Reading Response – Week 7
After reading this week’s readings, I felt quite relieved to finally read more about how researchers are feeling when in the field. While I understand it is very important to know how to do research by the book, so to speak, it is also nice to see that books can’t always tell you what will work in the real world. Jumping from hypothetical to real and trying to explain what is really happening to others is what ethnographic research is all about; therefore, reading about how other researchers have maneuvered these rocky paths is very helpful to a new researcher like myself. It’s nice to know that we are not alone and that others have encountered similar dilemmas as those of us who are new to ethnographic research.
MacLeod’s account of how he gained entry into his research community and his personal struggle to deal with the vast disparity between his own personal values and the values of some of his subjects was compelling. MacLeod gave me a lot to think about when trying to choose subjects for research, and how my relationships with the subjects can and will have an impact on me personally.
Furthermore, Lareau’s personal essay about her entry into the two elementary schools made me think of how, during my first time collecting data in an elementary school, I made similar mistakes. This also made me think back to Nespor: His struggle with his status as researcher, professor, and educator made it hard for him to interact with members of his research community.
I remember going in to observe my first fifth grade class as part of a pilot exercise in which I hoped to interview students about their future career plans and get to know them more. But, being a bit naïve, I didn’t think to introduce myself when meeting the students, so I was introduced as a PhD student researcher from the university who had attended over 20 years of school, who studies children, and who was “really smart.” While this introduction was certainly flattering, I did not want the students to look at me as “really smart” or as a PhD-level student researcher. It was a great learning experience, however, as it took me a long time to gain the students’ trust. Eventually, they decided that I was “cool” to talk to and “not just like a teacher or something,” as two of the girls in the class said to me after we’d talked several times.
Finally, to address Ann’s question “is there not a code of ethics for ethnographers?” As far as I know, there are quite a few codes of ethics for ethnographers. Of course for most anything we do, we have to abide by the IRB from the university. Also, when conducting participant observations, ethics come into play quite a lot. Read this for some more insight into what IRB usually asks you to explain: http://www.research.utoronto.ca/ethics/pdf/human/nonspecific/Participant%20Observation%20Guidelines.pdf
Plus, there are several links and books that talk about ethics in anthropology and ethnography at length. For an overview check out this link: http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm
That site has some interesting information from the American Anthropological Association.
Thérèse Dugan
3 comments:
I think what is important when researchers gain access to communities they attempt to enter is to develop a trust with the informants and keep the relationship as long as they need.
While I understand it is very important to know how to do research by the book, so to speak, it is also nice to see that books can’t always tell you what will work in the real world.
Therese, I do agree with you. I don’t think we will experience exact the same things that we have read in the books and articles (if so, how easy our life would be because we can avoid all the no-nos for research…and life itself…), but we can prepare “plan B” based on what we’ve learned from different researchers. We might come across something similar to Mcleod’s article someday, but all the readings become our “hitchhiker’s guide to the research” (don’t panic!). What I am trying to say here is that we will be well-prepared for the unexpectedness of the real world by knowing different scenarios.
Fumi
Like Therese, I was glad to finally learn a little bit about how researchers are feeling when they do their research. In particular I was struck by Macleod's feelings about race and racist language. I have had similar experiences with some of my participants.
On at least two occasions some of my research participants have discussed students during a conversation with me and have used racist language that I found deeply disturbing. In one case the teacher used blatantly racist language (during the "unofficial" conversation after the "official" interview, but like Phil, I left the recorder on throughout). In the other case the teacher used coded language which hinted at her underlying racist attitudes about kids.
Like Macleod, I decided to let them talk because their way of understanding teaching, learning, and their relationship to the kids and families are the whole object of the study. Additionally, like Macleod, if I had interrupted and said something I would not have changed their racist beliefs and I would have destroyed the research relationship, which doesn't help anyone. In both cases, the teachers eventually asked for those comments to be taken off of the record - so now we will not write about this aspect of their beliefs, but I cannot erase them from my mind.
It still bothers me (obviously since I'm writing about it in a blog). I still feel like by allowing racist talk, by allowing racist teachers to continue teaching, I have failed to live my own moral standards. I know I will struggle with this sort of discontinuity for my whole career because there will always be times when a participant says or does something that I find reprehensible. I'd love to hear more from experienced researchers about how they handle the feelings and the discontinuity between personal morals/ethics and the values/beliefs of their participants.
It seems that doing ethnographic research is an organized chaos/inexact science but a science none the less. I think history shows us that by becoming standardized and formalized in specific practice (behaviorists/empericists) so we miss out on the richness of who is in the study and what is going on. So gaining entry is of vital importance but I think there is enough stuff out there to guide us how to do this if for what ever reason we are not able to gain entry.
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