Re: participant observer
Katherine Brown (kbrown who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Wed, 20 Sep 1995 11:25:57 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Hiroaki and Angel.
I am writing a chapter in my dissertation right now called "the experience
of transformation" that takes as one level of the problem of transformation
the transformation of the researcher from stranger to participant to
participant observer to fieldworker-exiting-the field to person
having to (re)enter theoretical literature with new understandings
about the field setting and the theory, etc. It is a pretty interesting
sequence of events to have to give an account of. I took photography
courses to build up fieldwork tools for settings where videotaping might
be intrusive, became increasingly interested in what was going on in
the "darkroom community" of the photographic education program I was
in, and saw many people in the program struggling to make sense of
take a stand on digital imaging. Is it a threat? is it a tool? do we
want it? do we need it? Is it photography? is it art? etc. So I got
to see people learn traditional black and white photography, learn it
myself, remove myself and return to the setting and take the courses again
and again to watch groups of beginners go through the course(s), take
intermediate courses, observe digital imaging courses, and talk with
instructors, graduate students, faculty members along the way in different
capacities. I have fieldnote, audiotape and videotape data, depending on the
contstraints and requirements and affordances of the setting.
(if you ever shoot video in a darkroom, use Hi8 and boost that filter!!!
if people are wearing light clothing and standing near a safelight, you
might get something on tape:)) SO I will be wrestling with questions
of participant observation in my reflective ethnography and in looking at
all of the levels of transformation that I looked at within/between
the transmission of expertise and the transformation of practive in this setting.
Hope to hear from others.
Katherine Brown
LCHC/Dept. of Communication
UC San DIego