Authority

Authority within qualitative research refers to the claims that actors within the research process, notably the researcher, make so as to speak/write in the way they do about the social process or phenomenon being studied.

The ways in which these claims are made, and whether they are explicit or implicit, vary according to the tradition within which the researcher is working. For example, in positivist research, the voice of the research tends to be dominant in identifying the research agenda, determining the research process, and carrying out analysis. However, in qualitative research, the privileged position of the researcher is more often open to challenge and debate. For example, within an ethnography (and particularly with a critical ethnography), the authority of the researcher to interpret and make claims about the group or culture she or he is researching is unlikely to be accepted automatically. In such an example, the researcher will need to be explicit about the basis on which she or he makes such claims (if she or he is intending to do this). The researcher is likely to engage in reflexive practices, such as the keeping of a research journal, that actively enables the researcher to explore her or his own role within the process—previously unacknowledged agendas, preferences, and values.

In postmodern and poststructural research, the unitary voice of the researcher is usually disrupted and fragmented, providing a range of possible interpretations. Examples include the retelling of ostensibly the same research process from the perspectives of different stakeholders or even the researcher herself or himself in the guise of different identities. Another strategy that can be employed to involve the readers more actively in engaging and questioning the written material being presented is to include alternative lines of argument, or footnotes, that challenge the main thrust of the text. Still other strategies deployed by postmodern researchers are to create partial, confused, and incomplete texts and to include different modes of representation, such as visual (e.g., photographs), auditory (e.g., audiorecordings), and combinations (e.g., a weblog by an imaginary or actual participant), that can facilitate different ways of viewing the research endeavor. Thus, the authority of the researcher is challenged, and the readers are encouraged to actively participate in constructing meanings and reflect on what they additionally bring to the research as research “consumers.”

Some research approaches, such as participatory action research, deliberately seek to enfranchise and give voice to research participants, arguing that the research process often objectifies participants as passive subjects. This is achieved by inviting those being researched to become co-researchers to share in the process of making meaning.