Insider or outsider, who decides? An auto-ethnographic analysis of the continuum and ethics of insiderness within a professional PhD

An insider researcher is closely connected to the research subject so needs to be aware of the possible assumed cultural understandings that would be more apparent to an outsider researcher. However, there are multiple levels of insiderness and participant perceptions are critical to the co-creation of researcher position. Through an auto-ethnographic discussion of a PhD (Professional) research project, it is clear that participants manipulate researcher insiderness to create zones of comfort from which to discuss sensitive issues. A PhD (Professional) looks to carry out research which can be applied to practical problems within the student's work environment. Researching within a workplace where some colleagues do not consent to being a participant but have an influence over the thought processes involved with the research leads to a conclusion that the insider continuum may apply to all researchers. The observations in this article were made in a research journal the researcher kept during data collection during for their PhD (Professional) in Education. This research was focused on the factors affecting teacher well-being. While insider research has been discussed extensively in the literature, it assumes the position of power to be in the hands of the researcher. This article reports on the different levels an insider researcher can assume during a PhD (Professional) research project which is not only depended on the position a researcher supposes but also how the participants perceive the researcher as a co-construction of insider positioning. The manipulations that participants undertake during and after interviews is analysed to show how this co-construction is created. These manipulations are important to both the participant and researcher, and is significant because the power exerted by participants is often ignored in current literature. Ignoring the participants use of power dehumanises them and is an injustice to those we are indebted to for our data.