DEVELOPING FIELD NOTES
Guiding Data Collection
Theory Guiding the Research Purpose
and Questions
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Theoretical perspectives are interrelated sets of
assumptions, concepts, and propositions that explain
the world.
Social theorists, like others, lean on disciplinary
perspectives that constitute their intellectual cultures
dictating the research direction. Educators, social
scientists, community counselors are examples of this
intellectual cultures.
Ethnographic Design
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Structural functionalism
Symbolic interactionism
Social exchange theory
Conflict Theory
Functionalism
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Assumptions
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
All social systems are composed of identifiable,
interconnected components
These components are structures and institutions.
Each social system must carry out certain functions to
survive
The components or each social system carry out these
survival functions
Each component thus contributes to the overall health and
order of the system.
Homeostasis is normal; disorder and deviance are
pathological.
Interactionism
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Assumptions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Meaning is constructed through social interaction.
Individuals act on the basis of meaning they perceive.
Meanings change in the course of interaction because
of different perceptions held by the actors.
Thus, reality is not a prior given; it is based upon
interpretations and it is constructed during interaction
between and among individual actors.
Reality is not fixed, but changes according to the
actors and the context.
Exchange Theory
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Assumptions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
While humans are not totally rational and do not always
maximize their profits, they do seek some reward in their
social transactions.
They calculate these rewards in terms of costs and
benefits.
Even though they do not have perfect access to
information, they usually are aware of some alternatives
regarding their decisions.
The alternatives have varying costs and benefits.
Humans make decisions balancing those costs and benefits.
They compete wit one another to make profits in their
decision making
Conflict Theory
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Assumptions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
All social systems are composed to identifiable and
interconnected structures.
Economic organization, especially the ownership of
property, determines the organization of the rest of
society
While the basic categories and analysis of functionalism
are accepted, traditional functionalism fails to explain the
dynamism of social systems.
Inherent in social organizations are contradictions which
cause their opposite. Hence, conflict is inherent.
Systems are not necessarily at their healthiest in a static
equilibrium.
Theoretical Influences: At-Risk students
Functionalism
1. What are the characteristics of the dropout Population?
2. What role do dropouts, as a group, play in the social system of the school?
3. To what extent does dropping out serve to remove from schools those
student for whom formal schooling is inappropriate or wasteful of public
resources?
Interaction
1. How do the patterns of interaction between teachers and students lead
students to define themselves as failures?
Exchange
Theory
1. What are the costs and benefits of staying in school to the at-risk student?
2. How do at-risk students calculate the decision to drop out?
Conflict theory
1. What are the social class origins of dropouts and at-risk students?
2. To what extent are disadvantaged students overrepresented among
dropouts?
3. What structural sources of inequality lead to tension between students and
teacher?
Collecting and Analyzing Field Notes
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Interactive Methods
Non Interactive Methods
Artifact and Physical Trace Collection
Interactive Field Notes
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Key-informant interviewing
Career histories
Non Interactive Frameworks: What to
Look and Listen For
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Who is in the group or scene?
How many people are there, and what are their
kinds, identities, and relevant characteristics?
How is membership in the group or scene acquired?
Non Interactive Frameworks: What to
Look and Listen For
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What is happening here?
 What are the people in the group or scene doing
and saying to one another?
 What behaviors are repetitive, and which occur
irregularly? In what events, activities, or routines
are participants engaged?
 What resources are used in these activities, and
how are they allocated?
 How are activities organized, labeled, explained,
and justified?
 What differing social contexts can be identified?
Non Interactive Frameworks: What to
Look and Listen For
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What is happening here?
 How do the people in the group behave toward one
another?
 What is the nature of this participation and
interaction?
 How are the people connected or related to one
another?
 What statuses and roles are evident in this
interaction?
 Who makes what decisions for whom?
 How do the people organize themselves for
interactions?
Non Interactive Frameworks: What to
Look and Listen For
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What is happening here?
 What is the content of participant’s conversations?
 What subjects are common, and which are rare?
 What stories, anecdotes, and homilies do they
exchange?
 What verbal and nonverbal languages do they use to
communicate?
 What beliefs do the content of their conversations
demonstrate?
 What formats do the conversations follow?
 What processes do they reflect?
 Who talks and who listens?
Non Interactive Frameworks: What to
Look and Listen For
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Where is the group or scene located?
What physical settings and environments form their
contexts?
What natural resources are evident, and what
technologies are created or used?
How does the group allocate and use space and
physical objects?
What is consumed, and is produced?
What sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures are
found in the contexts that the group uses?
Non Interactive Frameworks: What to
Look and Listen For
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When does the group meet and interact?
How often are these meetings, and how lengthy are
they?
How does the group conceptualize, use, and
distribute time?
How do participants view the past, present, and
future?
Non Interactive Frameworks: What to
Look and Listen For
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How are the identified elements connected or
interrelated, either from the participants’ point of view
or from the researcher’s perspective?
How is stability maintained? How does change
originate, and how is it managed?
How are the identified elements organized?
What rules, norms, or mores govern this social
organization?
How is power conceptualized and dsistributed?
How is this group related to other groups, organizations,
or institutions?
Non Interactive Frameworks: What to
Look and Listen For
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Why does the group operate as it does?
What meanings do participants attribute to what
they do?
What is the group’s history?
What goals are articulated in the group?
What symbols, traditions, values and world views
can be found in the group?
Artifact Collections
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Artifacts obtained from archives and demographic
and archival data banks
Artifacts obtained by following connections among
non symbolic materials, physical trace collection.
Demographic and Archival Data Bases
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Records of minutes
Collection of teacher guides and textbooks
(discrepancies between stated objectives and what
is taught or social and philosophical biases)
Attendance records
Community news papers
Health and employment data
Physical Trace Collection
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Physical trace collecting looks for the erosion and
accretion
Questions might include what equipment is used the
most—thus requires the most repair---according to
records? What equipment is ignored?
What materials remain in closets covered with dust?
Who has access to equipment?
The garbage dump approach to collecting data
Field Notes
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Inscription
Transcription
Description
Inscription
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Scratch notes
Scratch notes thus produce field notes proper, usually
produced in a chronological order. These are rendered
completely as possible.
Journals that record the researcher’s thinking and
reflection on events recorded on the field notes.
Sometimes this gets ignored but journaling captures
thinking that can be archived and pulled out later and
avoids memory loss.
Audio tapes and video tapes which can be transcripted
Transcription
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Return to theory and examine field notes through
that lens. Allow theory to develop through your
field notes. This is where the researcher builds
understanding from notes, interviews, and artifacts.
Compare, contrast, aggregate and order your
notes.
What is narrative, germane to the story being told,
and what is just talk?
What function does the non narrative “just talk”
perform?
The Day Begins—Excerpt from Field Notes
8:55
8:57
Getting
Settled
9:03
Getting
Organized
R = Rule
T = Time/Schedule
W= Work/Tasks
“Come in, girls first.” (There’s some messing around before they
line up.) (They come in and move toward their seats.) (T) “Mrs.
Smith is ready to start.” (She’s sitting on the desk in the front of
the room.) (R) “Mrs. Smith is waiting.” (R) “I like the way Bernie is
sitting down, and Atocha.” (R) “Please, people, do not throw
snowballs at one another.” (R) “There isn’t enough snow on the
ground and you pick up rocks with it. If we have a lot of snow
we’ll have a snowball fight but please don’t throw snow when
there isn’t much. . .”(R)
“All right, the girls will go to bake cookies at recess.”(W) “Boys,
come back here if you aren’t done; if you can’t work alone you
can go into Mrs. Dvorak’s game room.” (W) “I expect if you
come in here to work I expect you to work.” (R)