Ethnographers are professionals who learn from observations.
Their reasons for observing behavior are scientific rather than personal.
“Their reason for this is because they want to observe and understand how
members of other cultures interpret the world.” Some steps to ethnographic
research are covert roles and overt roles. Covert roles are like being
“undercover” and becoming a member of the group being studied without anyone
knowing. Overt roles are when scientists enter the field as a scientist and people
know that they are being observed. The moral dilemmas that arise with this type
of research is that the scientist has to make the decision whether or not to be
deceitful or accepting the fact that he would have to judge people who have
already learn to trust them.
I would try and resolve this by first trying out the overt
role. Here I would let the people know what my intentions are and try to build
a relationship with them. It always better for people to know what is going on
before then feel betrayed after.
Heyy Jaxfavy,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your post! I think it's more important to establish your intentions and create truthful relationships with the people you are studying than to be a covert agent in their territory. I would feel very betrayed and used if I was just a subject of study by a scientist who I believed was my friend. It's a complicated situation and to be able to effectively produce results sometimes we have to be covert. I personally would just feel better knowing the scientists intentions than being left in the dark until the end.
Thanks for the post! I hope you're having a great weekend!