Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
SELECTION AND SAMPLING
The research questions shape the selection of a place and a people or program to
study. For example, the probability of finding relevant data about the relation-
ship between educational mechanisms, such as teacher expectations, and school
success or failure is higher in a classroom than in a board of education meeting,
although the latter setting has relevance as well. The ideal site for investigation
of the research problem is not always accessible. In that event, the researcher
accepts and notes the limitations of the study from the onset. Ideally, the focus
of the investigation shifts to match the site under study. If either the match or the
problem is not credible, the researcher may have to abandon the initial study and
develop new research questions. In contract research, a contract modification
might be necessary as well. This process may jeopardize the study's funding, but
in some instances it is the only intellectually honest step to take.
The next step is to decide how to sample members of the target population.
There are two approaches to this decision. First, choose who and what not to
study. This process of elimination is like the admissions process at topflight
universities and colleges. The decision is not who shall we admit but rather
who must we reject—given all the people who qualify. An unwieldy number
of informative people and useful events present themselves for study. The
researcher must filter out those sources of information that will add little to the
study. Second, select who and what to study—that is, the sources that will most
help to understand life in a given community.
Most ethnographers use the big-net approach conducive to participant
observation—mixing and mingling with everyone they can at first. As the study
progresses, the focus narrows to specific portions of the population under study.
The big-net approach ensures a wide-angle view of events before the micro-
scopic study of specific interactions begins. This big picture helps refine an
ethnographer's focus and aids the fieldworker in understanding the finer details
that he or she will capture on film and in notes for further analysis.
Ethnographers typically use an informal strategy to begin fieldwork, such
as starting wherever they can slip a foot in the door. The most common tech-
nique is judgmental sampling—that is, ethnographers rely on their judgment
to select the most appropriate members of the subculture or unit based on the
research question. This approach is quite natural, requiring the ethnographer to
ask very simple, direct questions about what people do. Natural opportunities,
convenience, and luck also play a part in the process if the ethnographer is
savvy enough to make good use of them. Some experienced ethnographers use
a rigorous randomized strategy to begin work—particularly when they already
know a great deal about the culture or unit they are studying.
