Researching female professors: the difficulties of representation, positionality and power in feminist research.

WOMEN college teachers; FEMINISM & education; RESEARCHER positionality; SOCIAL classes; HABITUS (Sociology); GENDER differences in education; POWER (Social sciences)

This article draws on findings from my doctoral research to exemplify some of the difficulties I encountered when interviewing 20 female professors1and subsequently writing about their life histories. In this article, I discuss how I addressed the issues of representing and positioning my participants, and I reflect on the power dynamics present in the research process. The article contends that by drawing on Bourdieu and Wacquant's [An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] understanding of reflexivity and feminist interpretations of their work including McNay [“Gender, Habitus and the Field: Pierre Bourdieu and the Limits of Reflexivity.”Theory Culture Society16: 95] and Adkins [“Reflexivity Freedom or Habit of Gender?”Theory Culture Society20: 21], valuable research can be produced, despite the difficulties. A related aim of this paper is to reflect back after four years in an academic post on my position as a novice researcher, and some of the associated issues facing doctoral students, particularly the problems with researching upwards [Walford, G. 2011. “Researching the Powerful. British Educational Research Association On-line Resource.” Accessed March 17, 2014.www.bera.ac.uk/system/files/Researching%20the%20Powerful.pdfWalford 2011]. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Gender & Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)