ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that doing research in rural locations can present researchers with exciting possibilities, but also with challenges. It presents a text that draws together elements of autobiography and academic research. Lennon Sherilyn's research was conducted in a traditional Australian bush town complete with wide tree-lined streets and a skyline dominated by hotels. By adopting sociocultural understandings of gender, Sherilyn used her study to focus on the gender messages local boys were receiving from home, school, sporting clubs and community texts. Henderson Robyn's research was conducted in a coastal town in North Queensland, where she had lived and worked for almost 25 years before beginning doctoral studies. Using ethnographic techniques for data collection, including semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, classroom observations and an artefact collection, Robyn conducted six family case studies. The chapter also focuses on doctoral research projects that set out to 'open up and disrupt taken-for-granted ways of interpreting the world'.
