This research note considers gendered risks within survey research, which, it argues, are a frequently overlooked aspect of this form of quantitative research. By reflecting on the process of conducting exit polls in South Africa, the research note highlights the importance of discussing the gendered practice of research and sexualized harassment…

In this paper we reflect on our combined work in some of the most marginalised educational contexts in the Southern Hemisphere. We draw on the work of Bourdieu to frame the paper. We propose the working in marginalised education settings requires a particular habitus or way of being to be able to play the research game. Underpinning our approach…

This paper details my efforts as an Indigenous African scholar to indigenize the research process -- from conception to publication -- across three data collection sites in South Africa. To respect the vulnerability and culture of the participants, Zulu and Xhosa cultural values like "hlonipha" (respect) and "ubuntu"…

This study was aimed at determining whether a specific research methodology was dominant within a cohort of master's level engineering management students and, if so, whether this preference was directed by their personal epistemology, rather than the dictates of their research questions. Secondary data were used to determine the dominant research…

Researcher reflexivity, meaning the revealing of the researcher's assumptions and her position vis-à-vis those researched, has by now become commonplace. This article explores such issues in the context of a larger study of transnational adoption for which I conducted interviews with South African birth mothers as both a researcher/interviewer and…

This paper, written as a confessional tale, explores the dialectic between the perception of the researcher ("how the multiple positions HE researchers simultaneously occupy in the field influence the framing of the research") and the reception of the researcher ("how the playing out of the researcher's role within the specific…

Researchers are guided by their ideological and ethical viewpoints when conducting research. Doing research for government challenges them to confront these ideals head-on. This article explores the uncertain terrain researchers sometimes have to negotiate when conducting research for government, and discusses relations between researchers and…

The idea of using values as a means of guiding our research decisions and judging the validity of our claims of knowledge is well established in literature on the self-reflective genre of action research. Values in action research should always result in virtuous behaviour--to promote the general social good. However, ideas of what constitutes the…

This paper looks into the importance of a responsible research community and how ethics can contribute towards the building of such a community. The paper starts off by outlining the many challenges facing a responsible research community. These challenges range from doing research, transferring the research results, commercialising the…

Participatory methodologies are often favoured in education research. This study aimed to determine collaborative partnership trends between education researchers and teachers in order to understand the use of participatory theory and practice in education studies. Seven symposium presentations by education scholars from various higher education…

Academic literacies research has been identified as an emerging but significant field in higher education. This article extends the discussions around methodology in academic literacies research by drawing on the current text and context debates in sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography. It uses illustrations from a recent academic literacies…

This paper presents some reflections on the process of creating research, from the point of view of a psychologist working in an academic environment in a developing country which is undergoing social transformation. It explores some tensions between global and local concerns in research, and reflects on the relation between research, art,…