As a family member participant in the service, little field preparation was needed. However, the observer did complete the following tasks in preparation for the observation:
1. Reviewed the following resources on participant/non participant observation, ethnography, and the sociology of the African American funeral: Merriam, S. B. (2009). Being a careful observer. Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation, ch, 6 and Hazell, L. (2013). Cross-Cultural funeral service rituals.
2. Visited the church to review size, space, objects, and arrangement.
3. Selected a small note pad to record notes.
4. Secured a program on January 18, night before service to review.
5. Prepared a list of possible questions and areas to consider in observing.
6. Arrived at church early to be sure to get a seat in an appropriate location for observation.
Field Note Taking Process
The participant/observer/recorder for the funeral service of Lorena White. The observer used a small note pad and the provided funeral program to take notes. The program was gotten and reviewed the night before the service and used to record anecdotal jotting as the service progressed. The advance review of the program helped in being able to jot down appropriate content rapidly and inconspicuously. It also alerted the observer to look and listen for particular phenomena and events in the service. The note pad contained previously determined observer questions and areas to be used to help determine “what is transpiring here?” The program was the more efficient for recording in this setting.
Upon entering the church the observer selected the seat she considered to be most obscure and which would allow her to visually view the most area while still ...
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...es of the other participants, nor did it jeopardized the validity of the data collected and conclusions reached. This field experience certainly allowed the observer to begin to draw preliminary connections to her personal research interest based on what was learned about covert observation, note taking, ethnography study, and qualitative research.
Works Cited
Hazell, L. (2013). Cross-cultural funeral service rituals. Retrieved from http://www.funeralwise.com/customs/cross-cultural-funerals/#sthash.OeUEeixE.dpuf
Kawulich, B. (2005). Participant observation as a data collection method. Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(2). Retrieved from http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0502430
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Being a careful observer. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Members of the funeral industry are united by the caring of the deceased. We take care of those who have died, and in doing so, we help those left behind grieve, mourn and accept their loss. It is a stable occupation, though most refer to it as a “calling”. The funeral industry accepts all most everyone. In the United States, there are more than 22,000 funeral homes. Amongst those funeral homes, there are approximately 102,877 workers. Of those 102,887 workers, there is estimated that there are 25,820 funeral directors and 8,190 embalming specialists. Most funeral homes are independent cells, unless they are part of a chain or a corporation. That said, each state has a board that oversees that state’s requirements for license and regulations, with a national board to rule of law and requirements. These boards usually hold conventions yearly to spread knowledge and draw attention to upcoming issues. To work as a funeral director or embalmer, someone must pass both their chosen state requirements and the national requirements. My personal connection to the funeral industry is that I am a funeral service intern, or a funeral director apprentice. I have worked at a funeral home for over two years.
She closed her eyes slowly, tuning the harpies out. When she opened them, she gazed up at the ceiling, tracing the high, arcing beams that came together in a beautiful golden rosette. The church her mother-in-law had chosen for her departed son’s service was an old one, with timber walls, huge, multi-paneled stained-glass windows and enough golden gild that put together, could probably rival the weight of the Charging Bull on Wall Street.
For instance, our doorway assessment led to a heightened awareness of the other components involved in a patient’s care. Upon an individual assessment of my assigned patient and the clinical surroundings, I noticed a note on his door explaining the importance of good hand hygiene. The note also alerted those entering the room to not enter if they felt sick or if they have been sick recently; the note was had written so it could be assumed it was written by a family member. Additionally, on the patient’s dry erase board, there was a short narrative about the patient and his life prior to his illness. The more critical issues observed was that the patient’s brain injury resulted in complete paralysis, which placed him at a risk for falls; thus all four side rails of the patient’s bed were raised. All of these observations prompted me to be engaged with the patient, his mother and baby sister, his nurse, and the speech and physical
African-American is a politically correct term used to refer to blacks within the United States. The roots of many African-American rites can be traced back to African cultural rites. However, it is important to note that not all blacks in America identify with African cultural roots. Therefore, some of the rites found within what many in the United States call African-American culture stem from Caribbean and other cultural traditions. For this reason, when making end of life decisions or funeral arrangements the “cultural identification, spirituality and the social class” the individual identifies with must be taken into account. The black majority within the United States identifies with Afrocentric traditions and perspectives. For this reason the term African-American will be used within this paper to denote the black population found in America as comparisons are made regarding how end of life decisions are viewed and made by African-American culture verses the traditional western European beliefs of American culture (Barrett, 2002).
In the book “Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men” written by Elliot Liewbow, the author, Liewbow uses a certain methodology to study their subjects. This methodology is called participant observation. Elliot Liewbows purpose for this method was to investigate the theory of proletariat societal stereotypes about the African American race in Washington D.C in the 60’s. He observed the group of men for nearly 18 months straight.
Richards and Schwartz (2002) listed four potential risks to research participants in qualitative studies. These are
A church needs to maintain itself to accommodate the ever-growing needs of churchgoers and other parties. With the passage of time, the church is increasingly investing in methods that help church visitors to be comfortable. One of the main ways though which the church is trying to accomplish this is the seating.
DeWalt, Kathleen M. & DeWalt, Billie R. (2002). Participant observation: a guide for fieldworkers. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Bourgois early on states that he utilizes the participant observation method, which is the standard method used by cultural anthropologists that require the researcher to live within a community to study daily activities, he primarily uses this process because he believes it to be more of an effective method than surveys, where lasting relationships cannot be formed, therefore, researchers are unable to ask personal questions
Human being spend much time observing the world in which they live in. observing the world is something were familiar with is just that we have not considered it as a way of doing formal research. Observation does not just involve vision, it includes interpretation of that same date, it’s not just recording of data from environment we observe, we are active our brains are engaged as well as our eyes and ears. In a social gathering where you don’t know people researcher can adopt participant observation where she has two roles to play that is being an observer and participant. In a hospital a nurse can pretend to be a patient in other to be admitted into the ward to enable her obtain adequate information because informant
Inside the Church, you will not find any sort of warmth. Many people came with hand-warmers, because the church was often cool year round. Churches also did not have pews for people to sit on; they had to bring their own chairs. The church was a public building in which the town’s business life is often occurring around a town’s church (Gies, 291).
Within scientific research there is always a strong debate between those that prefer quantitative methods and those who prefer qualitative ones. proponents of quantitative methods have built the standards in experimental research and in researches performed on a large number of subjects and which use sampling criteria and statistical analysis techniques. On the other side, the qualitative method uses procedures of qualitative nature both at the level of collecting the data as well as the level of analyzing them (Tagliapietra, Trifan, Raineri & Lis, 2009). The gathering data procedures include: interviews, group discussions, observations, journals; while the analysis procedures include coding, categorizations and systematic confrontation between the categories and their dimensions. Such research is often defined as an explorative one, opposite to “classical” scientific research aiming to confirm / disconfirm initial hypothesis. Among the qualitative methods used in the scientific research we can list: Focus Group, Speech Analysis, Conversation Analysis, Grounded Theory and Phenomenological Interpretative Analysis (Tagliapietra, Trifan, Raineri & Lis, 2009).
Boellstorff speaks about using surveys and interviews, as well as participant observation to collect his information. Participant observation is a method of data collection in which the research participates in the community he or she wishes to study and record information about interactions and the surrounding culture. The unique aspect of Boellstorff’s participant observation is that while Boellstorff need to use his avatar, Tom, as a mediator between real life and second life to collect data. This mediator adds to the credibility of Boellstorff’s data because he established himself, through his avatar, as a trusted member of the Second Life
Marshall, C, Rossman, Gretchen B, (2006). Designing qualitative research, 4th edition, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
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