(Revised from the
text for
http://www.studyabroad.wisc.edu/handbooks/Asia_Ghana_VaranasiMadurai_AY.pdf, pp.42-67)
Each student participating in the Ghana Program
is required to complete a "Fieldwork Project” and describe it in a final
paper between 20-25 pages long that demonstrates rigorous original work. The
Fieldwork Project is one of the most important elements of the program,
representing 5 quarter credits of work. In terms of depth of research,
thoroughness of approach, selection of methodologies, clarity, precision, and
appropriateness of expression, the Fieldwork Project is like an undergraduate
thesis. Fieldwork Projects are usually in the student's major field of study.
They may be submitted in such diverse subjects as anthropology, art, dance,
economics, ethnomusicology film, geography, history, international studies, journalism,
law, linguistics, medicine, philosophy, religion, sociology, Languages and
Cultures of Africa, theater, and women's studies.
The student first mentions possible subjects for
her/his Fieldwork Project when applying for the Ghana Program. During the spring
and summer prior to departure, the student further develops Fieldwork Project
ideas in meetings with Profs. Linda Iltis or Ter Ellingson (the UW faculty co-directors).
The Fieldwork Project is carried out under the
supervision and guidance of UW and/or KNUST professors in
1) discussing the basic objectives and design of
the project;
2)
providing background information, both firsthand and through suggested readings
and
further
contacts;
3)
discussing potential localities for the study and personnel and institutional
resources that
might
be utilized;
4)
planning the project's methodology and timetable;
5)
recommending logistical support, such as transportation, translation, and field
assistance;
6)
assisting in the field;
7)
providing ongoing feedback, discussing problems, and revising the project
plans. The fieldwork advisors will read the final report and provide a written
evaluation and a decimal grade for the student's project.
FIELDWORK/ RESEARCH
PROJECT SCHEDULE
(Note that this schedule may be adjusted slightly
by the on-site staff)
Sept 15 Identify and describe selected topic
to faculty advisors in fairly specific terms with proposed methodology.
Oct
1 Submit brief outline of proposed fieldwork project (2-3 pages) to the advisor
with estimated site or location of proposed project
Oct
15 Submit detailed outline of project to advisor with bibliography (5-10 pg.)
Nov
15 Submit first draft of fieldwork project to advisor
Nov
30 Submit final draft of fieldwork project to advisor
No extensions will be granted for the
projects. They are to be completed and turned in to your
fieldwork advisor by November 30th to enable the advisors to submit grades by
the end of the program, December 21.
Any project that has not been submitted and
graded by the deadline will not receive any academic credit. Instead, the
student will receive 5 credits of “F” on their UW transcript.
SELECTING YOUR FIELDWORK TOPIC
DURING THE SPRING
& SUMMER BEFORE YOU
LEAVE
READ EARLIER
FIELDWORK PROJECTS
Select
some of the more interesting titles and read them. Read especially the prefaces
and the conclusions, where you may find additional ideas for fieldwork projects
(or even suggestions as to how the same topic might be studied more effectively
by taking some other approach).
CONFER WITH RESOURCE
PEOPLE
Talk
with your UW instructors, students who have come back from the Ghana Program,
or other foreign study programs, and especially the African Studies Faculty at
UW.
USE THE RESOURCES OF
THE UW'S Suzzallo-Allen
LIBRARY
Search
the online catalogue for subjects, and keywords. Browse in the stacks, starting
off with the title and call number of some useful references and then looking
at the titles on the same and neighboring shelves. Browse in the periodical
room, looking at past issues of African Studies journals and others focused on
MAKE SOME TENTATIVE
DECISIONS
In
your planning meetings with your UW faculty advisors, think of two or three
titles of projects you might be interested in doing. Even if you change your
mind later, the process of making tentative decisions is a useful exercise.
Your tentative decisions will make it easier for you to focus your browsing in
the Library, and to direct your questions to resource people.
DO NOT PANIC
You
are not being asked to write the definitive tome on the history of the Asante
Empire, or to uncover once and for all the ultimate source of the drum in
AFTER ARRIVING IN
DO NOT WAIT TO GET
STARTED ON YOUR PROJECT
With
everything else hitting you at once, it's easy to postpone starting your
project until "I get caught up" or until "next week."
"Next week" can all too quickly become a month or two. Your fieldwork
project isn't going to happen; you're going to have to do it. The sooner you
get started, the better.
VISIT POSSIBLE
RESOURCE PEOPLE AND RESEARCH SITES
There's
nothing like looking at things first-hand to help make up your mind. Things may
look very different overseas from what you thought they might look like when
you were in
NARROW DOWN
YOUR FIELDWORK
TOPIC
The
topic can be simple and concrete. Avoid large and complex topics or narrow them
down to a particular aspect. Since your Twi language capacity will be somewhat
limited, pick topics that can realistically be done without advanced knowledge
of Twi. Rather, try to focus on practical examples. Preferably, choose a topic
that allows you to observe and interview people. As your work develops, break
your topic down into smaller sections, and think of how you would break down
your topic in an outline.
DEVELOP HYPOTHESES
Write
down what you expect to find - and why. What you would be surprised to find –
and why. What you are sure you won't find - and why. These hypotheses will help
you shape your line of questioning as you start your data gathering. As the
months pass, you will find your hypotheses changing (a sign you're learning
something!). By the time you complete your fieldwork report, you will probably
smile at your original hypotheses. But you will probably also be grateful to
them, since they helped you get launched into your project.
SELECT YOUR FIELDWORK
PROJECT ADVISOR
From
among the many program associates (lecturers, professors or co-directors) you
will be introduced to, select one you think you will be most comfortable
working with. Have a few initial meetings before you ask him/her to be your fieldwork
project Advisor. Make sure your UW professors know whom you have chosen to be
your project advisor (if it is other than the UW professors). Your UW
professors will then explain to your advisor, how the grading will be done, and
the project timeline. If questions arise regarding grades, request your UW
professor to speak directly to the advisor. It is your responsibility to make
appointments with your Advisor, and to seek his/her counsel in your project.
Keep in mind that this will be the person to grade and evaluate your final
project.
MAP OUT A TIMETABLE
When
mapping out timetables for your paper, also include time for you to do
background reading. It is better to read material before and during your
research than afterwards. It is very important not to get discouraged about
your project in the very beginning. Your Program Co-Directors and/or Project
Advisor , fellow students, and advisors can be invaluable for providing support
throughout the whole process. The most important thing you can do for your
project is to get started interviewing. People will be delighted to talk to you
about almost anything. If you worry that your topic begins to take a different
form, do not panic. This happens to most students. You will want to finalize
your topic by October 15, so that you have time to finish writing your
fieldwork project by the end of November. It always helps to keep in mind that
this is not a Ph.D. dissertation, and that at some point before the middle of November
you will need to finish your interviewing and begin writing.
FIELDWORK RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
ORGANIZE YOUR RECORD-KEEPING
When
you are in
DECIDE WHETHER OR
NOT YOU WANT AN INTERPRETER/FIELDWORK
ASSISTANT
The
program does not have funds to pay for fieldwork assistants, interpreters and
translators, so if you decide to hire someone this would be at your own
expense. However, you should be able to make friends with students at KNUST and
people in the community who may be happy to help you with a project in exchange
for something you could help them with. In the early months of your fieldwork,
the services of an interpreter may be indispensable. If you decide to use an
interpreter, try to find one who is at least broadly interested in your
research topic. In choosing an interpreter, it is important to think of age and
gender. In some situations it might be important to have someone who is similar
to you in age and gender. However, if you are a man who wants to interview
women or a woman who wants to interview older men, having an interpreter of the
opposite sex and senior to you may prove beneficial. "Burn-out" among
interpreters is high. They usually have their own time-commitments and daily
schedules. It's not a bad idea to be in contact with several interpreters so
that if one isn't free, another one might be.
It is important to give your assistant a good
introduction to your project. Have several discussions before you set out on
fieldwork so that your interpreter understands your topic. If you have a feeling
the interpreter misunderstood your question, don’t be afraid to ask and make
him/her repeat the question. If you are going to use a questionnaire, it is
very helpful to review the questions with your interpreter/assistant before you
are on stage (so-to-speak). This way you will have time to rephrase any unclear
questions before the interviewing begins.
During the interview make sure the interpreter
asks YOUR questions and not his/her own. It is important that you feel in
control of your own research. This means you choose the interviews, you ask the
questions, and you decide when the interview is over. It can be difficult
sometimes to assert yourself if you feel the interpreter is not giving you room
to be involved. Oftentimes the interpreter will get on a roll with the
informant, and you may be sitting for many minutes not understanding a word. In
this situation you have several options: you can politely tell the interpreter
s/he needs to tell you what is being said, or if you are using a tape recorder,
simply turn it off and tell the interpreter that you do not understand what is
going on. If you simply let the interpreter and informant carry on, you will
miss out on information. Do not be shy to say you do not understand.
This is your project and these are your
questions. If you are not using a tape recorder and are having a translation
made on the spot, ask the interpreter to translate short sequences and to translate
as literally as possible. Note down technical terms and have the interpreter
spell them for you.
Although the most obvious task of a fieldwork
assistant is to interpret, assistants also help students in fieldwork interview
situations and frequently can give helpful advice. Oftentimes they are good guides
in terms of cultural cues. Important information can be gained from seeing the surroundings,
partaking in informal chats with bystanders or children, or looking at
signboards. Ask your interpreters if they noticed or sensed anything during the
interview that you might not have picked up on.
IDENTIFY YOUR INFORMANTS
Ultimately
your fieldwork project requires gathering information from people (rather than
from libraries, documents, etc.). Whom do you want to meet? How will you meet
them (e.g., who will introduce you to them?)? How many people do you need as
informants? Why not more? Why not less? Given the length of time you have, the
depth of detail you need, the statistical validity you require, and the
data-collection techniques you plan to use, what is a reasonable number of
people from whom to gather information? Are your informants from sufficiently
varied backgrounds so that they serve as supplements (as well as
validity-checks) to each other? It is better to get a broad spectrum of
informants. This gives you different angles, different views. You may not use
all of the information when it comes time to write, but a greater variety of
informants will give you more insight into your topic. Keep in mind that there
are many differences in perception between a villager and a city dweller, a
street cleaner and a political party official. If you are doing interviews in a
particular village and your informants have different social standings, set up
interviews beginning with the highest or most important people, starting with
the chief (to whom you will need to present two bottles of schnapps and a cash
donation). This is important in terms of showing respect and, in some cases,
avoiding trouble. This is where fieldwork assistants are invaluable. As
“insiders,” they may be well aware of cues that you, as an “outsider”, may not
be. As a sign of respect conversations with high ranking people are carried on
indirectly rather than directly. The chief, queen mother, or traditional
priest, will have a spokesperson called a “linguist” and your field assistant
or interpreter will act as your spokesperson.
DEVELOP AN OUTLINE
AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beyond
the resources you have downloaded from our class website before leaving
GOING INTO THE FIELD
& DOING THE RESEARCH
When
you meet your informants, tell them who you are, what you are doing, and why
you would like to interview them. Ask the informants’ permission to conduct the
interview. Always be polite. As hospitality is an important part of Ghanaian
culture, if you are invited into a home, don’t refuse. It is always better not
to enter into houses and rooms without an invitation. People will constantly usually
urge you to drink a mineral (soft drink) or water, sometimes beer. If you wish
not to, the best thing to do is to say you have just eaten, or are having
stomach problems, or that you are fasting for the day. Outright refusal of an
invitation can cause some bad feelings, but there is nothing wrong with
refusing with a reasonable excuse in a polite manner. It is also important to
dress properly in neat and clean clothes.
Always ask for your informant’s name, address,
and other identifying background information. This information may be very
important should you want to do subsequent interviews with the same Informant.
Try to estimate the informant’s age. If you are using an interpreter, give your
interpreter and informant plenty of time. Do not be surprised if the informant’s
answer does not always seem to match the question. Listen to what the informant
says.
Remember that you are trying to get to know a
culture, so everything that happens is relevant. Try to reshape the question,
or ask it again later. It is important to take part in your interpreter’s and your
informant’s conversation, no matter how elementary you think your language
skills are. If you want to take pictures, ask permission. Some people object to
being photographed. After the interview, take time as
soon as possible to write down what you have observed, what
information you have learned, and what new questions you may have. Plan ahead
for the next interview by evaluating what did and did not work, and think of
ways to incorporate new ideas into your next interview.
CHOOSING FIELDWORK TECHNIQUES
No
particular fieldwork technique is automatically "better" than another
one. In view of this, it's a good idea to use several different fieldwork
techniques and to gather several different types of data. Then one set of data
can be used to crosscheck another set of data. The fieldwork techniques described
below are meant to be suggestive - not exhaustive. Feel free to pick and
choose, adapt and modify, separate and combine to produce the techniques you
feel are best suited for your project.
GENERAL OBSERVATION
A
good many projects have been written largely on the basis of observations: How
people prepare for (and celebrate) a festival; what a member of a particular
profession (e.g., priest, politician, artisan, musician, shaman, nature-curer,
animal-trainer, school teacher, etc.) does over a period of time; how successful
a development project has been in meeting its targets; what happens in a school
room on a typical day; how a dancer prepares for a performance; etc. For
purposes of accuracy, you will want to check one set of observations against
another, and to check your interpretations of those observations against other
people's interpretations of those observations. You may want to supplement your
written descriptions of observations with photographs of those same events,
since photographs (almost) never lie! You may also want to develop certain
memory tricks; so that when you sit down to write notes after you have observed
something, you can retain what happened in what order. Here's where having
hypotheses can serve you well; your hypotheses can help you focus on those
elements in your observations that relate to your fieldwork topic.
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
This
is like the technique of "General Observation" except that your own
activities become part of what you are observing. In other words, you join in
(to a greater or lesser extent) with whatever's going on. For purposes of
participant observation, you may want to join a group and go with them on an
outing or to the market. Or you may want to become part of the women's
courtyard and help with the food preparing, baby tending, clothes stitching,
etc., that goes on in a household courtyard.
Or you may want to join a worship group, a choral
group, a drama society, a family-planning clinic, a handicraft industry, a
farming family, a convent, etc. When you are a participant observer, your
fieldwork project journal becomes even more important. In your journal you will
want to record not only what you observe but also how you feel about it! Over
the weeks, the records of your feelings will become important components of
your entire experience with your fieldwork project. One thing you will want to
keep in mind when you are a participant observer is that your presence is
almost certainly changing some aspects of people's behavior. The group is
different from what it was because you are participating in it. From time to
time you may want to ask, "What would be happening differently if I
weren't here?" Your informants may politely assure you that nothing would
be happening differently. And in the final analysis, you may have to guess. But
it is important to remain sensitive to the question.
USING DOCUMENTS
The
nature of your fieldwork project may call for references to documents:
government reports, school records, project proposals, correspondence,
evaluation studies, etc. Photocopying machines are now available all over
TRANSLATING
It's
likely that you'll run across some materials written in Twi that can play a
useful part in your fieldwork report. You have various ways of approaching the
translation, and various different targeted outcomes. If you want a
rough-and-ready translation that gives the gist of a piece of writing, you can
probably do the translation with some assistance from your language instructor
or a translator. If you're doing a word-for-word translation in which you don't
want to misinterpret a single word (for example, if you're translating a Twi
proverb or scriptural passage), you may want to work with your language teacher
or an interpreter, and have him/her translate the passage word-for-word. Then
you can put the translation into final English. If there's a great deal of
material needing translation, you may want to hire someone to do it for you.
If you do hire someone, you will want to have a
second person "spot-check" the translations to make sure they're
reasonably accurate. If the amount of translated material is not too great, you
may want to include both the English translation and the non-English original
in the appendix of your fieldwork report. You'll be amazed how much that
enhances your stature as a scholar in the eyes of the faculty back in your home
college!
OPEN-ENDED
INTERVIEWING
An
open-ended interview is one in which you ask questions that have no fixed set
of alternative replies. Your informant can take your question and go in any
direction s/he wants. Open-ended interviewing is particularly useful at the
beginning of your research, when you're still trying to find the "lay of
the land." It's also particularly useful when you're probing for depth and
richness of detail (for example, if you're doing a biography and you're trying
to gather someone's life-history details). "How did you first become
involved in politics?" "What was it like to grow up in a rural area?"
"How do you decide to go to a doctor when you're ill?" "When did
you begin looking for a suitable husband?" The major advantage of
open-ended interviewing is that informants often prefer it, and the
unstructured format allows the interview to follow its own course--much like a
natural conversation. The major disadvantage of open-ended interviewing comes
when you try to organize what you have found out. How are you going to retrieve
one (or two, or three) hours of wandering conversation and organize its components
into manageable units? You have a range of choices---each with its weaknesses
and strengths. It's useful to know about these choices in advance, and to
select accordingly.
1. Electronic recording
The
beauty of recording an entire interview is that you have it all on a cassette
or disk, to listen to again and again if you want. If you wish to transcribe
into written form everything you
have recorded, you should figure at least six hours of transcribing for every
one hour of recording. And then you have to organize the interview into useable
components! If you don't want to transcribe everything you have recorded into
written form, you have the problem of re-running the recording to find the exact
section of the interview you want to use. One "solution" is to take
written notes from the cassette, and then to work from your written notes –
keeping the cassette as a back up.
Even if you use a video or tape recorder, carry a
notebook with you. Have your interpreter summarize the interview as it is going
along. Many students have their recordings translated for them into English. Other
students request that their recordings be transcribed (into the local language)
and then translated into English. Whatever your requirements are for your
project, your Program Co-Directors and/or Project Advisor can help you contact
the appropriate people to help you translate your tapes.
2. Typed notes
Typing
your notes on a laptop during an interview may pose some difficulty for the
informant. The cost of the laptop may become more of a conversation piece that
you intended, and if people begin to touch and play with it, you may feel
protective and uncomfortable. In this situation the informant is fully aware
s/he's being interviewed and what s/he's saying is being written down and
recorded for posterity. In certain instances, this helps the informant pull together
thoughts and present something of a "lecture" on the interview topic.
The main disadvantage of this system is that it breaks the spontaneity of the
interview. And certain informants might find it threatening to see something
they've said get converted into print before their eyes. My experience suggests
that typed notes work best when I'm interviewing someone I've asked to provide
me with an "official history".
3. Handwritten notes
This
is perhaps the most frequent way of recording open-ended interviews. Hold your
pad or notebook in such a way that you can maintain eye contact with your
informant while you're scribbling whatever of the informant's comments you wish
to record. This enables the conversation to flow at a more-or-less a natural
level, while you record whatever you can of your informant's main points. Lined
paper on your pad or notebook may help keep your scribbles more-or-less
horizontal. Nonetheless, deciphering your hand-scribbled notes at the close of
the interview may provide something of a challenge! And you will probably need
to write legibly or type a clear copy from your scribbled notes. Handheld PDAs
are ok for some note taking but can take more time than handwriting.
4. No note-taking
This
is one of the more difficult ways to record an open-ended interview. However
under certain circumstances it may be the most desirable. It will occasionally
happen that you find yourself in the middle of a fascinating interview that
started spontaneously. If you pull out a notebook and start writing down
things, the conversation might wither up. The important thing is to keep the
informant talking and to keep fueling the conversation with questions. Don't worry
about writing notes till the interview is over. But then...waste no time
writing down everything you can remember about the conversation. The longer you
wait to write things down, the more you'll forget - dramatically so! If you
allow a night to pass between such an interview and your note taking, you will
have lost about 80% of the interview. And if you allow two such interviews to
occur without recording them, you'll get the two hopelessly intertwined when
you start writing down their details. As you will discover, the human memory is
extremely fallible. Write as much down as soon as you can!
INTERVIEWING WITH A SCHEDULE
If
you want to compare different informants with each other, you're going to have to
ask them the same questions. This may mean putting together a set of questions
in advance. And once you've done that, you have an "interview
schedule." The questions on an interview schedule can be
"open-ended" (e.g., "How do the celebrations in your family
differ when a boy is born and when a girl is born?" The informant can
answer in any of a number of ways) or "close ended" (e.g., "Are
dancers hired to perform when a girl is born into your family?" The informant
can answer "Yes" or "No" or perhaps a qualified
"Sometimes," but the phrasing of the questions leaves the choices
pretty restricted, and definitely not "open-ended"). The major difference
between Open-Ended-Interviewing and Schedule-Interviewing is that
Open-Ended-Interviewing can continue until you (or your informant) decide to
call it quits, whereas Schedule-Interviewing ends when you reach the end of
your interview schedule. For tips on designing questions for your interview
schedule, see the following section on constructing a Questionnaire.
CONSTRUCTING A QUESTIONNAIRE
As
things generally work out, a questionnaire is a set of printed questions to
which people write answers, while a schedule is a set of questions an
interviewer asks an informant. In terms of gathering lots of information quickly,
there's nothing like a questionnaire. If you want information from school
children, for example, their teacher can call them together, you can pass out
your questionnaire, the children can fill out the questionnaire and return it,
and within half an hour you can have data on a couple of hundred kids! However,
questionnaires also have their limitations.
To begin with, your informants have to be
literate. For another thing, if you want to get a fair proportion of the group
you're after, you need to have a captive audience (like a classroom of school
children). That's not always easy to come by. A schedule takes a lot longer
than a questionnaire to administer, since you (or somebody) must read the
questions and write down the replies. However, one of the advantages of a
schedule over a questionnaire is that if something isn't clear to your
informant, you're right there to help explain it. Furthermore, with an
interview schedule you can follow up with probes: "Why?" "Can
you give me an example?" "Can you think of any other reason?"
that will give you richer and more accurate data than you could get with a questionnaire.
You may want to use an interview schedule to help
you design your questionnaire. When you see how people answer your interview
questions, you can organize your questionnaire questions accordingly. For
example, let's say there are two questions you want to include in your questionnaire:
"What festival do you like the best?" and "If you had additional
money, what is the first thing you would use it for?" So you include these
questions in a draft interview schedule and try them out on a number of trial
informants. On the festival question you may soon discover that two or three
festivals get mentioned continually; whereas others are mentioned rarely or
never. So on your questionnaire you'll ask this close-ended question:
"What festival do you like the
best?"
Festival A
Festival
B
Festival
C
Other
(Specify)
The using-additional-money question may pose more
problems. The responses from the draft interview schedule might suggest that no
two people want to spend their money the same way (which is probably true!).
However, you'll still have to figure out how to lump the individual responses
together so you get some kind of grouping. So on your questionnaire you'll ask: "If you had additional money, what is
the first thing you would use it for?"--Religious Expenditures; Education;
House building & improvements; Funeral arrangements; Acquiring farmland; Investment;
Other (Specify).
Notice that the final choice in each of your
lists of alternatives is the category "Other (Specify)." It's traditional
with close-ended questions to include such an escape option. Besides, if you
don't include such an "out," someone filling out your questionnaire
will pencil it in anyway along with, probably, a less-than-courteous comment!
There's no cosmic law that says all questions on
a questionnaire must be close-ended. There may be certain advantages to
including several open-ended questions followed by a series of empty lines on
which your informants can write whatever they please. But if you're going to do
anything with those written-in answers, you're going to have to go through all
of them, after all the questionnaires are in, and "code" each
written-in answer (i.e., put each answer into one of a finite set of categories
you impose). After all the answers have been "coded" (i.e.,
categorized), then you can start counting how many answers fit into which
"code" (i.e., category). You will, in effect, now be able to deal
with the answers as though you had provided your informants with a close-ended question.
All of this demonstrates one of the advantages of close-ended questions. When
the questionnaires are in, you can simply add up the results. Your informants
have categorized their answers for you according to the categories you created.
With open-ended questions, it's still up to you to impose the categories on
whatever the informants have written for their replies. Since one of the
purposes of asking questions is to get unambiguous answers, the structuring of
the question is vitally important. Below are some questions used by researchers
in their original (ambiguous) form and in their final (less ambiguous) form:
(a) "Are you a vegetarian or
non-vegetarian?"
This
question covers too much ground. There are themes and variations of vegetarians
that make it hard for informants to give a simple Yes/No answer to the above
question. The following question is an improvement:
"Which of these is correct in your case:
I eat
neither eggs nor meat.
I do
not eat meat, but I eat eggs.
I do
not eat eggs, but I eat meat.
I eat
both eggs and meat."
(b) "How often do you go to the local
shrine (or church) to consult an akomfo (or pastor/priest)?
Never?
Rarely? Sometimes? Very Often?"
A problem with this question is that different
informants may have different notions of what is meant by "very
often," "sometimes," etc. A less ambiguous way of asking the
questions would be:
"During the past four weeks, how many times
have you gone to the shrine?
Never?
Once or twice? Three or four times? Five times or more?"
(c) "How important do you think it is
to have bathing & latrine facilities in this neighborhood?
Very
important? Somewhat important? Not important?"
Here again is the problem of what one means by
"very important." A clearer way of asking the same question could be:
"If the government has 23 million cedis to
spend per year in this neighborhood, what do you think it should spend its
money on first? Second?
More school space? Better bathing & latrine
facilities? A dispensary? A park or playground?"
You may want to develop a series of questions all
of which tap the same attitude. These questions taken in combination are called
a scale. Below is an example of an "Additive Scale" I based on Adorno's
"F-scale." The number of times the informant says "yes" is
added together for his/her "Authoritarian Perspective" score:
1. An insult to one's honor should always be
punished.
2. Human nature being what it is, there will
always be wars and conflicts.
3. People can be divided into two classes,
the strong and the weak.
4. It is not good to think too much.
5. A great many things can be predicted by
astrology.
6. There are so many evil people nowadays
that it is dangerous to go out alone.
7. Nowadays courts don't give as severe
punishments to law-breakers as they ought to.
An Additive Scale assumes that all items are
about equally important in tapping into the informant's perspectives. Another
type of scale is the Graduated Scale. This can be established only after a series
of questions have been tried out in order to determine their graduated rank of
intensity.
"The government is encouraging husbands
and wives to practice family planning. Do you think the government should be
doing this?
Yes?
No? Other (Specify)?"
Here a major problem is that the question really
contains two parts--one about family planning and the other about government
involvement in family planning. Since the question is unclear, the answers
cannot help but be unclear too. It's better to divide this into two questions:
"Some people say the government should be
concerned with family planning. Other people say the government should not be
concerned with family planning. Do you think the government should or should
not be concerned with family planning?
Should?
Should not? Other (Specify)?"
"Some people say husbands and wives should
practice family planning. Others say that husbands and wives should not
practice family planning. Do you think husbands and wives should or should not
practice family planning?
Should?
Should not? Other (Specify)?"
Obviously there is no guaranteed way to make sure
that questions are perfectly clear to everyone. The best security against
poorly-worded questions comes by "pre-testing" your questionnaire
(i.e., trying it out on a group of informants who will not be in your final
sample of informants, and observing what questions puzzle them or elicit
responses that don't make sense--and then redrafting those questions).
TRANSLATING YOUR
QUESTIONS
After
you have decided what questions to ask, you then face the problem of
translating the questions from English to whatever language your informants
speak. At this point you will need the help of two people for whom that
language is their "mother tongue" and who also speak English.
You will ask the first person to translate your
questions from English into the "mother tongue." It's useful to
stress that you want the "mother tongue" translation to be as clear
and understandable as possible ("make believe you're asking this question
of an eleven-year-old child"). Otherwise you're apt to get a super-flowery
translation that many people won't understand but that shows off the first person's
literary prowess!
After you have the complete "mother
tongue" translation, then ask the second person (who, presumably, has
never seen your original English questions) to translate the "mother
tongue" translation back into English (remarkably enough, this is called a
"back translation"). You then compare your original English questions
with the "back translated" English questions. You'll be amazed at
what can happen to the meanings of words when they go through this
double-translation process! Unless you carry out your "back
translation," you may find you've been asking questions about "fat
babies" instead of "healthy babies," "hopeless tasks"
instead of "difficult tasks," and "generating hardships"
instead of "working hard."
WRITING YOUR FIELDWORK REPORT
The
most important thing about writing your Fieldwork Report is to begin. It's
tempting to keep gathering more and more data - interviewing another informant,
tracking down another document, etc. Here's where your original timetable may
come to your rescue. Decide when you are going to stop gathering data and start
writing your report. The earlier you begin writing your report, the easier it
will be to meet your end of November deadline. The process of organizing all of
your information (from interviews, research and field notes) alone is going to
take you several weeks. It will take at least three
weeks to write your fieldwork project. So be kind to yourself and give yourself
plenty of writing time at the end.
A typical order for writing your Fieldwork
Project is as follows:
1. Acknowledgments (be generous, it's cheap, and
people appreciate it).
2.
The Problem (what you chose to study and why).
3.
Definitions of Terms (how you chose to define--and operationalize--whatever it
was you were studying).
4.
The Methodology (why you chose your research strategy, what fieldwork
techniques you used, and why).
5.
Limitations of your Methodology (there are no perfect ways to get information;
you are in the best position to identify your own shortcomings).
6.
Your Findings (the heart of your Report).
7.
Conclusions (how your Findings relate back to the Problem you chose).
8.
Suggestions for further research (an important part of your legacy to future
generations of Ghana Program participants!).
ORAL HISTORY
By
Lillian Billie Mason (modified)
Oral History can provide you with a key to the
culture you are studying. A culture is like a jigsaw puzzle, each piece being
an individual of the culture. Understanding the culture can be equated with
understanding the individuals in the culture. Each individual is a piece of the
culture, and by learning about the individual, eventually the pieces of the
puzzle fit together, and you have a better grasp of the culture itself.
HOW TO FIND
INFORMANTS
1.
Try to get into family networks. If you make one friend and ask for his/her
help, this friend can introduce you to a vast network of family, friends, and
acquaintances. By using the name of your friend with each person the friend
tells you to see, you have an instant access to that person's acceptance of
you. Being introduced, either in person or by using the name of the person's
friend or family member, gives you a legitimacy and takes away the person's
fear of you.
2. Ask everyone you meet for help after informing
him or her of your project. Explain what you are doing and that it can help
preserve the culture for the younger generation. See if they have recommendations
of whom to see, and ask if you can use their names. Tell them you want to record
people's life histories.
3. Visit institutions (libraries, educational
institutions and offices, social service agencies, religious institutions,
handicraft centers, organizations, etc.). State what you are doing and why, tell
them how it can benefit the society, and ask if any members of their
organization could speak individually with you. Ask for their recommendations
of people to visit.
4. Anyone is a potential informant. Informants
can be gathered by everyday contacts. The person who sits next to you at a bus
station, a restaurant, in a grocery shop, and in other places can turn into an
informant. Take advantage of everyone you meet, be friendly, and explain your project.
Do not be shy. Be sweet, kind, interested in the person, warm, and outgoing. Go
over to people, smile, admire their children, their clothing; ask questions
about the culture. Then you can explain what you are doing and ask if you can
come to talk with them in order to learn about the culture. Ask them if they
know anyone that would be interesting for you to talk to and ask if you can use
their names when you go to see that person.
5. If someone says "no", do not
pressure him or her. There are so many that will be happy to let you record
their life history that you do not want any negativity. Thank them and go on to
another.
6. Try to outline the various segments of the
society and attempt to interview at least one or two people from these
segments, e.g., religious personages, social workers, artists, handicraft workers,
teachers, farmers, herders, members of different classes, housewives, doctors, herbalists,
musicians, students of different ages, diviners, etc. You will learn much about
the culture and the people this way.
LIFE HISTORY
TECHNIQUES
1.
Schedule about three hours for each interview. The first fifteen minutes or so
use to chat. Do not ask any question the answers of which you will want
recorded by your tape recorder. Otherwise you will have to repeat the question
when the tape recorder is on. You can tell the informant that you will not use
his/her name (if the name is unimportant to your research). Figure about two to two and one half-hours
for the actual interview. Informants (and you) tire after this. It can be
shorter if the informant appears tired or if the informant has little time. Use
about fifteen minutes at the end for additional rapport building and to set up
another appointment if you wish. Accept something to eat or drink if it is
offered. Take notes of the setting and person.
2. Bring a notebook and tape recorder, extra
tapes, pens, and a camera. At the end of the interview ask if you can take a
picture of them, their family, their house (if you are at their home), their
job location, their work, etc. Label the tape ahead and the first notebook
page. Set up your tape recorder as swiftly as possible. Just say casually,
"I'll be writing down what you tell me and recording it." Ask if you
can use the tape recorder. If the informant objects to it, just use your notes.
Write down as much as you can word for word as the informant speaks. Do not rely
on the tape. The recorder could break, etc. (I used lined paper because I try
to look into the informant's eyes when I write, and I glance down at the
beginning of each line, and the line helps me quickly start writing at the
correct place in the notebook.) If you wish to use the tapes for any audio work
in the future, it is a good idea to use a clip-on mike for the informant. Do not
put your recorder on a hard, flat surface. You can put a scarf under it so the
acoustics will be better. Try to eliminate fan noises, etc. Notes are far
easier to transcribe from since you must figure about six hours of transcribing
time for every hour of tape.
3. At the beginning of the interview write down
the date and your location and explain that you will ask a few brief factual
questions first. Ask the name of the informant (and its spelling), the informant’s
current home address, home telephone, date and place of birth, address at work and
telephone, occupation, spouse's name and occupation (if applicable), children's
names and ages, mother's name and place of birth, father's name and place of
birth, informant's education, where the informant lived before this address,
leisure activities, organizations informant belongs to, religious affiliation
and place of worship.
4. The aim is to ask an open-ended question and
let the informant talk on and on until he/she is finished. Then you ask something
that will further develop the topic. Your first couple of questions should be
bland and general. Save sensitive questions for later when the informant has
more rapport with you, i.e., what did you want to be when you were a child?
What do you like to do when you are not working? What do you think are the
biggest problems of Ghanaians? After the informant answers the questions, be
silent for a short time so that the informant will be encouraged to elaborate
on what he/she was saying. If there is nothing further being said, ask a question.
Be sure to ask for feelings.
5. Make a list beforehand of general questions
you want answered from informants, but only use these if you cannot think of a
question on the spot that relates to what the informant is talking about, or
when a topic is exhausted. If you are recording an expert in a field, you would
want to prepare specific questions about that specialty, but be sure to include
questions about his/her feelings on the subject.