Uncovering and managing unconscious ways of ‘looking’: A case study of researching educational care

Abstract

This article explores how the idea of ‘caring for’ students served as a defence mechanism that both enabled me to conduct research and at the same time disabled my ability to understand student participants' meanings of educational care. Multiple resources, including meditation strategies and a method of narrative analysis – which required me to pay attention to students' unprompted stories – provided ways to interrupt my defensive mechanisms. With my own assumptions interrupted, I was then able to better see and analyse students' understandings. This article contributes to the growing body of academic work that addresses the ways scholars can become ‘good enough’ researchers (Luttrell, W. (2000). ‘Good enough’ methods for ethnographic research. Harvard Educational Review, 70(4), 499–523).