Understanding 'Home' in alternative care: A multidimensional analysis of practitioner's experience

This contribution presents the analysis process and the first results of the doctoral project 'The Home Dimension in Alternative Care'. The project was designed as a multiphase qualitative study (1). It aimed to explore how educators use physical space and the idea of 'home' in educating children in the Residential Care Homes (RCH). The project collaborated with two RCHs from the Lombardy region and a total of 12 professional educators. The analysis process follows the trajectories indicated by the phenomenological philosophy of research (2)(3). It focuses on the interpretative dimension that sees the researcher as a mediator of the meanings of the participants' lived experiences (4). Given the multidimensional and multilayered nature of meaning, the analysis process was also articulated on different levels and explored a wide variety of texts - including participant photography. Emerging themes were the result of a circular process that intertwined Van Manen's (3) proposal for textual analysis and the matrix developed by Hannes & Wang (5) for the exploration of visual material. To reduce the risk of flattening and ventriloquism, follow-ups were conducted with the research participants to share and discuss the initial findings. In this sense, the research journal (6) played a crucial role in developing a reflexive posture. In conclusion, the contribution will present the three macro-themes that emerged, which can be summarised as 1) Materiality, 2) Practices of 'making home', and 3) Meanings of 'home' in the lived experience participants.