Except it won't really be my last one, since we have to keep blogging about things in the field...but it is my last one in Provo, Utah, and that is exciting! So today in class we did a little exam review and went over all the different concepts we have learned this semester. There really has been a lot of good information! I hope I can remember all of it and really put it to use in the field. Some thoughts I had during our review:
Being a participant observer - I have to try to not only participant in the activities - be it church, working at the zoo, doing stuff with the Thomases - I also have to remember to be an observer in those activities. It is more than just getting involved: it is paying attention to how people act, what is culturally acceptable, how do I react to things that are different from my culture, what is different and why is it different, how do people treat each other, the list goes on. There are so many things to be aware of, that if I can observe, will really help me gain a better understanding of the culture and be better prepared to enter other cultures in the future.
Conducting successful interviews - we went over all the different ways to interview, the different structures, probes, etc. I can do so much more than just ask my simple questions and I need to remember to tie some of those descriptive questions or probes into my interviews. For example, I didn't list any grand tour questions on my list of possible questions. But I do really want to know what a typical day at the zoo is like. Grand tour question! I'd forgotten some of the language stuff, like asking people to define words, even if they are in English. That could definitely be important. And maybe the word has a similar surface meaning in both cultures, but a different meaning deeper down...like Jackie asking about relationships and what a relationship is in South Africa - I'm sure the surface meanings are the same in both cultures, but do people act differently in relationships in South Africa - is love or caring portrayed a different way? This also reminds me of the Christmas in the Kalahari reading. The researcher thought he was doing this great thing but he didn't get the reaction he expected at all, even though I'm sure the people in the community still appreciated his large Christmas bull, even if they didn't show it like he was used to.
Something else I thought about was entering the community. So far the zoo has not contacted us back...what do I do if I don't reach them before I get to East London? My plan is to just go to the zoo and try to find someone in charge or an administrator type and discuss my project with them. Will this be sufficient? And from there how do I meet the zoo keepers and really build rapport with them? Will it be possible to "hang out" with them while they are working? Is there a break room where I can go and talk to people during lunch breaks? I guess I was counting a lot on the administrators or bosses of the zoo to introduce me to keepers. Who is in charge of the zoo? Is there a main boss or a group of people that decide things? I need to figure that out so I know who to approach.
So yeah, some good thoughts provoked by today's review, I still have some things I need to work on!
Showing posts with label field methods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label field methods. Show all posts
Monday, April 9, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
I really enjoyed the reading we did for Monday's class and the discussion and examples we had in class. There were several things we talked about that apply to my field study experience. Ashley threw out a bunch of vocabulary words. One of them was defocusing. I think this is an important concept to remember for several reasons. Defocusing allows you to step back from a situation and check out what your emotions are doing. What judgements are you making? It also helps you refocus your observational skills. What things have you allowed to become commonplace, that are really very important? This can help a stagnant situation gain some pizzazz. A point that Ashley brought up was that defocusing can help with safety. People keep asking me if my parents are worried that I am going to South Africa. I say a little, but I am going to be careful and follow the rules BYU has created to help keep us safe. I'm sure that as we get more used to East London safety might be less and less on our minds...I hope to use defocusing to step back, remember that I am in a new, different culture, and keep on being aware of my surroundings - as that pertains to my project and to staying safe.
The reading was entitled "Choosing a Site and Gaining Access". In class we focused mostly on the gaining access side of things. We listened to a really great interview that was the perfect example of someone gaining access to a community. Applying this to my project: I do not have 18 months. I have three months. So I am going to start working with the "gatekeepers" now. Gatekeeper was another vocab word. For me, I do not have to worry about going through some tribal chief or the CEO of a business - my gatekeepers are going to be the zoo administrators. I am preparing a letter of introduction to send to them. This is my first step in gaining access to the zoo. Once I arrive in East London, I will continue to work with the gatekeepers, but I will also need to start establishing rapport with zoo keepers. It sounds so clinical and sterile to be describing it this way - but I really am excited to meet new people and just learn about their lives as South Africans and as people who work with animals. Something from the interview that I appreciated was that the woman who was doing the study tried to make the community comfortable around her...I genuinely want to make friends with the people who work at the zoo, and I want them to be able to rely on me to help out with things. I do not want to be the superior outsider. I realize this might take a little time, but I am willing to put in that groundwork before I pounce on people to start answering my questions. Rapport is going to be really important for me... I want to gain their trust so that I can have a little bit more of an insider's access - to the enclosures, the animals, and the interactions that the public doesn't always see. I can practice some of this stuff now by practicing being a good friend to the friends I already have, and I can make some new friends. Whahoo!
The reading was entitled "Choosing a Site and Gaining Access". In class we focused mostly on the gaining access side of things. We listened to a really great interview that was the perfect example of someone gaining access to a community. Applying this to my project: I do not have 18 months. I have three months. So I am going to start working with the "gatekeepers" now. Gatekeeper was another vocab word. For me, I do not have to worry about going through some tribal chief or the CEO of a business - my gatekeepers are going to be the zoo administrators. I am preparing a letter of introduction to send to them. This is my first step in gaining access to the zoo. Once I arrive in East London, I will continue to work with the gatekeepers, but I will also need to start establishing rapport with zoo keepers. It sounds so clinical and sterile to be describing it this way - but I really am excited to meet new people and just learn about their lives as South Africans and as people who work with animals. Something from the interview that I appreciated was that the woman who was doing the study tried to make the community comfortable around her...I genuinely want to make friends with the people who work at the zoo, and I want them to be able to rely on me to help out with things. I do not want to be the superior outsider. I realize this might take a little time, but I am willing to put in that groundwork before I pounce on people to start answering my questions. Rapport is going to be really important for me... I want to gain their trust so that I can have a little bit more of an insider's access - to the enclosures, the animals, and the interactions that the public doesn't always see. I can practice some of this stuff now by practicing being a good friend to the friends I already have, and I can make some new friends. Whahoo!
Monday, February 20, 2012
"Can you tell me some more about that...."
In Friday's class we continued our discussion on interviews. Ashley gave us some ideas for getting more out of interviews. The first was writing things down verbatim - write down exactly what the person says, in the context that they said it. This helps you pick up some vocabulary and be able to put that new word in the correct context. The second thing was language identification - identify how they are speaking, what type of speech they are using. For example, are they using very technical language used to describe a specific field, like physics or car mechanics. Doing these things allows the interviewer to pick out what the vocabulary is and then use that vocabulary in their questions. This helps things get more in-depth.
We had a reading quiz in Friday and one of the questions asked about using descriptive questions and how we did with those in our interview. I feel like I am pretty good at asking broad, grand tour questions. It is harder to pick out little details and ask questions about uber specific things. I am worried that it might be annoying to the interviewee to keep going over something, or asking questions about something that really does not go much deeper. I mean something that is simple and superficial....not bad superficial, just not that complicated, if that makes sense....So that is something that I can definitely work on before going to the field. Also paying enough attention to realize there might be something more to a superficial answer. I have to remember that I am going to be asking questions about things that might be an every day event, a mundane, boring thing for the interviewee. So it might take a little more digging. This reminds me of the example in the reading, where the author interviewed the cocktail waitress and at the end she said something like "Wow, I didn't even realize all that stuff was going on!"
We also talked about preparing to conduct interviews. I think that a main reason for reading all these articles is so we can figure out what questions we need to be asking. What research has been done already? Where are the holes? What is the correct vocabulary for "blank" field? But I also need to remember that it is okay to ask what questions to ask.
We had a reading quiz in Friday and one of the questions asked about using descriptive questions and how we did with those in our interview. I feel like I am pretty good at asking broad, grand tour questions. It is harder to pick out little details and ask questions about uber specific things. I am worried that it might be annoying to the interviewee to keep going over something, or asking questions about something that really does not go much deeper. I mean something that is simple and superficial....not bad superficial, just not that complicated, if that makes sense....So that is something that I can definitely work on before going to the field. Also paying enough attention to realize there might be something more to a superficial answer. I have to remember that I am going to be asking questions about things that might be an every day event, a mundane, boring thing for the interviewee. So it might take a little more digging. This reminds me of the example in the reading, where the author interviewed the cocktail waitress and at the end she said something like "Wow, I didn't even realize all that stuff was going on!"
We also talked about preparing to conduct interviews. I think that a main reason for reading all these articles is so we can figure out what questions we need to be asking. What research has been done already? Where are the holes? What is the correct vocabulary for "blank" field? But I also need to remember that it is okay to ask what questions to ask.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Interviews vs Observation
In Monday's class we talked about interviews. There are several types of interviews, ranging from informal and unstructured to highly structured. An informal and unstructured interview would give a lot of space to the person being interviewed to just talk. There might be a general topic being discussed or some general questions, but mostly the interviewee just gets to spew. A structured interview would have very specific questions, carefully worded and put in a particular order. Within these interviews there are many different methods of probing, or getting more information out of the interviewee. These include the silent probe, the uh-huh probe, rephrasing the question etc. In order for an interview to be really productive or helpful, it is good to have a rapport built up. This was also part of participant observation - you want to "hang out', get to know people, earn their trust or friendship. Then they will be more willing and more helpful in their interviews. Something I found really interesting was the idea of asking what questions to ask....if you are going into a situation about which you know very little, it makes perfect sense that you would ask, "what should I be asking about, what should I be learning about, what is good to know?"....
How does this translate into my project? I'll start with rapport - in order for me to build rapport I plan on just spending a lot of time at the zoo and letting the people who work there get to know me. I want to become familiar to them. Hopefully I will be able to interact enough with the zoo keepers to become friends with some of them. I probably won't be doing any highly structured interviews. I would like to learn about some general things, and then maybe I would come up with more specific questions and do a more formal interview. But for the most part a lot of what I learn will come from observing and just talking. I can see this being a little dangerous, because there will be a lot going on and a lot to process, so I'll want to become proficient at jotting. Finding time for jotting might be hard too, if I am able to do some more hands on stuff. I guess I'll just have to work on memorizing details! That is the benefit of doing a "sit-down, let's talk" interview, it would give me time to write down everything. But I really would like a lot of my learning to be done observing the interaction between animal and zoo keeper. I just found a whole bunch of articles about zoo-keeper animal interactions and relationship, I'm interested to see what the researchers/writers did more - interview or observation.
How does this translate into my project? I'll start with rapport - in order for me to build rapport I plan on just spending a lot of time at the zoo and letting the people who work there get to know me. I want to become familiar to them. Hopefully I will be able to interact enough with the zoo keepers to become friends with some of them. I probably won't be doing any highly structured interviews. I would like to learn about some general things, and then maybe I would come up with more specific questions and do a more formal interview. But for the most part a lot of what I learn will come from observing and just talking. I can see this being a little dangerous, because there will be a lot going on and a lot to process, so I'll want to become proficient at jotting. Finding time for jotting might be hard too, if I am able to do some more hands on stuff. I guess I'll just have to work on memorizing details! That is the benefit of doing a "sit-down, let's talk" interview, it would give me time to write down everything. But I really would like a lot of my learning to be done observing the interaction between animal and zoo keeper. I just found a whole bunch of articles about zoo-keeper animal interactions and relationship, I'm interested to see what the researchers/writers did more - interview or observation.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Participant Observation
In Monday's class we talked more about Participant Observation and all the things that go into participant observation. I want to really apply all of those things to my specific study, so here goes. First I will name some part of preparing for or doing participant observation and then I will discuss how it pertains to my field study.
Learning language - I am not planning on learning any Xhosa or Afrikaans before going, but I would definitely like to learn some while I am there.
Build memory - I liked the exercise suggested in the reading where you walk past a store window and try to observe all the things in the window and then go back to and see what things you missed. Basically I need to become Shawn, from Psych, and become good at noticing and remembering things. This will be helpful in every field study situation.
Explicit awareness - I would like to practice becoming more aware of my own actions and really think before I act or speak, especially because I can be a little impulsive when I get excited about something. If I am able to go and observe at the zoo, what kinds of things will I need to be aware of? Animal behavior - is the animal active/inactive, shy/confident, excited/bored? How am I going to tell how it is feeling....I think mostly from its body language. Zoo keeper behavior is another thing I'll be watching for....how they act around the animals, smiling, pet names, touching, playing, etc.
Insider/outsider and hanging out - a lot of my time is going to be spent "hanging out" at the zoo. I want to be comfortable with the people and the animals there, and I want them to be comfortable with me, willing to answer questions, willing to let me help them do stuff.
A huge part of participant observation is what sort of social situtation you are participating in/observing. Ashley talked about several different things that go into your ability to participate...
Simplicity - some parts of observing at the zoo will be hard, others easy. If I just went as a normal zoo goer, but spent a lot more time looking at the animals than normal zoo goers did...that would not be hard, I wouldn't be bothering anyone. But I would also like to observe some of the more behind-the-scenes stuff - cleaning cages, feeding animals, checking animal health etc., and that might be harder to observe.
Frequently recurring - The activities at the zoo will be frequently recurring, so that should not be a problem.
Permissible - Will it be permissible for me to help out with things? I am hoping I will get permission to do some hands on stuff with the animals and zoo keepers, or at least get permission to observe more.
Accessible - Kind of the same as permissible, once I have permission, it won't be hard to get access to behind-the-scene locations. The zoo itself is pretty accessible, if I attend as a normal zoo goer.
Unobtrusive - Depends on the situation too. If I am just standing outside of cages watching things, I am not obtruding. If I am trying to help clean a bear's teeth or get a knot out of a giraffe's neck...that might be a little more obtrusive, both for the animals and the people who normally do those kinds of things : )
Learning language - I am not planning on learning any Xhosa or Afrikaans before going, but I would definitely like to learn some while I am there.
Build memory - I liked the exercise suggested in the reading where you walk past a store window and try to observe all the things in the window and then go back to and see what things you missed. Basically I need to become Shawn, from Psych, and become good at noticing and remembering things. This will be helpful in every field study situation.
Explicit awareness - I would like to practice becoming more aware of my own actions and really think before I act or speak, especially because I can be a little impulsive when I get excited about something. If I am able to go and observe at the zoo, what kinds of things will I need to be aware of? Animal behavior - is the animal active/inactive, shy/confident, excited/bored? How am I going to tell how it is feeling....I think mostly from its body language. Zoo keeper behavior is another thing I'll be watching for....how they act around the animals, smiling, pet names, touching, playing, etc.
Insider/outsider and hanging out - a lot of my time is going to be spent "hanging out" at the zoo. I want to be comfortable with the people and the animals there, and I want them to be comfortable with me, willing to answer questions, willing to let me help them do stuff.
A huge part of participant observation is what sort of social situtation you are participating in/observing. Ashley talked about several different things that go into your ability to participate...
Simplicity - some parts of observing at the zoo will be hard, others easy. If I just went as a normal zoo goer, but spent a lot more time looking at the animals than normal zoo goers did...that would not be hard, I wouldn't be bothering anyone. But I would also like to observe some of the more behind-the-scenes stuff - cleaning cages, feeding animals, checking animal health etc., and that might be harder to observe.
Frequently recurring - The activities at the zoo will be frequently recurring, so that should not be a problem.
Permissible - Will it be permissible for me to help out with things? I am hoping I will get permission to do some hands on stuff with the animals and zoo keepers, or at least get permission to observe more.
Accessible - Kind of the same as permissible, once I have permission, it won't be hard to get access to behind-the-scene locations. The zoo itself is pretty accessible, if I attend as a normal zoo goer.
Unobtrusive - Depends on the situation too. If I am just standing outside of cages watching things, I am not obtruding. If I am trying to help clean a bear's teeth or get a knot out of a giraffe's neck...that might be a little more obtrusive, both for the animals and the people who normally do those kinds of things : )
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