Refuse thy name? Critical reflections on the convention of masking place in rural educational research

Abstract

Consistent with their treatment of individual participants, educational researchers regularly use pseudonyms to reference their study sites. The rationales, strategies, and implications of masking places may differ from those for masking people. However, both practices are so pervasive as to have become unexamined defaults, and they are assumed as methodological and ethical steps taken because little good can be imagined from actually naming our study sites or participants. Drawing on ethnographic work I conducted in Garden City, Kansas, I consider how unmasking the specific place I researched rather than referring to a place like this place mattered through my fieldwork, writing, and dissemination processes.

Keywords:

• Pseudonyms
• rural education
• unmasking
• ethnography

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer C. Ng

Jennifer C. Ng is a professor in the department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Kansas. She also serves as associate vice provost for Faculty Development and Mentoring.