Environmental Engineering Reference
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between the school and a variety of government agencies. The right hand did
not know what the left hand was doing. Here, the by-products of triangulation
were as useful as its primary purpose in validating information.
Triangulation always improves the quality of data and the accuracy of
ethnographic findings. During my emergency room study, triangulation was
invaluable in clearing up an elementary misunderstanding. The department's
assistant director complained about one of the residents during an interview:
“If you want to find fraud, you should look at Henry. Henry works half the
time he is supposed to for twice the pay.” This information came from a pre-
sumably credible source. I thought it odd, however, that given his role in the
organization, he had not acted on this information. Fortunately, a bookkeeper
overheard the assistant director's comment and pulled me aside the next day to
say, “I thought you should know Henry is one of our best doctors. The only
reason [the assistant director] bad-mouths him is because Henry is dating his
ex-wife.” Observations of the assistant director's ex-wife picking up Henry at
the end of his shift, a review of the time records, and interviews with nurses
and the director all confirmed the bookkeeper's information. In this case, both
serendipitous and systematic triangulation were invaluable in providing a real-
ity test and a baseline of understanding.
Triangulation can occur naturally in conversation as easily as it can occur
in intensive investigatory work. The ethnographer, however, must identify it in
subtle contexts. A recent discussion during a meeting with school superinten-
dents in Washington, D.C., illustrates this point. A prominent superintendent,
managing one of the largest districts in the nation, had just finished explain-
ing why school size made no difference in education. He said that he had one
1,500-pupil and one 5,000-pupil school in his district of which he was partic-
ularly proud, and that the school size had no effect on school spirit, the educa-
tive process, or his ability to manage. He also explained that he had to build
two or three new schools in the next year—either three small schools or one
small school and one large one. A colleague interrupted to ask which he pre-
ferred. The superintendent replied, “Small ones, of course; they are much eas-
ier to handle.” He had betrayed himself in this one phrase. Although the
administrative party line was that size made no difference—management is
management no matter how big or small the unit—this superintendent
revealed a very different personal opinion in response to a casual question.
Such self-contained triangulation, in which an individual's own statements
support or undermine his or her stated position, is a useful measure of internal
consistency. Later comments by this administrator continued to undermine his
official position. He said that students in the small school blamed their athletic
losses on school size. One student stated, “The big schools have the resources.”
This brief anecdote provided an additional insight into the district cosmology.
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