Researching Reflexivity: Negotiating Identity and Ambiguity in a Cross-Cultural Research Project

Abstract

This article examines a multidisciplinary, ethnically diverse team of researchers and their relationship with the research in which they were engaged: a study of overseas trained doctors (OTDs) recruited to work in health services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across four Australian states. The reflexive analysis presented in this article is based on interviews of 13 of the 15 researchers engaged in that project, examining the ways in which the researchers construct their own identities in relation to the research and the commonalities and differences evident within and between clusters of researchers based on their own social and cultural backgrounds and migration histories. The analysis also identifies ways in which discourses emerging from this analysis influence further engagement with the research process itself and the findings of that research by making explicit the assumptions underlying qualitative observations and insights.