Too good at fitting in: methodological consequences and ethical adjustments

Abstract

When embarking on ethnographic fieldwork, a researcher must carefully consider how to present oneself when entering the field. Presentations of self become particularly important when the culture under study maintains narrowly defined expectations for personal appearance and behavior. The more defined the expectations, the more important it is for the researcher to "read" those expectations and make deliberate choices concerning her appearance, body language, use of language, and overall style. Such choices can have tangible consequences concerning a researcher's access to the field, in regard to both the physical access of the spaces and the social access of the lived experiences of participants within those spaces. In this article, I explore the use of my own self-presentation as a method of gaining physical and social access to ethnographic sorority spaces, and then consider those methodological consequences that may ensue when a researcher becomes "too good at fitting in."

Glocalizing Women’s Empowerment: Feminist Contestation and NGO Activism in Iran

“…By performing approachability and credibility (Lofland et al 2006), I attempted to build rapport with my participants to navigate this simultaneous outsider and insider status. Ethnographers often highlight their similarities to participants through selfrepresentation to develop rapport and negotiate personal connections with them (Berbary 2014). To build rapport, I intentionally downplayed my privileged class status by dressing modestly and simply-alternating between two black manto 2 throughout months of data collection.…”

“…How would they feel now about the ways that I represented them?" (Berbary 2014(Berbary , 1222. Rather than moving beyond these uncomfortable reflexive moments, I reflect on them regularly, not to selectively omit unpleasant data, but to do a kind of responsible research that is committed to social justice and offering answers to the questions my participants grappled with.…”

Building bridges: the use of reflective oral diaries as a qualitative research tool

“…Indeed, sharing my own professional story with the teachers seemed to be a good place to start and it soon emerged that this was helpful in establishing some measure of trust as I encountered comments such as 'well you know how it is round here'. This intersection of perspectives or construction of similarity (Abell, Locke, Condor, Gibson and Stevenson 2006;Berbary 2014) between teacher and researcher was perhaps an important feature in initiating collaborative fieldwork relations -the 'lifeblood' of effective qualitative enquiry (De Laine 2000) and it seemed to set up the trust required for ease and openness during the first reflective oral diaries.…”

Researching elite education: affectively inferred belongings, desires and exclusions

“…Through such an orientation, scholars can be more open to 'the good, the bad and the ugly' (Berbary, 2014(Berbary, : 1214 of the research experience, while remaining sensitive to their positionality in shaping both the data and its analysis. Kenway & McLeod (2004) identify three ways in which the term reflexivity has been used in the literature -as 'a structural artefact of late/high modernity' (p. 526) as outlined by Giddens (1991) and Beck (1992) among others; as a 'necessary methodological stance' (Kenway & McLeod, 2004: 527) as advocated by many post-structuralist researchers and feminist scholars (see also Pini, 2004;Jackson & Mazzei, 2009); and, drawing on Bourdieu, as a 'practice of reflexively situating and historicizing the space of one's point of view as a scholar and a sociologist' (Kenway & McLeod, 2004: 527).…”

“…Following this initial meeting, the headteacher's personal assistant was asked to take responsibility for facilitating interviews with the young women who had agreed to participate in the research. At this school, there was a clear sense of our having to pass a 'test' before being granted access (Berbary, 2014).…”