Participant Observation: A Practical Field

Guide for Students and Lecturers

Contributors: Constantine Manolchev & Stephanie Rose Foley

Pub. Date: 2021
Product: SAGE Research Methods Cases
Methods: Participant observation, Observational research, Fieldwork
Disciplines: Business and Management
Access Date: December 1, 2021
Academic Level: Intermediate Undergraduate
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications Ltd
City: London
Online ISBN: 9781529759266
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529759266
© 2021 SAGE Publications Ltd All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods Cases.
SAGE SAGE Research Methods Cases
2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract
This SAGE case study demonstrates the practical application of participant observation as a research
methodology, in its use by students during an undergraduate field-trip module. Participant observation
requires researchers to engage in the “systematic description” of events and interactions, as framed by a
research question, to produce a rich and detailed record of the observed reality. Furthermore, researchers
are required to adopt one of four available participant observation roles: Complete Participant, Participant-
as-Observer, Observer-as-Participant, and Complete Observer, each with role-specific opportunities and
limitations. The case study offers examples of observations collected and recorded by students during a field-
trip module in New York City, as part of their final year undergraduate research project. It also showcases
the value of participant observation in enabling students to collect rich primary data in the presence of
research limitations, such as narrow time-scales for data collection, reduced access to research participants,
or limited access to data. Although typically requiring prolonged (6–12 months) fieldwork, this case study
provides strategies for educators to successfully implement and teach participant observation over much
shorter timescales, in this case, in the course of a week of in situ engagement.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this case, students should be able to

• Define participant observation as a research method

• Describe the four researcher roles as part of participant observation
• Discuss the data collection opportunities and limitation of each participant observation role
• Evaluate the strengths of weaknesses of examples of data collected via participant observation

Project Overview and Context

The University of Exeter’s Business Field Trip Module (module page available online: http://business-
school.exeter.ac.uk/module/?mod_code=BEP3090) is an opportunity for final year undergraduate students
to carryout original research by visiting organizations in a variety of UK and international contexts. Although
students can choose a research topic in line with personal preference and interests, there is an important
constraint imposed upon them. Unlike a master’s or an undergraduate dissertation which may allow up to
9 months of data collection and analysis, this module’s data collection takes place over a week only. This
strict time limit requires students to not only capture a broader range of data than they would typically be
accustomed to, but to reconsider what counts as data altogether. It also makes necessary pre-field-trip
preparation, as well as a post-trip debrief session, which are pieced together to create a holistic, research
experience. To assist with this, we teach students participant observation (PO) (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002) as
a functional methodology which enables the researcher to approach, record, collect, and gather impressions
of their external reality in a “systematic” way (Johnson & Sackett, 1998; Marshall and Rossman, 1989, p. 90).
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This systematic nature of data gathering is necessitated not only by the typically prolonged immersion of the
researcher in a particular setting but also his or her “exposure” to a flow of activities and events (DeMunck
& Sobo, 1998; Schensul et al., 1990, p. 91). Furthermore, by working systematically, the researcher is able
to vary his or her research focus and alternate between a “narrow angle” and a “wide angle.” The “narrow
angle” typically describes the context, participants, and the phenomenon of interest, whereas the “wide
angle” connects the studied phenomenon with wider trends, dynamics, and events (Merriam, 1998). Such an
approach can be beneficial in two ways. First, it can avoid researcher overload with data, information, and
details (Taylor & Bogdan, 1984) which may cause him or her to “miss the wood for the trees.” Second, it
can enable the capture of detailed and vivid information and thus, the production of a “written photograph”
(Erlandson et al., 1993) for the reader.

The latter two points illustrate the inherent value of PO as a methodology enabling the researcher to study
a chosen context from all perspectives, by regarding all situations, interactions, and artifacts as “data”
(Schmuck, 1997). There is no need to wait for access to key personnel, or collect X amount of interviews. The
research is then a composite and holistic (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002) picture, comprising different types of data,
and perhaps not too dissimilar to the so-called “assemblage art” composition, created from found, recycled,
and waste objects (see links to images in the “Further Reading” section).

Such a holistic approach offers additional benefits in enabling the researcher to attain a degree of objectivity
and accuracy in describing the studied phenomenon (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002), despite his or her
unquestionable proximity to the subject of study. Rather than being led by a particular perspective or sets
of perspectives, the participant observer has to find the “best fit” explanation for the range of data he or
she is acquiring, and do so by accounting for a variety of data artefacts. This takes us to an important
aspect of the data collection process and one which has direct implications for the type of data that can be
collected, namely, the role of the researcher. There are inherent limitations in all research, and access to data,
type of interaction, and ability to gain the trust of participants can be determined by the individual, personal
characteristics of the researcher (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002; Schensul et al., 1999). However, PO enables
researchers to actively choose four broad roles from which to gather data, which in line with Raymond Gold’s
classic typology are complete participant, participant-as-observer, observer-as-participant, and a complete
observer (Gold, 1958). Those can be illustrated using examples you may already be familiar with.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, English football hooliganism was at its height with multiple clashes between sides’
fans (“ultras”) taking place. When undercover police officer James Bannon infiltrated and became part of the
violent activities of Millwall FC’s hooligan arm, the Bushwhackers, he had to also be a complete participant.
Bannon had to sound, look, and act the part of a bona fide hooligan and thus interact and form part of
the group of people he was investigating. So much so, that not only would an external observer not be
able to distinguish him from other members of the Bushwhackers, but neither would other members, which
would have been highly dangerous (Bannon, 2013). Therefore, when a researcher becomes a complete
participant, for example, in a studied organization, they may, for a period, act and perform the tasks of an
ordinary employee and other employees may not be aware that the new member of staff is also a researcher.

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Although offering unique opportunities and insights from a research perspective, this researcher stance may
be ethically problematic if any form of deception is used. This would typically require a review by an ethics
committee which is why, for the purposes of teaching PO, we make our role as students and observers both
explicit and overt.

The participant-as-observer role offers a degree of separation between the researcher and the observed
environment, enabling him or her to join in activities he or she chooses, but without making this necessary or
compulsory. This arguably was the position of infamous reporter Hunter S Thomson when he spent 12 months
living and riding with the San Francisco and Oakland chapters of Hells’ Angels in the 1960s (Thompson,
2008). Although Thompson was allowed into the inner sanctum of the gang and participated in a number of
their organized activities, he did not try and conceal his identity as a journalist. In this same way, a participant-
as-observer may be a researcher who takes part in some organizational activities or is perhaps an externally
hired consultant, yet his or her identity as someone external to the organization would be clear.

The last two roles, observer-as-participant and complete observer, are those most frequently adopted by
our students and, just like the two introduced above, they are roles forming part of a continuum rather than
completely separate and siloed categories. When we visited a large investment bank in New York City (NYC),
we were clearly identifiable as “externals” through our visitor badges and lanyards. We were escorted by staff
and were allowed access to certain areas only. We were complete observers and yet, when the bank allowed
us to take part in a typical induction activity and engage in a discussion session with members of staff as part
of it, we seamlessly became observers-as-participants, both observing and doing.

Section Summary

• PO is a method of data collection enabling the researcher to count everything: artifacts, interactions,
and observations as data, as long as connected to his or her research question.
• When engaging in PO, a researcher can transition between four primary roles: complete participant,
participant-as-observer, observer-as-participant, and complete observer.
• Each of these roles provides a set of opportunities and limitations and any ethical issues identified in
advance need to be raised with the higher education institution’s ethics committee.

Research Design and Application

As a method of research, PO relies on the researcher’s prolonged exposure to a particular field,
organizational, or other context of study (Lincoln & Guba, 1994). This poses a number of challenges to
lecturers wishing to teach PO as a method of analysis and to undergraduates hoping to apply it as part
of their degree studies. The nexus of time, cost, and organizational availability considerations make any
extended PO activity impractical and thus may deter students from choosing an interesting and engaging
method of analysis. To mitigate against this, we encourage students to develop a three-part research design
to overcome the insufficient time-frame (typically 1 week) of their PO study:

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1. Pre-PO
2. During PO
3. Post-PO

In the instance of our module, we designed a series of interactive workshops that gave students the
opportunity to encounter PO as a research method and practice it in a safe and familiar context, that of the
University campus. To begin with, we showed them a number of “everyday life” videos and asked them to
simply observe and then comment. One of those videos was of street life in India. It was taken at street
level and enabled students to become the observers, free to direct their researcher gaze at anything of
interest, alternating between the noises, movements, colors of the street, and specific actors, events, and
occurrences. We find that different students react to this activity differently, depending on their backgrounds
and experiences. For some, this is a cacophony of sounds, for others it is a familiar intersection of activities.
This activity demonstrates also the need for a research question framework which serves as a boundary for
the PO but, paradoxically is also reassuring since students realize that a frame of reference, whether drawn
from familiarity or directed by aspects of the phenomenon which are particularly unusual, eventually emerges.
The video is provided in the “Further Reading” section.

Following this familiarization activity, we provide students with the opportunity to practice PO for themselves.
We ask them to go to a popular cafe on campus, buy themselves a drink or snack (which enables them
to choose their research role, either as a complete participant or a participant-as-observer) and to make
observations with a given topic in mind. We also provide them with guidance on the research question,
for instance, campus culture and its visible manifestations. University of Exeter’s Penryn campus is shared
by two institutions and students typically look at which institutions’ symbols, colors, and logos are more
prominent. It could be about the use of communal spaces on campus—in this case, students can comment on
the space being used for study, for sharing food, for group-work, and so on. An important part of this exercise
was reflection following the observations. Each student fed-back on their specific observations, including
feelings and issues. This gave students the opportunity to hear just how different each individual’s frame
of reference was, despite the similarity of the topic, and also highlighted common themes that are visible
throughout all or most POs. This exercise also has pedagogic value and gave us the opportunity to comment
on the quality of the observations and show how students can move from descriptive to critical data, for
instance, by stating not only what they have noticed but why it has taken place. For instance, if students
commented on the absence of disposable, plastic bottles, and cutlery on campus, we would expect them to
connect this with the University of Exeter declaring a climate emergency in 2019 and also show awareness
of the sustainability focused culture on campus as a whole.

Another critically important activity that was useful in the pre-trip preparation was that of interview question
design. To maximize the time spent in the field and to help focus students’ PO, we asked them to research
each of the organizations we were going to visit. This initial research, which could include looking at their
website, checking their social media, engaging with public policy documents, and so on, was particularly
useful as it enabled students to learn about the organization and craft-specific interview questions. We also

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encouraged students to work in pairs of groups, depending on the thematic similarity of their questions or
the common theoretical grounding. In this way, students interested in sustainability can work together, as
can students studying organizational culture, human resource management, and so on. Nevertheless, PO
methodologies have an inductive element, which suggests that the research question should emerge from the
data and be refined as on-going and prolonged observations take place. Students on the module are only able
to immerse themselves in a given context for a week but we nevertheless expect them to evidence research
question growth and development from its initial formulation. We combined each field session with post-PO
lectures where students were encouraged to share their field notes and discuss them with fellow students.
This reflective step allowed students to actively construct their narrative of a particular research context and,
in relating it to other students, become aware of any gaps in their observations or, alternatively, be prompted
to recall any interactions or events which they may have originally omitted. During this post-PO step, students
are encouraged to continue to work on their research diaries, adding to the day’s observations, extending
them, and treating their notes as a “living” document rather than a static snapshot of the day’s events.

Section Summary

• Although PO is a research method requiring prolonged immersion, it is possible to apply it

successfully through a staged approach.
• A useful staged approach is one allowing for pre-research training, during-research observations,
and post-research reflection.
• During all this, the body of findings should be edited, amended, and extended so it can grow in line
with the researcher’s understanding of the subject matter.

Practical Lessons Learned

Learning and applying a new research methodology can be challenging. This is especially so with PO and its
requirement for prolonged immersion in a field of study. Such a requirement may appear off-putting and may
lead students to reject PO as impractical and of little use during their undergraduate studies, which typically
offer little opportunity for extended field-work. In the above case study, we show how these concerns and
difficulties can be overcome. We typically find that the first difficulty students encounter is focus and lack of
certainty regarding what “amount” of data is deemed enough. When working with a methodology that counts
everything as data, the challenge—and responsibility—to draw a frame lies with the researcher. It is therefore
of paramount importance for lecturers to help students become confident in stopping data collection when
they feel necessary. This requires confidence in their own engagement with the material and knowledge of
the subject matter. It is also a firsthand experience that a researcher sometimes has to make a call, since it is
never possible to collect all the data and all the information in a project.

Students also learn the importance of a well-formulated research question. This requires a careful balance
between engagement with the literature on a chosen topic and also ability to continually revise and adjust
the connection in line with the emerging data. Such a close dialogue with narratives allows the research

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question to emerge—organically—and thus impose its own framework around the data. Students find that
they are naturally drawn to a particular area of their theoretical framework while encountering the need to
discard another. In a recent delivery of the module, a number of students carried out initial investigation into
the companies we were visiting but, in the course of their PO work realized that their chosen topic of digital
security was not brought up. Company representatives, however, discussed community relationships and
the importance of a good public image, which led students to adjust their research questions and discuss
corporate social responsibility, instead.

We find that, typically, students seek validation not only on whether their data is “good” but also whether it
constitutes “research.” There is significant scope for the lecturer to build students’ confidence and de-mystify
the research process as an organic and imperfect product of student–participant interactions and not an
abstract object of excellence. It is also important for lecturers to encourage students to actively engage with
their findings—build on them, review and critically discuss them, as touched on in the previous paragraph.
This not only enables student mastery and ownership of the collected research but a process of evaluation
and adjustment of interview questions and observational lenses. This stage of the research process can
be described via the “practice and more practice” mantra which highlights research as emerging and often
messy. Only through actively arranging it and organizing it can the themes emerge, and do so with the active
interpretation of the participant observer.

Such an active role in knowledge co-creation is unfamiliar to students who, until now, may have been taught
that the ideal of scientific inquiry is objectivity through the complete absence of first person pronouns from the
narrative and epistemologically distant researcher voice. While the module does not seek to formally address
the theory of knowledge, it is nonetheless useful to consider epistemology as a theory of what counts as
knowledge, while ontology pertains to what exists in the world (see Bryman, 2016 for an in-depth discussion).
This helps students appreciate the discipline assumptions behind taught ways of writing and dealing with
data. In this way, natural science research is likely to use the third person pronoun (“it is considered,”
“research has shown”). Yet, research in the social sciences and especially PO research which relies on the
framing, interpretation, and co-construction of knowledge by researcher and participant makes first person
writing both acceptable and authentic. We find that a suitable way of increasing student appreciation of clear
researcher voices is to, once again, refer them to benchmark PO texts—both within academia (for instance,
William Foote Whyte’s Street Corner Society) and outside of it (such as Hunter S Thompson’s work already
referred to above).

Another step which can help increase student confidence in using PO as a research methodology is to offer
a multi-step assessment strategy. In this sense, we ask students to present their findings using a multimedia
submission, which can contain sound bites, video clips, photographs, photos of their research diary notes,
and so on. This assessment takes place before the PO research report and enables students to both practice
ordering their notes within their adopted theoretical framework and also receive feedback on the logic of their
narratives. It also underscores the gradual and fluid process of research storytelling, of which—in the case
of PO—there is no single best way. Finally, the presentation of observations without the need to explicitly

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connect with the theory places a reflective step in students’ data analysis approach and encourages them to
focus on the narrative and start with the most important component of PO—telling the story.

Section Summary

• Offering students the opportunity to gain confidence in the methodology through activities prior to
entering the field is a pedagogic spell lecturers should consider.
• PO follows an iterative process of gradual research question development as students start collecting
data.
• Offering students an opportunity to present their findings prior to submitting their final research report
can assist them in structuring the narrative of their findings.

Conclusion
Entering a new environment can be challenging and offer rich and nuanced data which a student (as well
as any seasoned researcher) may struggle to capture, process, and manage. To overcome this, it is useful
to first decide on the type of a PO role a student will adopt. It is unlikely that a student will be able to act
as a complete participant in this stage of their studies, so we suggest working from the opposite end of the
spectrum, that of a complete observer.

Thus, the student can start with short video clips and practice switching between a “wide” and a “narrow”
angle. The former takes into account the whole observed environment with the full range of its dynamics
and the plethora of interactions, while the latter focuses on a particular actor, or a specific exchange. Once
familiar with being complete observers, students can move into more interactive roles, such as observer-as-
participant or participant-as-observer, while being aware that those are points on a continuum, rather than
separate roles. If applied in an academic context, students could carry out PO on campus, using shared and
communal areas as contexts for their study.

PO is an inductive process which relies on the gradual development of the research question over time and
following engagement in the field. However, a new field should not be entered without prior training. We
advise our students to prepare themselves in the pre-PO stage by researching the organizations which will be
visited and observed. This helps to maximize the value of any possible engagements during the PO, as well
as ask specific and targeted questions if there is an opportunity to interact with organization representatives.
We also make time for students to reflect, share, and amend their observations in the post-PO stage, thus
highlighting PO data as a “living” body of information, rather than a static snapshot.

We recommend the use of PO at the latter stages of undergraduate education, and as a methodology
particularly suitable for final year students. The requirement for self-reflection, continuous management and
evaluation of data, ability to ask questions and interpret answers thus make the ability to work independently
an important prerequisite, and one which students are likely to develop toward the end of their undergraduate
studies. We feel that this should not deter students, nor serve as a reason to avoid PO as a complex or difficult

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approach to data gathering. PO is complex but only inasmuch as it is flexible, and it is difficult only as far as
it enables researchers to deal with real data always, which always poses challenges. This, however, is what
makes for interesting findings and is what makes research exciting!

Section Summary

• PO is an immersive methodology and should be applied after prior training and when there is some
familiarity with the research context.
• To help with student confidence, the practice of PO should include preliminary research on the
chosen topic and the practice of observation—either through online videos or in familiar contexts,
such as the University campus.

Classroom Discussion Questions

Classroom Discussion Questions

1. How can participant observation (PO) help with the study of a new topic?
2. In what ways is PO useful for contexts where accessing participants may be problematic?
3. What are some of the key challenges when using PO?

Further Reading
Daily life in India Training Video. (n.d.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDLCd70iTeE

Freeman, Z. (n.d.). Justin. http://zacfreeman.com/justin-2013/

Perkins, J. (n.d.). Sunflowers. https://www.woolffgallery.co.uk/jane-perkins?lightbox=dataItem-iwm2cj3d1

Whyte, W. F. (2012). Street corner society: The social structure of an Italian slum. University of Chicago
Press.

Web Resources
An intriguing presentation by the American Anthropological Association with a range of distinguished and
retired academics on the “final participation observation,” namely, death: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Jql5iMrdAtc

References
Bannon, J. (2013). Running with the firm. Random House.

Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford University Press.

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DeMunck, V. C., & Sobo, E. J. (Eds.). (1998). Using methods in the field: A practical introduction and
casebook. AltaMira Press.

DeWalt, K. M., & DeWalt, B. R. (2002). Participant observation: A guide for fieldworker. AltaMira Press.

Erlandson, D. A., Harris, E. L., Skipper, B. L., & Allen, S. D. (1993). Doing naturalistic inquiry: A guide to
methods. SAGE.

Gold, R. L. (1958). Roles in sociological field observations. Social Forces, 36, 217–223.

Johnson, A., & Sackett, R. (1998). Direct systematic observation of behavior. In H.Russell Bernard (Ed.),
Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology (pp. 301–332). AltaMira Press.

Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. SAGE.

Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (1989). Designing qualitative research. SAGE.

Schensul, S. L., Schensul, J. J., & LeCompte, M. D. (1999). Essential ethnographic methods:
Observations, interviews, and questionnaires (Book 2 in Ethnographer’s Toolkit). AltaMira Press.

Schmuck, R. (1997). Practical action research for change. IRI/Skylight Training and Publishing.

Thompson, H. S. (2008). Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson. University Press of Mississippi.

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