Ethics in the Research Process

Before the empirical work could begin on this project, an application for ethical approval was submitted to and approved by the University of Glasgow College of Social Science Ethics Committee. To ensure transparency prior to the interview all participants in this study were provided with documents via email outlining the interview questions, a plain language statement with a clear description of the research objectives and the uses of the data. These were discussed with participants before they were asked to give their voluntary written consent for use of their transcript in the research. Permission was sought and obtained from all participants to use the interview information both for the purpose of the immediate project, and also for the future development of the life histories of research participants with the purpose of eventually creating a publication accessible for historical, sociological and more general public retrieval.

Constructing identities, reclaiming subjectivities, reconstructing selves: an interpretative study of transgender practices Scotland

97 The entire process of gathering data about participants’ lives involves tacit appeals for respondents’ risk-taking with their personal information, and it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge this. However within that framework, everything possible was done in this study to protect participants. In the submission to the Ethics Committee, it was acknowledged that: ‘due to the small transgender population size in Scotland, it may be impossible to remove all identifiers for the sake of anonymity’. The same phrase was inserted into the permission form and discussed with participants prior to the interviews.

The researcher who is endeavouring to interpret a different culture, has a responsibility towards that which is interpreted. Every effort has been made in this research project to acknowledge any potential dynamics of dominance/subjection, be respectful of the opinions of the research participants, and be informed by a process of transparency.

For example participants were assured that they could stop the interview at any time, that they dictated the time frame and the amount they said, and they could choose to refuse to answer any question without giving any reason, and that at any stage of the process they could withdraw their permission to use their interview in the research.

None of the participants did so.

Most of the research participants were surprisingly willing to share openly some very intimate details of their life histories during the interviews. This is not to deny the selective nature of the information people choose to share with others, performatively constituting the self, depending upon the audience (Butler 1990, Goffman, 1959). But the interviewing process can work as a type of seduction into which researcher and participants can both be drawn: Bourdieu (1999) refers to this as ‘the spiritual joy of self-expression’ for the interviewees, but the interviewer can be just as drawn into this dynamic. In the process participants may not have fully considered the consequences of the information they impart. Cognisant of this, and not wanting to colonise the stories of others, the reason for providing participants with a copy of their interview transcript was for editing and approval, but also so that participants could own and use the transcripts to author their own stories if they so wished. All the interviews in this study were returned to participants for their approval and verification and the editing out of any material that they may have deemed unsuitable on retrospective reflection.

Constructing identities, reclaiming subjectivities, reconstructing selves: an interpretative study of transgender practices Scotland

98 Surprisingly few changes, edits or deletions were requested. Instead most participants agreed that the transcript was a true reflection of the interview, most approved their transcripts with very few additions, some clarified and added a few things, and only two participants made any significant deletions: one requested by the participant’s domestic partner, and the other requested by their workplace Human Resources manager, to whom the participant had shown her transcript. Given that the multi-national corporation concerned was actually an example of best practice Equality Duty compliance, it was ironic that an HR manager would want this edited out.

A variety of potential interaction dynamics are inherent in any research design that involves direct contact with human subjects. Interview work into life histories raises inevitable issues of power and ownership in the research relationship, and questions of who has the most influence in shaping the story being told. One way to deal with this is by the researcher positioning themselves politically as allies of the group researched.

However a political agenda can also have the unintended consequence of undermining the autonomy and integrity of the research. There is the argument by some transgender stakeholders that transgender people and organizations should determine and control the research about trans people and the way in which research funding and findings are disseminated. Contrary to this position, it can be contested that research into any area should not be monopolised by any given interest group. The current study starts from the premise that the questioning of hetero normativity and gender binaries is not only the responsibility of the transgendered, but as Feinberg asserts, ‘include everyone who challenges the boundaries of sex and gender’ (1998).

Research into gender variance, like that into any socially marginalised group, can be a site for reproducing the exclusion, negative representation and othering of transgender people. Stone highlights aspects of transgender studies which can be similar to aspects of colonial discourse: ‘The initial fascination with the exotic ...denial of subjectivity

…theorists of gender have seen transsexuals as possessing something less than agency’

(2006:229). A key concern has been to treat research participants as subjects and not objects of discourse to be spoken about and acted upon by others. Every effort has been made to engage with the experiences and faithfully represent the perspectives of the research participants, while providing an independent analysis of the data.

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