ABSTRACT
This book is about research that can be described as ‘research from the inside’, as ‘insider research’ or as ‘member research’. Whilst we are aware that each of these descriptors could mean different things to different people, we are going to resist the temptation to offer a definitive definition. This is not because we condone academic sloppiness or because we are lazy, but rather because we are uncomfortable about creating categories which can lead to what one of us has called Cinderella’s slipper syndrome (Sikes, 2006, p. 46) which occurs when writers and researchers end up behaving like Cinderella’s sisters and resort to remorselessly cutting, slicing and distorting what they have to say in order to make it fit. Consequently, in the chapters that make up the volume, you will find that contributors use whatever term seems most appropriate at any particular time. This, we feel, is an approach in keeping with our stance of acknowledging multiple perspectives and respecting the ways in which researchers chose to define and describe their own work.
