Knowing Me, Knowing Them: Using Penned Illustrations with Known Participants

Abstract

In practice-based studies, participants are often known to the researcher as part of their professional realm. This can result in the researcher bringing preconceptions of the participants to the study, which may influence the findings. In this paper, we demonstrate how researchers can utilise reflexivity and imaginative curiosity to expose often unconsidered presuppositions about such participants using penned illustrations. We suggest that penned illustrations of known participants should be undertaken to unpack preconceptions of the known participants creatively and imaginatively. This paper provides an applied demonstration of how penned illustrations can be used in a hermeneutic phenomenological study, along with the philosophical foundations supporting this method. The paper guides the reader through why penned illustrations can be helpful in qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological research when the insider-researcher needs to recognise, manage, and ethically work with the duality of their overlapping researcher and professional roles.