What I've been thinking about as I read Cresswell...

I am starting to see the idea of "subjectivity" in qualitative research differently because of the Cresswell readings. Cresswell argues that we cannot be "objective" in our research because "our words flow from our own personal experiences, culture, history, and backgrounds" (p. 231). I've never really bought into the idea of objective research (even in a strictly quantitative study). As soon as I make a choice about about a topic or question to study, my personal opinions and worldview have shaped that object of study. As I observe and interview in data collection, my own personal history and my cultural values determine both what I pay attention to and how I pay attention. Previously, I had always just accepted this as part and parcel of research. Although we may try to be conscious of personal biases and limit their role in a study, who we are and what we believe will always be embedded in the work that we do.

The Cresswell readings are helping me to see, however, that a research stance may be put on to help make our subjective influence explicit and systematic. It's a uniform that demarcates our subjectivity for both ourselves and our readers--"these are my beliefs, and this is how they influence my study." By wearing these beliefs openly, we hope that your ideas and beliefs are not Oz behind the curtain, secretly skewing and altering your research. Instead, your ideas and beliefs are being consciously and systematically used to make choices about your research.

I don't, however, think that wearing your research stance means that you can kick up your feet, pat yourself on your back, and assume that all your biases are now neatly exposed and consciously used. I think some of the biggest ways that biases affect research are the hardest to see--the unquestioned "truths" or tacit assumptions that are so ingrained in us that we do not even think of them as opinions or beliefs. I think that even when wearing an explicit research stance, we still have to be vigilant about understanding how our common sense beliefs and worldview shape our studies. None of this is done, of course, to remove subjectivity from research but to ensure that our beliefs are used in conscious, thoughtful choices rather than blind, predestined paths.