{"id":117,"date":"2012-05-24T22:45:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T05:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/?p=117"},"modified":"2012-05-28T07:46:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-28T14:46:12","slug":"stepping-in-and-stepping-out-at-frog-hollow-neighbourhood-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/2012\/05\/24\/stepping-in-and-stepping-out-at-frog-hollow-neighbourhood-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Point of Reflection: Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Painting from Frog Hollow's Homelessness Action Week.<\/p><\/div>\n

If I am to be completely honest, this research experience has been quite stressful.\u00a0 My multi-faceted role of student\/ researcher\/ volunteer is much more difficult than I had imagined it would be.\u00a0 With week four of IVEFS approaching, I am starting over, from scratch, on brainstorming for my final project.\u00a0 Because Frog Hollow Neighborhood House focuses on families with children aged 0-6, all of the programs take place in the morning.\u00a0 This means that any opportunity to observe the day-to-day of my neighborhood house is missed as I am in class during that time.\u00a0 My expectation was that by now I would have had plenty of time to spend in the company of the members of Frog Hollow.\u00a0 At this point in my research I am reexamining my expectations, and therefore, attempting to develop a valuable research project that will be a contribution to my program and my placement (or at least one of the two), and to my experience in fieldwork.<\/p>\n

This process of reexamining my expectations is allowing me to really think about my position in this project.\u00a0 In their book FieldWorking,<\/em> Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater and Bonnie Stone Sunstein\u2019s explain how, \u201cthe point of doing fieldwork is to learn to see not just the other but ourselves as well.\u00a0 The special gaze demands that we look \u2013 and then look back again at ourselves.\u201d\u00a0 The conflict I am facing as a novice researcher trying to find a balance is, in effect, helping me with that<\/em> balance.\u00a0 As a student, enrolled in a program, and assigned to Frog Hollow, I realize that I have carried with me the expectations and worldview of one with those roles.\u00a0 As a student, I expected that my placement would work around my class schedule.\u00a0 As a volunteer, I expected that my supervisor would have programs and activities for me to be a part of and contribute to.\u00a0 And as a researcher, I expected that members of Frog Hollow Neighborhood House would be available for me to \u201cresearch.\u201d<\/p>\n

This frustration and process of examining and reexamining my position is really helping me to understand my assumptions.\u00a0 Not only is it necessary for me to physically step in and out of my field site, it\u2019s imperative that I constantly reflect on my position of insider\/ outsider, and what Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein refer to as one\u2019s subjective\/ objective self.\u00a0 Up to this point, I worried that my limited access to the Frog Hollow community and members would prevent me from having a deep, meaningful project.\u00a0 I worried that without adequate time to get to know, build rapport, and interview people, I couldn\u2019t possibly have enough time to delve into a topic as complex as immigration.\u00a0 My expectations were forcing me to miss many opportunities I had for inquiry, both in and around Frog Hollow.\u00a0 I see now first hand how important the reflexive\/ reflective process is to my research. And as long as I continue with this process throughout my research, I should be able to be part of a meaningful project.<\/p>\n

_________<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Chiseri-Strater, Elizabeth and Bonnie Stone Sunstein.\u00a0 2007.\u00a0 FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research<\/em>.\u00a0 Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.<\/p>\n

Frog Hollow Neighborhood House.\u00a0 2011. \u00a0Painting.\u00a0 Art Show: Homelessness Action Week. \u00a0<\/em>Retrieved May 23, 2012.\u00a0 From http:\/\/www.froghollow.bc.ca\/gallery\/youth\/art-show-homelessness-action-week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I am to be completely honest, this research experience has been quite stressful.\u00a0 My multi-faceted role of student\/ researcher\/ volunteer is much more difficult than I had imagined it would be.\u00a0 With week four of IVEFS approaching, I am … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12981,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ivefs2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}