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A question of reflexivity in a qualitative study of South

Asians in education: power, knowledge and shared
ethnicity
a

Tahir Abbas
a
University of Birmingham. UK

To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/17457820600836954

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Ethnography and Education

Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2006, pp. 319
332

A question of reflexivity in a qualitative

study of South Asians in education:
power, knowledge and shared ethnicity
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Tahir Abbas*
University of Birmingham, UK

In a qualitative study of South Asians in education, methodological issues pertaining to the social
interactions between the same-ethnicity researcher and researched are analysed and interpreted.
Based on in-depth interviews with 89 South Asian school pupils and 25 South Asian parents, it was
found that political ideology and shared ethnicity were a source of inspiration in how the sameethnicity researcher generated answers to the research questions, but also a weakness in how they
were potentially shaped by the very same factors. This paper suggests that for situations where the
subject, the researcher and the researched are inextricably linked, there is the potential for both
good and harm to the research. This paper provides a case study of the ontological and
epistemological issues that can emerge in the research process, and how reflexivity facilitates the
production of knowledge without it necessarily gaining or losing because of shared ethnicity.

Introduction
In any attempt to carry out sociology of education research in this field, how a
researcher thinks about race and ethnicity influences the design of their product,
the kind of data they gather, and the analyses they conduct (Gillborn, 1998, p. 54;
Bulmer & Solomos, 2004). This paper is an exploration of the issues of researcher
roles and responsibilities, methods and process in the generation of truth and
knowledge. It is based on a study of how South Asians achieve in education, where
the author is of similar ethnicity to the researched and the field of study is one in
which both the left (antiracists) and the right (cultural pluralists) of the political
spectrum are impassioned and vociferous about the issues. It is an attempt to
generate an ontological and epistemological position of the researcher in relation to
the researched and what impact or otherwise otherness has on research processes
and outcomes (Fawcett & Hearn, 2004). First, the long interviews and the process of
how groups were selected and what questions were asked of respondents are
discussed. Second, the specific methodological conundrums in relation to power and
*Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture, Department of Sociology, University of
Birmingham, 32 Pritchatts Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Email: T.Abbas@
bham.ac.uk
ISSN 1745-7823 (print)/ISSN 1745-7831 (online)/06/030319-14
# 2006 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17457820600836954

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ideology are highlighted, stressing areas of concern in relation to hierarchical,

cultural, religious, and gender relations, and how the author attempted to negotiate
them. Third, the idea of emancipatory knowledge is investigated, exploring how
sociology of education debates and the position of the researcher impacts on the
research and the researched. Fourth, the subject of shared ethnicity is considered.
Fifth, the implications for researchers carrying out social thinking and theorybuilding in areas of politically charged research based on traditionally accepted
procedures as well as more considerations that emerge as a result of the particular
social research questions and the sensitivities contained within, especially when
dealing with same-ethnicity research settings, are discussed.
The research context and process
A particular facet of the research design of the original study was the omission of a
white control group. It was felt less important because a great deal of comparative
albeit more quantitative research exists in this field (Drew, 1995; Conner et al.,
2004). Resource constraints added to the pressures of wanting to explore South
Asian differences, which were felt to be more usefully carried out using interview
techniques exploring issues pertaining to the groups themselves. This approach
follows recent ethnographic research in the field, undertaken during the time of the
authors study, with a number elaborating upon differences between South Asians as
well as experience at the level of different South Asians (on young Muslim women,
Basit, 1997; Haw, 1998; Ahmed, 2001; on young Bangladeshis, Debnath, 1998;
Haque, 1999; on all South Asians, Bhatti, 1999). The current research utilized a
distinctive qualitative methodological framework that involved a range of selective
and comprehensive schools and further education colleges in the city of Birmingham,
UK. By involving a relatively large sample of actors (114 long interviews with South
Asian pupils and parents; 176 survey responses (109 college students, 67 teachers)),
detailed open-ended statements were used to engender grounded theory through
qualitative empiricism (Glaser, 1968). Certain elements of the presentation of the
data also involved the use of case-study examples (Yin, 1994). There were five
separate data-gathering exercises: two sets of interviews with South Asian school
pupils and parents, a postal survey of college students, and interviews with as well as
an attitudinal survey of teachers. Although face-to-face interviews were the primary
method of investigation, self-completed questionnaires were also administered to
certain respondents. This paper, however, discusses the methodological issues
pertaining to the long interviews with South Asian pupils and parents.
To determine how different South Asians perform in education in relation to social
class, ethnicity and gender it was felt important to allow for a wide variation in the
sample of schools to be used for the interviews. The educational institutions were,
however, selected on an opportunity sampling basis (Tomlinson, 1997, p. 71), with
the aim of discovering processes in differing educational settings, the basis of study
resting on the comparability of South Asians in polarized settings. Contact teachers

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from each of the sampled schools were originally asked to select a sample of South
Asians from existing lists of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and
A-level students. Given different ratios of South Asian pupils in each of the schools,
contact teachers were asked to select up to 30 pupils of mixed-ability and socioeconomic background. It is apparent that any judgement made in relation to the
selection of a suitable respondent is specific to the individual teacher and the general
impression that the chosen pupil might have been expected to present to the
researcher. This was an unavoidable aspect of the sampling process, given the roles of
gatekeepers and the potential for self-selection on the part of respondents.
Altogether, 89 school pupils were interviewed from six schools. Pupils were asked
questions relating to secondary school entry, GCSE choice at 13, examination
success at GCSE, A-levels and potential higher education entry. They were also
asked to discuss the role of parents, teachers, siblings, friends and other factors
thought to potentially affect their education. Aspects of religion and culture were
explored, as well as social class and the effects of schools. All the pupils were
individually interviewed in English during school time using a tape recorder.
After the pupil interviews were completed, the six sampled schools were recontacted to arrange interviews with parents. South Asian parents were interviewed
to explore the various ways in which they exercised an influence over their childrens
education and how they related to their childrens teachers. A letter was drafted and
the schools wrote an additional note to parents. Of the 169 letters sent to parents,
only 15 responded positively. And of these, 11 were successfully interviewed. It was
felt this number too small a sample to generate data sufficient for the project, so it
was decided to find parents through snowball sampling. Parents were selective by
purposively sampling South Asians known to be of varying ethnicity, social class
and gender. Ultimately, 25 parents reflecting the diverse educational experiences of
different South Asian groups were interviewed using a semi-structured list of
questions. Interviews with parents were conducted in English but also partly in
various South Asian languages and dialects where these were comfortable, namely
Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and Mirpuri (some Bangladeshi fathers were also able to speak
Urdu/Hindi). They were all tape recorded. There were some issues of translation on
the part of the respondents but also the researcher. They were negotiated through
careful assessment of the cultural and linguistic nuances inherent in the interchange.
Interviews ranged in length from one hour to as many as two or three. Occupational
positions of parents ranged from entrepreneurs and medical doctors to factory
workers, taxi drivers and the unemployed. They also varied in age, national origin
and gender. Every effort was made to ensure that parents felt comfortable and
confident in imparting to the researcher the different issues and concerns they felt in
relation to their childrens schooling. This was done through encouraging them to
open up to an understanding, same-ethnicity researcher wishing to translate their
lived experiences into sociological theory. As Crozier (2003) points out, it is
important that ethnic minority parents have some ownership of the data-gathering
process, helping to encourage a more in-depth dialogue and a detailed discussion of
the more pertinent debates. Parents who feel the research is about their under/

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standings and perceptions perceive that discussions of their direct experiences can
contribute to their own reassessment of the occurrences, but also to how others are
able to develop a fuller appreciation of the same events, through dissemination of
social science research.
Both sets of interviewing were time-consuming, and especially in relation to
parents, often difficult to arrange. Once in flow many of the interviews were like
pleasant conversations, while others were more difficult because of light prompting
younger respondents who were sometimes shy or nervous. Keeping question
consistency with parents was occasionally problematic. Inherent in the experiences
of many South Asian parents is how they have adopted and adapted to the ways of
British society in order to maximize their economic and social mobility while
maintaining certain cultural norms and values. As such, some parents were found to
be highly educated with children in selective schools who were more concerned with
the elite university college they would favour for their children. Other parents were
keen to ensure their children were performing adequately but otherwise felt
powerless to engage with the institutions or their children at a religio-cultural or
educational level.
The process of interviewing: engendering otherness
During the in-depth interviews, it was important that respondents felt comfortable in
answering questions and confidently imparted to the researcher their beliefs,
opinions, and values towards all aspects of education (Denscome, 1984), including
social, cultural and religious factors in relation to it. The skills of the interviewer had
to be developed and harnessed early on in the data-gathering process, as suggested in
the recommendations of many texts in the area of qualitative interviewing
(McCraken, 1988; Oppenheim, 1992). To improve the quality of the data, the
researcher has to actively listen, keeping the interview focused . . . infilling and
explicating where the data is lacking and identifying cues made by respondents. The
interview is not just a device for gathering information. It is process of constructing a
reality to which both parties contribute and by which both are affected. Interviewers
put something of themselves into an interview (Open University, 1996, p. 60). The
interview is an educative process, for both the interviewed and the interviewer. A
phenomenological methodological approach ensures that the voices of South Asians
are used to narrate their own stories and to add meaning to their actions and
behaviours. Respondents provide accounts of their life histories, incorporating a
range of perspectives and aspirations that help to inform research on the nature and
experience of education.
An interview is a social encounter, sometimes displaying cultural particularities
(Hammersley & Atkinson, 1983; Silverman, 1985), where the social characteristics
of the people involved impact on the data collection and analysis (Griffiths, 1998).
The researcher and the researched participate in this knowledge-building exercise,
informed by an appreciation of the different social and cultural systems they

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experience, constantly modifying the interview process to fit each individual

situation. As such, there emerges the possibility of misunderstanding, error or bias
in every interview situation, the likelihood of this increasing when additional factors
such as culture, ethnicity, religion or gender are involved. Qualitative researchers
study social and cultural phenomena in their natural settings in an attempt to
generate meaning and make sense of peoples social actions and behaviours. What
the interviewee wishes to convey, what the interviewer discerns and how it is
interpreted are all influenced by the respective subjectivities of the participants and
the complex forces present within that milieu (Edwards, 1993). Face-to-face
responses are not simply given to the questions, but the researcher poses the
questions in relation to how participants perceive the researchers and themselves in a
particular social context (Goffman, 1990).
Indeed, often researchers are in at least one social relation with the researcher.
There is no omnipotent form of otherness. For example, people with disabilities are
not only that: they may possess a distinct ethnicity; they may well be middle class, a
Sikh or a woman, and so on. There are in most research settings multiple social
relations between the researched and the researcher. In addition, one can clearly be a
member of a dominant group in one situation or society but an other in other
situations. This is apparent in relation to ethnic, linguistic or cultural groups but it
applies at least as equally to other social divisions (Egharevba, 2001; Gunaratnam,
2003; Fawcett & Hearn, 2004).
A genuine consideration in social research settings, given all the possible factors
important in the relations between researcher and researched, is one of power. In
exploring the associations between power and knowledge, Foucault (1970) argues
knowledge is linked to power, and not only does it assume the authority of the truth,
but it has the power to make itself true. There is no objective truth as such; rather, it
is a discursive formation sustaining a regime of truth. Discourses themselves are the
bearers of various subject-positions, that is specific positions of agency and identity in
relation to particular forms of knowledge and practice. The truth about ethnicity in
the process of generating qualitative knowledge is a function of the power of the
researched in relation to the researcher. The interviewee is under scrutiny with power
held in the hands of the interviewer. Matters are compounded when the researched
are often marginalized and disaffected groups*powerless and potentially vulnerable. Being reflexive and talking stock of how one sees the world in relation to how
the researched do so helps in determining the otherness both of the researched and
the researcher. It was also important to encourage the researched to look inside to
establish their ethno-cultural identities at a time of dramatic change to their social
well-being.
/

Emancipatory knowledge: empowerment or political action?

It is apparent that the process of carrying out qualitative interviews contains both
inherent advantages and disadvantages in exploring phenomenological questions

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per se but matters are further complicated when the research process is impacted on
by political ideology. Given the sensitive attitudes towards the study of ethnic
minorities in education, the antiracist education perspective encourages the
researcher to challenge commonly held beliefs about race. Antiracist educationists
seek not only to highlight forms of inequality and injustice, but view the research act
itself as constituting a deliberate challenge to the status quo . . . [adding] to
emancipatory knowledge (Troyna & Carrington, 1989, p. 206). However, in taking
an approach to research such as this, caution must be taken to not move the focus of
interest away from racism in education towards race relations per se. It is important,
nevertheless, to challenge stereotypes that gave rise to racism in educational settings
and to accurately determine aspects of biography, culture and history . . . [as] the
education system is part of a wider system of constraints which, often unwittingly,
serves to maintain black people in a position of structural subordination (Mac an
Ghaill, 1989a, pp. 271
84). As an example of empowerment research, Mac an
Ghaills (1989b) study focused on providing a voice to disadvantaged and disaffected
African-Caribbeans and South Asians in education. Mac an Ghaill argues that
simply in talking about their experiences respondents found it to be helpful, as it
provided information on and knowledge of what individuals could except, as well as
assisting them to locate their structurally subordinated positions. A criticism levelled
against Mac an Ghaills research is that giving voice to marginalized groups does not
suggest that they have been empowered*for that real change is required, not merely
a development of an individuals knowledge. His rejoinder is to argue that his
research has shown how his subjects were empowered by information and
knowledge irrespective of change to material conditions. It is apparent that Mac
an Ghaills commitment to African-Caribbeans and South Asians in education is
based on Beckers (1967) classic thesis: social thinkers should not but also cannot sit
on the fence (Devine & Heath, 1999).
The view that researchers can challenge the negative outcomes ethnic minorities
experience in education is critiqued by methodological purists (a label constructed
by the late Barry Troyna in 1993), who regard the approach a fundamental error of
critical research to assume that it is possible to pursue both knowledge and
practical goals simultaneously (Hammersley, 1998, p. 32). Taking a overly
politicized perspective in the conduct of research, therefore, should be regarded as
a move away from acceptable forms of social science research methodology, although
the notion that it is often done in the name of research is not unfamiliar
(Hammersley, 2000, 2001); certainly, feminist social research is often politicised
action. Even so, it is important to bear in mind that racism takes many different
forms in the educational life cycles of certain ethnic minorities. Carrington and
Troyna (1998) argue that questions of racism as well as educational disadvantage are
fundamental to any study of ethnic minorities in education, no matter how it is
politicized in the domain of academic discourse. There are many educationists and
sociologists who agree that racism is found in educational settings but few concur on
the way in which it is revealed (Cornford, 1989).
/

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As a researcher of an ethnic background, it was important to ensure that the voices

of the researched could be expressed as openly as possible, so that readers are able to
make up their own minds as to what they might think important. My own value
systems are affected by a sense of social justice and the need to eliminate inequalities,
and these exist at the level of South Asian communities as much as they do at the
level of the state. By doing so, I believed I could encourage a useful debate
highlighting the concerns as I felt them but without necessarily impacting the ways in
which they would be reported.
The pros and cons of shared ethnicity between researcher and researched
In specific relation to the issue of shared ethnicity, where there is ethnic matching
between the researcher and the researched, it is quite conceivable that there is
genuine strength in how the researcher interacts with the researched. It is argued,
furthermore, that a researcher with shared ethnic characteristics is less likely to
pathologize or stereotype and more like to remain ethnically correct (Brar, 1992, p.
195; Papadopoulos & Lees, 2002). Interaction between the researcher and the
researched may give rise to the perception and experience of ethnicity, especially if
there are questions in relation to identity (Song & Parker, 1995). However, there
remains much discussion about the ethics and politics of who should be allowed to
carry out research on whom. It has been suggested that resources would be better
utilised by white researchers focusing their attention on racism in white structures
and institutions, and with ethnic minority researchers focusing on their own
communities, based on the assumption that each is less likely to pathologize or
stereotype their own. Egharevba (2001), an African professional woman, found in
her study of South Asian women in education that, on the whole, the fact of shared
ethnicity resulted in enhanced social interaction between researcher and researched.
In addition, it is also argued that ethnic minorities are more likely to give reliable or
authentic accounts, especially where there is symmetry between the ethnicity of the
researcher and the researched (Amos & Parmar, 1981; Oakley, 1981; Lawrence,
1982; Brah, 1992). However, such beliefs have been criticised by the argument that
they are at best partial and, in many instances, misplaced (Troyna, 1998, p. 101)
and it risks the marginalization of ethnic minority issues and ethnic minority
researchers within the establishment (Rhodes, 1994, p. 547). Phoenix (1994, p. 49)
expands on this critique to assert that race matching is too simplistic. Although it
impacts on power positions, it does not do so in any unitary or essential way. It is
not straightforward to predict the impact of race and gender in this way.
Being of the same ethnicity may well be a constructive feature of the research
process, peoples changing ethnic identities as well as developing intellectual, social,
and cultural norms and values, of the both the researcher and the researched, are also
part of the problems that might emerge*the issue of the double hermeneutic. The
implications of participant subjectivities (interviewer/interviewed) in intercultural
interviewing are further compounded because of the additional factor of commu/

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nicating across cultures (Kim, 1991). Even in same-ethnicity interview settings there
will always be some inter-cultural mismatch. Shah (2004) argues that qualitative
research has an all-pervasive aspect because it is entry at a certain point, leaving an
imprint or, at least, some reverberation. This unwelcome or uninvited dimension is
made more acute in intercultural settings. The outsider-researcher is potentially
lacking a detailed knowledge or appreciation of particular religious, cultural and
ethnic factors and can be considered a social intruder. Furthermore, it can be seen
as an infringement that may or may not be deemed acceptable to the researched,
particularly in traditional and often marginalized ethnic minority communities. The
participants may avoid revealing their personal and private thoughts or observations
without the outsider-researcher ever being aware of them.
Research published elsewhere demonstrates the extent of the findings from this
research (Abbas, 2002a,b, 2003, 2004), but suffice to say as the study developed so
did the researcher. The story of how South Asians achieve in education is
necessarily based on one that is a function of social class, the school effect,
ethnicity, culture, gender and religion. The different areas of concern in the study
were all affected by these forces directly and indirectly, impacting on the roles and
responsibilities of parents and teachers, the nature of the education system, the
ethnic and cultural identities of school pupils and college students and the nature of
the examinations process. As a researcher, I was able to develop (1) an understanding
of the processes of education, (2) how different South Asians perform in relation to
each other, and (3) the reasons for differential outcomes. It was contingent upon the
desire and the need to develop new knowledge in specific directions, using the
appropriate tools but knowing of the forces of racism, discrimination, and prejudice
that affects groups without and the religio-cultural and ethnic factors that affects
groups within. The research was developed through seeing and feeling but it was
also created through learning, appropriating, standardizing and framing. I not only
did science, but I also created science. And, in that respect, hopefully, made aware
and clear to others the nature of the educational achievement experiences of different
South Asians in an independent, grounded, and determined way, seeking not to
placate responsibility or vilify groups or practices, but to provide an appreciation and
an understanding communicable to academic peers.
Discussion
Epistemology is the study of knowing. It is the basis for knowing and how people
come to know what they know. With origins in philosophy, epistemology is used in a
number of disciplines*i.e. sociology, psychology and political science, among
others. Ontology, however, refers to the subject of existence. It is often confused
with epistemology. The unfolding of ontology provides a criterion for distinguishing
various types of objects (concrete and abstract, existent and non-existent, real and
ideal, independent and dependent) and their ties (relations, dependencies and
prediction) (Marsh & Furlong, 2002). Ontological and epistemological concerns
/

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impact on how one conceptualizes and rationalizes the experience of South Asians in
education as problematic in the first instance. And given the qualitative methodological approach, in attempting to elucidate the orientation of research findings, it is
reflexivity that helps to give the research its credence.
The problem of reflexivity and the ways in which subjectivity becomes entangled
in the lives of others are issues that have concerned sociologists and anthropologists
for at least three decades, and philosophers for much longer (Denzin, 1997). The
problem arises through the recognition that social researchers are integral to the
social world and as Denzin (1994, p. 503) points out, representation . . . is always
self-presentation . . . the others presence is directly connected to the writers selfpresence in the text. Feminist, post-modern, post-structural, hermeneutic, interpretative, and critical discourses recognize that knowledge and understanding are
contextually and historically grounded as well as linguistically constituted. Feminists
have been particularly vocal on this point (Grosz, 1995), and indeed reflexivity is one
of the main themes in discussions of feminist research (Olesen, 1994; Mirza, 1995;
Essed, 2004). This reflexive turn in the social sciences contributes towards a greater
understanding of theoretically and empirically based knowledge construction
processes. There is increased awareness that how knowledge is acquired, organised,
and interpreted is relevant to what the claims are (Altheide & Johnson, 1994,
p. 486). Production of theory is described as a social activity, which is culturally,
socially and historically embedded, resulting in situated knowledges (Haraway,
1988). The supposedly neutral status of texts has been questioned as different
readers interpret texts in different ways depending on their social location and
perspectives. As May (1998, p. 173) points out, this epistemology of reception
raises critical questions about how and under what circumstances social scientific
knowledge is received, evaluated and acted upon. The reflexive turn, and in
particular, post-modern and post-structuralist critiques, has created a sense of
uncertainty as increasingly complex questions are raised concerning the status,
validity, basis and authority of knowledge claims (Richardson, 1997). As Denzin
(1997) proposes, researchers today face a profound dual crisis of representation and
legitimation.
A South Asian Muslim man studying the educational experiences of young South
Asians, including young Muslim women, potentially constitutes a number of
dilemmas. To help eliminate the potential for inconsistency, care was taken during
the data-gathering process to remain aware of the power dynamics inherent in the
interchange, to remain sensitive of exploring religio-cultural issues when respondents
felt them too difficult to discuss, to avoid necessarily discussing sexuality or identity
issues, and not to use the research process itself as an act of politicizing,
problematizing or sensationalizing the research question. I became interested in
this research because I wanted to find out about the ways in which different South
Asians perform in education, open to possibility that outcomes are differentiated
along social class and school effect lines. This I was able to do by being especially
considerate of the sensitivities of the some of the questions, but, at the same time,
also being aware that in my own mind I had yet to draw firm conclusions about how I

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felt towards it all both as an individual and as a social thinker. To avoid the potential
for same-ethnicity predicaments, I chose the samples for interviews across the range
of South Asian ethnicities, social classes and genders (cf. Gilligan, 1998), although it
is understood that the particular conceptualizations employed were less important
than the actual epistemological accountability involved in making these conceptions
transparent to readers. Mauthner and Doucet (2003) encourage greater reflection
and accountability on the part of researchers rather than a literal accounting of the
multiple filters and forces on the research. The more researchers can be selfconscious and articulate in their role in the research process and in the generation of
outputs, the more readers can engage in symbolic dialogues with the author(s) and
the more there is confidence in their work. Subject voices have to be transparent and
interactive (Frith & Kitzinger, 1998), and it is clear that the research project has the
potential to give voice and present the perceptions and experiences of groups which
are often not heard and which can be sometimes hidden. In research on ethnic
minorities in the British education system, the two broad schools of thought place the
onus of responsibility of achievement in either the structures of the education system,
with certain ethnic minorities necessarily at the bottom of the hierarchy (Weis, 1985),
or in the particular social and cultural norms and values of certain groups which are
seen to inhibit their progression (that is based on religio-cultural, patriarchal, and
inter-generational factors). Questioning racialized and gendered disadvantage
(Troyna, 1987) necessitates an evaluation of all aspects of education, but it is also
important to distinguish between the view that all South Asian high achievers are
ethnic minority successes and that all South Asian underachievement results from
cultural and institutional racism (Bullivant, 1989, pp. 68
93).
It can be seen therefore the extent to which the role of the researcher is
fundamentally important in the collection of research data and the development of
new social thinking. Given the importance of how the researcher interacts with the
researched, taking into consideration the factors of power, social class, ethnicity and
gender, it is quite the case that power impacts on interview dynamics. For other
social researchers engaged in research questions of a sensitive nature, where shared
ethnicity between the researcher and the researched is a feature, and a qualitative
methodological approach is taken, the issues of power, ideology and shared ethnicity
remain. Inevitably, the specific variables under test will vary from study to study, but
the approach taken on each occasion will require similar sets of thinking in relation to
the ontological and epistemological positions taken by the researcher and how they
need to be made transparent. Given how ethnic and racial research questions often
involve complex issues of a sensitive, political or ideological nature the wish to
produce sound social knowledge ought to be the aim of all researchers but predicated
by the need to ensure that appropriate methods have been used in the right way.
During the process of data collection, however complex or intricate it is, it is
important to appreciate how the changing ethnic identities of the researcher as well
as the researched can impact on matters and how this needs to be kept in mind when
interpreting the results. These impacts can do both good or harm to the research

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but what is fundamentally important is how these experiences are discussed and
made aware to the reader.
What this research and the experience of carrying it out have highlighted are the
many complex paths that need to be crossed by the researcher in order to facilitate
the production of sound social science knowledge. Being and knowing are central to
an experience and appreciation of the social world, and how they are characterized by
ethnicity, class and gender are crucial to understand in relation to the researched, but
also how the researcher views the social world. Studies that incorporate the double
hermeneutic in this way are especially sensitive to the above variables and, as such,
their importance is even more marked. Where the ethnicity between researcher and
researched is similar, being conscious of the factors of reflexivity in the researcher,
but also the researched are fundamental to success, especially in terms that are
assessed by the wider social science community. For other researchers attempting to
engage in a similar programme of research, to triumph one needs to persevere,
remain open and methodical but also critically reflexive.

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