{"id":842,"date":"2010-08-13T11:18:55","date_gmt":"2010-08-13T11:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edtechandtesol.info\/phd\/?p=842"},"modified":"2010-08-13T11:18:55","modified_gmt":"2010-08-13T11:18:55","slug":"eljees-developing-researcher-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/?p=842","title":{"rendered":"Eljee's developing researcher narrative: where am I?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I enter into the discussion melee rather late in the game. \u00a0I\u2019m not a great blogger and end up lurking online bouncing between posts and forums. \u00a0But I would like to (finally) add my thoughts on the discussion on reflective\/reflexive area. \u00a0Since I\u2019m late in the conversation I won\u2019t address the plethora of what\u2019s been discussed in the previous 30 or so odd posts (!!!), but rather touch on the subject of researcher narratives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere am I?\u201d \u00a0or perhaps, \u201cWhere am I in the research process?\u201d or even \u201cWhere am I in the research data?\u201d<\/p>\n

These are questions I think researchers, in any discipline, will (or ought to) ask themselves. \u00a0It is not to say that there is either <\/em>an objective or subjective stance to how the researcher positions themselves in the study, as there is a range of both that exists.\u00a0 The range is due to many factors, for example, scientific studies (i.e. biology) have traditionally an objective slant to the study and thus, the researcher (i.e. Richard\u2019s biologist brother) is inclined to design and viewtheir study in this way.\u00a0 The researcher brings into the study their background, education and experience which influence how they choose to design their study.\u00a0 This, I think, is the reflexive aspect to research, the degree to which the researcher accounts for what they bring into the study which, in turn, can influence where they position themselves within their research.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to offer some of my thinking to illustrate what I mean. \u00a0For example, my research involves looking at how VEM-NESTs (visible ethnic minority, native English speaking teachers) create their professional identities using narrative based approaches.\u00a0 This involves looking at complicated areas of race and native speakerism (as well all the power of the English language, which is a separate discussion).\u00a0 During my MA I encountered the issue of being the researcher as well as<\/strong> the subject of the research and wondered where on earth was I suppose to position myself in all this.<\/p>\n

Back then, I wanted to distance myself from the study by deliberately choosing NOT to include my narrative as part of the data set that was analysed. \u00a0At the time I believed that by doing so, I\u2019d create space for myself in order to become more objective would therefore be able to analyse the data more effectively. \u00a0I was also very cautious of being too subjective , such as seeing what I wanted to see and as a result, chose a highly structured analytical tool to approach the narratives of other VEM-NESTs. \u00a0I believed that having a very systematic approach would also help me gain a deeper understanding of the data as long as I kept myself out of the picture so as not to \u201ctaint\u201d my findings with my views. \u00a0The big irony here was that I wanted to make sense of my own narrative though analysing the narratives of others, but not my own!<\/p>\n

However in practice this was awkward as I found it impossible to completely distance myself from the study.\u00a0 I am a VEM-NEST researching about other VEM-NESTs with similar backgrounds.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t that I could completely dissociate my racial and linguistic background from my identity as a researcher.\u00a0 Rather it was suggested that I account for it.<\/p>\n

So I did, by first acknowledging (at least to myself) that my background is actually part of the research process and that I am not a neutral player but rather being aware that I will bring in my particular views and interpretations to the study.\u00a0 Getting to this point took some time as my background in hermeneutics (particularly studies into religious texts) have roots in positivist paradigms. \u00a0But I also found the prospect of analysing my own narrative particularly uncomfortable. \u00a0Backward, yes, as I\u2019m willing to analyse the narrative of others but less willing to look at my own.<\/p>\n

So here I am, nearly 3 years later and still asking \u201cWhere am I?\u201d in the research process. \u00a0I recognise that I am, and always have been, part of the research data. \u00a0How I\u2019ve come to try to address my uncertainty is looking at what I term the range of positionality that is available.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

This is one of the slides I used during my conference presentation at Narrative Matters, the full version can be found here<\/span><\/a>. I chose this slide to illustrate where I am in terms of my researcher narrative. \u00a0In an nutshell, the slide illustrates the range in which the researcher can choose to place themselves in relation to their participants. \u00a0How much of yourself, your views\/position\/subjectivity(?) you share with your participants is a valid question to ask.<\/p>\n

Attempting to be reflexive in an autobiographical narrative study gets me in circles, where I find myself trying to account for everything. \u00a0One approach I thought of as a way to move forward is to view my relationship with my participants as multi-directional rather than one-way. \u00a0In my previous MA study it was a one-way direction, where I asked my participants to give me their narratives of being a VEM-NEST in an EFL context. \u00a0They didn\u2019t ask for my narrative and I didn\u2019t offer it. \u00a0Now, I\u2019m considering offering my narrative as a fellow VEM-NEST as a way to position myself within the data. \u00a0Here is my story, can you tell me yours? \u00a0I expect that the narratives that I gather when doing could be different to the previous ones. \u00a0I\u2019ll provide an update in due time.<\/p>\n

There are more thoughts on this, but I\u2019ll leave it for now!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I enter into the discussion melee rather late in the game. \u00a0I\u2019m not a great blogger and end up lurking online bouncing between posts and forums. \u00a0But I would like to (finally) add my thoughts on the discussion on reflective\/reflexive area. \u00a0Since I\u2019m late in the conversation I won\u2019t address the plethora of what\u2019s been discussed in the previous 30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[147,183,189,191,203,216,218,219,223,225,455,226,268,269],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p865eh-dA","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}