The “insider” ethnographic diagnostic radiographer thinking like “an outsider”

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how the ethnographic researcher navigates their insider–outsider status and provides a methodological contribution to this important aspect of ethnographic research; this will be framed from the researcher’s perspective using a semi-autoethnographic approach. The ethnographic study being reflected upon explored the culture in a Diagnostic Imaging Department (DID), looking at how radiographers work and what the issues were within their working environment. The original study was carried out within one DID in a District General Hospital in the East of England (Strudwick, 2011).Design/methodology/approachIn the original study, the researcher used ethnography to study the culture in a DID. Observation was carried out for a four-month period. Field notes were recorded and used to formulate topics for the interviews that were to follow. After the observation, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants from the DID. Ten key informants were purposefully sampled from the DID to provide a cross-section of opinion from the staff. The data collected were analysed to identify key themes. This paper reflects on the data from the original study to explore the tensions between the insider and outsider researcher role and how this contributes to the way the ethnographic researcher views the environment, reports on their findings and how they feel about the data from their own perspective.FindingsEthnographers carrying out research in their own area of practice need to try to think like an outsider in order to see the environment with a sense of strangeness but also try to make sense of what the participants are thinking and doing. There is a tension between becoming part of the group in order to understand it and looking at the environment as an outsider in order to make a note of what is happening. Findings from the original ethnographic study will be used to illustrate this point and will be used to reflect on the feelings of the researcher, considering her insider and outsider status.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was carried out in one diagnostic imaging department in the east of England.Originality/valueThe author, who is a diagnostic radiographer and radiography educator reflects on how she managed the insider–outsider tension during her ethnographic observation and after the event when reflecting on the data from the original study.