The Researcher as a Participant - Assignment Example

Week 7-Terence Week 7-Terence A researcher as a participant should appear as someone with the competency in specific fields. At the onset, a researcher attempts to fit with others and gain acquaintance with the group. Acquaintanceship comes with a feeling the researcher has the same perspective with others. In most fieldworks, a researcher should understand the routine as if other fully-fledged participants do. A researcher should familiarize himself or herself to avoid asking the obvious questions. A researcher as participant that asks obvious questions leads to others suspecting the researcher’s competency. For the researcher to appear as a learner, he or she should appear enthusiastic about what they say. A researcher should portray genuine interest or an act of impression preoccupied with another aspect of the setting. Dq7.2 (1) How might a researcher who is a participant observer conducting qualitative research affect the results of the research? Schulenberg (2014) uses the term participant-as-observer to identify the fieldwork role in which the subjects know the researcher. One limitation faced by the scientist is maintaining scientific identity secret to fit in the social setting under study. The researcher as participant must work on a mutually acceptable position in the society. People that suddenly appear in the social setting for studying tend to accept at face value the nature of things. Field researchers as known scientists have the challenge of discovering and bringing to light aspects of life-style unknown. Mann et al. (2014) say that researchers must try to fit as fast as possible since there is little tolerance for threatening people at everyday relations. The threat reduces as the researcher becomes acquainted with the individual members of members being observed. With acquaintanceship, a researcher has the opportunity of learning routines to coexist with other participants. As data-driven decision making and evidence-based practice gains traction in the education policy arena, the use of local research to solve context-based problems increases. Locally based research efforts, often take the form of action research, position practitioners as researchers expert on the local context and consumers on the research findings. Kumar et al. (2011) argues that practitioner scholars are educational leaders that have a firm understanding on the theory and solid research skills. (2) What can be done to mitigate these issues? According to Waite (2013), participant-as-observer blunts the initial threat by striving to fit in soon as possible. The very condition of fitting means that the researcher achieves legitimacy with subjects as well as pursuing scientific objectives. The problem of fitting for participant-as-observer is the issue of achieving level of marginality to do valid research. Learning for the participant-as-observer entails a short course in adult socialization. Stebbins (2014) believes that the fieldwork experience is burdensome and pleasant as one fails to step out of the role for engaging in field research. Teaching a field researcher is burdensome and unpleasant where one is ignorant on the setting. One of the effective ways of simultaneously expressing genuine interest is the level of participation. The risks of over participation include over rapport and the abandoning of the research project and joining the group. Stebbins (2014) believes that in some settings, a researcher should be wary of inclinations. Participations of central activities require a researcher to acquire license to enable the participation of specialized work. A field researcher can seek the role of an assistance that requires plenty of time to solve the routine problems. Dq7.3 (1) Discuss the concept of researcher bias. Jane (2014) argues that the expansive widespread of information especially from internet serve to benefit and create problems for the researcher. Currently, information is a commodity commissioned for a unique purpose and shapes to fit the needs of the commissioner. User requirement dictates the research remit and selecting the criteria on the importance of the information. Establishing the importance of information is an integral to decide on a particular focus that a research strategy should take. End-users may only require comprehensive, balanced, and desirable information. Choice of information emanates from the information needs and its selection is a crucial factor in the provision of relevant, successful, and user information to the end-user. Kennedy-Lewis (2012) observes that information explosion has a dramatic consequence for the researcher in terms of accessing the information. One can log to the World Wide Web without physically going to a library and scan the information on one’s computer. Internet has unlimited information as the researcher has to make own choices while gathering information. The use of unstructured collection of data will provide and information overload. Unstructured search can also contain gaps in the information content that the researcher remains unaware. Gathering of different list of citations appears irrelevant. (2) What are some ways the researcher might address these issues? Choice of research affects choice of topic, amount of time, money, and hours available. Topic selected by the end-user will contain specific information requirements that must be established prior to research strategies and methodology bearing in mind that choice to collect will determine what to exclude. For the topic selected, the researcher will reduce by doing the following: (1) information that details an overview of the previous or ongoing research on the topic. Comprehensive current research comes from theses, published monographs, government enquires, occasional papers of professional interest, and theses. (2) The researcher should provide the opinions and trends reflected in monograph literature and the court cases. (3) The researcher has to establish the terms of in-depth research, comprehensiveness, and geographical locations. () believes that for one to carry out an effective research, one has to determine the type of information to collect and its importance. Establishing the importance of information is an integral step to decide on a particular focus and the subsequent information analysis. The selection for the source material heavily depends on user requirement for the product. Knowing the importance of information allows the researcher to focus on the topic and retrieve relevant information other than involve in extraneous information. The researcher should select less academic sources if the client prefers lightweight other than erudite approach to the topic. Dq7.4 (1) What is triangulation? Lasonen & Marvan, (2014) has the aim to reconstruct some of the aspects of Davidson’s idea of triangulation and the circular reconstruction. Donald Davidson argues that language and thought contain an irreducibly social element. His position denies a philosophical significance on the social shared convections. Davidson illuminates the social character of language and thought by means of the metaphor of semantic triangulation. The idea is that a triangle where two beings observe each other and an object of joint attention as a basic building block in the social process underlying the possibility of thought and language. What makes triangulation semantic is that in pragmatic observe common cases. Davidson holds that without intersecting of causal lines lead from two creatures to a shared object. The semantic relation between words and world remain indeterminate. The actual details of Davidson account for a puzzle in triangulation. The misconception is that without triangulation it would be impossible to answer public issues. Davidson provides sufficient grounds for the repeated claim that triangulation constitutes necessary condition of language and thought. The author focuses mainly on the interconnected problems of shard public cause, awareness of a course of action, objectivity of thought contents, and the problem of correct application of concepts. (2) Provide some examples of how triangulation can be used to validate research findings. Information and communication technologies are increasingly used in health care. Rigorous evaluations of ICT applications during both introductions and the routine use of decision makers have objectivistic and subjective tradition. The theory of triangulation deals with integration of methods and approaches to conduct both evaluation studies. The use of ICT offers immense opportunities to reduce clinical errors to support health care professionals in their daily work and to increase efficiency of patient care. Hazards that associate with ICT in health care as modern information systems are expensive. Their failures can cause negative effects on the patients and the staff. In summary, Davidson’s triangulation has beliefs and causal dispositions specified in terms of relations to each other as well as events and objects in the world. Events described as non-cognitive terms keep intact the normative features to help define beliefs. The usefulness of causal concepts in workday folk psychology specifies the total causes of an intentional scheme to rationalize the law like relations. The physical scheme aims to produce strict causal laws that determine the desire of a person to behave in a certain way. Semantic triangulation penetrates individual saliencies and interests to enable people decide on the relevant cause. References Schulenberg, J. (2014). Systematic social observation of police decision-making: the process, logistics, and challenges in a Canadian context. Quality & Quantity, 48(1), 297-315. Mann, C., Delgado, D., & Horwood, J. (2014). Evaluation of internal peer-review to train nurses recruiting to a randomized controlled trial - Internal Peer-review for Recruitment Training in Trials (Inter PReTiT). Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 70(4), 777-790. Behruzi, R., Hatem, M., Goulet, L., & Fraser, W. D. (2014). Perception of Humanization of Birth in a Highly Specialized Hospital: Lets Think Differently. Health Care For Women International, 35(2), 127-148. Bromberg, J. B. (2012). Uses of conversational narrative: Exchanging personal experience in everyday life. Narrative Inquiry, 22(1), 165-172. Kumar, S., Chaudhary, S., Kumar, A., Agarwal, A. K., & Misra, M. C. (2011). Trauma care — a participant observer study of trauma centers at Delhi, Lucknow and Mumbai. Indian Journal Of Surgery, 71(3), 133-141. Waite, C. (2013). On the Evolution of a Discipline. Qualitative Research Reports In Communication, 8(1), 15-19. Stebbins, R. A. (2014). Fitting in: the researcher as learner and participant. Quality & Quantity, 21(1), 103. Kennedy-Lewis, B. L. (2012). When a Teacher Becomes a Researcher: Using Self-Narrative to Define Ones Role as Participant Observer. Theory Into Practice, 51(2), 107-113. Jane A., B. (2014). Balance or bias? Information selection for the researcher. Internet Research, 7(1), 53. Hyman, M. R. (2011). Mail Surveys of Faculty and Acquaintances-of-the-Researcher Bias. Journal Of Social Psychology, 140(2), 255-257. Lasonen, M., & Marvan, T. (2014). Davidsons Triangulation: Content-Endowing Causes and Circularity *. International Journal Of Philosophical Studies, 12(2), 177-195. Ammenwerth, E., Iller, C., & Mansmann, U. (2013). Can evaluation studies benefit from triangulation? A case study. International Journal Of Medical Informatics, 70(2/3), 237. Read More