Mr Simon Hammond
| Job Title | Contact | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Research Student | S dot Hammond at uea dot ac dot uk |
Biography
Simon joined the School of Social Work and Psychology as a PhD Researcher and Associate Tutor in October 2008, before which he had worked as a residential worker with looked-after adolescents, Course Manager and Lecturer in Sports Psychology and as a freelance Consultant Sports Psychologist. Holding a BA (Hons) in Psychology and Sport Studies and an MSc in Psychology, Simon is also a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS). He is a member of the Social Psychology and Qualitative Psychology Sections of the BPS, as well as the Psychologists and Social Services Special Interest Group. Finally Simon is an active contributor to the Qualitative and Critical Psychology Research Group at UEA.
For more information about Simon’s work visit: http://eastanglia.academia.edu/SimonHammond
For information about the Qualitative and Critical Psychology Research Group at UEA visit:
http://www.ueapsychology.net/qualitative-and-critical-psychology-pg18.html
Representative Publications:
Hammond, S. P. & Cooper, N. J. (2011). Participant information clips: A role for digital video technologies to recruit, inform and debrief research participants and disseminate research findings. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. 14(4), 259-270
Hammond, S. P. & Cooper, N. J. (2011). From looked-after children to looking after children, insight from an unusual perspective. International Journal of Social Work, 54(2), 238-245
Hammond, S. P. (2011). Facebook friend or Facebook foe? Good Enough Caring Journal. Available online from June, 15th 2011 http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.aspx
Hammond, S. P. (2009). Take your PIC. The Psychologist, 823.
Hammond, S. P. (2009). Updating Life Story Work for use with a technologically proficient generation: A review. Good Enough Caring Journal. Available online from June 2009
http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.aspx
Hammond, S. P. (2008). Penny for Your Thoughts Jen: Surviving and Thriving in Residential Care Homes. Good Enough Caring Journal. Available online from December 2008
http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.aspx
Selected conference presentations:
Hammond, S. P. (2011). Participant Information Clips (PIC) using digital technologies conveying information to potential, current and former participants. 2nd International Visual Methods Conference. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
Hammond, S. P. (2010). New technologies in life story work with adolescents in residential care. Key note at “From Coalface to Facebook?" The Child Care History Network (CCHN), Planned Environment Therapy Trust Conference Centre, Gloucester. For event details click here or Click here for conference report
Hammond, S. P. (2010). Exploring a role for new technologies in life story work with adolescents in residential care. “INSIDE OUT: 11th biennial conference of European Scientific Association on Residential and Foster Care for Children and Adolescents (EUSARF), University of Groningen, The Netherlands, Book of Abstracts, p.647-684.
Podwalking as a data generation tool in narrative inquiry. Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section (QMiP) Annual Conference, August 2010. Click to view abstract
Selected dissemination activities:
Exploring a role for new technologies in life story work with adolescents in residential care: Emerging findings – School of Social Work and Psychology Seminar Series, November 2010.
Using Participant Information Clips with participants. Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section (QMiP) Annual Conference August 2010. Click to view abstract
Is this your life? Updating life story work for use with a technologically proficient generation. Post Graduate Showcase Event, June 2010. For more information on this event click here
On their level, using ICT to communicate with young people. UEA Making Research Count program – Suffolk Social Services: April 2010. For more information on this event click here
Vulnerable adolescents: Do problems always show? The Welfare of the Child, Norwich Cathedral. January 2009.
Key Research Interests
Summary of Current Project – ‘Exploring a role for new technologies in life story work with adolescents in residential care: A discourse analysis’
Background:
Life story work appears to be rarely undertaken with adolescents living in residential care. Yet engaging this population in such work is highly desirable as it has the potential to promote reflection, resolution and a sense of coherence about past and present life experiences, which may enable them to look more positively to the future. Digital media such as mobile phones and the Internet have changed the way adolescents choose to communicate with each other and those around them. They are used by many to spontaneously record events from the world in which they live in the way they see it. Despite the affinity of digital media to promote reflection, the use of such technologies by many in direct practice remains marginalised.
Aims:
This study aimed to create, develop and explore ways in which digital technologies may be used as communicative strategies which appeal to looked after adolescents and assist them to articulate important elements of their life stories. It also examined how residential care environments respond, react, problematise and promote the Digital Life Story Work (DLSW) approaches created in partnership with the young people and practitioners living and working in this care context.
Methodology:
Using a participatory action research approach, young people in residential care were engaged in the development, use and evaluation of a secure bespoke, private website known as bebook. The young people and practitioners also contributed to the development of an innovative methodological approach called Podwalking. The participatory ethos of this project also encouraged critical reflections upon traditional consent gaining mechanisms leading to the creation of Participant Information Clips (PICs), a strategy for allowing researchers to convey information in communicatively sensitive manner to potential, current and past research participants (see Hammond & Cooper, 2011). The created DLSW approaches of bebook and Podwalking were then introduced to a selection of residential homes using PICs, with ongoing contributions from young people and staff members playing a key role in the integration and progression of these approaches. The introduction and use of these approaches allowed the study to collect a range of qualitative data, analysed using a discursive psychological framework.
Findings and Implications:
Initial findings suggest that young people uploading content, such as pictures and video camera journal logs, tend to have an increased ability to reflect on recent events and understand such things in a temporal fashion. Practitioners support the usefulness of modern technologies in engaging adolescents in DLSW and this study provides a model for future developments. Comments from young people indicated a preference for more widely used Social Networking Sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Bebo as opposed to the bespoke website. Reasons for this preference appear to reflect a wider culture acceptance and growing usage of such sites within society as a way of maintaining friendships. However the young people also recognised that the bespoke website provided them with a safe space in which they could reflect and discuss with those around them memories which they did not feel comfortable sharing or reflecting upon on SNS.
The explosion of digital technologies, their ability to readily connect to the Internet and their appeal to this population indicates a need to acknowledge, explore and engage with adolescents using the abundance of opportunities such technologies provide. This change in communicative preferences needs to be considered by practitioners and researchers when developing future interventions for working and researching with marginalised and vulnerable groups. As one worker put it:
“.. These technologies aren't going anywhere are they?” (Holly, residential worker).
Moving forward:
The Digital Life Story Work approaches pioneered in this study and indeed their innovative methodological techniques are currently being explored and disseminated in a range of academic and practitioner publications. Thanks to funding gained from Research Enterprise Services (REN) at UEA further development of the bespoke website is ongoing. For more information on any aspect of this research please contact Simon directly.
Dr Neil Cooper
Professor Gillian Schofield
Grants obtained:
2010-2011 ‘bebook’ The Research Enterprise and Engagement Office, University of East Anglia.
2009-2010 The AL Charitable Trust. The application of ICT for life story work with young people in residential care
