Poszukiwanie tożsamości przez badacza w kontekście etnograficznego badania emocji w pracy nauczyciela
Seeking the Researcher’s Identity in the Context of Ethnographic Study of Emotions in Teachers’ Work

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to present the methodological difficulties and problems that I encountered as a researcher conducting field research on emotions in teachers’ professional work, in the context of two issues, i.e. access to data and researcher’s search for identity. The analysis was limited to the difficulties associated with the selection of the research area, problems with entering the research area and obtaining access to data and reflections on the conscious hiding of the researcher’s identity. The ethnographic studies described concerned emotions in teachers’ professional work. I assumed that only the interpretation paradigm would give me the basics to understand the process of managing emotions and let me see the emotions, including their sources, present in the teacher’s work. The reflections in the article are the result of: 1) multiple observations and participant observations conducted by the author in 2008-2016 at primary and junior high schools from the Łódź agglomeration; 2) analyzes of unstructured and structured interviews conducted by the author with current teachers, retired teachers, parents, principals and other school employees; 3) unstructured research talks with the respondents, 4) analyzes of existing documents and websites. The selection of the researcher’s identity is determined by the research area. In the study of educational institutions, revealing the identity of the researcher enables wider access to data.

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