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Chapter Five
A Beginning (Up-Bringing - Session 10)
A full transcript of the beginning part of Session 10, from which the data analysed in
this chapter has been drawn, together with some researcher commentary, is included as
part of this chapter, on Pages 147 to 162.
Introduction
This chapter is the first of five analyses of episodes of interaction. In this case (all are
subtly different), first there is a verbatim transcript of a series of events, followed by my
researcher account as participant observer to the events of the transcript. The account
(and the transcript) is of the content and process of the beginning of a session, with
limited (but nonetheless significant) analytic or interpretive comment. Next, an extract
from the session is chosen and highlighted as a Sticky Moment. In order to complete the
contextualisation of that moment, there is next a description of aspects of the discussion
in the class over the rest of the session, including the break in the middle of the session
when the tutors meet separately from the group. Then there is some analysis of the
Sticky Moment. Finally, in a more interpretive manner, I develop the linking of the
products of this analysis, both to other points in the session and the semester, and to
relevant theory.
The aims of this chapter
Methodologically, this chapter demonstrates the capacity of the methodology to explore
and understand group processes. Specifically, this particular demonstration is of an
analysis of a temporal sequence of events which constitute a beginning of something.