98
V. R. Vargas et al.
one of the things that really struck me was how alive they were… they were so…passionate…
and there was this kind of vibrancy in their being…
…I feel I learned from that a lot from them about being really active students and self-driven…
managed to absorb that and I feel that I can bring it to the classroom here..
Asymmetric power relations were acknowledged by all the researchers.
Researcher C reflected that even though they had some similarities with the women,
they felt a power distance in terms of life experiences that might present a barrier:
…I am aware that I have travelled more than… That was not the point, I didn’t want to
remind them that I was more this or that. It would be pointless for what I wanted to do,
because then there is no communication…
All three researchers tended to link power relations to ‘structure’ as the researchers
largely created the structure and progress of the workshops. Researcher A also
acknowledged the possible existence of power asymmetries, reflecting not only on
the power that the women in the community might perceive in the researchers but
also in the wider notion of an admiration for the ‘foreign other’:
…actually I think that even with [colleague] there is a sense of [Researcher C] is really
powerful. They all see [Researcher C] as a powerful thing…she brings money she brings
professors…she brings knowledge, people who speak a different language… she brings and
to be honest, we still have this in Colombia ‘ooh foreigners, they are amazing…they do
things amazing.
These reflections on the nature of power relations as seen by these two researchers
were complemented by asymmetric relations as seen from the point of view of
Researcher B who experienced an unexpected difficulty in a dramatic shift of power
relations as they interacted with the women:
[I thought] what am I doing here, why should they listen to me, what do I have to offer,
really? And it felt like I had nothing to offer. At that moment I had nothing to offer and…I
thought they were looking at me and they were going, you don’t have anything to offer
us…Because their lives are so different… there was a gulf, there was a big gulf between us
and I, I couldn’t cross it really.
For researcher A, power relations were linked to agency, identity, service, vulnerability and blending in. For researcher B, power relations were not linked to any
other theme apart from structure. For researcher C, power relations were linked to
themes such as agency, identity, service, respect, institutions, structure and communication. These differences in the way in which power relations (the most important
theme identified by all the researchers) linked to other themes, highlights the different
perceptions of each researcher about the interaction with the community. Thus, in
order to understand the links, it is important to describe the other main themes.
4.2 Agency
Agency was crucial for the researchers’ learning in the Dique Channel project.
Here we use a definition of agency as “the socioculturally mediated capacity to
V. R. Vargas et al.
one of the things that really struck me was how alive they were… they were so…passionate…
and there was this kind of vibrancy in their being…
…I feel I learned from that a lot from them about being really active students and self-driven…
managed to absorb that and I feel that I can bring it to the classroom here..
Asymmetric power relations were acknowledged by all the researchers.
Researcher C reflected that even though they had some similarities with the women,
they felt a power distance in terms of life experiences that might present a barrier:
…I am aware that I have travelled more than… That was not the point, I didn’t want to
remind them that I was more this or that. It would be pointless for what I wanted to do,
because then there is no communication…
All three researchers tended to link power relations to ‘structure’ as the researchers
largely created the structure and progress of the workshops. Researcher A also
acknowledged the possible existence of power asymmetries, reflecting not only on
the power that the women in the community might perceive in the researchers but
also in the wider notion of an admiration for the ‘foreign other’:
…actually I think that even with [colleague] there is a sense of [Researcher C] is really
powerful. They all see [Researcher C] as a powerful thing…she brings money she brings
professors…she brings knowledge, people who speak a different language… she brings and
to be honest, we still have this in Colombia ‘ooh foreigners, they are amazing…they do
things amazing.
These reflections on the nature of power relations as seen by these two researchers
were complemented by asymmetric relations as seen from the point of view of
Researcher B who experienced an unexpected difficulty in a dramatic shift of power
relations as they interacted with the women:
[I thought] what am I doing here, why should they listen to me, what do I have to offer,
really? And it felt like I had nothing to offer. At that moment I had nothing to offer and…I
thought they were looking at me and they were going, you don’t have anything to offer
us…Because their lives are so different… there was a gulf, there was a big gulf between us
and I, I couldn’t cross it really.
For researcher A, power relations were linked to agency, identity, service, vulnerability and blending in. For researcher B, power relations were not linked to any
other theme apart from structure. For researcher C, power relations were linked to
themes such as agency, identity, service, respect, institutions, structure and communication. These differences in the way in which power relations (the most important
theme identified by all the researchers) linked to other themes, highlights the different
perceptions of each researcher about the interaction with the community. Thus, in
order to understand the links, it is important to describe the other main themes.
4.2 Agency
Agency was crucial for the researchers’ learning in the Dique Channel project.
Here we use a definition of agency as “the socioculturally mediated capacity to