Points to remember
The following are the major points introduced in this chapter. Ensure that you are very confident with their meaning, content, context and significance.
1
Field research is a form of inquiry that takes place in the field and explores
real-life situations as they unfold.
2
There are several types of field studies, for example, exploratory studies,
descriptive studies and hypothesis-testing studies.
3
Reporting findings of field studies can take many forms. Three common designs
are: member-centred writing, writer-centred writing and the mixed format.
4
In principle, field study designs are similar to the standard research design
explained earlier in this volume, only they are less complex and more flexible
than quantitative designs.
5
A case study is defined as 'an empirical inquiry that investigates a
contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context when the boundaries between
phenomenon and context are not clearly evident, and where multiple sources of
evidence are used'.
6
Case studies are employed by qualitative and quantitative researchers.
7
In qualitative research, case studies are often employed as the main form of
inquiry.
8
In quantitative research, case studies are employed as a prelude to the main
study, as a form of pre-test, or as a post-research explanation of the study.
9
A case-study protocol contains an overview of the case-study project, field
procedures, case-study questions and a guide for preparing the report.
10
There are many types of case studies; examples are intrinsic case studies,
instrumental case studies and collective case studies.
11
Ethnographic research was borrowed from ethnography and social anthropology and
is used in the social sciences in a number of areas, for example, by feminists.
12
The main theoretical foundations of ethnographic research are culture, holism,
in-depth studies and chronology.
13
The methods employed in ethnographic research are descriptive or critical; they
are similar to those employed in other areas but ethnographic fieldwork and
ethno-historic research are more characteristic of this type of research.
14
A brief description of the process of ethnographic research is: (a) accessing
the field, (b) becoming invisible, (c) watching, listening and learning, and (d)
disengaging.
15
The purpose of ethnographic research depends on the underlying methodology being
akin to positivistic and to critical research.