Evasions in Interactions: Examples from the Transcultural Nursing Research Field

Transcultural qualitative research is known for its utility in eliciting in-depth narratives, resulting in increased understanding about cultural phenomena. However, sometimes specific phenomena in the researcher’s inquiry are ignored, evaded, or denied; or a seemingly crucial experience demonstrating society’s unfairness, which the researcher had been expecting, does not emerge. In this paper, the issue of evasions in narratives is addressed, with two examples in which participants evaded the issue about which they were asked: perceptions of discrimination for aging adults of Mexican descent, and perceptions of living with life-limiting illnesses for aging African American adults. The Ethno-Cultural Gerontological Nursing Model framework’s Macro-level factors (climate of stereotypes, attitudes and ascriptions of the majority group) and Group-based influences (“Cultural/historical traditions” and “Cohort influences”) organize our thinking about addressing evasions by minority research participants. Four tools synthesized from the literature and our research experiences are recommended: (1) self-assessment of one’s own cultural values and lenses, (2) cocollaborating during the data collection and analysis phases, (3) acknowledging the power position of the researcher, and (4) over-reading.