The I in Inquiry: Complexifying Objectivity for Qualitative Inquiry

• In Event: Care, Emotion, and Reflexivity in Qualitative Research

Abstract

The fundamental assumption of this paper is that one is never absent from their own research. To go missing in our own research projects is to abandon our responsibilities as researchers; our own possibilities for self-growth and self-awareness; and our own stake in the agency we must claim for ourselves. I draw on a years-long critical ethnography with a queer teen community to explore insights of subjectivity and propose a complex understanding of objectivity which reinterprets researcher positionality as relevant to objectivity, without erasing objective research interests and accountabilities. The complexities I offer resonate with Sandra Harding’s (2015) strong objectivity and demonstrate a sociopolitical link between objectivity, subjectivity and normativity.

Author

• Barbara Dennis, Indiana University