Managing insider issues through reflexive techniques : an insider-researcher’s journey

Abstract

Experiences of conducting research vary according to the researcher’s position in the research process. This paper discusses the experiences and valuable insights of a researching journey with colleagues who share commonalities with the researcher. This is often described as an insider-researcher’s experience, in which the researcher conducts research into intimately-known communities, such as one’s own profession, workplace, social grouping, or a specific aspect of their culture. Although it is possible to generally define the characteristics of an insider-researcher, the issues and challenges experienced by individual researchers vary according to their contexts. This paper highlights a number of issues and challenges which emerged during an ethnographic data collection process. These issues were primarily associated with the researcher’s own insider knowledge, entanglement, and role ambiguity. This paper describes these issues and how they were managed through several reflexive techniques such as writing a field-journal, the ‘think aloud’ approach, and diagramming. Exploring these issues and challenges may contribute to a wider understanding of insider-researcher perspectives in the research journey