THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
presents a
Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series
seminar
Sex, Lies and Stories
In this seminar I will be discussing some of the issues around ‘truth’ which assumed central importance in
research (undertaken with Heather Piper) that investigated the perceptions and experiences of male school
teachers, and of members of their families, their friends and colleagues, who had been accused of sexual
misconduct with female students which they say they did not commit and of which they were eventually cleared
or the case was dismissed (Sikes & Piper, 2009). In particular I will talk about the methodology, methods and
style of re-presentation that we decided to use and the dilemmas that our choices entailed. Given that we were
interested in knowing how accusations of sexual abuse were perceived and experienced by everybody touched
by them, we opted for an auto/biographical life history, narrative approach. This approach raised questions about
potentially giving voice to people who actually were guilty of what they had been accused of and who were using
the chance to participate in our research as an opportunity to create a story and identity of innocence.
Protection of informants assumes particular significance given the nature of our inquiry and so I will also talk
about our chosen strategy of creating composite, fictionalised stories for reporting and re-presenting our
findings.
by
Prof. Pat Sikes
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Room 1118, K.K. Leung Building
The University of Hong Kong
ALL ARE WELCOME
Pat Sikes is Professor of Qualitative Inquiry in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield. Pat’s career
as a researcher stretches over 30 years during which time her focus has been on four inter-related concerns:
educators’ lives and careers; auto/biographical research; qualitative methodologies and creative approaches to representing research; and, social justice issues. Pat has been editor of the British Educational Research Journal (2003
– 2007) and is currently on the editorial boards of Power and Education, International Journal of Sociology of
Education, Creative Approaches to Research, Qualitative Research and International Journal of Research and Method in
Education. Pat has published 10 books and 70 journal articles and book chapters. Her most recent (2010) work
(with Heather Piper) is Researching Sex and Lies in the Classroom: Allegations of Sexual Misconduct in Schools London,
Routledge.