Developing a New Major

Image via Wikipediaparticipant observation - “being there”, be a part of the social setting, firsthand knowledge, see behavior patterns, experience the unexpected (as well as expected), “make the strange familiar and the familiar strange” (erickson, 1973) which means understanding new stuff and questioning our assumptions about familiar stuff (ask why is stuff this way, what’s going on here, why isn’t it someplace different)

use what you see/hear in your interviews - ask about what you saw, ask them what they think something means, don’t have to trust your own interpretation alone - data triangulation

it’s a continuum between participating and observing and at different times you’ll be doing more observing or more participating - and that’ s normal, which you use depends on your question and the culture and the theory you’re using - no one right way - you make a judgement and you back that judgement up. Your own experiences and believes can also affect what you choose - if you’re not a hasidic jew you’re probably not going to be able to be a full participant

• only observing - little interaction with those being watched, goes with the positivist paradigm, sometimes subjects don’t even know they’re being watched
• observer as participant - primarily observation but with some interaction with subjects
• participant observer - extensive interaction with subjects, maybe live full time with the people, help with daily tasks, risk is you lose the uninvolved outsider eye, benefit is you learn things about the culture from your full time exposure
• full participant - study from the inside, 2 conflicitng roles - watching and acting

one reason to be a more active participant - dont want subjects to feel used or to be taken advantage of with the research project - some groups get studied a lot and feel that htey’re misrepresented - like people who live in the town where a mass murderer grew up or where a politician grew up or girl gamers (small seemingly strange groups) - we don’t do like journalists - we don’t swoop in and assume that we can understand stuff based on an hour or two in a place or with a group of people, our goal is to get a ful description and a deep understanding so we’re going to spend the time necessary to do that - - takes time & mindset that you’re there to learn - not preach or advocate, have to learn about people at each site because even tho setting might be the same from site to site the people are different and their experiences (and prejudices) are different

ethnography means learning from people (Spradley, 1979)

participant observer - not just “seeing” but careful observing, systematically experiencing, consciously recording details about aspects of situations, constantly analyze what observations mean and for evidence of personal bias or assumptions - this last is tough - have to keep asking why you interpret something one way and not another, need to play devil’s advocate with yourself and ask if there are other alternate interpretations

starting fieldwork

• don’t have to meet everyone on the first day, look for people who are open and friendly (easy to talk to people), look for open to the public spaces to just sit and watch, don’t try to be everybody’s friend, spend enough time with a small group of people so they really get to know you and trust you and then ask for their opinions about who to talk with next, who you should also meet or where else you should go - they can reassure others about you
• first observations - watch everything, make broad notes - don’t just focus on your specific research question at first, it’s tough (near impossible) but you need broad observations before stanting to think about what to focus on, observing nothing in particular (everyting) lets you start to notice hat stands out as unusual, time later to focus on problems and paradoxes wher eyou observe specific things
• look at the setting, write up little descriptions, make rough sketches, include info from all your senses - temperature, smells, sounds, how is this place different from another place in the area you’re researching (how is the campus center food court different from the towers cafeteria)
• look at the participants - who’s there (age, gender, how they’re dressed), what are they doing and with whom/what, who interacts with whom, what are they saying, what kinds of gestures do they make, how do they express emotions, do different people use different gestures for the same thing (are there some power distinctions, economic class distinctions)
• look at events - special events, daily events. acts within events - break events down into parts such as greetings, leavings, turn taking
• then take a look at you - how do you feel in the setting, what does it make you think of
• then do data analysis - look for patterns - similarities and differences across individuals, across events, across places in your research site

field notes - gotta have - this is your data, needs to be rich and full of stuff, lots of days of observing, lots of thinking, descriptions of people, activities, conversations, but also your ideas and reflections nad hunches about what is going on, notes about patterns that you think you’re starting to see, your thoughts about personal biases/assumptions, details not abstract conclusions - so not the room was noisy and disorderly but specifically/concretely describe the disorder (what kids were doing, who’s not being disoerderly, who’s making the biggest ruckus, how is teacher reacting) and the noise (what kind, from where, for how long) - notes should let you metnally recreate the setting, see the people, reexperience the situation

might organize chronologically, spiral notebook, looseleaf notes, pads of paper, computer files - your choice depends on your preferences, might start on paper and transfer to the computer for easier analysis, if observing at school where other people have their laptops out you might take your notes right on the computer, wiht paper you can make sketches, with computer you can easily insert later observatios into the appropriate topic

build time in to add to your notes after you finish an observation session (add to your notes before you talk to anybody about them because that talking will cause you to lose details and waterdown your observations and analysis), to add details that you might have forgotten, to add your analysis, to identify patterns, to clarify things you jotted down on the fly look for vague adjectivies (very, many) and make them specific (how many people, for how long), look for evaluative words like wonderful or nice or doing nothing and be specific - what’s actually going on instead of how you react to it

make notes about dialogue - who’s talking to whom, tone, length, subject

draw sketches (take photos) - how are things orgnzied in the space, does that change over time or from setting to setting, gete a sense of who’s where in the space better with a picture than just words sometimes, get a sense of the richenss of the decorations or symbols in the decorations

insert questions as they occur to you - will this pattern go on over time or is it a function of starting a new semester? , if something seems strange to you, ask why in your notes - later on you’ll get jaded or overwhelmed by data - keep those first impressions/first questions

descriptive notes while you’re there, then analytical notes and reflections afterwards - speculate about what’s going on, write down your feelings, your impressions, plan what to do next

you’re going to be anxious - feel like an interloper, worry about missing something important, worried that people aren’t accepting you - that’s normal

activity - observe public spot and write up a descriptive vignette; observe the setting of your research site (just what you see and hear) and write it up so readers get a real sense of what it’s like to be in our setting; play games where you look for patterns like set and sequence; watch a video of an event and take notes and write up your interpretation of what you saw - compare, talk about how you have to have things in the notes to back up your interpretations

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