FIELD

RESEARCH
 FIELD RESEARCH

It is also called ethnography or participant observation

research, is a qualitative research method wherein the
researcher directly interacts and observes in a small scale social
setting in the present time and in the researcher’s own culture.
This research method, the researcher studies a particular
cultural group in their own natural setting over a certain period
of time, in the process the researcher collects data through
participant interviews and observation.
 DUTIES OF A FIELD RESEARCHER
• A field researcher must observe ordinary events and everyday activities of
people in their natural setting.
• A field researcher must be involved in the people he or she is studying. He
or she must participate on their daily activities.
• A field researcher must always understand the people from an insider’s
perspectives, but at the same time, he or she should retain an analytical
perspective of an outsider.
• A field researcher must have a variety of techniques and social skills.
• A field researcher gathers data by writing field notes that are derived from
his/her observations.
• A field researcher must understand the group or community being studied.
STEPS IN CONDUCTING FIELD RESEARCH

1. Prepare by reading all available literature on the social group

or the community that you want to study.
2. Select a fieldwork site and secure help from the authorities to
gain access to the community.
3. Establish social relations with the members of the group or
community in the fieldwork site.
4. Adopt a social role and communicate with the members of the
community.
5. As you observed, collect and gather data by taking down field
notes.
 EXAMPLES OF FIELD NOTES
1. Jotted Notes- these are short notes like words, phrases and
illustrations quickly and discreetly written or drawn during the actual
fieldwork.
2. Direct observation notes- these are written by an ethnographer or
field researcher immediately after leaving the field site.
3. Researcher Inference Notes- these notes are the researcher’s
inferences from what he or she heard during fieldwork and his or her
own interpretation of the data.
4. Analytic notes- these contain the methodological ideas and theories
developed by the researcher into the data derived from the fieldwork.
5. Personal notes or Diary- these notes contains the personal feelings,
reactions, emotions of the researcher.
6. Conduct unstructured, nondirective, and in-depth
interviews with the informants in the community.
7. Analyze the data and evaluate the hypothesis.
8. Leave the community after receiving research goals.
9. Finalize the analysis and results of the study and
write the research paper.
 CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS

• Interviews are conducted to gather and collect

information based on the experiences of the
subjects or participants of the study. As a
valuable research methods, an interview can
provide field researchers with information that
cannot be elicited from direct observation.
 FOUR TYPES OF INTERVIEWS

• INFORMAL AND CONVERSATIONAL INTERVIEW- in this interview,

the researcher has no predetermined question to ask.
• GENERAL INTERVIEW- in this interview, the same general areas
of information are collected from each subject.
• STANDARDIZED AND OPEN ENDED INTERVIEW- the researcher
ask open-ended questions that the subject is free to answer in
many manner they prefer.
• CLOSE AND FIXED RESPONSE INTERVIEW- the subject answers
questions from choosing from a set of alternatives.
ETHNOGRAPHY
 ETHNOGRAPHY
• Fetterman defined ethnography as the “ art
and science use to described a group of culture.
• According to Angrosino, the task of an
ethnographer is to “ search for predictable
patterns in the lived human experiences by
carefully observing and participating in the
lives of those under study.
 According to Angrosino, ethnography has the
following characteristics

• It can involve the full immersion of the researcher in the day to

day lives or culture of those under study.
• It is conducted on-site or in a real setting where people actually
live.
• It is personalized method because the researcher acts as both
observer and participant in the lives of those people under
study.
• It collects data in a variety of ways over an extended or longer
period of time.
• It id dialogic because conclusions and interpretations developed
during the process can be given comments or feedback from
those who were study.
 Modes od data- collection:

• OBSERVATION- observation refers to the act of

perceiving the activities and interrelationships
of people in the field setting.
• INTERVIEWING- the researcher converses with
and interviews participants to gather
information.
• ARCHIVAL RESEARCH- documents, written
materials and sources are examined.
 CASE STUDIES
• A case study is a strategy or research method in which the
researcher conducts an up-close or in depth study of an
individual, an organization, a behavioral condition, an event or
a contemporary phenomenon on its social context.