From observer to participant: considerations on the researcher's identity

Abstract

This article is a product of observations based on an interventional-research, which has been taking place for two years with a group of teachers from public schools in São Paulo. Its objective is to demonstrate how the interaction process between researchers and researchees also contributes building the researcher’s identity. We’ve taken Ciampa (1996) as reference, which contributed with the idea of identity-metamorphosis-emancipation, understood here as something dynamic, in permanent metamorphosis. We’ve observed that the teacher’s speech makes us go back and forth between different feelings, which at first could make it harder to conduct the research, resulting in a biased participation. Analyzing the combined experiences, the quiet moments and the links made by the teachers, we assessed that the existing interlocution between the researchers and the researchees did not represent an obstacle, but also an instrument that allowed the researchers as well as the researchees, through reflection, to perceive themselves as unfinished human beings, in the process of construction.