Articulating choice and deliberation in conducting research – researchers ‘working in the interpretive zone’

Abstract

For researchers, committed to a research problem, finding meaningful answers is a process of careful weighting and interpreting what is actually found as an outcome of their mode of inquiry in reference to initial intentions and research goals. Particularly in doing qualitative research in/on teaching researchers have recognised the need to acknowledge the ways in which one's intentions interact with the process of study, and how they serve to shape research outcomes. Such a recognition calls for attention to working in the interpretive zone (Wasser and Bresler 1996). Based on our own studies on teachers' reflective expertise, we show how articulation of researchers' intent and deliberation in designing a study could ameliorate critical subjectivity and reflection while analysing and interpreting accounts of data and clarifying interactions between researcher and their object of study in the construction of knowledge. This lead us to construct a heuristic tool for achieving greater reflexivity in conducting research, which may be utilised, primarily, in programmes aimed at research education.

In search of my hidden preconceptions as a researcher

“…In the interpretive zone the object of study is linked to the researcher's position and preferences. It is important not to scrutinise this work in the interpretive zone, because that would link the researcher to the object of study (Tillema, Orland-Barak, & Marcos, 2008). Working in the interpretive zone, the researcher's stance and values become 'embodied in the data' and:…”

Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Postmulticulturalism

“…My goal was to articulate a sense of trust in experience as a valid starting place for reflection. And since the researcher is never invisible in the work, personal reflection (Jipson and Paley 1997;Reay 1996;Tillema, Orland Barak, and Mena Marcos, 2008) on my own lived experience as a woman from a working-class background and my beliefs regarding social justice and educational equity informed the analysis. Themes that make up the findings may overlap and, in fact, may be embedded within each other.…”

Teacher educator dilemmas: a concept to study pedagogy

“…A key assumption behind our approach is to be sensitive to 'working in the interpretive zone' (Tillema, Orland-Barak, & Mena Marcos, et al 2008;Wasser & Bresler, 1996). We, as researchers, need to specify our 'lenses' and guiding questions that give meaning to the data (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004).…”