Researching Education from the Inside

Researching Education from the Inside focuses on research projects that are undertaken by people who already have an attachment to the institutions or social groups on which their investigations are based. They can, therefore, be considered to be ‘insiders’. In some cases their insider positioning is primarily important because it gets them access to the particular people and/or the phenomena that they want to investigate. At other times, however, aspects of their own ‘insidership’ will, in itself, come under scrutiny. Insider researchers need to consider five distinct stages that can lead to ethical dilemmas, namely: Entering the field, Being in the field, Leaving the field, Writing, and Disseminating the results. This book covers these stages whist considering important issues such as: Access, Choice of research methods, Field relationships, Involvement of informants, Confidentiality and anonymity, Interpretation of findings including validity and reliability.Failure to properly consider these key factors can lead to disastrous consequences for any research but it can be a special problem for insider investigators. These vital issues are discussed by an impressive range of contributors in this ground-breaking book, making it an invaluable resource for anyone participating in Insider Research.

"I like the general thrust of what is proposed very much and think it would be very useful for both university teachers, final year undergraduate students and graduate students. We need more work of this nature which includes plenty of diverse exemplars. There is certainly a need for books like this as Masters of Education, MA in Education and EdD programmes begin to proliferate. PhD students would also benefit from a work like this. What is needed to complement standard methodology texts which give the ‘textbook’ way of proceeding are works which tease out the nuances of different approaches. Such books are now becoming available, especially as works conceptualised to illustrate different research approaches from a paradigms perspective. They need to be supplemented by books which portray the practical realities of researchers’ experiences and their struggles. This book would be one very useful addition in this regard… The editors are all internationally recognised scholars in the field of qualitative research methodology, as are some of the individual contributors. Others I cannot comment on but I have a very high regard indeed for the scholarship of the editors and trust their judgement in selection of participants… I certainly recommend that you publish the book and believe it will be very marketable across regions." Professor Tom O’Donoghue University of Western Australia and author of "Planning Your Qualitative Research Project"

Sikes, Pat; Potts, Anthony