Outsider Research can be fraught with tensions and dilemmas regarding the constructedness of accounts (Jones 1992, Alcoff 1992). Alternatively outsider research may offer a distance from the research subject that may in fact encourage greater honesty and disclosure resulting in more varied research findings. Such research raises valuable discussion around the hierarchies of power between researcher and researched, the importance of reflexivity in the research process and the dynamics of positionalities. This presentation will discuss such issues with reference to my own PhD study into the educational experiences of young Somali women graduates in London.
Centre for Education Research and Scholarship
