Embracing temporality: Reflexive insights into positionality and relational dynamics in intercultural research

Abstract

Reflexivity has increasingly become a focal point in qualitative research as researchers embrace their evolving roles and presence in the research process. In this article, I explore the complexities of reflexive practice, highlighting notions of relationality, intercultural research and hierarchical structures. Through personal reflexive diaries, I investigate how nuanced shifts and transformations in my identity and positionality were negotiated over time. Specifically, I reflect on my transition from researcher to Dasao (sister-in-law) during my Ph.D. fieldwork, where cultural and linguistic immersion simultaneously guided and challenged my inquiry. This journey confronted me with unforeseen complexities, prompting deeper engagement with reflexivity and positionality. I discuss the fear of becoming too involved in the research and with the participants, potentially (mis)leading the data. I describe my struggles moving in and out of fluid researcher roles, alternating between researcher/participant, insider/outsider, learned/learner - positions interwoven with, and inseparable from my own life experience. While time was central to gaining, understanding and developing positionality, it also highlighted my own research insecurities, which became further exposed by unplanned timescales, leading to unexpected friendships, fluid relational boundaries and an all-consuming reflexivity which thrived on time. By focussing on temporal dimensions, this study offers an innovative perspective on the challenges of reflexivity, the negotiation of roles and blurring of boundaries, researcher vulnerability and the dilemmas around accepting one's presence in the data.