Adult Influence
For each research opportunity we have in the lab (each 3 week session, or after school program, or 3 day session, etc)., we'll need to pay attention to what role we want adults to have. I found myself wanting to be peers to the kids... playing games beside them and discussing them with them. This is a valuable role, as it is one way for me to take advantage of the game playing, understanding how games are played, what the latest trends are, etc.
However, I can't ignore the influence I might have on the kids. I couldn't help but exclaim on some how great the graphics looked, or how something didn't make sense. If instead of trying to stay on top of game trends, I was evaluating kids approach to learning games or solving problems, my presence has already 'contaminated' their responses. Simply having even one day with them where I played games with them has conveyed some of my likes and dislikes... perhaps altering their responses to future questions about these games or even other games. They may try to please me, and answer what they think I want to hear, or try to distance themselves from my opinions. When designing methodology, we need to pay attention to this adult influence.
posted by Barbara @ 6/13/2005 09:11:00 PM
1 Comments:
I think you make a lot of good points about research methodology here. As I sat with the kids I wanted to be their peers too, or at least I wanted to try to fit in a bit so that they might be more apt to be themselves as they sat there and played. There's no doubt that I changed the setting by being there, possibly silencing some of the quieter girls in particular. I also think the likes, dislikes, frustrations, and enthusiasms I expressed as I played have the potential to influence their play and opinions. These are all issues we should definitely think more about.
However, some qualitative methodologies and participant-observation in particular require immersion and active participation in the activities of the population being studied. I'm not sure how this would work when there are multiple people/researchers walking in and out in non-systematic ways, but with qualitative-based methods such as fieldnotes (like this), you gather a rich set of data over a period of time on which you can reflect at the end of a project. I don't know if this is would be structured enough and it definitely has other drawbacks, but since I'm re-reading a book for my class on writing ethnographic fieldnotes right now, I thought I'd throw it out there.
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