watch. We were speaking
about half an hour and it seemed to me that she was glad to take part in the
research, because when we stopped she said about her readiness to answer other
questions, which I might have in the future.
Thing that I also faced during the data collection was
discrepancy between real people and requirements I specified. The teacher of
one boy, who has been working with him at home not for a long time, could not
provide me with comprehensive information about this child’s success and
changes in development before and after art therapy course. So I decided to
interview an art therapist of this particular child who could give me such
analysis. Similar situation happened with me during the interview with one
mother. We started to talk and after second question I’ve realized that her
daughter has gone to art therapy center only for one month, which was not enough
to analyze art therapy’s influence. So I asked her general questions and made
an agreement about our second meeting, which would be one month from today.
In conclusion, gathering all interviews one after
another, speaking with people and finding answers on the questions was a
beneficial experience for me. These several complexities I described did not
damage my view on doing research. On the contrary, these challenges gave me an
opportunity to be flexible in changing plans and schedule, trying to match
other people. Data collection week showed me the most important thing I could
find. This thing is that my research is important. This is because all people I
interviewed were happy to talk and explain me the necessity of art therapy for
their children. So I am absolutely sure that the piece of findings in my research-shashik
will be delicious, beautiful and useful.
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