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Power and positionality:

negotiating insider/outsider
status within and across
cultures
Sharan B. Merriam , Juanita Johnson-Bailey ,
Ming-Yeh Lee , Youngwha Kee , Gabo Ntseane &
Mazanah Muhamad
Published online: 11 Nov 2010.

To cite this article: Sharan B. Merriam , Juanita Johnson-Bailey , Ming-Yeh

Lee , Youngwha Kee , Gabo Ntseane & Mazanah Muhamad (2001) Power and
positionality: negotiating insider/outsider status within and across cultures,
International Journal of Lifelong Education, 20:5, 405-416
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02601370120490

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Power and positionality: negotiating insider/

outsider status within and across cultures
SHARAN B. MERRIAM and JUANITA JOHNSON-BAILEY
The University of Georgia, USA
MING-YEH LEE
San Francisco State University, USA
YOUNGWHA KEE
Myungii College, Korea
GABO NTSEANE
University of Botswana
MAZANAH MUHAMAD
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Early discussions of insider/outsider status assumed that the researcher was predominately an
insider or an outsider and that each status carried with it certain advantages and
disadvantages. More recent discussions have unveiled the complexity inherent in either status
and have acknowledged that the boundaries between the two positions are not all that clearly
delineated. Four case studies a Black woman interviewing other Black women, Asian
graduate students in the US interviewing people from back home, an African professor
learning from African businesswomen, and a cross-cultural team studying aging in a nonWestern culture are used as the data base to explore the complexities of researching within
and across cultures. Positionality, power, and representation proved to be useful concepts for
exploring insider/outsider dynamics.

What does it mean to be an insider or an outsider to a particular group under study?

Can women understand mens experience? Can Whites study Blacks? Straights
study gays? The colonized study the colonizer? Early discussions in anthropology
and sociology of insider/outsider status assumed that the researcher was either an
insider or an outsider and that each status carried with it certain advantages and
disadvantages. More recent discussions of insider/outsider status have unveiled
the complexity inherent in either status and have acknowledged that the
boundaries between the two positions are not all that clearly delineated. In the
real world of data collection, there is a good bit of slippage and fluidity between
these two states. Critical and feminist theory, postmodernism, multiculturalism,
participatory and action research are now framing our understanding of insider/
outsider issues. In particular, the reconstruing of insider/outsider status in terms
of ones positionality vis-a` -vis race, class, gender, culture and other factors, offer
us better tools for understanding the dynamics of researching within and across
ones culture.
International Journal of Lifelong Education ISSN 0260-1370 print/ISSN 1464-519X online
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/02601370110059537

2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd

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There is a growing body of literature around issues of positionality, power,

knowledge construction and representation in qualitative research. However, as
all researchers have discovered, there is no substitute for actual fieldwork where
these issues are personally encountered in sometimes unanticipated, and
oftentimes subtle ways. The purpose of this article is to explore issues of power
and positionality when conducting research within ones own culture and across
cultural boundaries. To anchor this discussion in actual practice, we first present
four short tales from the field (Van Maanen 1988) in the voices of the
researchers as they negotiate their insider/outsider status.

Tales from the Field

All researchers begin data collection with certain assumptions about the
phenomenon being investigated, situations to be observed, and people to be
interviewed. The more one is like the participants in terms of culture, gender,
race, socio-economic class and so on, the more it is assumed that access will be
granted, meanings shared, and validity of findings assured. In the following cases,
a Black woman interviewed other Black women, two Asians in the US
interviewed others in the US from their homeland, an African woman studied
businesswomen in her culture, and a cross-cultural team investigated ageing in a
non-western culture. In each case, researchers were challenged to examine their
assumptions about access, power relationships, and commonality of experience.
A Black woman interviews Black women
Johnson-Bailey examined the educational narratives of re-entry Black women.
Herself a Black re-entry woman, Johnson-Bailey assumed, in accordance with the
literature, that there would be an immediate bond of sisterhood ideal for
research. This she found to be generally true for race and gender, but a more
complicated scenario emerged with regard to class and colour.
The participants and researcher held similar views on race and gender issues.
There were silent understandings, culture-bound phrases that did not need
interpretation, and non-verbalized answers conveyed with hand gestures and
facial expressions (Johnson-Bailey 1999: 669). All of the women in the study
possessed an understanding of societal hierarchical forces that shaped and
determined their existence. They identified racism as the specific dominating
factor, and while race was never raised as an issue in the interview process, race
and the knowledge of living in a race-conscious society was a factor that
researcher and participants shared. Johnson-Bailey (1999: 661662) comments:
It is an understanding of race, albeit through different means and at different
ages, that unites the black women studied and provides a common ground of
understanding and analysis that benefited me as a researcher who shared the
same racial background . . . There were several main areas of similarity that
linked the participant and researcher narratives: self-esteem, self-doubt,
guilt concerning time spent away from the family . . . It was a shared issue of
womanhood that the respondents and I spoke of in synchrony.

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Disproportionately more Black women and their children are below or just slightly
above the poverty level than White women (Hacker 1992). Thus class is inextricably
tied to the situations of Black women and their families, and class became an
inevitable component in the investigative process. Several respondents related
growing up poor and when the researcher related similar circumstances, the
accounts were not taken at face value as the race and gender stories had been.
Instead the women responded with, Well, you wouldnt know it to look at you
now, or Really?.
As an issue of concern among Blacks, colourism is examined and debated in
Black communities in a less open manner than class. This intra-racial
discrimination among Blacks gives preferential treatment to those who have
lighter skin shades, thin facial features, and straight hair texture. Colorism is a
vestige from slavery much like class is a function of a hierarchical capitalistic
society, and sexism, evidentiary of a patriarchal system (Johnson-Bailey 1999:
666). Colourism was a complicating consideration in this study. Three of the
eight women in the study raised the issue in an effort to determine its
importance in the researchers life. In a particularly anxious moment in the
research, one of the respondents described problems she had had as result of
her dark skin, insinuating that the researcher would not have had similar
problems because of her lighter skin colour and good hair. While only three
overtly addressed colourism, it was noted in the analysis that the remaining
women in the study unknowingly related instances of how they had benefited
from colorism. If class was a wall . . .to be peered across or broken down, then
issues of color were most certainly occasional landmines in our mutual process
of discovery (Johnson-Bailey 1999: 668).
Interviewing my own people: Asians interviewing Asians away from home
As part of their graduate work in the United States, Drs. Youngwha Kee from
Korea, and Ming-Yeh Lee from Taiwan interviewed people from their own
culture also living in the US. While access was assumed to be relatively easy due
to a common language and culture, other factors, including certain cultural
values, created problems in collecting and interpreting the data.
When interviewing away from home, the mutually perceived homogeneity can
create a sense of community which can enhance trust and openness throughout the
research process. Ming-Yeh found she had an endless list of potential interviewees
referred by acquaintances. Many told her its my pleasure to help out another
person from the homeland, or this is the least I can do for a fellow Taiwanese
Chinese. Youngwha did not have such easy access to Koreans living in the US,
perhaps because she was studying their reasons for not participating in adult
education. Also, compared to her, the respondents were from a lower economic
status and had relatively low levels of education; a few were illegal immigrants. In
the rigidly hierarchical Korean culture, Youngwhas status as a doctoral student
in the US was perceived as more prestigious than that of her respondents; several
refused co-operation and some treated Youngwha as an outsider to their
community. Her outsider status was further underscored by being a Christian;
gaining access to non-Christians, especially Buddhists who represent Korean
traditional religion, proved difficult.

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While Ming-Yeh did not have the same access problems, she faced a validity issue
due to her topic of asking about a major life event. Chinese highly value education
and degrees and many chose a life event that was education-related. One middleaged woman told her how she had worked her way through junior college. She
stressed, with a sense of pride in her tone, [the junior college degree] is equal to
a doctoral degree in my generation. Four men told her that since childhood their
families had found them the best schools and they were truly the best. Ming-Yeh
raises the following question about the education-related data:
It happened so frequently that I pondered whether the educational event
indeed meant a great deal to them because of the education-focused nature
of Chinese culture. Or was it that when interviewed by a highly educated
woman from the native culture, the emphasis on their own degrees and
education would add more weight to their side of the power equation?
Ming-Yeh also discovered that in a culture that places greater value on age and
being male her status as a young woman created other interesting dynamics. One
of her older interviewees said many times at different points in the interview:
Only people of my age could understand this . . .young people like you have no
idea. Another participant insisted on sharing her current luxury life style in
length because this is important for you to tell the Americans about our life
now. Ming-Yeh questioned whether these comments were to demonstrate their
expertise based on seniority. Or perhaps, like many from third world countries,
did they tend to ensure the presentation of a less-distorted picture of their reality?
Or did they over emphasize the part that seemed irrelevant to their story just
because of the strong impact of the cultural value of saving face? Finally, MingYeh feels that her years of overseas experience and feminist identity had
compromised her insider status, requiring her participants to provide additional
persuasion or instruction to assure her understanding. Some of her female
participants often began their stories of gender discrimination with caveats such
as You may not see this, but in the isolated village I used to live in . . . or You
may not understand but many families in my community . . .. Ming-Yeh
concludes that she had oversimplified the binary power relationship between the
researcher and the researched, and overlooked the multi-dimensional power
relationship shaped by the prevailing cultural values, gender, educational
background and seniority.
African businesswomen instruct the professor
In attempting to understand how semi-literate women moved from unemployment
and poverty in rural Botswana to owning and managing successful small businesses
in urban settings, Gabo Ntseane, a professor at the University of Botswana and
doctoral student in the US, encountered some unanticipated problems as an
insider. Being female and of the same culture, Gabo had no problem gaining
access and establishing rapport with the businesswomen. At the same time, she
was seen as a confidant for much unrelated information. As one woman said,
switch off the tape because what I am going to say is just woman to woman talk.
Further, rather than telling their stories, respondents preferred to give Gabo

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advice on how to survive in their context, and what information she should have to
sustain her family. As one woman put it, When you finish writing our book at the
university, you should come back here to learn how to manage a business.
Being an insider was not without problems because of the interlocking nature of
culture, gender and power. For example, the use of cultural understandings through
language, proverbs and non-verbal expressions to explain new business concepts
was assumed to convey meaning to the researcher. But as Kondo (1990: 300301)
observes, these cultural meanings are themselves multiple and contradictory . . ..
They cannot be understood without reference to historical, political and
economic discourses.
During fieldwork the researchers power is negotiated, not given. Gabos
academic status was not a threat to the women who had comparatively low levels
of education. In fact, her being at the university was perceived as less rewarding
than being a small businesswoman. Age was also a factor. Often older
businesswomen offered suggestions on how she could best talk to the younger
ones and what information was important for the book about their stories.
Similarly, those younger than the researcher expected her to spend more time
giving them advice on unrelated topics. The businesswomen also felt that Gabos
questions were trivial as a middle-aged woman in their culture she should
already know these things. This led Gabo to step out of her insiders boots and
emphasize that her professors at the university in the US where she was studying
knew little about their culture, and their explanations were for them, not her.
Yet another cultural norm influenced the data collection. In Botswana, the
credibility of the information rests on how many people approve of it with
convincing comments, and not on one persons account. As an insider then, Gabo
was expected to accept group interviews. As one sewing businesswoman stressed,
I can not answer questions for the other person when they are here. I am the
owner of the business and general manager but other people are responsible for
other things in this business. Group interviews have a direct impact on
translation and interpretation. With group interviews, the researcher has to
determine if responses from other people are part of the interview; if so, whose
story is being told?
Do all these people have to be here?; collecting data as a cross-cultural team

The driver took us to the warehouse cum office where we were scheduled to
interview a semi-retired tobacco curer, and later, a tobacco farmer. Upon
arrival both interviewees and the local extension agent met us. As we pulled
out our materials, the driver, the extension agent, the two men, and three
others lingering nearby all sat around the picnic table, ready for us to begin.
I whispered to Mazanah, Do all these people have to be here?
Indeed, my becoming comfortable with the collective, group-oriented culture of
Malaysia was something that I, as the outsider, had to work at in conducting a
study of older learners with my insider colleague Mazanah. As a cross-cultural
team, we learned to draw on the strengths of insider and outsider positions,
minimizing, we hoped, some of the drawbacks. As an insider, Mazanah could

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utilize her knowledge of this status and hierarchy-conscious culture to negotiate

access through village elders, work supervisors, and revered family members. At
the same time, my outsider status rendered me something of a curiosity and some
agreed to be interviewed so they could have a close encounter with a white lady.
My outsider status became an asset with regard to eliciting fuller explanations
than would have been given to Mazanah, the insider, who was assumed to already
know. For example, in our interview with an elder statesman and devout Muslim,
Mazanahs efforts to have him elaborate on why he felt contributing to society was
his most important task at this stage of life was met with a look of disbelief and the
comment, Why do you ask this? You should know!. In another interview, getting
the last child married was mentioned as an important task yet to be accomplished.
Mazanahs follow-up question of Why? elicited a Youre one of us. You know.
Since Mazanah is Malaysian and Moslem, it seemed ludicrous to them to have to
explain to her what they meant. At these junctures Mazanah would point out that
of course she knew, but they had to help explain it so that I, a foreigner to their
culture, would understand. To assist this process, I learned to take a more active
role in asking questions in English, whether or not respondents knew any English,
so that it was clear that I, rather than Mazanah, was wanting to know.
In some situations, Mazanah was more of an insider than at other times. Being
Malaysian and a Moslem, Mazanah was afforded a general insider status, but
unless one actually lives in a particular village or town, one is somewhat of an
outsider to the community. This was true even when we went to the village where
she was born and raised. Because she had left her village and moved to the city,
she is in a peripheral position compared to the true insiders who had remained.
In our research, we sought the assistance of the true insider in the interview.
Further, her position as an insider was most clear when interviewing Malay
Moslem women. However, her education and social class rendered her more or
less of an insider, depending on the interviewee. By virtue of her Western
education and university affiliation, Mazanah was something of an outsiderwithin, a position Collins (1986) has identified with regard to African-American
academic women who make creative use of their marginality as intellectuals to
study African-American women. Gender, especially as it plays out in a highly
patriarchal, Islamic culture was another factor that affected Mazanahs position.
And although she had the Malay culture in common with other Malaysians, and
understood much of the customs and religions of Chinese and Indian Malays, for
these groups (which together constitute 40% of the population of Malaysia), her
insider status was decentralized even more. For the few interviews with elderly
Indian Malays that were conducted in Tamil, both Mazanah and I were outsiders
dependent on our translators for understanding.
In functioning as an insider/outsider team in conducting our study of older
adulthood in Malaysia, our interaction created what Bartunek and Lewis (1996:
61) call a kind of marginal lens through which to examine subject matter.
Crossing experientially and cognitively different standpoints creates this lens. It
requires maintaining tension and distinctness among the standpoints. They go
on to point out that in insider/outsider pairings, the outsiders assumptions,
language, and cognitive frames are made explicit in the insiders questions and
vice-versa. The parties, in a colloquial sense, keep each other honest or at
least more conscious than a single party working alone may easily achieve
(1996: 62).

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Positionality, power, and representation

It has commonly been assumed that being an insider means easy access, the ability
to ask more meaningful questions and read non-verbal cues, and most importantly,
be able to project a more truthful, authentic understanding of the culture under
study. On the other hand, insiders have been accused of being inherently biased,
and too close to the culture to be curious enough to raise provocative questions.
The insiders strengths become the outsiders weaknesses and vice-versa. The
outsiders advantage lies in curiosity with the unfamiliar, the ability to ask taboo
questions, and being seen as non-aligned with subgroups thus often getting more
information. However, as the above scenarios demonstrate, these
characterizations of insider/outsider are far too simple. Recent discussions
drawing from critical and feminist theory, postmodernism and multiculturalism
offer us a deeper understanding of our experiences in the field. Three themes in
particular positionality, power, and representation are relevant for framing
the insider/outsider debate.
Positionality
The notion of positionality rests on the assumption that a culture is more than a
monolithic entity to which one belongs or not. All cultures (including
subcultures) are characterized by internal variation (Aguilar 1981: 25). To say
that one is an insider raises the question of What is it that an insider is insider
of? Aguilar notes that a more realistic model of the situation would view the
local ethnographer as relatively inside (or outside) with respect to a multiplicity of
social and cultural characteristics of a heterogeneous population (p. 25). Further,
ones position vis-a` -vis the culture can change. For example, as the collective,
group-oriented nature of Malaysian culture characterized nearly all of our
interviewing sessions, my positionality as an uncomfortable outsider shifted. I
began to expect others to be present and activities to be going on simultaneously
with the interview. The most amusing example of this was an interview with an
elderly Indian barber with the usual entourage of contact person, interpreter, and
nephew. The five of us were squeezed into a corner of his small shop while less
than five feet away his assistant cut hair, shaved, and chatted with customers.
A number of writers have addressed this notion of positionality vis-a` -vis culture.
Villenas (1996: 722), for example, in exploring the relationship between her
Chicana cultural background and her relationships with both the Latino
community of study, and the dominant English-speaking community of power
and authority, realizes that as researchers, we can be insiders and outsiders to a
particular community of research participants at many different levels and at
different times. Recently, Banks (1998: 5), arguing from a multicultural
perspective, points out that we are all members of cultural communities where
the interpretation of our life experiences is mediated by the interaction of a
complex set of status variables, such as gender, social class, age, political
affiliation, religion, and region.
Positionality is thus determined by where one stands in relation to the other.
More importantly, these positions can shift: The loci along which we are aligned
with or set apart from those whom we study are multiple and in flux. Factors

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such as education, gender, sexual orientation, class, race, or sheer duration of

contacts may at different times outweigh the cultural identity we associate with
insider or outsider status (Narayan 1993: 671672). This is of course true
whether one is studying ones own or another culture. Johnson-Bailey (1999), for
example, points out that as an African-American woman researcher she was an
insider studying African-American women; however, differences in social class
and colour (whether she was lighter or darker than her interviewees) made her
less of an insider, creating tensions in the interview process. Ming-yeh and
Youngwha considered themselves insiders interviewing people from their
respective cultures. Both discovered, however, that age, gender, social class and
education rendered them less of an insider than they had anticipated. Youngwha
shifted her position to more of an insider by becoming a regular customer at
Korean restaurants and shops of several potential interviewees. Once perceived
as a regular client who was known to them, they permitted an interview. Gabo
assumed since she was a middle-aged woman from the local community that the
businesswomen would see her as an insider. But as a university woman, Gabo was
viewed as an outsider to whom it was laborious to explain the seemingly obvious.
From their perspective, she should have known what they knew. To get the
needed information she had to assume an outsider status, calling upon her US
professors who, she told them, knew nothing of their culture.
Other positionalities are possible when focusing on insider/outsider variations.
Banks (1998: 7) has proposed a typology based on the assumption that in a diverse
pluralistic society . . . individuals are socialized within ethnic, racial, and cultural
communities and share knowledge that can differ in significant ways from those
individuals socialized within other microcultures. In this typology there are four
possible positions. The indigenous-insider is one who endorses the unique values,
perspectives, behaviors, beliefs, and knowledge of his or her indigenous
community and who can speak with authority about it (p. 7). Johnson-Bailey as
a Black woman interviewing other re-entry Black women would be considered an
indigenous-insider. Similarly with Mazanah when interviewing Malay Moslem
women. The indigenous-outsider, a second position, has experienced high levels of
cultural assimilation into an outsider or oppositional culture but remains
connected with his or her indigenous community. Ming-Yeh Lee, a long-time
resident of the US but still also Taiwanese Chinese is the best example of this
category, although Youngwha, Gabo, and Mazanah, by virtue of having studied
for a doctoral degree outside of their own culture, would also fall into this
category. The external-insider both rejects much of his or her indigenous
community and endorses those of another culture to become an adopted
insider. Finally, the external-outsider is socialized within a community different
from the one in which he or she is doing research (p. 8). As a frequent visitor and
short-term resident of Malaysia, this last position in the typology characterized
my participation in the study of ageing and learning in a non-western culture.
Power
There is a growing literature on the inequities present in all phases of social life,
including research activities where these inequities are framed in terms of powerbased relationships between the researcher and the researched. In the mid-

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seventies anthropology itself went through a crisis when it began to realize how
exploitive it could be. Lewis (1973: 584), for example, cites Galtungs concept of
scientific colonialism as the idea of unlimited right of access to data of any kind,
just as the colonial power felt it had the right to lay its hand on any product of
commercial value in the territory. In this model the researcher holds all the
power; the researched are colonized and oppressed (Sanjek 1993).
More recent analyses have exposed the power-based dynamics inherent in any
and all research and have suggested that power is something to not only be aware
of, but to negotiate in the research process. In particular, feminist scholars are
concerned with foregrounding womens experiences, with participants having an
equal relationship with the researcher, with the research experience being
empowering, and with a more interactive relationship with the reader/consumer
of the research (Lather 1991, Cotterill 1992, Reinharz 1992). Participatory action
research also focuses on the political empowerment of people through
participation in knowledge construction. Participants are colleagues in the
research process, equally in control of the research (Merriam and Simpson 2000).
Likewise, teacher research is based on the notion that knowledge for teaching is
inside/outside, a juxtaposition intended to call attention to teachers as knowers
and to the complex and distinctly nonlinear relationships of knowledge and
teaching as they are embedded in the contexts and relations of power (CochranSmith and Lytle 1993: xi).
In any team research, power is a factor and Mazanah and I were conscious of the
balance between my greater methodological knowledge and her greater cultural
knowledge. The power of our position as professors at the university facilitated
connecting with gatekeepers to gain access to participants. On the other hand,
those we interviewed subtly negotiated our power as researchers by determining
where and when the interview was held, who else would be present, and of course
what information was shared. Both verbally and non-verbally, people we
interviewed and often others present would express their amusement or disbelief
at our questions. For example, the sister of one interviewee sat next to our
respondent but with her back to us, punctuating our interview with loud
chuckling and asides to her sister about the silliness of the questions.
Ming-Yeh also observed how the power dynamics of the interview process are
negotiated by the interviewer, the interviewees, and the culturally embedded
interview context constructed by both. As noted earlier, Ming-Yeh wondered
whether the frequent reference to education-related events was due to these
events being truly significant in their lives, or because they were being
interviewed by a highly educated woman from the native culture, emphasizing
their own education would accrue more weight to their side of the power
equation. Age was another factor in that interviewees would position themselves
as older, more experienced, thus deserving of more status than the younger
researcher. Ming-Yeh positions the power dynamics of the interview process
within the cultural context. The power relationships embedded in the interview
context, she observes, are subject to the influences of gender, educational
background, and seniority the same elements that structure Taiwanese Chinese
society. Her strong feminist orientation also made for a complex interaction with
her more traditional respondents (Hsiung 1996).
Gabo also had to subtly negotiate the power dynamics of her situation. Her
position as a highly educated, university-affiliated woman carried little weight

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with the street-wise businesswomen of her study. She had to draw upon her personal
skills and understanding of the Botswana family and group oriented culture to
establish rapport with the women. Conflicting interests characterized some of the
data collection. Her doing research was unimportant to the women; their
interests were centred on what she would do with the information, how she would
tell their stories, and how these stories could be helpful in their efforts for greater
power in this highly patriarchal society.
Representation
Every researcher struggles with representing the truth of their findings as well as
allowing the voices of their participants to be heard. Some of the assumptions
underlying earlier, more static understandings of insider/outsider statuses were
based on positivist notions of reality. The insider, it was thought, had better
access to the introspective meanings of experience within a status or a group
(Merton 1978: 41). The outsider though, could see things not evident to insiders,
and render a more objective portrayal of the reality under study. Constructivist
and postmodern notions of truth and reality make for a much more complex
understanding of the truths insiders and outsiders uncover. Constructivists argue
that knowledge/reality/truth is constructed by individuals and by human
communities, while postmodernists assert that there is no single truth or reality
independent of the knower. From a postmodern perspective, when it comes to
truth, there is either no truth, many truths, or truth for a particular culture. In
other words, if truth is possible, it is relative . . .. All claims to Truth are seen as
arbitrary acts of power that include and exclude individuals and groups
(Cunningham and Fitzgerald 1996: 49).
The case descriptions presented earlier in this article all reveal the researchers
struggles with accurately interpreting their participants perspectives. JohnsonBailey (1999: 666667) speaks of the code Blacks use to discuss colour
discrimination, for example:
Before my interview with Marcie, when we were engaged in the obligatory
pre-interview chitchat, she inquired about my social background and my
sorority affiliations. I knew immediately that this was part of our
communitys code for ascertaining where color stood in our lives. She
identified my sorority as having a preference for light-skinned women. I
assured her that this was not important to me and that I considered the idea
of colorism as akin to having a slave mentality . . .. Nevertheless, Marcie let
me know several times that my light skin stood between us as a source of
tension by casually referring to the snobbishness of the yella girls like me
at her exclusive all-womens school.
Gabo struggled with understanding the African proverbs as applied to business
concepts. Ming-Yeh and Youngwha needed to consider how Asian cultural values
were shaping the responses to their questions. Mazanah and I had trouble
conveying what we wanted to know because the topic of our research ageing
and learning and the research methodology were foreign to our participants.
For example, asking what it meant to successfully age was quickly dropped as

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415

being incomprehensible in a culture that doesnt think about ageing the way
Western research has defined it. We had similar problems with questions about
what they valued most at this stage in life, who was a role model for them for
ageing, and what learning activities they engaged in (Merriam and Mazanah 2000).
Understanding and fairly representing participants perspectives is further
complicated when language translation is involved. Although Gabo, Ming-Yeh,
and Youngwha all interviewed in their native languages, the findings from an
analysis of these interviews (most of which were translated into English) were
presented in English. Idioms, metaphors, cultural nuances translate awkwardly, if
at all, and almost always need to be explained. Mazanah and I were further
encumbered by the fact that the older generation of Malaysians has had little
formal education and the Indian and Chinese Malay elderly more often than not
have lived within their ethnic communities speaking their native language. In one
interview with an 83-year-old Indian Malay who had spent his work life on a
rubber plantation, the interview began with my asking a question in English.
Mazanah translated into Malay, and the nephew of our participant translated
into the mans Tamil language of south India. Occasionally the nephews son,
and our contact person, would help clarify in Tamil. His answers were in Tamil,
translated into Malay and then into English. Of course we worried about whether
the translation back to us of respondents answers had captured their meanings.
Ideally, trained bilingual or trilingual translators would have accompanied us on
these interviews. But as with most research, the reality of data collection and
analysis involves compromise and negotiation. During the interview itself, our
only option, in addition to asking multiple variations of the same question, was to
trust our interpreters. That common patterns did emerge across interviews
conducted in four different languages (Malay, Tamil, Chinese, English), we felt
lent some measure of validity to the translations. Paz (1992: 154) captures how a
postmodern view of knowledge construction is underscored in the many truths in
iterations of the same text:
On the one hand, the world is presented to us as a collection of similarities, on
the other as a growing heap of texts, each slightly different from the one that
came before it. Translations of translations of translations. Each text is unique,
yet at the same time it is the translation of another text. No text can be
completely original because language itself in its essence is already a
translation first from a non-verbal world, and then because each sign and
each phrase is a translation of another sign, another phrase.

Conclusion
What an insider sees and understands will be different from, but as valid as what
an outsider understands. As Lewis (1973: 590) recognized more than 25 years ago,
If anthropology is to adapt to the realities of the modern world, it will be necessary
to approach the study . . .through a multiplicity of perspectives as these are
influenced by different interests and needs. The views of both insider and
outsider must be accepted as legitimate attempts to understand the nature of
culture. We would argue that drawing from contemporary perspectives on
insider/outsider status, that in the course of a study, not only will the researcher

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416

S. MERRIAM ET AL.

experience moments of being both insider and outsider, but that these positions are
relative to the cultural values and norms of both the researcher and the participants.
Narayan (1993: 679) captures the interactivity of positionality, power, and
knowledge with his discussion of positioned knowledges and partial perspectives.
He writes, To acknowledge particular and personal locations is to admit the
limits of ones purview from these positions. It is also to undermine the notion of
objectivity, because from particular locations all understanding becomes
subjectively based and forged through interactions within fields of power
relations. Through reflecting on the experiences of a Black woman interviewing
Black women, Asians interviewing people from home, an African scholar
interviewing local businesswomen, and a cross-cultural team studying ageing and
learning in a non-western culture, we hope that we have helped uncover the
intricacies of claiming an insider or outsider status. A closer look at these
fieldwork experiences revealed multiple insider/outsider positionalities and
complex power dynamics, factors bearing on knowledge construction and
representation in the research process.

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