Negotiating discursive positions within a police culture: critical reflections of a student researcher

I traverse a number of identity boundaries every day within a work context. This paper discusses the blurred boundary of two identities - (1) a part-time PhD student undertaking a cross-jurisdictional study of police training and education and (2) a full-time, ‘unsworn’ employee advising on education and training at a police academy. Study and work are concurrent. I describe myself as a token insider – different, partly accepted, yet tolerated, or alternatively as an outsider-insider. It is taxing to maintain an outsider’s standpoint in a police organisation. My role regularly places me in a position of challenging the dominant ideology, D/discourse (words, beliefs, thinking styles) and subcultures whilst experiencing the imposition of power by the dominant to accept the status quo. Frustration combined with a desire to name and reframe everyday experiences has led me to engage in critical reflection, enlist a critical friend, and undertake doctoral research. As an outsider- nsider, critical reflection is a tool that enables me to negotiate discursive positions by questioning my engagement and subject position within and against the taken-for-granted and unquestioned dominant D/discourses.