Friendship Does Not Always Work: Reflections on Ethics When Friendship Is Engaged in Qualitative Research

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am
  In Roundtable Session: Turning Inward: Examining Self Through Qualitative Inquiry (Table 9)

Abstract

Friendship or good rapport with participants has usually been positioned as beneficial in qualitative research. Nonetheless, the examples from this paper speak to the contrary. In this study, I took up an autoethnographic approach, using my research journal as evidence to explore how friendship can create complex or even challenging situations in qualitative research. The results shed light on the ethical and moral responsibilities that are brought about by the entanglement of the researcher’s, participant’s, and friend’s roles.

Author

• Pei-Jung Li, Indiana University