What is it about?
Motherhood is a widely researched topic but the experience of carrying out the research is less so. This paper reflects on how two researchers of different maternal status recognised and understood their changing positionalities, and their influence on the process, as the research progressed.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
We found that we positioned ourselves, or were positioned during the process, differently in response to some of our pre-existing expectations, knowledge and assumptions, as well as to those of the research participants and findings. Awareness of this is important in enhancing the trustworthiness of the research and understanding more of what we bring as researchers to the process.
Perspectives
Working with a co-author after numerous discussions about our different experiences of researching motherhood has enhanced my understanding both of myself as a researcher in this area and of how transparency in the research process can be addressed.
Professor Nollaig Frost
University College Cork
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mother, researcher, feminist, woman: reflections on “maternal status” as a researcher identity, Qualitative Research Journal, July 2014, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/qrj-06-2013-0038.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
