Being Both Researcher and Subject: Attending to Emotion within Collaborative Inquiry

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter represents a dynamic cycle in a collaborative inquiry conceived some six years ago. The aim of this study is to share some of our reflections, tensions, questions and uncertainties in positioning our own emotional responses as legitimate research data.

Methodology/Approach – We adopted a collaborative second-person methodology within an action research framework in the process of inquiring into our own practice as systemic psychotherapists and women.

Findings – We offer reflections on the positioning of emotion as researchers, tutors and psychotherapists. We discuss three themes from the emotional landscape of the inquiry, research process, research product and gendered voices, in anticipation that they will connect with and be useful to other researchers.

Originality/Value – The chapter introduces our sense-making framework for reflexively exploring the salience of emotion in research. It argues that attenuating, listening and responding to the emotions we feel as researchers both serves as a guide to inquiring into critical social constructs and engenders opportunities to promote social change.

Citation

Morris, M. and Davies, A. (2018), "Being Both Researcher and Subject: Attending to Emotion within Collaborative Inquiry", Loughran, T. and Mannay, D. (Ed.) Emotion and the Researcher: Sites, Subjectivities, and Relationships (Studies in Qualitative Methodology, Vol. 16), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 229-244. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1042-319220180000016015