Description: In recent years in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe, North America and elsewhere, there has been an increase in literature problematising research 'on' and 'about' people who have different ethnic and racial identities from researchers (for example, Haig-Brown, 2001; Hammersely 1998; Tuhiwai-Smith, 2001) . Given that classrooms worldwide are becoming increasingly ethnically and culturally diverse (Achinstein and Athanases, 2005; Ball, 2000; Chong, 2005; Hagan and McGlynn, 2004; Pearce, 2003) what are the implications for white educational researchers from hegemonic mainstream cultures conducting ethnographic research with participants from minority cultures? How can researchers, most of whom are white and members of the hegemonic 'mainstream' really understand the perspectives of research participants with whom they have so little in common in terms of lived experience? Schultz suggests that 'representing other people's perspectives, especially those people who are categorically different from me, is at best complicated if not impossible, and, at worst, unethical" (2001, p.4). How is the power imbalance between researcher and researched inherent in most research relationships, complicated by the notion of research as inextricably linked with imperialism, colonisation and 'othering'? Methodology: In this paper we draw upon our experiences as white researchers engaged in ethnographic research that explores the experiences of teachers who do not inhabit the majority cultures in Australia and Scotland. We use data from our respective projects, to discuss and illustrate the tensions and contradictions of establishing research partnerships, collecting and analysing data in contexts where the researchers are 'cultural outsiders'. Indigenous teachers in Australia: Understanding their Professional Pathways and Career Experiences is an Australian Research Council project that that brings together a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers to explore the experiences of Indigenous teachers in Australian schools and some of the reasons for the under-representation of Indigenous people in the teaching profession. . It comprises 3 sections; a case study of fifty Indigenous former and current teachers; a 3-year longitudinal study of graduates beginning their teaching careers and a demographic 'snapshot' of Indigenous student teachers enrolled in Australian pre-service teacher education programs in 2004. . Refugees Into Teaching in Scotland is a project part-funded by the Scottish Executive Education Department. The research strand of the project works with recently arrived refugees in Scotland who were teachers in their country of origin and aims, through interviews over a two year period, to investigate the range of teaching experiences among the group and to establish the key differences in systems, pedagogies and curricula between Scotland and the country of origin. Conclusions: We argue that a significant aspect of researching in such contexts is the need for the research to operate on anti-racist principles and establish trust and negotiate identities. This requires researchers to be at the heart of the methodology employed in order to guard against the data being used by the powerful to condescend to the less powerful. It is vital therefore to go beyond the immediately voiced perspectives and experiences of those being researched, to turn our gaze inwards and to interrogate our roles as researchers in an attempt to collaboratively interpret the data with the respondents. In this paper we aim to provide some guiding principles for such research at both the data collection and analysis stages.