Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Guilty Knowledge and Dirty Hands
During the more advanced stages of fieldwork, the ethnographer is likely to
encounter the problems of guilty knowledge and dirty hands. Guilty knowl-
edge refers to confidential knowledge of illegal or illicit activities. Dirty hands
refers to situations in which the ethnographer cannot emerge innocent of
wrongdoing (Fetterman, 1983; Klockars, 1977, 1979; Polsky, 1998).
During my study of the dropout program, I had established a bond of trust
with the student who took me to the health food store to buy me a granola bar
and showed me his cultural knowledge of where to cop dope in the streets. I
had confidential knowledge about illegal activities and was a participant—
albeit a naive and unwilling one—in this activity. For me to turn in the student
or the health food establishment in this case would have been unethical, how-
ever (Fetterman, 1983).
In another extremely sensitive situation, I judged it necessary to withhold
potentially explosive information. While interviewing one of the students in an
experimental program, I heard a scream. I left the student and ran to the
source. The principal was already 20 feet ahead of me, pounding on the door,
trying to force it open. The sounds emanating from the room by then were
obviously sensual. When the principal forced the door open, we found one of
the guidance counselors sexually engaged with a student. They had been
upright against the door and were now half upright and half on the floor. The
counselor was discreetly dismissed, and the student was temporarily dismissed
and referred to an appropriate and responsible counseling center.
The principal and I spent the evening discussing the problem and our
mutual responsibilities. I was convinced that this situation was atypical and
that the principal had handled the matter appropriately. We knew that report-
ing this incident to the sponsors would permanently close the school down
(and possibly all the other schools for dropouts under study). As an ethnogra-
pher (and evaluator), I had ethical obligations to myriad individuals—ranging
from the taxpayer to the students benefiting from the program and the more
conscientious staff members. I eventually made my decision not to disclose the
incident based on a traditional risk or cost-benefit analysis (Reynolds, 1979)
and the recognition that reporting the incident would have represented method-
ological suicide (Fetterman, 1986e).
Rigorous Work
Ethics and quality are also intrinsic elements in ethnographic work.
Ethnographers, like most scientists, work to produce a quality effort and prod-
uct. Anything less represents an abdication of responsibility, diminishing the
research effort and its credibility and impact.
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