Hi all,
Letizia has written about the advantages of particpant observation in
qualitative research.
Two aspects interest me.
1]She seems to imply [I apologise if I have got this wrong.] that by
enaging the perspective of the participant she can arrive at a a more
realistic representation of the observed scene.
My problem is that this tends to imply that the scene is one that exists
independently of the observer, fixed in time and place. [This may be
because the teacher and Letizia were looking at a video.] I would
suggest that there are three constructions here.
a]Letizia's original observation which is located in that time and
place. She then reconstructs that experience through using her
imagination and recourse to other literature and analysis. This is
another [or continuing] interpretation with a changed [or continuously
changing] time and place.
b]The same situation applies to the teacher reviewing the situation.
c]The interaction of the researcher with the teacher is not one in which
they both give their perspectives separately unaffecting each other. In
fact, Letizia and her teacher construct together, in conversation, new
perspectives in a new situation of time and place.
I would question the implication that participant observation gives a
'truer' picture of the situation. I would argue it only gives another or
new representation, albeit one constructed by people close to the
situation. [However, because they are close does not mean 'accuracy'.]
I would also argue that particpant observation, where it engages any
communication [even questions lead and give birth to constructions]
between researcher and participant is a new jointly constructed
perspsective.
This means, to me, that any representation, whether it includes the
participant or not, is a construct of both the observer and any
participants. Letizia may not disagree. However, I have been concerned
to ensure that the use of participant observation is not used as a means
to imply validity of 'reality'. It is only, as I think Hammersley
argues, a 'subtle reality'.
Bob
P.S. I am putting this discussion on the SQUERM [Supporting qualitative
and ethnographis research methods] discussion list .
To join it send the following message to mailbase
join squerm firstname lastname
where the firstname and the lastname are yours.
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