Describe the similarities and differences between conducting insider and outsider Action Research.
Weather a research is an insider or outsider Action research is based on the relationship between the researcher and the system/setting/community under study. However, both insider and outsider AR are aimed at achieving positive change/action and are participatory in nature. In other words, in both cases the community must participate in every step of the study in order for the action to be affective in solving the identified problem.
The differences between conducting an insider and outsider AR are based on the merits and demerits of either approach as well as what is valued by either the outsider or insider doctrine. In conducting insider AR the researcher is usually a member of the system/setting/community under study while in the outsider AR the researcher is temporally in the system as guest for the specified period of the study. As such, the two researchers would have a different perspective of the system which would have a significant implication on the quality of the knowledge gained from the study. While the insider may look at the problem and the system from within and place more responsibility on the community the outsider is responsible for the study from its formulation to its implementation. The outsider researcher appears to be from a privileged and powerful position and such is viewed by the community with some level of suspicion as one wanting to exploit the community for the sake of advancing his/her agenda. This makes it challenging to access the community (hence the data) when conducting outsider AR. On the other hand the insider researcher can easily engage the participants and gather richer data because s/he has some shared experiences with the community. However, the outsider doctrine claims that the insider has difficulties separating personal experiences from the communities, can be biased and would have issues of confidentiality. On the other hand, the outsider is valued by the outside doctrine as being objective. The insider doctrine critic the outsider researcher as being aloof and not able to truly understand the system/setting/culture being studied because s/he has not experienced it.
It is however important to note that there is no strictly insider or outsider AR because the identities are relative and may change with setting/context. In addition, there is a paradigm shift from a strict inside/outside dichotomy to emphasize on the space between because researchers may be in different spaces at different times depending on the context of the study.
References
Dwyer, S. C., Grenfell, S. W., & Buckle, J. (2009). The Space Between:On Being an Insider-Outsider in Qualitative Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 2009 , 8 (1), 54-63.
Kerstetter, K. (2012). Insider, outsider, or somewhere in between: the impact of researchers’ identities on the community-based research process. Journal of Rural Social Sciences , 27 (2), 99–117.
