Epistemological ruptures: Flashback on fieldwork dilemmas while doing research on friends at home

Abstract

While doing fieldwork at home and/or with people who are familiar can yield new knowledge, researchers using ethnographic techniques ought to first assume the role of apprentice and enact vulnerability before they can represent findings that represent what really happened. Doing otherwise can tarnish relationships or jeopardize a study. The history of narrative within ethnographic research is discussed as an introduction to the author’s own personal narrative, which is in the form of a flashback that illustrates the journey he embarked on in 2010 when he initiated dissertation research in his hometown of south Texas. It is here where he tells about the epistemological ruptures he encountered that were originally understood as fieldwork dilemmas only. He provides a discussion section where he shares how he make use of the lessons learned from writing a flashback in his current position of professor within a principal preparation program.