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<\/a>One of the Bird\u2019s Nest necklaces I help make for Volunteer Connections \u2013 sometimes fieldwork feels as complicated as these little circles of twisted wire.<\/p><\/div>\n
Before beginning my research I had a bit of a naive vision of what doing field work was like.\u00a0 I expected conversation with participants to flow easily and naturally, and that whenever I wanted to I could just nonchalantly duck off to the side and jot down notes.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that easy.\u00a0\u00a0 Much of the time (and especially in the beginning) fieldwork is awkward.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0There have been moments where I have felt put on the spot as the \u201cresearcher\u201d and have struggled with exactly where I should fit in.<\/p>\n
My first experience with one of the groups I work with, a leadership group called Volunteer Connections, was full of such moments.\u00a0 Firstly, as Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein emphasize, doing your background research before directly interacting with people \u00a0is important (FieldWorking 2007: 221).\u00a0 I wish I had done this more thoroughly, because as I learned quickly a newcomer always sticks out.\u00a0 I had assumed Volunteer Connections only met to work on their projects, so I was surprised when everyone gathered around at the beginning for a talking circle. Many of the participants shared very personal stories about their lives, and the experience was quite emotional.\u00a0 When it was my turn to share something with the group I felt I had been caught off-guard.\u00a0 All of these people were strangers, but I now knew very personal things about many of them.\u00a0 Was it impolite of me to not reciprocate with a story on an equally personal and intimate level?\u00a0 But wasn\u2019t it also inappropriate of me as a researcher to break this boundary so early on?\u00a0 I chose a safe route and told a mundane anecdote, which was an appropriate choice considering that I was there as a newcomer.\u00a0\u00a0 However, this left me feeling a little unbalanced, like I was only receiving information but keeping myself distant from the group.\u00a0 As we moved onto the crafting section of the workshop I found myself in more moments of discomfort as the group was silent a lot of the time while learning some new instructions on how to make our bird\u2019s nest necklaces (pictured above). \u00a0I wasn\u2019t sure how to naturally strike up conversation with the people sitting next to me without feeling like I was conducting a mini interview.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t even entirely sure how to watch without feeling too much like I was \u201cstudying\u201d them.\u00a0 This is an ongoing struggle in ethnographic research \u2013 you\u2019re a researcher asking about peoples\u2019 lives.\u00a0 It\u2019s personal, yet distant at the same time.\u00a0 The next time I volunteered in a program that I hadn\u2019t been to before I made sure I was better prepared. \u00a0I read about the program beforehand and asked my supervisor questions to clarify the project.\u00a0 Throughout the next workshop I felt more at ease, since there were not as many surprises and I was familiar with the purpose and structure of the group.<\/p>\n
As Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein point out, \u201c[w]hat\u2019s important about researching place is to understand how we acquire our spatial gaze, how that gaze informs our look at others, and what\u2019s behind the gaze of others who look back at us.\u201d (2007: 198)\u00a0 Doing hands-on ethnographic research is an enriching way to explore the perspectives of yourself and others, and learning about how others see the world is a complex and intricate process.\u00a0 When one adds language and cultural differences, then mistakes and miscommunication are bound to happen.\u00a0 What matters is being able to get past the uncomfortable feelings and use that moment as a learning experience, a chance to point out something to yourself that you didn\u2019t know before.<\/p>\n
References<\/span><\/p>\n Chiseri-Strater, Elizabeth & Bonnie Stone Sunstein<\/p>\n 2007\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research. Boston: Bedford\/St. Martins<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before beginning my research I had a bit of a naive vision of what doing field work was like.\u00a0 I expected conversation with participants to flow easily and naturally, and that whenever I wanted to I could just … Continue reading