Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

FIELD RESEARCH AND FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH

Step 1: Prepare to Enter the Field.There are four
aspects of preparing for the field: learning to be flex-
ible, preparing, defocusing, and being self-aware
and having knowledge of yourself.

Be Flexible.Agility is a virtue when doing field
research. In field research, you will not follow
clearly laid-out, preset, fixed steps. Rather than
having a set of methods to apply or explicit
hypotheses to test, you select techniques based on
their value in providing valuable information in
specific situations. At the beginning, you should
expect little control over data and little focus. You
want to be able to shift directions and follow leads
as needed, learn to recognize and seize opportuni-
ties, and adjust quickly to fluid social situations.
You do not want to lock yourself into initial mis-
conceptions; instead, learn to be open to discover-
ing new ideas. Finding the most fruitful questions
to ask about a part of social life in the field often
requires patience, time, sensitivity, and reflection.

Organize Yourself.Human and personal factors

can play a role in any research project, but they are

crucial ingredients in a field research study. Field

projects often begin with chance occurrences or a

personal interest, such as working at a job, having

a hobby, or being a patient or an activist.^9 To con-

duct field research, you must refine the skills of

careful looking and listening, short-term memory,

and regular writing. Before you enter the field site,

you will want to practice observing the ordinary

details of situations and later writing them down.

Extreme attention to details and short-term mem-

ory can improve with practice. Likewise, keeping

a daily diary or personal journal is good practice

for writing field notes. As with all social research,

reading the scholarly literature will help you to

learn concepts, potential pitfalls, data collection

methods, and techniques for resolving conflicts.

A beginning field researcher should read dozens

of field research reports before starting a study. In

addition, you may find diaries, novels, movies,

journalistic accounts, and autobiographies valuable

tools to gain greater familiarity with and prepare

yourself emotionally for entering the field.

Defocus.To begin, you need to empty your mind

of preconceptions and take a broad view rather than

focusing narrowly. Once socialized to the setting,

however, you can begin to focus the inquiry.

Defocusingmeans consciously beginning fresh,

highly aware and curious, unburdened by assump-

tions and prejudgments. It comes in two types.^10

The first is casting a wide net in order to witness a

broad range of situations, people, and settings—

getting a feel for the overall setting before deciding

what to include or exclude. The second is going

beyond the narrow researcher role and not restrict-

ing yourself exclusively to being the researcher. As

Douglas (1976:122) noted, it is important to extend

your experience beyond a strict professional role.

EXPANSION BOX 2

Steps in Field Research

1. Prepare oneself, read the literature, and defocus.


2. Select a field site and gain access to it.


3. Enter the field and establish social relations with
   members.


4. Adopt a social role, learn the ropes, and get along
   with members.


5. Watch, listen, and collect quality data.
   Begin to analyze data and to generate and eval-
   uate working hypotheses.
   Focus on specific aspects of the setting and use
   theoretical sampling.
   Conduct field interviews with member informants.


6. Disengage and physically leave the setting.
   Complete the analyses and write the research
   report.
   Note:There is no fixed percentage of time needed for each
   step. For a rough approximation, Junker (1960:12) suggested
   that, once in the field, the researcher should expect to spend
   approximately one-sixth of his or her time observing, one-third
   recording data, one-third of the time analyzing data, and one-
   sixth reporting results. Also see Denzin (1989:176) for eight
   steps of field research.

Defocusing A technique early in field research by

which the researcher removes his or her past assump-

tions and preconceptions to become more open to

events in a field site.