Black and white photographic portrait of the author and her walking stickAs Shulamit Reinharz states, feminist researchers believe that it is important to provide information about the background and experiences of the researcher, because, as Liz Stanley points out: "researchers' understandings are necessarily temporally, intellectually, politically and emotionally grounded and are thus as contextually specific as those of 'the researched'." Or, in plain English, there is no absolute, scientifically truthful statement which I can make about girls' school stories; only the truth as I see it, and it is impossible to understand the "I" without further information.
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Of course, it should also be remembered that the information provided here is restricted to my own perceptions, as well as being highly selective. I have not, for example, included a great deal of information about friends, family members and other relationships, both because this would be unfair to the other people involved and because I can only tell my own story. Therefore, although My Own Schooldays provides a memoir of my schooling, it is not intended to be a full autobiographical account of my childhood and teenage years. Similarly, while my home page provides an outline of my professional and personal background, it by no means gives a full account of my adult life. And My Experiences as a Disabled Researcher gives only a partial account of my research experiences.
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While this group of lexias still exposes more personal details than are perhaps comfortable, many hundreds of women and girls have also exposed their personal lives in order for me to carry out my research. My thanks to them all - what follows is only fair.
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Ju Gosling, 1998

Photo: Bob Jones/Gaze


Go to: Ju Gosling's Home Page 
Go to: My Own Schooldays 
Go to: My Experiences as a Disabled Researcher 
Next: 2. Acknowledgements 
Return to: Virtual Worlds of Girls Index
 

Dr Ju Gosling aka ju90's ABNORMAL: How Britain became body dysphoric and the key to a cure is available now for just £3.09 for the Kindle or in a limited-edition hardback with full-colour art plates for £20 inc UK postage and packing. Book cover