“You’re Filipino, you know what I mean”: navigating co-researcher roles, relational graduate supervision, and shared reflexivity

ABSTRACT

Reflexivity through shared practices like journaling and ongoing conversations proved to be fruitful for understanding and navigating our positionalities throughout a research study that sought to understand leisure and identity and experiences of new settlers of Philippine descent in times of un/underemployment. Drawing from experiences and lessons learned from engaging in this research, we consider: multiple mediating co-researcher roles that emerged over the course of this project; experiences navigating a sense of comfort over a shared identity with research participants; and our efforts to navigate considerations associated with graduate supervision centered on care. Ultimately, we reflect on and share the ways in which a shared form of reflexivity and relational mentorship help to strengthen the research process and urge scholars to mindfully reflect on, acknowledge, and attend to their own positionalities to cultivate relationships that are supportive, care-full, and relational.

Résumé

La réflexivité à travers des pratiques partagées telles que la tenue d’un journal et des conversations continues s’est avérée fructueuse pour comprendre et naviguer dans nos positionnalités tout au long d’une étude de recherche qui visait à comprendre les loisirs, l’identité et les expériences des nouveaux arrivants d’origine philippine en période de chômage ou de sous-emploi. En nous appuyant sur les expériences et les leçons tirées de notre participation à cette recherche, nous examinons : les multiples rôles de cochercheur médiateur qui ont émergé au cours de ce projet ; les expériences de navigation dans un sentiment de confort par rapport à une identité partagée avec les participants à la recherche ; et nos efforts pour naviguer dans les considérations associées à la supervision des diplômés axée sur l’attention. En fin de compte, nous réfléchissons et partageons les façons dont une forme de réflexivité partagée et un mentorat relationnel contribuent à renforcer le processus de recherche et nous invitons les chercheurs à réfléchir attentivement, à reconnaître et à prendre en compte leurs propres positionnalités afin de cultiver des relations de soutien, pleines d’attention et relationnelles.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflexivity
• relational mentorship
• student
• supervisor

MOTS-CLÉS:

• réflexivité
• mentorat relationnel
• étudiant
• superviseur

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We use ‘co-researcher’ rather than ‘researcher’ in this context to: a) refer to both authors as being co-researchers in the context of navigating reflections drawn from the study; and b) to disrupt the ‘research-participant’ binary and to emphasize the process of exchange and of co-generation of knowledge; one with trust and mutual respect (Lazzaro-Salazar, 2019), shared among individuals engaged in the research.

2. As contextualized in Tomas (2021), hermeneutic phenomenology is a methodology concerned with the interpretation of people’s lived experiences (van Manen, 2014, 2016), with focus on meanings derived from those lived experiences (Laverty, 2003).

3. This model recognizes that texts from a source language can have multiple meanings or interpretations.

4. Here, we chose to include (“”) in ‘comfort’ to signal the nuances within this shared identity, which we expand upon in this section. While Ty (2012) has taken ‘shared identity’ up as a source of comfort useful for bridging relationships with research participants, we challenge this idea by offering how this shared identity could be taken-for-granted.

5. Kababayan, as directly translated from Tagalog, means ‘fellow citizen’ or ‘compatriot’ (Tagalog.com, n.d.), and it describes a close bond, mutual understanding, and support shared between individuals from the same home country (in this case, the Philippines).

6. Kapwa reflects a value or a form of ‘Filipino humanism’ that stands for a ‘unity of the one-of-us-and-the-other’ (Lagdameo-Santillan, 2018, para. 16).

7. Racial discrimination is “discrimination against any individual [based on] their skin color, racial or ethnic origin (Examples of discrimination (fact sheet), (n.d. (n.d.)), para. 1). We contextualize race-based discrimination as stereotyping, profiling, and other unjust/unfair treatments on the basis of one’s skin colour.

8. I recall feeling angry, frustrated, and miserable after hearing some participants’ stories, especially those that were incredibly personal and surpassed the topic of my thesis. I wrestled with doubt about whether my feelings were worth bringing up in ways I brought up my analysis. While hindsight is 20–20, this is one example where I took cultural similarity for granted within my relationship with Karen as I now recognize that not closing myself up to this situation could have been an opportunity to bring my whole self into our supervisory dynamic (Gallant & Yuen, 2020).

9. https://leisurestudies.org/news/chargestatement/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giana Tomas

Giana Tomas is completing her PhD in Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo. Her current work, informed by social reproduction theory and critical approaches, examines new Philippine arrivant journeys of (re)settlement to Canada, and their relations with mobilities, well-being, and labour.

Karen Gallant

Dr. Karen Gallant’s research examines and highlights the role of community-based recreation settings and experiences in facilitating social inclusion, and explores the nature and implications of those interactions for enhanced wellbeing. Drawing on qualitative, community-based methodologies, she explores the role of leisure in places that are part of peoples’ everyday lives, and the contributions of these leisure experiences to belonging, sense of community, and power for equity-deserving groups, including people living with mental health challenges, and newcomers.