A Feminist and “Outsider” in the Field: Negotiating the Challenges of Researching Young Men

For a number of years, women scholars have documented the difficulties faced when conducting research with male participants. This article contributes to this scholarship by reflecting on fieldwork I conducted with young men from a rural high school in Aotearoa/New Zealand. While the primary aim of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Christina Vogels
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2019-06-01
Series:International Journal of Qualitative Methods
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919855907
Description
Summary:For a number of years, women scholars have documented the difficulties faced when conducting research with male participants. This article contributes to this scholarship by reflecting on fieldwork I conducted with young men from a rural high school in Aotearoa/New Zealand. While the primary aim of this project was to collect moments of young men’s talk that spoke to their understandings of gendered norms within (hetero)romantic relationships, I also ended up gathering other data in the form of how they interacted with me and each other during our discussions. What resulted were a range of challenges that appeared connected to my “outsider” status. This article exposes these challenges and offers my reflections on why they occurred, how I managed them at the time, and what I learnt in the process.
ISSN:1609-4069