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Section 3 Fieldwork. 主讲人：黄媛媛. 1. 2. 4. 3. 5. Content. Definition—What is Fieldwork?. Fieldwork Concepts. How to Conduct Fieldwork. Discussion Questions. Additional Readings. 1. What is Fieldwork?.
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Section 3 Fieldwork 主讲人：黄媛媛
1 2 4 3 5 Content Definition—What is Fieldwork? Fieldwork Concepts How to Conduct Fieldwork Discussion Questions AdditionalReadings
1. What is Fieldwork? • Fieldwork is mainly used in the natural and social sciences studies, such as in anthropology, archaeology, biology, and so on. It is the way most qualitative researchers collect data. They go to where the people they will study—their subjects or informants—are and spend time with them in their territory—in their schools, their playgrounds, their hangouts, and their homes. • 田野调查涉猎的范畴和领域相当广，如：考古学、民族学、人类学、生物学等。作为大多数质性研究者收集第一手材料的方法，它要求调查者要与被调查对象共同生活一段时间，从中观察、了解和认识他们的社会与文化。
2. Fieldwork Concepts • Feelings (感受) • Interviewing（访谈） • Probes（追问） • Focus Groups（焦点团队） • Triangulation（三角校正法） • Audio & Visual Recording（录音及影像记录）
Feelings（感受） • Feelings are an important vehicle for establishing rapport and for gauging subjects’ perspectives (Johnson, 1975). Feelings are not something to repress (Ellis, 1991). Rather, if treated correctly, they can be an important aid in doing qualitative research (Rosaldo, 1989). • Another topic related to feelings, but somewhat different, has to do with the stress and strains of being a researcher.
Interviewing（访谈） • An interview is a purposeful conversation, usually between two people but sometimes involving more (Morgan, 1997), that is directed by one in order to get information from the other. • Most interviews begin with small talk. • Try to inform the subject of your purpose, and make assurances that what is said will be treated confidentially.
Probes（追问） • The interviewer may ask for clarification when the respondent mentions something that seems unfamiliar. • The interviewer also probes the respondent to be specific. • A key strategy for the qualitative interviewer in the field is to avoid as much as possible questions that can be answered by “yes” or “no”. E.g. “Were you a good student in elementary school?” “Tell me about what you were like as a student in elementary school.”
Focus Groups（焦点团体） • For qualitative researchers, focus groups are group interviews that are structured to foster talk among the participants about particular issues. People are brought together and encouraged to talk about the subject of interest (Morgan, 1997). • The advantages and disadvantages of focus groups.
Some of the issues you must take into account in setting up and facilitating focus groups: • Have you chosen a topic that will evoke multiple perspectives, and on which informants can bring their individual experiences to bear? • Have you developed a strategy to emphasize to informants that their ideas will be valued and that what they say in the group will stay confidential? • Will you be able to build groups that have diversity among the perspectives? • How will you plan the sequence of the group from introductions to developing rapport to structuring the group’s talk?
Triangulation（三角校正法） Triangulation has been used widely in discussions of qualitative research. It was first borrowed in the social sciences to convey the idea that to establish a fact you need more than one source of information. • 三角校正法为Denzin所倡用的一种研究方法，指研究过程中采用多种且不同形式的方法、数据、观察者与理论，以查核与确定数据来源、数据搜集策略、时间与理论架构等的效度。 E.g.“… to be confident that a train arrived in a certain station on a certain day you need more than the entry from the diary of a person who was on the train. If you had the train schedule plus the diary, you could be more confident.”
Audio Recording（录音记录） • Using audio recorders during interviews raises some special consideration for fieldwork relations. If you choose to use an audio recorder, ask respondents if they mind. Never record without permission. • Edward Ives (1974) suggested that when interviewing, the audio recorder should be thought of as third party that cannot see.
Visual Recording（影像记录） • Cameras have significant potential as a data-collecting aid but many qualitative researchers shy away from them. • Most people want to take pictures of other things besides bulletin boards and book cases. They want to photograph people in action; they want a visual record of how their subjects look in their natural setting. They want these as a record to help them remember and to help manage their data.
3. How to Conduct Fieldwork Table 1 The planning phases of fieldwork (adapted from Jackson, 1987)
Gaining Access（获准进入） The first problem to face in fieldwork is getting permission to conduct your study. Make sure interests known and seek the cooperation of those you will study. Following is a list of common questions with suggestions about how to respond: • What are you actually going to do? • Will you be disruptive? • What are you going to do with your findings? • Why us? • What will we get out of this?
Be Flexible Be Persistent Be Creative Gaining Access Advice
First Days in the Field The first few days in the field represent the first stage of fieldwork. Suggestions to make your first days in the field less painful: • Do not take what happens in the field personally. • Set up your first visit so someone is there to introduce you. • Do not try to accomplish too much the first few days. Ease yourself into the field. • Remain relatively passive. • Be friendly.
The Participant / Observer Continuum（参与观察） • If the researcher dose not participate in activities at the setting. He or she looks at the scene, literally or figuratively, through a one-way mirror. (Gold, 1958) • As you conduct research, you participate with the subjects in various ways. You joke with them and behave sociably in many ways. You may even help them perform their duties.
Doing Fieldwork in Another Culture • In different cultures there are different rules about human communication and relationships. It is easy to misinterpret rapport and other aspects of fieldwork relations if you are not familiar with these cultural variations. • Your style has to be appropriate and adaptive to the style and customs of those you study. Your methods need to take into account indigenous ways of relating and knowing.
Researcher Characteristics and Special Problems with Rapport Several characteristics of the researchers are particularly significant, they might affect rapport with subjects: • Gender • Skin Color, Race & Cultural Identity • Disability • Authority & Power
Be Discreet The hope of ‘cooperative’ fieldworkers is that they will blend into the setting, becoming a more or less “natural” part of the scene. A number of strategies facilitate this acceptance: • Appearance is one. • Do not display too much of your knowledge while talking with subjects. • Do not discuss anything that has been told to you in private by one subject with another. • To refrain from gossiping carries over to talks with people who are not your subjects. • Try to refrain from writing notes in front of the subjects.
Researching in Politically Charged and Conflict-Ridden Settings • When the trust level is low, when people are sensitive to particular topics, when there are strong barriers between insiders and outsiders. • In organization with conflict, people may via for your allegiance, wanting you to identify with one side or the other.
Leaving the Field Awkward & Unwanted Fieldwork More Comfortable Successful Accomplish
4. Discussion Questions • What are the important rules you can apply across the interview situations? • What about situations where the person you are interviewing appears seriously stressed or emotional? • Which aspects can facilitate researchers become a part of the setting?
5. Additional Readings • Cohen,L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2000) . Research Methods in Education, 5th edition. Routledge Famler, London. • Steffanie Scott, Fiona Miller (2006). Doing Fieldwork in Development Geography: Research Culture and Research Spaces in Vietnam. Geographical Research, Canada. • Quetzil E. Castaneda (2006). The Invisible Theatre of Ethnography: Performative Principles of Fieldwork. Anthropological Quarterly - Volume 79, Number 1, pp. 75-104 • Clifford, James (1997). “Spatial Practices: Fieldwork, Travel, And The Discipling of Anthropology.” In A. Gupta And J. Ferguson, eds. Anthropological Location. University of California Press, Berkeley.
