Insider-Outsider Research in Qualitative Inquiry

Insider-Outsider Research in Qualitative Inquiry: New Perspectives on Method and Meaning explores the history, practice and particular benefits of conducting cultural research through a partnership of two researchers: one who is an insider to the culture under study and one who is an outsider.

This book unpacks terminology around this type of research that has become outdated or cumbersome, looks at ethical issues and suggests specific methodological approaches. It also locates insider-outsider research, which is by its nature qualitative, in the wider research landscape. The authors specifically describe a researcher partnership, a relationship more intimate and fruitful than a team, much greater than the sum of its parts. Through their own nearly twenty-year research partnership and study of the Israeli Druze, the authors have developed mutual trust that has led to new depths of insight in understanding cultural codes and the meanings they embody. This, and the methods they use, will be illustrated through examples of some of their studies with the Israeli Druze.

A highly accessible guide, this book will be of interest to ethnographers and other qualitative researchers, both graduate students and researchers of all levels of experience.

Deborah Court is Associate Professor of Education at Bar-Ilan University and academic advisor at the Arab Academic College in Israel. With a background in cultural anthropology, her research centers on educational cultures, the nature of cultural knowledge, intercultural and interreligious understanding and qualitative research methodologies.

Randa Khair Abbas is Associate Professor, Academic Head and Rector of the Arab Academic College in Israel. Her research centers on Druze identity and the cultural, religious and family structure of the Druze community. She works also in women’s rights, women’s leadership and the advancement of Arab women in the professional landscape.