ABSTRACT
The homes had to be visited. The duration and timing of these visits posed a dilemma. A day would not be sufficient but several weeks would be too much; not to say a less than propitious use of research resources. Each home was studied over a period of one calendar year. After an initial preparatory visit, the fieldwork took place over three days and nights. Data were drawn from several sources, including managers, professionals, children and families inside and outside of the residential centre. Again, there were occasionally contradictions in what was being said to the researchers and judgements had to be made about what was actually happening. Culture may persist despite people’s comings and goings and new arrivals, whether staff or children, will be socialised into the home’s way of life. The difficulty swiftly became how to organise and analyse the amount of information being collected.
