U7D1-68 - **READ AND FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS AS OUTLINED BELOW.. Research Methodology Peer Review.

Apart of and Apart From the World Observed

The personal, perspective-dependent nature of observations can be understood as both a strength and weakness, a strength in that personal involvement permits firsthand experience and understanding, and a weakness in that personal involvement introduces selective perception. In the deep engagement of naturalistic inquiry lies both its risks and its benefits. Reflection on that engagement, from inside and outside the phenomenon of interest, crowns fieldwork with reflexivity and makes the observer the observed—even if only by oneself. So we repeat Halcolm’s refrain that opened this chapter:

Go out into the world. Live among the peoples of the world as they live. Learn their language. Participate in their rituals and routines. Taste the world. Smell it. Watch and listen. Touch and be touched. Write down what you see and hear, how they think and how you feel.

Enter into the world. Observe and wonder. Experience and reflect. To understand a world you must become part of that world while at the same time remaining separate, a part of and apart from.

Go then, and return to tell what you see and hear, what you learn, and what you come to understand.

MODULE

56 Chapter Summary and Conclusion: Guidelines forFieldwork

A reader who came to this chapter looking for specific fieldwork rules and clear procedures would surely be disappointed. Looking back, the major theme seems to be “What you do depends on the situation, the nature of the inquiry, the characteristics of the setting, and the skills, interests, needs, and point of view that you, as observer, bring to your engagement.” Yet the conduct of observational research is not without direction. Exhibit 6.13 offers a modest list of 10 guidelines for fieldwork (not, please note, commandments, just guidelines) by way of reviewing some of the major issues discussed in this chapter. Beyond these seemingly simple but deceptively complex prescriptions, the point remains that what you do depends on a great number of situational variables, your own capabilities, and careful judgment informed by the strategic themes for qualitative inquiry presented in Chapter 2 (Exhibit 2.1, pp. 46–47).

The Future of Observational Inquiry

Angrosino and Rosenberg (2011), in a thoughtful review of “Observations on Observations,” conclude that the proven value and therefore likely future contribution of observational inquiries will be illuminating the particular.

Rather than attempting to describe the composite culture of a group or to analyze the full range of institutions that supposedly constitute the society, the observation-based researcher will be able to provide a rounded account of the lives of particular people, focusing on the lived experience of specific people and their ever-changing relationships. (p. 476)

I resonate with that forecast. In a world of increasingly short attention spans and marked tendencies to overgeneralize, understanding a particular time, place, and people feels anchoring, grounding, and important.

So having considered the guidelines and strategic themes for naturalistic field-based research, and after the situational constraints on and variations in the conduct of fieldwork have been properly recognized and taken into account in the design, there remains only the core commitment of qualitative inquiry to reaffirm. That core commitment was articulated by Nobel laureate Nicholas Tinbergen in his 1975 acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine: “watching and wondering.” Tinbergen explained that it was by “watching and wondering” that he had, despite being neither a physiologist nor a medical doctor, discovered what turned out to be a major breakthrough in our understanding of autism. His observations revealed that the major clinical research on autism did not hold up outside clinical settings. His “watching and wondering” allowed him to see that normal individuals, those not clinically labeled as autistic, exhibited under a variety of circumstances all of the behaviors described as autistic in clinical research. He also noted that children diagnosed as autistic responded in nonautistic ways outside the clinical setting. By observing people in a variety of settings and watching a full range of behaviors, he was able to make a major medical and scientific contribution. His research methodology: “watching and wondering.”

A Final Cautionary Tale About Observation

People only see what they are prepared to see. —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

American poet and philosopher

I opened this chapter, many, many pages ago, noting that a scientific observer cannot be expected to engage in systematic observation on the spur of the moment any more than a world-class boxer can be expected to defend his title spontaneously on a street corner or an Olympic runner can be asked to dash off at record speed because someone suddenly thinks it would be nice to test the runner’s time. Athletes, artists, musicians, dancers, engineers, and scientists require training and mental preparation to do their best. Observers have to be prepared and ready to move their observations from the level of ordinary looking to the rigor of systematic seeing. Here is further evidence in support of that premise.

We have a family cabin in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, situated on a lake. Access is along a dirt road below the busy highway that leads into the town of Grand Lake, entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. One spring morning in 2010, I looked out the upstairs guest room, which has a view of the brush-covered hill that rises about 40 yards up to the highway. I saw sunlight shining off a couple of objects in the brush. I figured it was trash someone had thrown down from the highway. I climbed the hill toward the highway, found car parts that were the source of the reflection (a broken mirror, glass from broken windows, and chrome from the vehicle bumper), and found a dead body behind a bush: a woman, neck obviously broken, body stiff and contorted.

EXHIBIT 6.13 Summary Guidelines for Fieldwork

1. Design the fieldwork to anticipate, be clear about, and deal with classic tensions and trade- offs.

a. The role of the observer (degree of participation) b. The tension between insider (emic) and outsider (etic) perspectives c. The degree and nature of collaboration with coresearchers d. Disclosure and explanation of the observer’s role to others e. Duration of observations (short vs. long) f. Focus of observation (narrow vs. broad) (see Exhibit 6.4)

2. Take detailed, descriptive field notes.

a. Strive for thick, deep, and rich description. b. Be disciplined and conscientious in taking detailed field notes at all stages of

fieldwork. c. Separate interpretation from description.

3. Stay open and observant.

a. Gather a variety of information from different perspectives.

b. Be opportunistic in following leads and sampling purposefully to deepen understanding.

c. Allow the design to emerge flexibly as new understandings open up new paths of inquiry.

4. Cross-validate and triangulate by gathering different kinds of data.

a. Collect and integrate observations, interviews, documents, artifacts, recordings, and photographs.

b. Use multiple and mixed methods as appropriate and possible.

5. Capture, use, and report direct quotations.

a. Represent people in their own terms. Capture participants’ views of their experiences in their own words.

b. Distinguish direct quote from summaries of what was said.

6. Select key informants and key knowledgeables wisely, and use them carefully.

a. Draw on the wisdom of their informed perspectives, but keep in mind that their perspectives are selective.

b. Observe how others in the setting react to the relationship with key informants/key knowledgeables.

7. Be aware of and strategic about the different stages of fieldwork.

a. Build trust and rapport at the entry stage. Remember that the observer is also being observed and evaluated.

b. Attend to relationships throughout fieldwork and the ways in which relationships change over the course of fieldwork, including relationships with hosts, sponsors within the setting, and coresearchers in collaborative and participatory research.

c. Stay alert and disciplined during the more routine, middle phase of fieldwork. d. As fieldwork draws to a close, focus on pulling together a useful synthesis. Move from

generating possibilities to verifying emergent patterns and confirming themes. Seek both confirming and disconfirming cases to complete data collection.

e. In evaluations and action research, provide formative feedback as part of the verification process of fieldwork. Time that feedback carefully. Observe its impact.

8. Be reflective and reflexive.

a. Be as involved as possible in experiencing the setting as fully as is appropriate and manageable while maintaining an analytical perspective grounded in the purpose of the fieldwork.

b. Include in your field notes and reports your own experiences, thoughts, and feelings. c. Ponder and report the nature and implications of your own perspective in your methods

section.

9. Document reactivity.

Consider and report how your observations may have affected the observed as well as how you may have been affected by what and how you’ve participated and observed.

10. Engage ethically.

At each stage of fieldwork, be sensitive and attuned to ethical challenges that arise from interpersonal relationships, power dynamics, and potential conflicts of interest.

The previous Sunday, three days earlier, I had noticed a wrecked sports utility vehicle (SUV) in the neighbor’s driveway across the dirt access road, sitting perfectly upright and centered in her driveway (see photo). This house isn’t occupied. The next-door neighbor was outside, and I talked with him about it. He has lived there for 40 years, a year-round resident, knows everyone, and speculated that the owner was letting someone park the junker on her property, which she had done before. He said that if it was still there in a week, he’d call the sheriff and get an order to have it towed away. We stood talking for a half-hour in a light drizzle just 10 feet in back of the wreck.

It turned out that sometime in the wee hours of the previous Sunday morning, the driver, going very, very fast, drove off the highway, was ejected, and probably instantly killed. The SUV bounced off a large boulder, rolled down the hill, and came to rest perfectly upright in the driveway, as if it had been towed there and left.

All Wednesday afternoon, after I discovered the body, the authorities combed the hill collecting evidence to determine what had happened. Called to the scene were emergency medical personnel, the sheriff and his deputies, state troopers, a state crime scene investigator, fire fighters, and the county coroner.

The body had been there in the underbrush behind a boulder for three days before I discovered it. What was most disturbing to me was not discovering the body but that I had not been a more astute observer on the Sunday morning when the wreck appeared overnight in the driveway. I have spent most of my professional life working with people to help them question their assumptions, examine their mental maps, and become astute, systematic, careful, and thoughtful observers. Yet at a critical moment, I failed to do so myself. I’ve written more than 100 pages in this qualitative book on observation, yet I failed to thoughtfully observe and inquire. I deferred to local knowledge (the neighbors’ explanation), which provided a reasonable story line for what we saw on Sunday morning but was completely inaccurate. Merely walking another 15 paces up to the side of wrecked SUV on Sunday morning and looking up the hill from that vantage point would have revealed what had happened and exposed the body. But it was someone else’s property, so we stayed back and speculated, operating on false but reasonable assumptions. And the bottom line is as follows: I was not in mental observation mode, so I looked but didn’t see.

Making Sense of What You Observe

Observing something doesn’t necessarily mean we can interpret it. In particular, we can’t know what it means to those involved in an event, interaction, or activity without talking to them or hearing from them in some way. The next chapter takes up interviewing. Every interview is also an observation. Interviewing adds to observation of the perceptions and sense making of the people being studied. The Halcolm graphic comic that ends this chapter is a cautionary tale about interpreting an observation without interviewing.

SIDEBAR

NOT WHAT IT SEEMS

Wrecked vehicle perfectly aligned and positioned in the driveway despite having tumbled and rolled 40 yards down a steep incline from the highway above.

APPLICATION EXERCISES

1. Locate an observation study in your field of interest or on a subject that interests you. Use Exhibit 6.4, “Dimensions of Fieldwork: Variations and Options Along Continua” (pp. 356–357) to classify and describe the nature of the study. Discuss how the 10 dimensions in Exhibit 6.4 are interconnected and interrelated. How does the location of the study on some dimensions affect the location on other dimensions?

2. Identify and discuss a sensitizing concept that you would like to study. Explain why the sensitizing concept is important and of interest to you. Design an inquiry into the sensitizing

concept specifying (a) the setting where you would conduct the study, (b) what activities or interactions you would plan to observe, and (c) who you would plan to observe and interview. Explain the value of approaching the concept as a sensitizing concept instead of operationalizing it. What’s the difference (sensitizing vs. operational concept) and why does it matter? Use your example and proposed study to illustrate and explain the differences. (See Exhibit 6.5 for examples.)

3. Conduct an observation. (1) Select a place you’d like to observe, like an art museum, a restaurant, a sports event, a public park, or a store. (2) Pick an area within the location for your observation, for example, an area serving food, the area around the public restrooms, the doors where people enter, or an activity area. (3) Observe for a half-hour, taking notes. Capture interactions, movements, patterns of being in that location, and anything that strikes you as important. (4) Write a detailed description of what you observed. (5) Share your written observation with someone. Ask them if they get a vicarious experience of the place and what happened through your description. Does your description take them there? Do they experience what you experienced? What are their questions? What doesn’t your description tell them? (6) Interpret your description? What sense can you make of what you observed?

4. Write an entry script for entering a site to undertake fieldwork. Sketch out your qualitative design: Topic, field location, and inquiry question. Now write two entry scripts: (1) Write an explanation you would use with people in the setting to explain your study, why you want to observe them, and what you’re going to do with the observations you make. (2) Write a script to recruit key informants/key knowledgeables to assist you in your inquiry. Explain how and why you want to work with them. What will their role be in our inquiry? What will you offer them in return for their assistance? (3) Try out your scripts on two friends, family members, or class mates. How do they react?

For more practice exercises in observation, see Janesick (2011, chaps. 2 and 3).