An Introspective Approach to Women's Intercultural Fieldwork
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An Introspective Approach to Women’s Intercultural Fieldwork Women’s to An Approach Introspective The book An Introspective Approach to Women’s Intercultural Fieldwork, edited by Urszula Markowska-Manista and Justyna Pilarska, is a very extraordinary and valuable Edited by monograph. Its originality lies with its innovative juxtaposition of three discursive dimen- sions: female voice in research, theoretical and methodological dilemmas of fieldwork and Urszula Markowska-Manista its application to distant environments. As such, the book combines two main threads of Justyna Pilarska thought: On one hand it confronts a reader with questions such as: Does something like female research exist? In what way is female researcher situation different from that of man researcher; does (and how) this influence the research (selection of research problems, methodology, interpretation)? Secondly, the authors challenge the readers with the dilemma whether (and how) cultural remoteness of a cultural phenomenon studied affects the research process, and with what implications. Step by step, the authors unfold various aspects of the female research perspective. They convincingly show that women researchers (because they are women?!) contribute to the growth of human knowledge: They take part in the reconstruction of contemporary history by researching the role of women in history. By being able to reach women and ask uncom- fortable questions they enrich ethnographic research. They also enrich the research by posing research questions which are relevant to women, particularly to their emancipation and freedom. By opening new topics and new perspectives, the authors enrich the discussion on funda- mental research dilemmas about the normative nature and function of research, the role of the researcher in qualitative studies, the relationship between the subject and object of research and similar research-related issues. Moreover, by detailed and emotional (some- times heart-breaking) descriptions of personal research experience the authors show how tightly research and life are intertwined, whether the researchers (male or female) make this connection visible or not, and therefore this visibility makes the findings even sounder. From the review by prof. Klara Skubic Ermenc Urszula Markowska-Manista – Doctor of Philosophy, assistant Urszula Markowska-Manista | Justyna Pilarska Markowska-Manista Urszula professor and scientific secretary at the Janusz Korczak UNESCO Justyna Pilarska holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the Uni- Chair in Interdisciplinary studies on Child Development and versity of Wroclaw. She joined the Faculty of Historical and Well-being at the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw. Pedagogical Sciences at the University of Wroclaw in 2012 as An Introspective Approach Lecturer and program director of M.A. Childhood Studies an assistant professor at the Department of Intercultural and Children’s Rights (MACR), Department of Education and Education and Social Support Research, Institute of Pedagogy, Psychology at the Free University in Berlin (2016). Since 2002 where she teaches methodology of social research, contempo- to Women’s she has conducted field research in Central Africa, the Horn of rary European culture – between xenophobia and multicul- Africa, the South Caucasus and Poland. Her academic activities turalism, the Balkans in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as Intercultural Fieldwork concentrate on the subject of children who are marginalised a number of other pedagogical subjects. Although she works and discriminated against in the context of education and broadly in intercultural pedagogy and has published articles nurture in culturally diverse backgrounds as well as inter- in anthropology, sociology, social pedagogy and cross-cultural Female researchers’ narrations based on their cultural education. Author, co-author and academic editor of education, much of her work crosses disciplinary boundaries. monographs, numerous academic articles and chapters in Polish Her research interests lie at the intersection of multiculturalism, intercultural experiences from the field and foreign anthologies as well as popular science publications. ethnography, Balkan studies, Bosnian Islam, and indigenous Coordinator and executor of Polish and international research, methodologies. She works primarily on questions about the academic and educational projects devoted to children, chil- nature of forming identity in a multicultural setting, the nature dren’s rights and education in indigenous, culturally diversified of cross-cultural interactions, and an array of methodological, backgrounds (e.g. CREAN 2012–2015, Project of the Polish- pedagogical, cultural, and psychological issues particularly as it -German Foundation for Science 2015–2016, research for pertains to Bosnia-Herzegovina contemporarily and historically. UNICEF 2016–2017, Heroic Imagination Project authored by www.aps.edu.pl WYDAWNICTWO AKADEMII PEDAGOGIKI SPECJALNEJ prof. Ph. Zimbardo 2014–2015). Markowska Introspoctive skrzyd.indd All Pages 25/05/17 16:34 An Introspective Approach to Women’s Intercultural Fieldwork str Markowska Introspoctive.indd 1 25/05/17 16:35 Edited by Urszula Markowska-Manista Justyna Pilarska An Introspective Approach to Women’s Intercultural Fieldwork Female researchers’ narrations based on their intercultural experiences from the field WYDAWNICTWO AKADEMII PEDAGOGIKI SPECJALNEJ str Markowska Introspoctive.indd 3 25/05/17 16:35 Edited by Urszula Markowska-Manista Justyna Pilarska An Introspective Approach to Women’s Intercultural Fieldwork Female researchers’ narrations based on their intercultural experiences from the field WYDAWNICTWO AKADEMII PEDAGOGIKI SPECJALNEJ str Markowska Introspoctive.indd 3 25/05/17 16:35 First published 2017 by Wydawnictwo Akademii Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. M. Grzegorzewskiej © 2017 selection of editorial material Urszula Markowska-Manista & Justyna Pilarska; individual chapters, the contributors Publication financed by the Maria Grzegorzewska University through the funds for statutory activities Editors: Urszula Markowska-Manista & Justyna Pilarska Book reviewers: Prof. Klara Ermenc, Associate Professor of comparative pedagogy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Language reviewer: Justyna Pilarska, Aleksandra Borzecka Native reviewer: Alexis M. von Zielinski Cover photograph: Aleksandra Borzecka ISBN 978-83-64953-59-0 Uznanie autorstwa – Użycie niekomercyjne 3.0 Polska Copyright © by Wydawnictwo Akademii Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. M. Grzegorzewskiej 30 Szczęśliwicka St. 02-353 Warsaw, Poland Tel. 22 589 36 45, Fax. 22 658 11 18 email: [email protected] Contents PREFACE ........................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION .................................................... 9 Urszula Markowska-Manista, Justyna Pilarska Anna Odrowąż-Coates • An ethnographic study about women – The female researcher’s experience ...................................... 15 Agnieszka Gutkowska • If I were Chechen, I would be a feminist… .......... 49 Katarzyna Taczyńska • “A Scattered Mosaic of Records and Reminiscences”: Ženi Lebl’s War Odyssey in Her Personal Writings ........................... 68 Agnieszka Wołowicz-Ruszkowska • A study of women with disabilities – the emancipatory perspective ........................................... 103 Urszula Markowska-Manista • The dilemmas and passions in intercultural field research – a female pedagogue’s ethnographic notes ...................... 126 Justyna Pilarska • Culturally sensitive research – on theory and some good examples ....................................................... 148 CONTRIBUTORS .................................................... 185 PREFACE The concept of the book emerged in the field amidst female struggles with challenging research situations, at difficult moments when physical exhaus- tion and mental doubts prevailed over the passion of academia and during the omnipresent grapple with reality so inherent to field research. This edited volume offers a collection of female researchers’ narrations based on their intercultural experiences in the field, entailing various events and undertakings reported firsthand. These are also narrations emerging from intuition, instinct, feelings and peculiar individual, female reflexive praxis. The contributors to this volume share their numerous reflections and discussions born from experiences gathered during field work and academic activities. These experiences and reflections focus on (and have their source in) female struggles with difficult research situations which stem from the par- ticular subject of studies, problematic situations faced by female researchers, and limitations imposed on a person by one’s own body and mind. The pres- ent publication addresses the multitude of challenges faced in a researcher’s reality: times of physical exhaustion or numerous doubts, mental and physical limitations confronted with the passion for research, and research assumptions in confrontation with reality. Their discussions are grounded in cultural, peda- gogical, psychological and sociological research theories. This edited volume consists of six chapters prepared by female research- ers belonging to various university worlds and representing various disciplines of science. The authors are diversified with regard to research interests, age, academic output, experience in the field, and conduct their field studies in both close and distant corners of the world. 8 PREFACE Each of these six chapters