New Study Applies the Go-Along Method to Enhance Understandings of Occupation in Context
- Post by: Olivia Teresa Caruso
- 12:52PM Dec 02, 2021
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A team of researchers let by Carri Hand with Katherine Stewart, Debbie Laliberte Rudman, Colleen McGrath, Jami McFarland, and Jason Gilliland recently published an article entitled: “Applying the Go-Along Method to Enhance Understandings of Occupation in Context.”
Engaging in human occupation is complex, often involving commonplace practices that cannot be readily articulated. Accordingly, a growing number of occupational science and occupational therapy scholars have called for expanded qualitative methodologies and methods to support enhanced understandings of occupation in context.
In this paper the team respond to these calls by discussing how the go-along method—a hybrid of participant observation and interviewing—can be layered with an occupational lens to enhance the in-depth study of occupation. They provide an overview of the use of interview and observational methods in occupational science and occupational therapy research, as well as an introduction to the go-along method. Next they draw upon two go-along interviews from a larger ethnographic study to illustrate the method’s contributions to the study of occupation and describe considerations when using this method.
Ultimately, the team assert that the go-along method is a useful tool for exploring the complex, situated, and experiential nature of occupation.
Citation: Carri Hand, Katherine Stewart, Debbie Laliberte Rudman, Colleen McGrath, Jami McFarland, and Jason Gilliland. “Applying the Go-Along Method to Enhance Understandings of Occupation in Context.” Journal of Occupational Science (2021); https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2021.1992794