Date: Wednesday 16^th December 2015

Time: 19:30

Location: Administration area

Participant: Kim (pseudonym)

After short greetings and exchanges of pleasantries, discussions began with the coach/researcher asking an open-ended question. For example, in this entry the following question was asked: “Didn’t Debbie (pseudonym for Kim’s daughter) do well again tonight?”

Responses were then investigated further by use of a funneling technique outlined by Smith & Osborn [15] . For instance, the initial response to the above question was: “She sure did. I am so proud of her right now, even some of her teachers have commented on how well she is doing.”

An open-ended probe was then used to “draw out” the meaning of this reply, “That must make you proud! What do think has contributed to the change in behaviour?” To which Kim answered, “I think coming here has a lot to do with it. There are so many good people here, and mixing with the likes of Jane and Sara (pseudonyms for two of the older female participant/informal mentors) has really influenced her behaviour and improved her outlook.”

An open-ended prompt was used at this stage to further explore the previous response—“Really, in which way?” By this stage of the process a richer description of the original answer was usually provided, as can be seen from the following response from Kim: “Well, Jane and Sara are great role models and I think their positive attitude has rubbed off on Debbie.”