Biographical Portraits of Three Principal Investigators Into Gender and Research

• In Event: For the Public Good: Women in Educational Leadership Across the Continents

Abstract

Objectives. This paper will discuss firstly the two-dimensional research project which investigates women academics’ careers in two women-only and two co-educational universities in Pakistan. An important element of the research was to develop a group of early-career women researchers from each partner university as researchers of international standard through participating in the project. While seeking to investigate women academics’ experiences with the aim of making original contributions to the field of knowledge, the principal investigators developed research inquiry skills among all the researchers from all partner institutions. The second aspect of the paper will focus on the autobiographical account of the three researchers who were based in the UK.

Theoretical framework. The theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory, Whiteness Studies, and intersectionality are drawn on to explore and better understand the experiences as mentioned in the text.
Methods. The methodology for the research project was developed in discussion with the team leaders in the four partner universities in Pakistan. Because of the investigative and exploratory nature of the project, it was designed as a mixed methods study, using a survey, followed by semi-structured interviews in each institution. Workshops were also held to discuss pilot interviews and then to revise and finalise the interview schedule for the main phase of data collection.
The research design for the biographical account applied Grounded Theory to develop the methodological and conceptual framework for the study. The research design emerged through a series of conversations, discussions, and ideas which took place with the three principal investigators and the higher education establishments. The author’s autobiographical account of her leadership experiences became the basis and rationale for the three principal investigators. The research materialized through the lens of the PI’s who had critically reflected on their own experience and journey on the project.

The emergence of data and data collection. There are a range of questions which require unpacking as we attempt to understand both the gendered and racialized experiences. We examined the intersections of self (e.g., our autobiographies, the selves we are, the selves we negotiate, the selves we present, the selves we want to become, and the selves we are not yet) and the project/partnership (e.g., crossing boundaries/border crossings). But how different were each of our trajectories into the partnership—our border crossings—and what might explain those differences? In what sense were we insiders/outsiders? How deeply were we able to penetrate the partnership- institutional worlds in which we were working and what kinds of engagement did we achieve/accomplish? How were we constructed by our colleagues in Pakistan and by our interpretations of their expectations? How did we construct them? This paper will explore the data set that has emerged from this new methodology and the backgrounds of each PI.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work. This work adds to the body of knowledge which is currently being created relating to the experiences generated through the lens of different researchers across many continents.

Author

• Victoria Showunmi, UCL Institute of Education, London