AMANDA HYNAN FINAL THESIS PDF

3.4.2. Researcher positionality
Interpretive researchers recognise the interactive shaping of their research through the
ways their own experiences and perceptions of social constructs interweave with
those of their participants (and others in the studied environment) to create shared
meaning (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). This on one hand acknowledges the
implausibility for a researcher to achieve objective neutrality but on the other hand
can risk reinforcing the researcher’s own position and relegating participants to the
role of exotic ‘other’ (Vidich & Lyman, 2000). It is therefore difficult to know how
much information a researcher should include so I have chosen to give a brief outline
of myself so that readers can contextualise my interpretations.
I became interested in the field of AAC through my training to become a speech and
language therapist and my original career as a specialised computer graphics operator
in the television industry. AAC captured my attention as it appealed to my interest in
communication and specialised technology and this research project grew from that
foundational basis. In terms of the current project, I started to consider how as a
society we are engaging with technology in ever evolving ways to communicate
socially and wondered what impact this societal shift would have for AAC
technology. I became increasingly interested in how young people who use VOCAs
might be interfacing with the internet and online social media.
As a woman in her late forties, I cannot be described as young and have never had
mobility or communication challenges, so I cannot understand what it is like to be one
of the participants of this study. Any interpretation I bring to the topic will always be
from the position of an outsider although we do share common cultural experiences of
the internet and online social media, especially Facebook. Although I did not conceal
my training as a speech and language therapist (appendix B), I predominantly
positioned myself as a researcher.
3.4.3. Pilot Investigation
A pilot investigation was conducted in order to support my skill development (van
Teijlingen & Hundley, 2001) as the conversational partner of a person who uses AAC
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