ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to offer a hands-on account of the conduct of higher education policy research and the unwrapping of the empirical nature of fieldwork interviews and observations in the European Parliament and Finnish governmental and parliamentary body policymaking venues. It also seeks to complement Chapter 2 by broadening the methodological account and providing transparency for our research group's practices. We outline the research journey from the researcher's perspective and share insights about our conceptions of knowledge, how we understand trustworthy research, and how our research process has been informed. Our reflexive account draws on the research project's internal group interviews, fieldwork notes, and research diaries. The findings lead us to conclude that our research process has benefitted from the various perspectives, positions, and experiences the research group members embody. We also highlight how seemingly incompatible theoretical approaches and research paradigms work together, reinforcing our understanding of how important it is to engage in dialogue between research group members to address the tensions that may arise from different methodological backgrounds and epistemological approaches.
