om their families by borders – keep contact with their families?

This topic is a sociological area of interest as shedding light on how tech-mediated communication may help the maintenance of ‘familyhood’ (Bryceson and Vuorela, 2002) in this particular form of transnational situation when parents stay at the home country and children temporarily leave (Baldassar et al., 2014). Using a qualitative research method, I would like to find out how, when, and in what ways students keep in touch with their families, and how it helps to sustain ‘familyhood’. I am interested in whether there are some similarities and differences in the contacting habits of families, and what can account for these. Furthermore, I am keen to understand the emotional dimension that lies behind these contacting habits.

This essay intends to give a methodological reflection on the research process and introduce some preliminary topics of interest that emerged from data coding. First, I argue that interviewing is the appropriate method for answering the research question. Second, I justify why sampling for range was an efficient way to choose the research participants. Next, I explain how my insider situation supported the recruitment process, and I briefly introduce my interviewees. Afterwards, I walk the reader through how I constructed the interview guide and reflect on how the interviews went, at which point, I also describe how I improved the quality of my interview questions and interviewing skills throughout the process. Then, I present the upcoming ethical issues in the research. Then I proceed to argue that open-coding permitted me to identify some features of family contacting habits. Finally, I identify some points that are beginning to take shape around generational differences, emotional support and encouragement, situational impacts, the pressure to conform within the family and emotional effects of using video function, as the preliminary findings of the research.

Methodological reflection