Navigating participant apprehension

Abstract

In this article, I present how I navigated unexpected apprehension that I faced while communicating with teacher participants during my PhD data collection (via interviews, observations and document study). I mediated the apprehension by strategies such as disclosing my teacher identity, expressing an interest in their practice and assuring them of support. The outcome of the strategies ranged from understanding to acceptance of my research, as well as collaborating with me to collect the data. This article calls for more research into the apprehension of research participants, as there appears to be little research in this field.