Insider Research Research Articles

Spatial justice in the development of a women’s football team in Melbourne, Australia; an ethnographic study

The barriers and challenges to women’s participation in sport have been well established, however there is a paucity of research examining the development of a women’s football team from an ethnographic methodology. In this case study, the primary researcher was embedded as an insider researcher within a football club, conducting 160 hours of observations, field notes, informal discussions, and three semi-structed interviews capturing the development of a women’s football team over an 18-month period in Melbourne, Australia. Utilising a spatial justice theoretical framework, this study revealed that although there has been an increase in investment in women’s sport, and a desire by women to play, women’s teams still face an abundance of spatial injustices that constrain their participation, such as pre-established sporting clubs being privileged and prioritised. This led to difficulties for a newly established ethnically diverse women’s team in negotiating access to facilities and playing in competitive leagues. Issues of spatial justice are rarely considered within gender equity in sport policy, yet the findings of the study outline the need to address injustice if gender equity within sport participation is to be realised. This research provides methodological, empirical and practical contributions to knowledge on women’s participation in community football. The paper concludes by illustrating that issues of spatial justice need to be foregrounded in efforts to promote and support women’s participation in sport.

Telling Stories of Practice in the Neo-liberal Context of English Social Work

Abstract The authors contend that the rise of neo-liberal codified management systems within English social work increasingly restricts social workers freedom to be creative in their practice reducing them to social administrators. We are two registered social work professionals and academics who believe managerial contexts encroach on our professional values. As insider researchers, we engaged in conversations and case storytelling to examine how our knowledge and practice as social workers positively influenced outcomes for people who have lived experiences. The two stories articulated in this article magnify how professional use of self can enact emancipatory empathy in the minutiae of practice. Collaborating as insider ethnographers supported us to deconstruct practice using critical reflection and reflexivity in post-modernist contexts. We highlight how micro examinations in collaborative autoethnography have potential for engaging wider philosophical conversations about social work identity.

The Western Perspective on Islam: Reading the Legacy of Snouck Hurgronje on Islamic Studies

This article discusses the Western perspective on Islamic studies, particularly through the academic legacy of Snouck Hurgronje, a Dutch scholar known for his research on Muslim culture in Aceh and his influence on the Dutch colonial strategy in the Dutch East Indies. The author aims to answer two questions: what were the methods and characteristics of Islamic studies used by Snouck Hurgronje, and how do they differ from contemporary Islamic studies? Utilizing library research, it examines scholarly literature on Hurgronje, comparing his methods to current Islamic studies practices in Western universities and Indonesia. The article sheds light on Hurgronje’s role in introducing anthropology and ethnography to Islamic studies, noting his significant contributions to the development of ethnographic methods in this area. It suggests that his approach has been influential in shaping the study of Islam and continues to influence contemporary research methodologies in the field. However, the article also notes that 21st-century Islamic studies are fundamentally different from Hurgronje’s era, with a greater focus on insider researchers and a lack of imperialistic interests. These scholars, particularly those in Indonesian universities under the Ministry of Religious Affairs, have a significant influence on the field and continue the legacy of Hurgronje by using philological, anthropological, and ethnographic approaches to Islamic studies.

Experiences of an Insider in Qualitative Research: My Doctoral Research Journey in a Public University, Kenya

Qualitative researchers position themselves more as ‘insiders’ than ‘outsiders’ due to the nature of the research paradigm. In this paper, I will present and discuss my role and experiences as an insider researcher during my doctorate research journey. I begin by exploring the debate surrounding the role of an insider in qualitative research, in addition to highlighting key arguments within the literature, while reflecting on my personal experiences as a PhD candidate. In particular personal experiences that made the researcher play the role of an ‘insider’ more as compared to an ‘outsider’ researcher will be discussed. The first part of this paper will cover the conceptualisation of the terms ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’. This will be followed by a discussion and presentation of key discourses based on the role of an ‘insider’ in qualitative research. Being an insider researcher, I was able to access research institutions to collect data without having to organise ‘settling in’, which made it possible to collect data every day of the week at any time of the day, thus providing continuity in the data collection process. More so, I was able to control the research process by using stories, voice, and transcripts. Since it was a sensitive study, as an insider researcher, I did consider ethical concerns and the importance of counselling the participants. Challenges based on the risk of insider struggling between their role as a group member and a researcher are presented. In addition, the delicate balancing that the researcher engaged in while deciding how much of the insider information is to be shared with the participants is discussed

The feasibility of the story as a quality instrument as a narrative quality improvement method

Background and objective: Stories from older adults give insight into their personal lives and in the care they receive. The story as a quality instrument is a narrative quality improvement method with which care professionals can interview older adults about how care is experienced. Each performed interview will be translated into a portrait containing the core themes of the shared story. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of and experiences with the story as a quality instrument amongst care professionals and older adults receiving long-term care.Methods: Five care locations providing nursing home care and one providing home care participated in the current study. In total 19 trained care professionals performed interviews with 52 older adults. Both the performed interviews and written portraits were scored according to preset criteria to establish the compliance to the predetermined protocol. Next to that, experiences from care professionals as insider researchers and respondents were gathered.Results: Overall the fidelity for performing the interview was good. In 90% of cases interviewers posed one inviting open question. Following, interviewers used proposed interviewing techniques such as asking in depth questions, asking for an example or summarizing what has been said. In 20 of the interviews, the respondents input accounted for over 80% of the total number of words, and in 27 interviews the respondents’ input accounted for 60%-80%. Fidelity with the protocol for drawing up portraits was sufficient in most cases. In 66% the portrait contained all important themes and in 32% the majority of important themes. One portrait missed a significant proportion of themes mentioned during the interview. The experiences from care professionals consist of successes, challenges, added value and prerequisites.Conclusions: Care professionals were mostly capable of following the method according to protocol after being trained. The method is believed to be a promising innovation because care professionals play a key role in gathering and using stories to improve quality of care. The outcomes can be used by care professionals to learn and improve within their care location according to the quality framework for nursing home care.

The Islands of Sanity in the Killing Fields of Inequalities: A juxtaposed case in Management, Leadership and Governance Practices!

This article was motivated by the conversations which ensued at ECMLG 2021 after a presentation on a similar topic. The question from the audience was whether the researcher and analyst still had tenure in the insider research project he had just shared. The response was in the affirmative, although serious concerns were expressed about the quality of the tenure, symbolized by the brutality and dehumanising tendencies of the then University Regime. Therefore, this project-based article at ECMLG 2022 continues from that debate. Mirrored on the national events as a result of the Justice Zondo Commission about State Capture in South Africa, the article focuses on one case of a university institution, which was arguable under a capture during a particular regime of a Vice Chancellor and Principal. The case of “The Killing Fields of Inequalities” is very typical of the national contexts, which is still steeped in settler colonialism and in a structured racist system, strangely almost thirty years into constitutional democracy. Such a case is juxtaposed with what can be referred to as “Islands of Sanity”! The two African folklore illustrate the case as reported in the article. Firstly, that the system can be changed but it will first try to eat you up! Secondly, that when the hyena wants to eat its own children, it first accuses them of smelling like rats. Therefore, the main argument, which serves as the anchor for the article, is to problematise the taken for granted claims about management, leadership and governance practices in university education spaces. This can be done by means of realist oriented scholarship projects, which ought to dig deeper than what appears on surface as leadership for the idea of university education as the public good. In this regard, the article suggests a realist social program, which is anchored on the critical realist philosophy, in accounting for the cited practices and in ways that can shed more light for the transformative outcomes than those reported in the article. It is envisaged that the article will have as the result, promotion of systemic conversations about the default position and fault consciousness in the idea of university education in general and how such an idea should be better managed, led and governed in the national development plans (in the case of South Africa, for example).

Intersubjectivity and mental health nurses as insider researchers

Ayres et al's (2021) reflective account published in this journal discusses Ayres' experience of undertaking a doctoral study concerned with how mental health nurses who had been assaulted by patients in secure settings make sense of this experience. This commentary recognises the importance of extending the dialogue initiated by Ayres' account, specifically regarding intersubjectivity in research relationships and research beneficence. An emphasis is placed on how practitioner participation in research interviews, whether as the interviewer or interviewee, can be a cathartic experience and foster practice reflection. However, engagement in more sensitive research may also present additional risk considerations for the insider researcher, such as emotional safety risks.

Ethnographic borders and crossings: Critical ethnography, intersectionality, and blurring the boundaries of insider research.

Critical ethnographers have long challenged positivist notions of research objectivity and the presumed unbiased observer, arguing that one’s theoretical lens and positionality influence research design, access, and experiences in the field. Scholars of color have further pointed out the need to examine people’s lived experiences through an intersectional framework, acknowledging the ways in which people’s lives are situated within larger structures of power and forms of oppression. In this paper, I use critical ethnography as an intersectional methodological approach to examine the lived experiences of mixed-status families and situate them within a larger political-economic context of restrictive immigration policies and neoliberal globalization. Critical ethnography is a useful methodology when interrogating larger questions of structure and agency, positionality, and social justice scholarship. I use critical ethnography to challenge the rigidity of ethnographic borders by proposing a concept of “ethnographic crossings” as moments in time and space when the roles of researchers and participants become blurred and intertwined. I draw on ethnographic examples to show the evolution of my project—from gaining access to immigrant families and following them across two countries to the close relationships developed during fieldwork that crossed emotional boundaries.

“Set Your Soul on Fire”: A Feminist-Informed Co-Constructed Autoethnography of Sixteen Multidiscipline, Multicultural, and Multilingual Globally Located Academic Women Exploring Gendered Academic Productivity During COVID-19

This co-constructed autoethnographic reflection presents the experiences of our feminist-informed research team, COVID GAP (Gendered Academic Productivity), a group of sixteen women who collaborated to investigate reports of reduced academic contributions from women-identified scholars during the pandemic. As insider researchers, we joined together in a virtual space with the shared goal to better understand women academics’ lived experiences of the impact of the pandemic specifically as related to their academic productivity. Throughout our work together as a research team, we have reflected on how the pandemic has impacted each of us as academic women and how participation in the COVID GAP research group provided us with the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary scholarship and collaboration. We shared our process of co-creating our research team, our intersectionality as academics, and our gendered experiences of how scholarly productivity serves as currency throughout academia. Utilizing quotes from all members, we unified our voices in feminist accord concluding with recommendations for fellow academic women.

Negotiating insider research through reactive collaboration: challenges, issues and failures

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the ways in which reactive researcher collaboration helps to manage some of the challenges present in insider research.Design/methodology/approachEmploying (auto)biographical reflections from across two different case-studies, the authors explore the ways in which reactive collaboration is enmeshed with issues associated with researching the familiar in a marketized university environment.FindingsThe authors develop the term “reactive collaboration” to explore the ways in which insider research projects have to deal with a range of challenges from within their own research community. Reactive collaboration is as much about insider research solidarity as it is with reacting to anticipated and unanticipated events during the research process (and how inside researchers do and do not deal with them). Reactive collaboration highlights the successes as well as the failures of insider researchers negotiating complex research situations.Originality/valueThe authors show how reactive collaboration occurs in challenging research environments, including the joys, sorrows and failures. The authors argue that the challenges and benefits of insider research can be helpfully crystalised through reactive collaboration.

The Emotional and Psychological Labor of Insider Qualitative Research Among Systemically Marginalized Groups: Revisiting the Uses of Reflexivity.

In response to decades-long exclusionary practices, academic institutions are now recruiting early career researchers (ECRs) from systemically marginalized populations who specialize in equity-related research. As a result, these ECRs are likely to conduct research within their communities on topics that have personal relevance-insider research. Methodological training for insider research places an emphasis on methods, such as reflexivity, to ensure rigor; however, the emotional and psychological impacts of these research methods on the researcher are seldom discussed. Therefore, I use analytic autoethnography to illustrate the embodied impacts of conducting insider research using an example of personal relevance and argue that methodological practices require an embodied reflexivity that centers the researcher and the impacts the research has on them. This paradoxically rewarding and taxing work necessitates changes in methodological training and practice, institutional support, and an openness to innovation when calling for equity, diversity, and inclusion in the academy.

Looking for Global Mormonism

Looking for Global Mormonism

Māori exercise professionals: Using Indigenous knowledge to connect the space between performance and wellbeing

Indigenous voices and perspectives are necessary in advancing applied and global sport psychology. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori sport and exercise professionals are thriving despite existing systems that devalue, discriminate and exclude Māori from fulfilling their potential. This qualitative study investigated the perspectives of ten Māori sport and exercise experts including academics, allied health professionals, athletes, coaches and Māori healers in order to develop a critical understanding of their work related experiences and analyze the diverse forms of knowledge on which they draw. Participants-collaborators were interviewed using an insider research design to facilitate discussion about their current work. Results support a “space between” model and suggest that Māori sport and exercise work enables excellence in sport performance while also meeting holistic wellbeing needs of communities. Māori exercise professionals identified that their presence in their respective fields “speaks back” to racist practices and entrenched barriers that colonize Māori success. Further, applying holistic notions of wellbeing and ancestral knowledge to sport and exercise was seen as default and ordinary; shifting the illusion that sport and exercise operates in a culture-less, timeless and physical vacuum. From an applied and Indigenous perspective, these results emphasize that Indigenous sport leadership and practices are unequaled by Western methods and science alone. Māori exercise professionals demonstrate cultural innovation and intersectionality that not only revolutionizes sport, but brings with it essential community wellbeing. Lay summary: This article explores the experiences of ten Māori exercise professionals and analyses the diverse forms of knowledge they draw on in their work. The study provides insight into how Māori exercise professionals utilize their knowledge of social contexts and culture, in turn expanding the scope of sport and exercise psychology.

Exploring women’s experiences of sexuality education, sexual expression and violence: inclusive research with disabled women

Over the last two decades there has been an increase in the use of participatory and emancipatory methodologies within disability research; centring the lived experience of disabled people. This paper explores some of the ethical and practical considerations when researching in the area of disabled women and sexuality, highlighting the pervasiveness of ableist attitudes and processes. Drawing on critical disability studies and utilising critical reflexivity, the researcher, a disabled woman, discusses some of the strengths and limitations of being an ‘insider-outsider’ researcher. The paper also presents some strategies and considerations for researchers who seek to use inclusive methods in research with and by disabled people, including the importance of language and multi-methods to facilitate and promote access and expression. If research is to be a true reflection of the community being researched, then it is vital inclusive principles are incorporated into all stages of research projects. Points of interest There has been an increase in research that includes disabled people in all stages of the research process. This paper discusses some of the ways the researcher, a disabled woman, used inclusive research methods throughout her study focused on disabled women’s experiences of sex education, sexual expression and violence. The paper considers some of the strengths and challenges of insider research, and outlines ways to promote access and expression.

Scaling up tobacco cessation within TB programmes: findings from a multi-country, mixed-methods implementation study

BackgroundBrief behavioural support can effectively help tuberculosis (TB) patients quit smoking and improve their outcomes. In collaboration with TB programmes in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, we evaluated the implementation and scale-up of cessation support using four strategies: (1) brief tobacco cessation intervention, (2) integration of tobacco cessation within routine training, (3) inclusion of tobacco indicators in routine records and (4) embedding research within TB programmes.MethodsWe used mixed methods of observation, interviews, questionnaires and routine data. We aimed to understand the extent and facilitators of vertical scale-up (institutionalization) within 59 health facility learning sites in Pakistan, 18 in Nepal and 15 in Bangladesh, and horizontal scale-up (increased coverage beyond learning sites). We observed training and surveyed all 169 TB health workers who were trained, in order to measure changes in their confidence in delivering cessation support. Routine TB data from the learning sites were analysed to assess intervention delivery and use of TB forms revised to report smoking status and cessation support provided. A purposive sample of TB health workers, managers and policy-makers were interviewed (Bangladesh n = 12; Nepal n = 13; Pakistan n = 19). Costs of scale-up were estimated using activity-based cost analysis.ResultsRoutine data indicated that health workers in learning sites asked all TB patients about tobacco use and offered them cessation support. Qualitative data showed use of intervention materials, often with adaptation and partial implementation in busy clinics. Short (1–2 hours) training integrated within existing programmes increased mean confidence in delivering cessation support by 17% (95% CI: 14–20%). A focus on health system changes (reporting, training, supervision) facilitated vertical scale-up. Dissemination of materials beyond learning sites and changes to national reporting forms and training indicated a degree of horizontal scale-up. Embedding research within TB health systems was crucial for horizontal scale-up and required the dynamic use of tactics including alliance-building, engagement in the wider policy process, use of insider researchers and a deep understanding of health system actors and processes.ConclusionsSystem-level changes within TB programmes may facilitate routine delivery of cessation support to TB patients. These strategies are inexpensive, and with concerted efforts from TB programmes and donors, tobacco cessation can be institutionalized at scale.

Autoethnography, Reflexivity, and Insider Researcher Dynamics: Reflections on Investigating Violence against Men in Intimate Relationships

Autoethnography is a qualitative research method for relating lived-through personal experiences to a range of existing social representations. It is regarded as self-representation in examining and critiquing dominant representations. While the researcher’s subjectivities are restricted within the ethnographic qualitative framework, autoethnography emphasises this foundation as essential to data collection, interpretation, and analysis in the research process. In this paper, I discuss how my lived-through personal experience of abuse influenced how/why I conceptualised, investigated, and represented the lived experiences of several abused male victims of intimate partner violence in Johannesburg, which are typically ignored in gender- based violence literature. The paper comments on tactics used to negotiate ethical dilemmas as part of a conceptual examination of the benefits of reflexivity and insider positionality to reinforce the self-reflective autoenthgrapahy as a valuable qualitative method.

May the Force be with You: Ethnographic Access into the World of Film Production Workers

The aim of the article is to reveal the researcher’s problems when trying to gain access to a particular film industry field. Yet, since most researchers try to gain access to the field as outsiders, this present study, with reference to other anthropologists’ studies, is based on the insider researcher’s status. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews with film production workers in Lithuania were selected as the main methods to understand their social world fully. Insider researcher’s status provided an opportunity for complete participation. This includes not only participation on set, but also pre-production processes, meetings, attendance of events for the film community in Lithuania, informal meetings with film production staff, parties. During the beginning of research from 2020 autumn till 2021 spring, 50 film production workers were interviewed. To provide a holistic picture of these workers, the respondents were selected from different production departments. A survey of published works by other researchers reveals these factors that help to get access into the film production workers world: it’s easier to get inside when the researcher belongs to the group of the field or has contact with people who work in the film industry; informants are “below-the-line” workers, who have less power and prestige; researcher status in the academic world gives more trust and solidity towards the research results. This article suggests ways in which the insider researcher gains the following: positive access, trust of the respondents, a possibility to observe and make notes on the group’s inside systems, beliefs, traditions, and daily practices.

‘I don’t want to be presented as some sort of freak-show … but you’re “one of us”’: Stigmatized groups and decisions to participate in insider/outsider research

Drawing on a piece of mixed-methods research (n = 488), this article uses thematic analysis to examine the responses of women who form part of a stigmatized group (fans of male/male [m/m] sexually explicit media) as to whether and how the investigator’s perceived status as a community insider affected decisions to take part in a wider research project. While there exists a substantial body of work on insider/outsider research, much of it is either reflexive or theoretical in nature, focusing on the nature of the research process and the integrity of the data; very little work systematically asks people taking part in qualitative research how their knowledge of the investigator’s insider/outsider status influenced their decision to take part. While participants in this study acknowledged the existence of both acceptable outsider researchers and unacceptable insider researchers, it is clear from the data presented here that researcher positionality can play a key role in successful recruitment. The results of this study highlight that we need to think not only about how our positionality affects participant responses in qualitative work but also how it affects decisions to take part in studies in the first place. This is of particular importance when we are investigating hard-to-reach, stigmatized or marginal populations with already limited participant pools.

The emotional and psychological labour of insider qualitative research among systemically excluded and oppressed groups: A call for equity in training and practice

As memories began to fill my mind, reminding me of the details from my own experiences that I had forgotten, I realized just how well I know this topic. Had I forgotten? Or had I just pushed these memories to the corners of my mind? I awoke at 4:00AM, parched, while my mind recalled lines of interview data that resonated with my own experiences. Stories of trauma that consumed hours of carefully conceptualized research had begun leaching into my dreams. Universities with a history of exclusion now seek to recruit systemically marginalized early career researchers (ECRs) with expertise in equity-related research, requiring unique training and research practices. Given shifts to include systemically marginalized groups in faculty hiring, graduate-student recruitment, ethics protocols, and funding calls for community-based research, these ECRs are likely to conduct research within their communities, on topics of personal relevance (i.e., insider research). Qualitative methodological training, practice, and literature on the conduct of insider research places an emphasis on reflexivity in order to ensure rigour, trustworthiness, and ethical processes; however, the emotional and psychological demands of insider research on the researcher are seldom discussed. Greater attention to the impacts of insider research is critical for understanding how ECRs can prepare for and be supported in their training and research. I argue that as critical qualitative scholars, we consider how researchers are potentially impacted by the emotional and psychological impacts of their work, particularly those from systemically marginalized groups conducting insider research. As an illustrative example, I recount my experience as an insider on a qualitative research study investigating individuals’ experiences of conversion therapy, practices that attempt to suppress or change one’s sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression. This methodological reflection is based on analytical memos and field notes written during a research project completed as part of my research assistant work. Embodiment and creative non-fiction are used to articulate my experiences of conducting deeply personal qualitative interviews and engaging in a critical analysis of stories of trauma that mirrored my own. Specifically, I have narrated four vignettes that articulate my story of beginning insider research with confidence and stoicism and ending, for now, with a churning stomach and lingering state of mental arousal. The vignettes illustrate the emotionally and mentally charged task of conducting insider research on topics of inequity as a systemically marginalized researcher and call for an ethic of equity to account for this unique labour – labour from which the academy benefits at the expense of systemically marginalized ECRs’ wellbeing. Conducting qualitative research using interpretivist, constructivist, critical, or emancipatory paradigms, where insider research is commonly situated, goes beyond the conventional, intellectual exercise of disseminating written work that is seemingly void of emotion in an academic journal. Moreover, being an insider within these paradigms demands empathy, vulnerability, emotion, passion, and personal sacrifice on the behalf of the researcher. Finally, this paradoxically rewarding and taxing work necessitates adequate education in methodological courses, institutional support amidst austerity, and an openness to innovation when calling for diversity in the academy.

The challenges of building a national university in a Pacific Island Country: lessons from the first ten years of Fiji National University

ABSTRACT Establishing a national university has been widely viewed by smaller developing countries as a means of asserting sovereignty and driving the country’s economic, social, and cultural development. This has been particularly true in the South Pacific, despite the existence of the regional University of the South Pacific. Building a national university with the limited financial resources of a small developing country presents numerous challenges. This paper, using a critical ethnographic methodology, examines the lessons from the first ten years (2010–20) of Fiji National University from the perspective of an insider researcher. Some challenges are common to new universities created by merging smaller colleges. Others are more specific to developing countries, including the dependence on public funding and political patronage. Some challenges are more distinctively Pasifika, with cultural values of familial loyalty and respect for elders, sometimes in conflict with ‘imported’ management practices. The spectre of neo-colonialism is ever present.