Between Research and Organization: On the Reflection on the Subjectivity and Role-Related Involvement in (Ethnographic) Higher Education Research

Abstract

Higher education research is characterized by special conditions for researchers: They research their own living environment (i.e., the university) and thus have to oscillate between their research and their membership in the organization. I approach these special conditions in this article by taking a research methodological perspective. In doing so, the discussion about researcher's’ subjectivity serves as a starting point to examine the associated problems enumerated in the methodological literature. The focus is on perspectives from ethnography, specifically aspects of strangeness and familiarity, as well as higher education research as insider research (BRANNICK & COGHLAN, 2007). Bringing these discussion threads together, I develop a model of role-related involvement in (ethnographic) higher education research. To provide a productive approach, I mark reflection as a central measure to overcome the supposed problems, following BREUER's (2003) call for a reorientation of the researcher’s role. Finally, to deal with subjectivity, I propose concrete reflective questions for higher education researchers with a focus on their role-related involvement.