A fourth consideration for this study was my awareness of my own “emotional
baggage.” Not all people share my fervor for social justice and some may strongly
believe the opposite: that HRD schools are a just way to educate inner-city children and
help them conform to mainstream America, and that this approach is a good thing. This
required me to be cognizant of my visceral reaction to such expressed beliefs and remain
passive and neutral. I acknowledge that this was difficult and employed two strategies tocontend with the provocation. One strategy I employed was the use of a journal separate
from the memos used for the study. This journal allowed me to “vent” frustrations that I
experience throughout the study, which were many—and not only related to race! A
second strategy was to have friends and family uninvolved and unrelated to the study or
to the field of education serve as “sounding boards.” Talking with those outside the field
of education and who know me personally helped to alleviate the frustrations related to
the study as well as receive “neutral” insight regarding my reactions throughout the
study. These strategies allowed me to engage the provocations, off-site, so to speak,
where my reactions did not jeopardize my interactions with participants