Inside out: Researcher positionality as insider and outsider and impact on the co-construction of data in a Constructivist Grounded Theory study about teachers' understandings of intercultural education in Ireland

One of the key features that separates Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) from its original forebear is its acceptance that a researcher cannot stand apart from their data. CGT argues that the researcher plays an active role in constructing both their data and their explanations of it. Despite this, it is sometimes difficult to identify how this constructivism can be put into practice. This chapter explores how a detailed consideration of a researcher's personal characteristics can provide a mechanism to place constructivism at the heart of CGT research. To illustrate this, reference will be made to a research project currently being undertaken by the authors to explore the way Irish postprimary teachers understand intercultural education. One of the researchers in this project is interestingly positioned as 'hybrid insider/outsider', being a teacher, like the participants, while also being a different nationality to them. This chapter describes processes through which a researcher's personal characteristics can be made explicit in a research project to elucidate the role they play in constructing data. This serves to both put the constructivist element of Grounded Theory into practice and show the necessity of the constructivist turn in the methodology.