Identity Construction of Roman Catholic Religious Sisters in the ...

observation notes, participants‘ letter of consent, interview guides and a write-up of the
procedures and research experiences in the dissertation including a methodological reflection
(Appendix F). These documents provide evidence that the research is focused and grounded
in data obtained from the participants. In addition the researcher‘s personal research journal
notes facilitated self-reflexivity that helped her check the level of interference of her personal
interest and values in the study. Applying reflexivity has contributed to the confirmability of
the study (Ulin et al., 2002) because it has helped to distinguish between the researcher‘s
personal interest and values and the interest and values of the study participants.
5.12 Researcher Reflexivity: The Researcher‘s Position Taking and Background
To enhance the credibility of a study, Patton (2002) recommends stating personal and
professional information — experience, training and perspective — about the researcher,
because such information may affect data collection, analysis and interpretation. It also helps
readers to better interpret the research. He goes on to say that, ―the essence of such step is
that the researcher is the instrument in the qualitative inquiry‖ (p.566). In this light the
researcher presents the following relevant information about herself, the instrument of this
qualitative inquiry:
―Researching the process of identity construction among Catholic religious sisters is a
phenomenon that interests me because I have been a Catholic religious sister myself for 17
years. Therefore, I have an insider perspective which has both merit and demerit (Kelly,
1999; Patton, 2002). On the side of merit is the advantage that, there is an assumed
knowledge and understanding of contextual relationships within religious communities, the
Church and wider Nigerian society. In this case I have the advantage of contextual
experiences of relationship dynamics in religious communities where power relations
conveyed through religious obedience between superiors/formators and other sisters has led
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