Research Reflection - A Summer Exploring all Things Intergenerational.

Being new to the field research, this was my first time immersing myself in a project like this and it was a completely new challenge that has significantly added to my academic experience in Trinity College Dublin.
What was outlined in my original research proposal did not go plan unfortunately but being able to change and adapt at short notice is a very useful skill that I use in all areas of life.
I have always been passionate about intergenerational activity (IA) and when given the opportunity to research a topic of my choice I knew this was going to be my subject of interest. Growing up, my mother cared for my grandparents and their brothers and sisters. Being around them was a big part of my life and I experienced and appreciated the benefits that IA has early on. Throughout my twenties I gathered friends from many different generations (e.g. my friend who returned to college at the age of 65). To me, these friendships have been invaluable to my life. So I was very excited to have dedicated time to research this topic and find out what is happening in and Irish context.
There were a number of things that got in the way of my original plan which we will get to as we go further into the journey! The six weeks were planned out as follows, the first two weeks were spent carrying out literature reviews in order to gain a better understanding of the work that is going on in the field. I didn’t think I would enjoy this part as much as I did. I had a meeting with Dr. Catherine Elliott O’Dare who currently researches in this area and she sent me over relevant papers which set me on a very good path. Whilst carrying out the literature review I also began to plan out the event I was going to run as the main objective of the project, by arranging participants and planning activities. I arranged for the event to take part in a day centre in my local area. The clients would be the older study participants and a local sports club would be the young adults taking part.
The event was planned and set to go, all participants were ready and then, I got covid. I had to postpone the event unfortunately and had rearranged for a later date that suited both the day centre and younger participants. This was a number of weeks later. I was frustrated at first but was still happy that I had a date and the work up until this point was not going to go to waste.
Then, 4 days before the next date I broke my foot. I was really looking forward running the research event and this was hard to give up on at first but life happens and learning to adapt is essential. I cancelled the event and at this point I realised that I had to change up the research.
After speaking to my supervisor and the Laidlaw coordinator I changed the direction of my project. I went back to the drawing board and got to work on figuring out a new proposal that I could work from that would incorporate IA and allow me to complete my project. Time was of the essence. My new research would follow a similar line but would not involve the event.
I decided to take a qualitative approach . The project would involve interviewing five to seven participants that engage in IA regularly in order to examine the impacts that IA has their lives. I formed a set of semi structured, open ended interview questions to explore the impacts IA has on older adults. After the interview schedule was created it was time to carry out the interviews. I was nervous but realised very quickly that this was my favourite part of the research, talking to people, hearing their stories and their first-hand experience of mixing with other generations.
I had learned a lot by this point. Firstly that I knew that IA was an area I would like to study further. I also learned that what I thought would take two weeks took more like three. I learned that organisation is paramount in data collection and analysis. Getting to grip with thematic analysis to analyse the data involved a lot of work.
The personal development session, public speaking and project management sessions that we have participated in to date as part of the Laidlaw programme have been an incredible addition to my learning and development this summer while I have undertaken this research.
As part of the interview process the importance of public speaking became very apparent very quickly. The project management session gave me great tools to organise myself and this also presented itself in my coaching session.
I am very grateful for this opportunity and would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Philomena Mullen and the Laidlaw team for their support in helping me to change up my project. It turns out I really enjoyed how the project turned out and I am still very enthusiastic to carry out my original proposal after finishing this piece of research.
I would also like to thank Dr Catherine Elliott O’Dare, for her guidance and for allowing me to audit her module this semester in the area of ageing and intergenerational relations.
After looking back on the summer I have learned so much about the research process and about myself. Diving into an area I had no previous knowledge of has been a great opportunity to learn and grow both academically and personally and I am very excited for what the rest of this programme has to offer.
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I love that the journey was just as valuable as the final destination of this project. It reminds me that there is a learning opportunity at every step. Congratulations on a great project @Rachel O'Kelly