Navigating the Insider-Outsider Divide: A Phenomenological Inquiry into the Ethical Encounters of an Action Researcher Bridging Immigrant Families and Schools

Abstract

This study employs a reflexive phenomenological approach to explore the researcher's lived experience of ethical complexity within a participatory action research (PAR) project in a multicultural school in southern Sweden. The PAR project was facilitated by the first author in collaboration with a Home-School Liaisons team composed of four multilingual teachers and the researcher. Data for this phenomenological inquiry were drawn from the author’s first-person accounts, systematically captured through reflective journals, field notes, and retrospective narratives. The school, located in a marginalized area, serves students from over 24 nationalities. The research is guided by three questions: (1) What is the lived experience of navigating the insider/outsider role? (2) How is trust phenomenologically experienced and managed? (3) How is confidentiality negotiated within a visible community? The project aimed to bridge cultural and linguistic divides between immigrant families and teachers through a bottom-up, trust-building approach. Analysis of reflective data revealed four core themes structuring the ethical encounter: liminal dislocation, the weight of unshareable knowledge, trust as precarious negotiation, and the erosion of anonymity. The study concludes that ethical practice in such contexts constitutes an “intercultural embodied ethical praxis” characterized by continuous reflexivity, emotional engagement, and the negotiation of visibility and power. It offers an original contribution to PAR literature by theorizing the concept of “intercultural embodied ethical praxis.” This framework grounds ethical discourse in the phenomenology of the researcher's liminal, lived experience, moving beyond procedural norms to highlight the need for culturally attuned, reflexive, and relational approaches to foster sustainable school–family partnerships.