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RESEARCHER: Um, so I’ m going to leave that for you to talk to a counsellor about on some other occasion, HEATHER: Yeah, RESEARCHER: But I’ m really – I’ m just really struck by what you’ ve said there about that sort of self-doubt that keeps coming back to you … 12
As well as reminding participants at the start that they can pause or stop the interview, at any point, and checking during the interview that they are happy to continue, I have tried to honour the concept of participant consent as an on-going process. 13 This has included inviting participants not only to check the transcript of their individual interviews for accuracy, but also offering an opportunity to edit the transcript. For example, one participant in particular expressed relief during the pre-interview conversation when I told her that she could review the transcript and let me know if there were parts of it she wanted me to remove, if she felt she had said too much. Whilst this carries a risk to the research, in that I might lose valuable data, it feels important to prioritise participant power, especially in view of the phenomenon that I am researching and the emancipatory and empowering aspirations of my chosen methodology.
Power and Research: The Broader Picture
In the second part of this piece, I turn to the wider issue of power and where it is held, and by whom, within academic structures and the wider research community. 14 Wall suggests that there is a need to‘ deal explicitly with the validity, reliability, and legitimation of autoethnography within the dominant research culture’. 15 So one of the struggles I am engaged in is how to ensure that my voice is heard, without compromising the scientific rigour of the study.
Reading Heewon Chang’ s exhortation to move away from what she calls‘ traditional academic writing’ and to embrace the‘ imaginative-creative writing style,’ 16 I feel my heart sing. I am excited by the possibilities – this is what I want to do! Yet even as I aspire to creativity, I am aware of conventions around‘ what“ academic” writing should be: detached,
12‘ Heather,’ Individual interview, 01 / 12 / 14. 13 John McLeod, Qualitative research in counselling and psychotherapy( London: Sage, 2001). 14 McLeod, Qualitative research in counselling and psychotherapy,( 2011). 15 Susan Wall, 40. 16 Heewon Chang, Autoethnography as method( Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2008), 148.