ABSTRACT
Personal disclosure has always been problematic for qualitative researchers. Although they can bestow anonymity on others, what researchers traditionally told about themselves, by bracketing out (Donohoe, 2007; Spradley, 1980; Thorne, 2011) their own perspectives, revealed part of who they were. Such disclosure potentially made their personal lives vulnerable, as some of their relevant personal details became part of the research documentation. Duoethnographers disclose much about themselves but rather than trying to bracket personal information out, to achieve a mythical higher degree of objectivity, they bracket in (Norris, 2008, p. 234), recognizing that the researcher’s lens or point of view is part of the research. Or as McLuhan (1967) puts it, “the medium is the massage.” In duoethnographies, because researchers are the sites of the studies, they are, therefore, within them. Bracketing in, though a strength of duoethnographies, can be risky. Sawyer reflected, “I have written a number of pieces in the past where I have championed the rights of others but rarely did I write anything that created a risk for myself. There is one exception . . .” (p. 271). Sawyer recognizes that all writing involves a professional risk, but that duoethnographies increase the risk due to personal disclosure.
