Exploring the secret garden of further education professional development: reflecting on the researcher’s honesties and opening the honesty box

Abstract

This article engages in an examination of reflecting upon a researcher’s honesties within the context of conducting an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The purpose of this article is to outline how a researcher’s reflexivity and awareness of emotions is central to IPA research which investigates Further Education practitioners’ lived experiences of the Advanced Teacher Status (ATS), and its potential impact upon practitioners’ professional identity and agency.