Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
However, using a highly structured randomized design without a basic
understanding of the people under study may cause the researcher to narrow
the focus prematurely, thus eliminating perhaps the very people or subjects rel-
evant to the study. (See Henry, 2009; Weisner et al., 2001, for additional dis-
cussion about sampling.) Such a misdirected study may yield high reliability
but extremely low validity, undermining an entire research study. First the
ethnographer must ask the right questions for a given research study. The best
way to learn how to ask the right questions—beyond the literature search and
proposal ideas—is to go into the field and find out what people do day to day.
Goetz and LeCompte (1984, pp. 63-84) provide a useful discussion of sam-
pling and selection in ethnographic research, focusing on criterion-based and
probabilistic sampling.
ENTRY
An introduction by a member is the ethnographer's best ticket into the com-
munity. Walking into a community cold can have a chilling effect on ethno-
graphic research. Community members may not be interested in the individual
ethnographer or in the work. An intermediary, or go-between, can open doors
otherwise locked to outsiders. The facilitator may be a chief, principal, direc-
tor, teacher, tramp, or gang member and should have some credibility with the
group—either as a member or as an acknowledged friend or associate. The
closer the go-between's ties to the group the better. The trust the group places
in the intermediary will approximate the trust it extends to the ethnographer at
the beginning of the study. Ethnographers thus benefit from a halo effect if
they are introduced by the right person: Sight unseen, group members will give
the researcher the benefit of the doubt. As long as ethnographers demonstrate
that they deserve the group's trust, they will probably do well. A strong rec-
ommendation and introduction strengthen the fieldworker's capacity to work
in a community and thus improve the quality of the data.
Unfortunately, the fieldworker cannot always find the best person to offer
an introduction and must take whatever is available. In this case, the researcher
must consider entering the community without assistance—simply by walking
into a neighborhood store, attending church services, volunteering time in a
school, or performing any other nonthreatening role in the community. In
many instances, however, access is clearly impossible without some escort.
Here, the fieldworker must accept a devil's bargain—a poor introduction, with
all its constraints, is the only way to gain access to the community. This cir-
cumstance requires the ethnographer to begin in the hole, overcompensating to
