RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

36 THE NATURE OF INQUIRY
that ‘the personal experience of the researcher
is an integral part of the research process’ and
reinforces the point that objectivity is a false claim
by researchers.
Ribbens and Edwards (1997) suggest that it
is important to ask how researchers can produce
work with reference to theoretical perspectives
and formal traditions and requirements of public,
academic knowledge while still remaining faithful
to the experiences and accounts of research
participants. Denzin (1989), Mies (1993), Haig
(1999) and De Laine (2000) argue for several
principles in feminist research:
The asymmetry of gender relations and
representation must be studied reflexively as
constituting a fundamental aspect of social life
(which includes educational research).
Women’s issues, their history, biography and
biology, feature as a substantive agenda/focus
in research – moving beyond mere perspectival/methodological
issues to setting a research
agenda.
The raising of consciousness of oppression,
exploitation, empowerment, equality, voice
and representation is a methodological
tool.
The acceptability and notion of objectivity and
objective research must be challenged.
The substantive, value-laden dimensions
and purposes of feminist research must be
paramount.
Research must empower women.
Research need not be undertaken only by
academic experts.
Collective research is necessary: women need
to collectivize their own individual histories
if they are to appropriate these histories for
emancipation.
There is a commitment to revealing
core processes and recurring features of
women’s oppression.
There is an insistence on the inseparability of
theory and practice.
There is an insistence on the connections
between the private and the public, between
the domestic and the political.
There is a concern with the construction
and reproduction of gender and sexual
difference.
Narrow disciplinary boundaries are rejected.
The artificial subject/researcher dualism is
rejected.
Positivism and objectivity as male mythology
are rejected.
There is an increased use of qualitative,
introspective biographical research techniques.
The gendered nature of social research and the
development of anti-sexist research strategies
are recognized.
There is a review of the research process as
consciousness and awareness raising and as
fundamentally participatory.
The primacy of women’s personal subjective
experience is recognized.
Hierarchies in social research are rejected.
The vertical, hierarchical relationships of
researchers, research community and research
objects, in which the research itself can
become an instrument of domination and
the reproduction and legitimation of power
elites, have to be replaced by research that
promotes the interests of dominated, oppressed,
exploited groups.
The equal status and reciprocal relationships
between subjects and researchers are recognized.
There is a need to change the status quo, not
merely to understand or interpret it.
The research must be a process of conscientization,
not research solely by experts for experts,
but to empower oppressed participants.
Indeed Webb et al. (2004)setoutsixprinciples
for a feminist pedagogy in the teaching of research
methodology:
reformulating the professor–student relationship
(from hierarchy to equality and sharing)
ensuring empowerment (for a participatory
democracy)
building community (through collaborative
learning)
privileging the individual voice (not only the
lecturer’s)