Role of a Qualitative Researcher in the Role of Participant Observer
Participant observation is one form of data collection method that is usually used by scholar-practitioners for qualitative research. This form of approach is used in a wide variety of fields, including social psychology, cultural studies, sociology, and anthropology. Its goal is to acquire a strong and comprehensive connection with a specific group of people and their activities through the intense participation with individuals in their cultural surroundings, typically across a prolonged period (Spradley, 2016). This paper seeks to discuss the role of a researcher as an observer as pertinent from a qualitative data collection perspective.Role of a Qualitative Researcher in the Role of Participant Observer
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As observers, researchers play three main roles in qualitative data collection, including:
Getting to the location of some elements of human practice they choose to examine: This involves going to where the activity is, such as homes, communities, places of work, religious locations, recreation spots, and many more (Roulet et al., 2017). Participant observers mostly carry out their research in situ.
Developing a relationship with the participants: qualitative researchers as participant observers, always want to observe and learn about the stuff humans do in the regular life course. This implies that, to some degree, these people have to recognize the researcher as someone they can interact with. Although researches do not have to be seen as a total insider, good participant observers need to generate enough confidence and approval to make their research participants behave just as they would if the researchers were not around (Hammer et al., 2017).Role of a Qualitative Researcher in the Role of Participant Observer
Spending sufficient time interacting to acquire the required data: The casual existence of participant observation indicates that researchers cannot necessarily go directly to all the areas that raise your study concerns and leave. They have to spend quality time developing rapport and studying or engaging for a reasonable amount of time to gain a wide set of conversations, experiences, and somewhat unstructured interviews for the study (Spradley, 2016). Based on the nature of the research and the study concerns, this can take a short or a long time and may entail several visits to the study locations.
References
Hammer, B., Fletcher, F., & Hibbert, A. (2017). Participant Observation: Enhancing the Impact Measurement in Community Based Participatory Research. Qualitative Report, 22(2).
Roulet, T. J., Gill, M. J., Stenger, S., & Gill, D. J. (2017). Reconsidering the value of covert research: The role of ambiguous consent in participant observation. Organizational Research Methods, 20(3), 487-517.
Spradley, J. P. (2016). Participant observation. Waveland Press.
Role of a Qualitative Researcher in the Role of Participant Observer