Role Dualisms during Fieldwork
| Author | Andrea Argirides,Rosalind Hurworth |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X0500500108 |
| Published date | 01 September 2005 |
| Date | 01 September 2005 |
| Published By | Sage Publications, Inc. |
| Subject Matter | Methods Update/Refereed Article |
45
Hurworth and Argirides—Role dualisms during fieldwork
Textbooks often describe roles taken on during
participant observation and case study in quite simplistic
terms. The idea conveyed is that the evaluator assumes
a role and remains in that role for the duration of
the evaluation. This paper examines two projects in
education and health where this was certainly not the
case, as each involved complex role dualisms that had
to be confronted. The authors describe the dilemmas
faced and how they can be addressed.
Introduction
This article sets out to examine two evaluations where the evaluators were faced
by dilemmas caused by having to face a multiplicity of roles during fi eldwork.
Issues arose as a result of being both an insider and outsider simultaneously and
by having to undertake the evaluations in familiar settings or the workplace.
After describing the respective projects, the authors go on to outline how the
diffi culties that arose might be tackled.
Settings of the two evaluations
The fi rst project involved an evaluation of 10 qualitative methods (QM)
courses, taught in both Australia and Britain, in order to determine best
practice in delivering such courses. The data collection method thought to be
most appropriate to address the evaluation was participant observation, as this
allowed the exploration and understanding of experiences and contexts of the
lecturers and students involved, and for theories about QM teaching to emerge.
As Marshall and Rossman (1989) pointed out, such an approach allows the
evaluator to ‘incorporate questions about informal communications, intra-
organizational linkages, politics of education and (institutional) cultures’.
Consequently, the fi rst author, an experienced qualitative methods lecturer,
chose to attend lectures and tutorials as a ‘novice student’ where the intention
was to ‘blend into the landscape’ without affecting what went on in the
classrooms observed. It soon became clear, though, that what appeared a
simple choice of role was not so easy to deal with as imagined. Refl ecting on
this later, the evaluator described how:
Mindful of having to keep marginality, I wanted to have as full an engagement
in settings as possible. One diffi culty, however, with such deep involvement
was maintaining objectivity. By trying to ‘fi t in’ the danger was to become so
much a participant that I could no longer maintain just the role of evaluator
but took on other entities (Hurworth 1998, p. 45).
Role dualisms during
fi eldwork
An examination of two evaluations
Rosalind Hurworth
Andrea Argirides
METHODS UPDATE/REFEREED ARTICLE
Rosalind Hurworth is Director of
the Centre for Program Evaluation,
Department of Education, Policy
and Management, The University of
Melbourne, email:
<r.hurworth@unimelb.edu.au>.
Andrea Argirides has completed a
Masters degree at the Centre for
Program Evaluation, The University
of Melbourne.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 5 (new series), No. 1, September 2005, pp. 45–51
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