Método de interpolación – Kriging

Fairclough (1993) refers to the collection of discourse samples as ‘the corpus’, meaning a collection of writings. Similarly, Foucault (1989) discusses the ‘archive’, not wholly in the sense of a collection of documents, but as the general set of rules that form and transform discursive statements. Foucault’s archive exists only to reveal “the conditions (‘the set of rules’) by which it is possible to ‘know’ something at a specific historical point and by which this knowledge changes” (McHoul & Grace, 1993, p. 31). For simplicity, the collections of texts used in this study are named the corpus.

In the first instance, descriptive materials found in documentary sources need to be selected on the basis that their content links to current concerns and have the potential to reveal relationships of power. According to Taylor (2001), “what counts as data will depend on the researcher’s theoretical assumptions, about discourse and also about the broad topic of the research” (p. 24). There is also the need to distinguish between what is data that will be analysed and what is useful contextual information. Cheek (2004, p. 1146) expresses an ongoing tension “between the text and the context in which the text is situated” and the dilemma deciding how much detail beyond the text in question is needed to convey a reasonable sense of context for the reader.

A commonly used way of enhancing the corpus is through interviews where the people identified in corpus samples can contribute their interpretations as participants of particular events (Fairclough, 1993). Interviews conducted specifically for this study were audio-recorded and transcribed and became textual data, as did the transcript of a television news item. It should be said, however, that interview data was not privileged as a form of discourse “somehow more

primary or authentic than other forms” of text (Ogle & Glass, 2006, p. 96) and so was not necessarily chosen for analysis in preference to published text.

The collection of data for the corpus in general was relatively straightforward and involved searching university library databases of academic journals and catalogues for publications that relate to nurse practitioners, advanced nursing practice, and the regulation of nursing practice. Publications and policy documents produced by the Ministry of Health, the Nursing Council, and health professionals’ organisations, including documents located on associated Internet sites, have also contributed to the corpus; also newspaper items, photographs, and advertisements. More unusual, perhaps, has been the inclusion of electronic mail submitted to a discussion board and used with the express permission of the author of the post.

Foucault “wrote that, whenever possible, he would employ a ‘concrete example’ to ‘serve as a testing ground for analysis’” (Rabinow, 1997, p. xi). I, too, have sought concrete examples from within the corpus for detailed analysis. Selection is not always straightforward, yet it is critically important to the study outcomes. Fairclough (1993) offers a selection strategy that focuses on what he calls ‘moments of crisis’ or moments when things go wrong. Although Fairclough takes a more linguistic approach to texts as he identifies these moments, I liken his strategy to Foucault’s concept of the ‘epistemic break’ and understand this to mean where one system of knowledge or power falls and another takes its place. Texts illustrative of a disruption to an existing regime have therefore been the focus for selection in this study. An example is recorded in my project journal of a decision to choose a television news item about nurses’ prescribing rights as a text for analysis (L. Mason, 2005, July 29). The journal entry identifies a challenge to the existing medical regime of control over prescribing:

Journal entry 8 August 2005

My thoughts today re. prescribing are that both medical and nursing professions are each desperately creating a ‘will to truth’ that will become the dominant discourse and therefore sway current policy decisions. Am wondering if transcribing the TVOne news item video would be useful since it showcases each position in quite useful ways.

I did proceed with analysis of the news item and it comprises a significant portion of chapter nine. The remaining sections of this chapter deal with the practical management of the research project with respect to ethics, study participants, qualitative data analysis software, and the construction of the data analysis chapters. As a person writing from a particular position at a specific time, I make a “conscientious effort to ‘tell the truth’ about the making of the account” (Gergen & Gergen, 2000, p. 1028). Known also as ‘reflexivity’, accountability for the analysis is enhanced when interpretive processes are made publicly available for evaluation (Burman & Parker, 1993). Richardson (2000) suggests that a post- structural perspective incites reflection on method, and to do so I position myself more prominently in the remaining sections of this chapter than I have elsewhere in the thesis. Lincoln and Denzin (2000, p. 1051) discuss the extent to which the personal should have a place in a scholarly text and suggest it is impossible “for an author to write a text that does not bear traces of its author”. I include excerpts from the journal in which I documented my thoughts and decisions for much of the project, and examine, in places, my own subject position as nurse, student and author/researcher.