As with any sample, there are a number o f limitations which can be identified in this study. These fall into two main areas. The first concern relates to the methodological limitations. The sample comprised o f a single group based on a specific gender and racial characteristics: woman and black. This limits any findings from the research because they cannot be compared to other groups not displaying these characteristics. This point was raised by the NRC and was one reason given for my application being rejected. It is important to note, however, that this is a limitation and not a criticism o f the research itself, and it is important to emphasise that by focusing on a specific group’s experience this may provide an insight into wider social issues, that is, stories with a repeated narrative illustrate a pattern o f experience. That pattern, I am arguing, is produced in a specific organisational setting, which, through social processing a category called ‘black woman’, gets produced. This is the essence o f the study. In relation to experience, I want to hold on to what this patterned experience associated with a group called black woman tells us about prisons, examine this pattern o f experience, and use it as a core concept to understand how it is socially and psychically determined in the prison context.
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Another limitation is that the data collected from participants cannot be independently verified as it was self-reported; this limits this study because self-reported data contains several potential sources o f bias, for example, selective memory (remembering Or not remembering experiences or events that occurred at some point in the past).
Another possible limitation is researcher bias. We all have biases, whether or not we are conscious o f them. Bias is when a person, place, or thing is viewed or shown in a consistently inaccurate way. It is usually negative. Michael Patton emphasises the importance o f reporting ‘any personal and professional information that may have affected data collection, analysis, and interpretation - either negatively or positively - in the minds of users of the findings’ (Patton, 2002, p. 566). I recognised my bias when analysing the data. To overcome this bias, I became extremely critical when selecting the data to be studied and took into account what I might have omitted and the manner in which I had chosen to represent a person or incident. I also delineated my previous experience and personal assumptions and biases by talking with my supervisors, because it was important that I was able to ensure that the research outcome was not compromised in any way by my prior personal experience. As Alan Peshkin (1988) has suggested, by revealing or discussing my subjectivity, this helped me to manage my biases, not necessarily exorcising them, but applying them in a creative way by writing poetry in relation to the data.
My goal was that the participants’ psychosocial experience should be clearly reflected and interpreted, and that my readers should feel convinced that my research was not adversely affected by any biases or preconceived conceptions. As mentioned earlier, the aim o f this study was to make black women’s experience as employees in the British Prison Service visible, giving this group o f employees ‘a voice’, drawing on Diane Bell, (1996) and Diana Russell’s, (1996) assertions that this group often does not have access to public forums to represent its experience. This approach, to represent or speak on behalf o f marginalised groups, or groups deemed as ‘other’, has been debated by
feminists over the years. It is worth noting when attempting to research the experience of a group that there is the potential o f mis-representation, mis-use o f power and abuse. To • avoid this difficulty, I referred to Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger’s (1996) notion of ‘re-presenting’ rather than ‘representing’, a distinction originally made by Marx
(Darstellung/Vertretung). Wilkinson and Kitzinger were concerned with the notion o f re
presenting (giving a voice to marginalised individuals and groups who are often under represented), rather than representing, which is deemed to be a patronising quality o f standing in the place, and speaking on behalf, o f the individual or group.
Christine Callender (1997) was able to present the views of her participants because she was o f the opinion that being a black female teacher and researcher gave her greater insight into the topic area o f black pupils within the education system. I share this view because I had similar characteristics to the participants in my own study. I also, however, acknowledged that shared characteristics with participants may have disadvantages. As Callender asserts, while it can ‘open doors to meanings normally reserved for in group
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members’ (Callender, 1997, p. 11), it can also close doors as ‘the researcher becomes too immersed in the situation to see clearly what is happening.’ (Callender, 1997, p. 11). Conversely, Ann Oakley (1981) stipulates that typically the objective o f finding out about people through interviewing is best achieved when the relationship of the interviewer and interviewee is non-hierarchical and when the interviewer is prepared to invest her own personal identity in the relationship. Taking into account Ning Tang’s (2002) view that when women interview women, perceptions of each other based on such aspects as difference in social, cultural and personal backgrounds may influence the balance of power during the interview encounter, I hoped my shared characteristics assisted in eroding any hierarchy that might have been created as a result o f the researcher- interviewer relationship.
In this chapter, I have given an in-depth description o f the way I conducted the study and ethnographic interviews, together with the qualitative methods used to analyse them. Issues related to the researcher-participant relationship and how they may have been affected by my shared characteristics with participants was discussed. I have also stated my research questions and rationale for the study.
I have used this chapter to bridge the theoretical framework of this thesis (Chapters 4 and 5), with the actual research and analysis (Chapters 6 to 11). In doing so, I have illustrated the personal, theoretical and epistemological foundation o f the research as a whole.