The Construction of Researcher–Researched Relationships in School Ethnography: Doing Research, Participating in the Field and Reflecting on Ethical Dilemmas
Source: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Volume 26, Issue 7, 2013, pages 763-779.
In qualitative research, the researcher’s engagement over time in participants’ daily lives entails the creation and maintenance of favourable and cooperative field relations.
The author claims it is important to build a reflexive component into the research, exploring how the researcher and researched interact with each other within the context of school and how they are challenged by political and ethical dilemmas.
This article draws upon the author's experience while conducting an ethnographic study in an international school in mainland China.
The author reflected on two issues: what field relations were established in what ways, and what threads to ethics and research validity the author encountered in the course of the fieldwork.