Conceptualizing Power Relations in Academic Research Process

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Higher Education. Faculty of Education and Psychology. Shahid Beheshti University. Tehran. Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Higher Education, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Higher Education, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

4 Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Development, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of this present study is to identify the characteristics of power relations in the academic research process. The research design was qualitative using Mustakkas descriptive phenomenological method. In order to collect qualitative data, in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 students and graduates of University of Tehran using criterion-based sampling strategy. In order to analyze data, the Stokes- Colaizzi-Kane analysis method was used. Based on research findings, expertise, structure, personality, opportunity, culture and financial resources as power sources of academic actors in the research process, authority, dependency, pressure/coercion, negotiation/ bargaining and influence as strategies in research process, and impression management and legitimization were identified as the most important tactics of power use in the research process, and social expectations, research, students, media, law, higher academic degrees, scores, and departments were identified as power tools. The findings of the study showed that the actors in the research process used these characteristics more for personal and profitable targets and somehow abused their power. Therefore, the findings of the present study, by drawing on the status of the existence of power relations in the research process, while critiquing and pathologizing the present process, have provided very useful data for its application in higher education research policy.

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References

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