The construction of researcher–researched relationships in school ethnography: doing research, participating in the field and reflecting on ethical dilemmas

Abstract

In qualitative research, the researcher's engagement over time in participants' daily lives entails the creation and maintenance of favourable and cooperative field relations. With this aim, it is important to build a reflexive component into the research, exploring how the researcher and researched interact with each other within the context of school and how they are challenged by political and ethical dilemmas. Drawing upon my experience while conducting an ethnographic study in an international school in mainland China, I reflected on two issues: what field relations were established in what ways, and what threads to ethics and research validity I encountered in the course of the fieldwork.