2016 Volume 43 Pages 49-64
This paper aims to provide narratives as a researcher who engaged in ethnographic study at the Early Childhood Education and Family Center (ECEFC) in Ohio, U.S.A. Within these reflective narratives, I examined my epistemology and theoretical foundations of applied methodology hoping that my narrative would provide opportunities to discuss various kinds of relationships between the researcher and the practice. In the process of this research project, I changed my positioning from a graduate student to a sub-member of the classroom, and to a professional advisor through years of participant observations in the ECEFC. Because the center was a contested space where different agents of early childhood education and care encountered and reconstructed their professional identities, I learned to see the field’s complexity with multiple perspectives. Even my research objectives were altered as my needs as a researcher were negotiated with the needs of the ECEFC teachers.
The analysis indicated that my identity in the field was fluid and plural. Generally, it has been critical for me to monitor my changing positions related to the context at the moment. There is no simple definition of the researcher’s roles in the research on practice. I had multiple ethical and professional responsibilities for the children, the classroom teachers, the center, as well as the university and academic field. Since I participated in the practice of the ECEFC, I felt my responsibility to represent the voices of the teachers and to contribute to their practice. Consequently, I had to encounter conflicting ethical decisions regarding what to write and not to write in the academic papers. Currently I am still challenging myself to include representations of the practitioners while maintaining analysis as a researcher in academic papers.
