The session yesterday was insightful as a discussion of the issues that may arise when researching your own institution. The poll in the beginning clarified that most of us thought it was a good idea to do so. It became clear as we went through the different reflection questions, that the original question is too complex to give a simple yes or no answer to.
We seemed to always drift towards discussing the condition and details of the scenarios in our conversations to be able to give a response. A thorough and critical reflection of the potential risks or challenges with the proposed research might just be one of the important takeaways from this session. Naturally, you would always have to consider this but perhaps the implications of your research can be more challenging when you do the research within your own institution.
What a challenging scenario to be in? Researching your Own institute is to unearth a complex range of issues from/by people that you potentially know. It was a powerful session, which highlighted a range of complexities as Jeanne mentioned.
Hi Jeanne,
Your comments on ‘researching your own institution ‘ expressed very well how I experienced the session and the main take away being to be very aware and wary of the potential risks and pitfalls.
Deliberately linking up with other researchers who have researched within their own institutions might provide a network and feedback that helps to make better informed (and less naive, in my case) decisions.
Hope all is going well with the TPP submission. Just to note that this blog seems to begin with a paragraph marked 3.? Am I missing part of your post or is this your third post? Best wishes, Ulli
Hej Jeanne. I struggled with this. Maybe because it was early in the PgCert. I thought it was okay to research within one’s own institution – and after catching up on this session, still wouldn’t be intimidated to do so. Having read Marlize Rabe’s ‘Revisiting ‘Insiders’ and ‘Outsiders ‘ as Social Researchers’, I understand better how those dynamics offer different and valuable opportunities, which places me on the fence between a direct yes and no.