Issues discussed include the advantages and disadvantages of nurse researchers as insiders and. Article information, pdf download for the space between. Conducting observational research deakin university. Ann bonner and gerda tolhurst provide personal accounts of their experiences in conducting research involving participant observation. Ethnographers gather data from many different sources. Insideroutsider perspectives of participant observation. The teacher leads students in a brief discussion about insider and outsider status and the perspectives attached to. The research method of participant observation has long been used by scholars interested in the motivations, dynamics, tactics and strategies of social movements from a movement perspective. Even only an overview of the key ethnographies done so far, within national and disciplinary boundaries or across them, would call for a chapter in itself.
Participant observation and ethnography, at large, are an everyday staple for researchers in migration, ethnic and mobility studies. It also examines the strengths and challenges of returning researchers recognising their unique position in overcoming these binaries. My role as neither an insiderresearcher nor outsiderresearcher maximised the. However, iotr is distinguished from participant observation in its explicit collaboration and integration of insideroutsider perspectives throughout all phases of the research process, rather than in a limited use of key informants as providers of data. In literature, the divisions are four oral literature, precolonial literature, colonialslave narratives, and postcolonial literature. While researchers affiliated with members of the study population seen as insiders may increase research participation of racialethnic minorities, little is known about who participants see as insiders and how they respond to insider versus outsider researchers. In other words, it is not sufficient to have a topdown knowledge of a societys institutions and politics. I conducted a total of 68 indepth interviews and 16 months of participant observation at group.
Rather than consider this issue from a dichotomous perspective, the authors explore the notion of the space between that allows researchers to occupy the position of both insider and outsider rather than insider or outsider. To some degree, it is an essential element of all qualitative studies. Ethnographers keep field notebooks that document their ideas and reflec. Further confusing the picture is the variety of labels for example, observation, participant ob. Participant observation and indepth interviews are common methods of ethnographic. Whilst professional insider knowledge and status offered many advantages, especially at the first study setting, some of the inherent embodied, and socially constructed features of the midwife observer role, were unanticipated. Fluid roles and positions in the fields and visavis other.
Despite participant observation being a common research method, there have been very few efforts to bring together this literature, which has often been. Participant observation, female gambling culture, sensitive research, research ethics, and field membership roles. We turn now to considering our own positions as insideroutsider in relation to our research. Not only will the researcher experience moments of being both insider and outsider, but that these positions are depend heavily on the cultural values and norms of both researcher and participants. He actually lived there trying to uncover this system, and getting to know the people that he was observing. Insideroutsider perspectives of participant observation ann bonner lecturer and clinical nurse specialist, university of western sydney and westmead hospital, new south wales, australia. Knowledge management in music festivals reflections on. The purpose of this paper is to problematise the idea of athome ethnography and to expand knowledge about insideroutsider distinctions by using insights from institutional ethnography ie. Insideroutsider perspectives in qualitative research, writers differentiate between insider and outsider per. Hmong older adults perceptions of insider and outsider.
However, the researcher must also observe what is happening whilst reflecting on their own involvement and biases. Issues discussed include the advantages and disadvantages. However the power of participant observation lies in its intimacy with, and grounded perspective upon, the places, practices and people it studies. I want in this short report to flag up some issues of interest and some texts from anthropology which speak both to the insideroutsider problem and to the broader. Being an insider researcher while conducting case study. Challenges of introducing participant observation to community. Other researchers have used a more direct observational strategy for studying gangs. Reflections on researcher identities in research with lesbian and bisexual women article pdf available in qualitative research in psychology 122 april. Social historians have long argued that we must study history from the underside, if we want to thoroughly understand a society. Positionality and the insideroutsider debate in qualitative research has been. The term insider researcher is used to describe a situation where the researcher is a part of the topic being investigated. The qualitative researchers perspective is perhaps a paradoxical one. Participant observation was incorporated in 2014 and 2015 as researchers sought a complementary perspective and context to determine the impact of the program. Recent work includes a chapter on scientologist belonging in the insideroutsider debate.
Better data collection came to be referred to as participant observation meaning that the ethnographers participated in the daily lives of the people they studied, learned their lan. The authors explore relationships with a large number of stakeholders children, facilitators, community. Insiderresearchers are often intimately engaged with their research domains, and, unlike. For instance, an aboriginal person who is examining the representation of local aboriginal art may be defined as an insider. Exploring insideroutsider perspectives and positions as. An insideroutsider team approach in research with migrant. Laurier part ob v2 eric laurier university of edinburgh. Knowledge management in music festivals reflections on the insideroutsider perspective of an ethnographer raphaela stadler, r. The key to ethnographic research, then, is skilfully combining the role of. Ethnographic research this chapter will provide information on. Reflections on researcher identities and the research process 7 communities and the public bridges, 2001. Participant observation as a data collection method. Reflexivity in midwifery research the insideroutsider debate. This pdf has been generated from sage research methods cases.
More commonly, however, it is viewed positivistically as useful during the preliminary stages of scientific inquiry for exploration and description lazarsfeld, 1972. Insider and outsider perspective in ethnographic research. Issues discussed include the advantages and disadvantages of nurse researchers as insiders and outsiders. The history of participant observation as a method participant observation is considered a staple in anthropological studies, especially in ethnographic studies, and has been used as a data collection method for over a century. Insideroutsider perspectives of participant observation language eng date 2002 author bonner, ann j. On being an insideroutsider in qualitative research. Beyond the insideroutsider divide in migration research. Outsider page 2 of 5 instructional procedures step one. Insider participant observation being a member of a group as well. In the end, it seems like both the insiders perspective and outsiders perspective are considered as valid and should be. Insideroutsider positionality while conducting qualitative research. Insideroutsider perspectives of participant observation insideroutsider perspectives of participant observation bonner, ann.
Participant observation involves the observer being a member of the setting in which they are collecting data there are quite a few variations of this definition observation is normally associated with an ethnographic methodology more later but can be used as part of other research designs. Participant observation, informed consent and ethical approval. The relational construction of insideroutsider divides. As its name suggests, participant observation demands firsthand involvement in the social world chosen for study. Qualitative research and its use in sport and physical. His research interests include fluid forms of contemporary religion, material culture, and lived religion. Qualitative descriptions generated by participant observation are used to formulate. In the article, workaday world, crack economy, anthropologist philippe bourgois uses participant observation to get involved with the people living in east harlem. Insider participant observation being a member of a group as well as the researcher is considered the most important and challenging instrument in qualitative studies herrmann, 1989. Participant observation with european colonization of peoples around the globe, more anthropological research around the planet began to happen. During participant observation, the researcher works to play two separate roles at the same time.
The participant observation method, also known as ethnographic research, is when a sociologist actually becomes a part of the group they are studying in order to collect data and understand a social phenomenon or problem. Pdf ann bonner and gerda tolhurst provide personal accounts of their experiences in conducting research involving participant observation. This is why participant observation, conversations and open interviews are central to ethnographic research. Settings and procedure based on an initial scoping exercise examining all the possible types of places and environments that house fruit machines, and guidance from preliminary informants, four key types of setting were selected for observation in our research. The impact of researchers identities on the communitybased research process katie kerstetter george mason university abstract sociologists and qualitative researchers have engaged in an extensive debate about the merits of. He has presented papers on his research at conferences in the uk, europe, and usa. Now with 70 additional terms as well as a readers guide, key references have been updated and several terms and phrases from previous editions have been reo.
Pdf insideroutsider perspectives of participant observation. At the heart of ethnographers method of participant observation, is the paradox of being at once participant and observer. The emic and etic perspectives ethnographers seek to gain an emic perspective, or the natives point of view of a. We generally refer to their counterparts as informants, which reflects variation in the mode of data collection e. Participant observation elicits unique observation data from both an insiders and an outsiders perspectives. Insideroutsider perspective research papers academia. Recruiting racialethnic minorities into health research is challenging. General ann bonner and gerda tolhurst provide personal accounts of their experiences in conducting research involving participant observation. Keywords membership roles, insider status, outsider status, qualitative research.