Maxwell

"Your relationships with the people in your study can be complex and changeable, and these relationships will necessarily affect you as the “research instrument,” as well as have implications for other components of your research design. My changing relationships with the people in the Inuit community in which I conducted my dissertation research (Maxwell, 1986) had a profound effect not only on my own state of mind, but also on who I was able to interview, my opportunities for observation of social life, the quality of the data I collected, the research questions I was able to answer, and my ability to test my conclusions. The term reflexivity (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995) is often used for this unavoidable mutual influence of the research participants and the researcher on each other."

What stood out to me about the quote is how important the relationships between researchers and participants are to the research process. The idea of reflexivity really caught my attention because it shows that these relationships can influence the data collected and the questions I may ask. This shows me that building trust and understanding with participants is really important for getting better insights and more reliable results. This stood out to me even more because it reminded me of what Rachael said in class. She emphasized the importance of getting to know the folks you're interviewing, understanding their work and organization, and approaching the research with care. It’s not just about asking for an interview but taking the time to truly connect with them.

Question - I will most likely be interviewing students within SSS. Reading this article made me think more about my role as an Advisor in the space. How can I make sure that when interviewing them, my role doesn't affect their responses? Even if I don't think it would, I also want to be mindful of that.