We also use participant observation to help craft our later research including interview questions. Bernard tells us that participant observation involves getting close enough to people so that they feel comfortable telling us about their lives, thus countering the observer effect we get in observation and participant observation, and allowing us to gain an emic understanding.Įvaluators use participant observation in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of projects. When we engage in participant observation, our hope is to be accepted as an insider, or to get to the backstage where you are a true participant. For evaluators, this includes what is culturally appropriate, what projects might work, how a project is working during its implementation, and what the impact of the project is. Schensul and LeCompte (2013) tell us that participant observation gives us an intuitive and intellectual grasp of the ways that society is organized and prioritized, and how people relate to each other. Participant Observation: Gathering the Emic PerspectiveĪccording to Bernard (2011), participant observation gives us a unique understanding of the research or project community, as you get an intuitive understanding about the culture from participating in it. We oftentimes use observation to compare what people are doing with what they saying, and to add depth to our evaluation. We also use observation to observe or watch the implementation process, to see who is participating and who is not. This can be an important part of a needs assessment, especially if we have an observation plan. We oftentimes use observation when we are planning, to observe need. Observation can be a very useful as a part of an M&E plan that incorporates several different methods, throughout the planning, implementation, and evaluation phases of a project. The evaluator is simply observing and coming away with some preliminary conclusions as a complete observer. The key here is that the evaluator remains separate from the project population, and is not interacting or asking questions.
Sometimes when we visit a project, we make observations about it, and incorporate these observations into our conclusions, without thinking of this as research or data collection. We actually do this all of the time when we are visiting projects. When we use complete observation, we observe the project population without interacting with stakeholders, towards seeing their behavior only. Usually, evaluators want to find themselves playing the collaborative partner role, where they are able to gain an emic perspective that can be useful for project planning, monitoring, and evaluation. When evaluators conduct participant observation, they find themselves somewhere along this continuum between complete observer and complete participant.
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School of Professional and Extended Studies Graduate Certificate Programs.MS in Human Resource Analytics and Management.School of Professional and Extended Studies.
MA in Economics, Applied Economics Specialization.MS in Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security.Master of Public Administration and Policy.
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