C/overt? Examining the Ethics of Covert Methods in Overt Research Studies

• In Event: 34.079 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 34.079-9 - Diversifying Methodologies

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the use covert methods by qualitative researchers conducting overt research studies. Renewing the debates about c/overt research, I investigate how all forms of overt qualitative research are always already covert in some way. I offer a mediation on the ethical and practical implications of this finding for educational researchers, paying careful attention to relations of power. To do so, I draw from an ethnographic research study conducted at a US public high school where I performed, strategically disclosed, and concealed my own intellectual politics and identities while in the field. This ethnographic fieldwork provides insight into the banal strategies of disclosure and concealment often glossed over in discussions of the ethics of c/overt research.

Author

• Nicole Nguyen, University of Illinois at Chicago