While studying up is crucial, it is also incumbent on researchers to share their experiences of studying up. The experience of doing research in elite contexts is significantly different from the privileged position of the researcher when studying down and inverts the assumption that the researcher holds power.
In my research with non-elite mothers in India, I used the term “aspiration shaming” (Mathew, 2018) to refer to two simultaneous emergences. Unlike in the previous generation,
non-elites in the post-liberalization decades were intensely invested in formal education and aspired for mainstream educational opportunities for their children (also see Jakimow, 2016). However, the state and the established middle-classes shamed aspiring non-elites and sought to direct them to marginalized educational spaces and trajectories.
Aspiration Shaming Read More »
Even after finalising and conceptualising the research framework beforehand, the field can present unforeseen challenges. It can quickly turn into an unpredictable site that may defy what one had imagined before the field visit. In such scenarios, researchers must navigate the field and explore every other avenue to carry out data collection. In this article, I share how I had to make significant adjustments to my research framework, including the research tools that I had designed for the study, since the field demanded it.
Reflections on the Unpredictable nature of the Field Read More »
