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Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad

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Observation<br />

Anne Coleman—Five star motels<br />

Anne’s was a multi-method, five-phase study, each phase build<strong>in</strong>g on<br />

<strong>the</strong> one before. The phases were observation, followed by <strong>in</strong>formal<br />

<strong>in</strong>terviews with a range of people <strong>in</strong> public spaces, <strong>the</strong>n <strong>in</strong>-depth<br />

<strong>in</strong>terviews with homeless people, a search of documents that related<br />

to <strong>the</strong> local urban renewal process and, f<strong>in</strong>ally, a second phase of<br />

observation. Anne has published on ethical issues encountered<br />

dur<strong>in</strong>g observation (McAuliffe & Coleman, 1999) and social policy<br />

implications of <strong>the</strong> study (Coleman, 1997). She is talk<strong>in</strong>g here about<br />

her use of observation as a data collection method.<br />

Choos<strong>in</strong>g observation<br />

Yvonne:<br />

Anne:<br />

Yvonne:<br />

Why did you choose observation as an approach to<br />

data collection?<br />

Simply because I’d known people <strong>in</strong> this group long<br />

enough to know that <strong>in</strong> fact <strong>the</strong>y could be quite<br />

devilish . . . They could, just for <strong>the</strong> fun of it, tell you<br />

<strong>the</strong> biggest story and <strong>the</strong>n tell you someth<strong>in</strong>g else <strong>the</strong><br />

next day and <strong>the</strong>n you were caught <strong>in</strong> that terrible<br />

dilemma about, well, what am I go<strong>in</strong>g to believe? It’s<br />

also a very divided community so if you talk to one<br />

person <strong>the</strong>y will tell you this is a fact and <strong>the</strong>re’s no<br />

question about that and if you talk to somebody else<br />

<strong>the</strong>y’ll tell you someth<strong>in</strong>g else is a fact. And you f<strong>in</strong>d<br />

out that none of those th<strong>in</strong>gs are actually facts ...So<br />

I knew that observation was go<strong>in</strong>g to be a really useful<br />

way to check what was said to me aga<strong>in</strong>st what I’d<br />

actually seen myself . . .<br />

The o<strong>the</strong>r really important reason for do<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong><br />

observation first up was that because of [my] familiarity<br />

[with <strong>the</strong> area] I had a fair degree of knowledge<br />

but I knew that some of that knowledge would be<br />

outdated ...I wanted to go back and just have a look<br />

at <strong>the</strong> whole place and <strong>the</strong> range of th<strong>in</strong>gs that<br />

happened <strong>in</strong> those spaces before I actually started to<br />

focus myself <strong>in</strong> aga<strong>in</strong> . . .<br />

What were <strong>the</strong> benefits of that first stage of observation?<br />

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