Outsider/insider
This is a term used by Hanrahan (1998, p.316) states, “the
insider-outsider problem is only a problem in a positivistic system. In a world where difference is allowed and
dialogue replaces domination or consensus, inclusion or exclusion become less
relevant terms”. Hanrahan is talking about power dynamics in the classroom.
Durrant (2015) hopes to deconstructs the traditional power dynamics and instead
calls his project volunteers ‘co-participants’ and counts himself as a
co-participant in the research process. Coghlan and Brannick (2014) in, Insider Action Research talks about the Insider/outsider phenomenon and how it is
often discussed by researcher practitioners in regards to Action Research. There
are pitfalls associated insider/outsider, Noffke & Somekh (2013) state
that when the researcher is an insider in an organisation, power relations and
differentials may complicate the conduct. Researchers might be pressured or
coerced to alter the findings to suit organisational objectives. This would be
unethical behaviour, but power does not like to be challenged or gainsaid. Maynard, and Cahnmann-Taylor (2010) in their
article for Anthropology and Humanism
magazine discuss ethnographic poetry and how it can provide important insights,
for both insiders and outsiders alike the “essential” gist of our most dearly
held, often tacit cultural assumptions. They see that the insights outweigh the
pitfalls, using poetic form to formalise feelings and order thought. Using Geertz's (2017) Thick description, I think and write autoethongraphically (Bochner and Ellis, 2016) about being an insider/outsider.
I used to walk my dogs Paddy and Sam West Highland terriers
along a cobbled street of Georgian houses on the way to the park. In the winter,
people’s windows were lit up and the insides of houses became like a dolls
house, a picture book for me to read. One particular house was always of
interest to me, the kitchen like ours at home, high ceiling with a creel full
of clothes, a large kitchen fireplace big enough for a Yorkshire range, welsh
dresser full of jars, tins, platters, jugs, and the kitchen window facing the
cobbled back street. It had an open shelf unit up against the window full of
glass jars, which contained all manner of cooking ingredients in them. I used
to linger outside looking at the scene and creating a narrative of characters and
story. One day both parents were busy and they sent us to this particular
house. How surprising to be sent here. Dad had taught the mother in his
jewellery night class. We arrived early the lights were on in the kitchen and
for the first time I saw the room from the opposite side of the glass. From being
an outsider, I was now an insider. I saw and understood the space, the objects and
the agents that acted within this scene. I had new insight and understanding of
the objects and the people. After that
one occasion, we did not return. I went back to being an outsider walking the
dogs looking in, but I was more than that I had become an outsider/ insider. If
the mother was in the kitchen she would wave if she saw us. Sometimes she was
not there. Sometimes the lights were off and nothing could be seen but I still
knew what was there, this is how I understand the ethnographic concept of
insider/outsider.
References
Bochner, A and Ellis, C (2016) Evocative
Autoethnography (Writing Lives) Paperback, New York and London; Routledge.
Coghlan, D. and Brannick, T. (2014) Doing Action Research in Your Own
Organization. London. Sage.
Durrant, K. K., (2015) Exploring learning in practice to support construction teachers’
professional development. PhD Thesis. London South Bank University.
Avaulable at: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=17&uin=uk.bl.ethos.646866
(Accessed 4 May 2018).
Geertz, C (2017) The interpretation of
Cultures: Selected Essays. 3rd edn. New York: Basic Books.
Hanrahan,
M. (1998) “Academic growth through action research: a doctoral students
narrative.” in Stephen Kemmis, B. Atweh and Patricia Weeks (Eds) Action Research in Practice: Partnerships
for Social Justice in Education, London: Routledge.
Maynard,
K and Cahnmann-Taylor, M. (2010) Anthropology at the Edge of Words: Where
Poetry and Ethnography Meet anhu_1049 2..19 . Anthropology and Humanism, Vol. 35, Issue 1, pp 2–19, ISSN
1559-9167, online ISSN 1548-1409. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1409.2010.01049.x.
available at:
https://teachersactup.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/anthropologyattheedgeofwordswherepoetryandethnographymeet.pdf
(Accessed 26 December 2018).
Noffke,
S and Somekh, B. (2013) The Sage Handbook
of Educational Action Research, London: Sage Publications Ltd.
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