Learning Fieldwork with Multimedia: Problems on Education of Field Research
Methods and a Solution using IT
Hayato Yamanaka, Ph.D.
Kwansei Gakuin University
A. Foreword –
Restoration of Fieldwork and Participant of New-type of Fieldworks
From
the 1990s onward, as the qualitative research has been restored and established
its position in sociological study, there is growing interest in fieldwork, as
one method of sociological study.
Fieldwork had formerly been expected to be only a “curtain raiser” which
puts forward a hypothesis to the scientific or quantitative study, as John Van
Maanen related his thoughts.
However, after the restoration of the qualitative research of sociology,
many of sociologists have come to recognize fieldwork as an independent
research method having intrinsic value and understand its significance. This is probably because sociologists
have began to recognize that statistical tests do not provide advanced
knowledge of the dynamics of social and economical changes caused over a long
period of time [1], as Whyte, the author of Street Corner Society, points in a new edition of the book in
Japanese published at the end of 90’s.
With
such a trend, fieldwork, a research method which has been essentially neither
organized nor standardized, in other words, not formularized has become in
itself a controversial theme which attracts concern and attention of many
sociologists.
A
variety of controversies have been created about fieldwork itself, such as
criticisms of ethnography, as a product of fieldwork, from the post-colonialism
viewpoint, sociological consideration of the existence of sociologists, as
persons who write ethnography, itself and studies of the style of
ethnography.[2]
A
controversy about fieldwork is continuing to grow, while showing an ironical
tendency toward drawing much concern about fieldwork itself rather than the
results of fieldwork.
Besides
such a tendency, the subject of the fieldworkers’ research has been greatly
widened, and a wider variety of people have begun to participate in fieldwork
research. Undergraduates or
graduate students have come to participate in fieldwork, which was formerly a possession
of professional researchers, and moreover, there has been observed a tendency
of people who are not academic researchers by occupation to participate in
fieldwork with scientific interest involved in, for example, sociology or
anthropology.
Fieldwork
as a research method sociologists or anthropologists usually do has overlapped,
from the beginning, with the methods or contents of the areas in proximity to
sociology or anthropology, such as reports by journalist or travelogues by
travel writers, in many places.
Accordingly, researchers, who cannot get the better of such professional
writers in writing, have needed to clarify how the texts written by the
professional writers and the ethnography written by sociologists or
anthropologists are different from each other, though both are considerably
similar, so as to avoid competing with them. This is also what fieldworkers have needed to do to protect
their occupational qualifications.
However,
it can safely be said that growing interest in fieldwork these days,
particularly that in Japan has been in a new phase in that aside from
journalists’ approach, people other than professional researchers try to
participate in academic fieldwork itself.[3]
B. Concern about “Technique”
of Fieldwork – Approach from Traditional Medium, “Textbook”
Participation
of a large number of such a new type of fieldworkers has inevitably developed
their needs for acquiring a technique or method of fieldwork, as a research
method. In fact, a considerable
number of textbooks and primers whose titles include “fieldwork” have been
published over the past few years in Japan. Some of them, though labeled as primer, are full of abstract
terms; in any case, the number of primers published is large.
And
such a large number of primers having been published over the past few years
make us realize that the definition of fieldwork is really diverse.
For
example, Ikuya Sato states that the term “fieldwork” refers to any practical
work carried out when doing research, as exemplified by research using a
technique referred to as participant observation, in the “field” where events,
as subjects of the research, occur[4], and he places fieldwork as a research
method commonly used in all areas of social science.
Meanwhile,
there are many textbooks that specify the areas where fieldwork is carried out
and deal with fieldwork within the specified sphere of the technique and
expertise peculiar to the field research in the specified areas. For example, Yasuko Minoura deals with
a fieldwork method from the viewpoint of specifying the subject of
fieldwork. She states that the
term “fieldwork” refers to a method of researching the relationship between
human beings and their behavior or between human beings and artificial products
created by human beings or their society which adopts the procedures that
destroy the context of human beings’ working as little as possible, and it is distinguished
from on-the-spot inspection or geographical fieldwork where the subjects of
research are floras or topography[5].
Some textbooks, which take the position that fieldwork should be
understood in a restricted sense, place “fieldwork” as a sub-class of “field
research”, which is a sub-class of “social research”, and treat the same in
parallel with life history method, questionnaire method or interview method.[6]
Conversely,
some textbooks take the position that fieldwork should not be understood
separately from social participation or practical activities such as volunteer
activities, oversea assistance activities or community activities.[7]
To
cope with the diffusion of concept of fieldwork, there has appeared a textbook
which is written by many authors, lists a variety of techniques of fieldwork
produced by the authors, and leaves the selection of a method up to people who
intend to learn using it.[8]
The
diversity of the definition of fieldwork shown in textbooks may be attributed
to the characteristics essential to fieldwork. It is very difficult to give a definition to fieldwork at
the present time, and besides, it does not seem significant to do so from the
viewpoint of coming up with various ideas to produce a new research method.
C. Two types of
Techniques in Primers – Skill and Standardized Technique
It
can be noted that though the techniques of fieldwork shown in the textbooks are
diverse, the views on the acquisition of such techniques are classified into
two characteristic types.
According
to the first type of view, the technique of fieldwork is treated as a
high-level skill which only highly experienced persons can acquire. One of typical examples is the position
of Isamu Yamada, who specializes in tropical forest ecology. He states, “What is needed most in
fieldwork activities? … I have no hesitation in saying “intuition”. … Then, how
can a person cultivate his intuitive power? The answer is, of course, by experience. … During the
process of gaining experience, the most important thing is “observation””.[9] He focuses on the most exacting and
difficult aspect of fieldwork. By
intentionally presenting the harsh “realities” of fieldwork, which ordinary
persons cannot get closer to, he tries to make clear the idea and technique
characteristic of the research method, fieldwork. The fieldwork experiences told with a certain kind of
mythicizing effect are such meaningful things that we cannot avoid when trying
to understand the spirit of the fieldwork researches.
In
contrast, according to the second type of view, the manners or know-how
obtained by researchers in the process of their fieldwork activities or based
on their individual experiences are generalized as techniques that can be
passed on. For example, Minoura,
already mentioned above, is trying to standardize the technique of
micro-ethnography, while Hiroyuki Hirooka trying to standardize the technique
of applying a systems-scientific approach to fieldwork researches[10]. In addition to these examples, there
are many textbooks that introduce or explain, as generalized techniques, the
expertise or know-how, such as how to use personal computers in fieldwork, how
to use statistics in fieldwork or how to write a field note, obtained from the
researchers’ individual experiences.
The
comparison of these two types seems to indicate that the former emphasizes the
aspect of “skill”, as the technical skill of proficients, in fieldwork
experiences, while the latter focuses on the aspect of standardized “technique”.
Thus,
in the education of fieldwork technique, the shortcomings of these two types of
views should be compensated for by each other, otherwise they will be subjected
to the following criticisms: criticism of placing absolute trust in personal
experiences and authoritarianism associated with the mythicizing of fieldwork
experiences, for the former one; and criticism of the inflexibility of
techniques caused by excessive generalization/standardization, for the latter.
D. Significance
and Position of Case Study in Fieldwork Education
In
many of such textbooks, writers or editors have already realized the existence
of such criticisms, and they have done their best to give the most possible
pages to introduction of particular cases of fieldwork having been carried out
by researchers, as one of the means of overcoming these criticisms.
However,
there are some primers which centers on the introduction of technique, while
avoiding the introduction of particular cases. Ikuya Sato, Fi-rudowa-ku – Sho wo motte machi he deyou (Fieldwork – Let’s read books and go out
into the streets)[11] and J. G. Crane and M. V. Angrosino, Field Projects in
Anthropology[12] are the
first of the primers that include no particular cases of fieldwork. Even in these primers, however, where
their techniques are explained, a wealth of cases are cited or introduced.[13]
As
long as fieldwork involves direct experiences in the field, it is impossible to
avoid the introduction of or quotation from particular cases in the field work
education. The importance or
reliability of know-how or expertise obtained from fieldwork activities is
guaranteed only by introducing a wealth of cases. Insufficient introduction of particular cases or
inconsistency of the fact shown by particular cases with the technique might
shake the reliability of the technique, a methodology, of fieldwork.
But
as a matter of fact, presentation of actual cases is under many restrictions.
The
biggest problem is that since most of the actual cases shown in primers are
under restrictions by their media, books, they have inevitably undergone
information processing, or they have inevitably been given the expression form
of text written in particular style.
This may in turn cause two problems.
First,
most beginners who are inexperienced in fieldwork activities cannot give shape
to the ideas or facts represented by letters or characters in light of their
experiences. In short, they can
read the written letters or characters, but cannot understand what they mean.
Second,
in preparation of ethnography, for example, one of the important subjects of
education is to critically learn the bias which is the inevitable result of
information processing, in particular, processing that gives information the
expression form of text written in particular style. However, in education depending solely on letters or
characters, it is very difficult to escape from such a double bind state that
learners depend on text to deal with the problem of text.
This
leads to a conclusion that going out into the field is the best way to overcome
these problems. In fact, one of
the causes of difficulty in learning fieldwork depending on textbooks having
been pointed out repeatedly may be attributed to this. It goes without saying that it is
essentially difficult to learn the “skills” of proficients, which are
essentially passed on through the relationship between teacher and disciple,
through text. However, even the
standardized technique cannot be effectively learned because of the restriction
by the media, text.
E. Attempt to make
use of Multimedia in Fieldwork Education and to develop Teaching Materials
using Multimedia – one case of teaching material development
To
overcome the limitation of fieldwork education, my collaborators and I made an
attempt to develop a method for the education of fieldwork technique utilizing
multimedia technology, in particular, to develop a media-mix type of teaching
materials. And we started research
and development of multimedia teaching materials for fieldwork education in the
sociological/anthropological fields in fiscal 2000 and have proceeded ever
since.[14]
The
central purpose of the research is to develop practical teaching materials, in
particular, to develop, in parallel with development of traditional printed
textbooks, multimedia supplementary teaching materials using CD-ROM. This is, at the same time, to survey
the possibility of overcoming the above described limitation of printed
teaching materials when using multimedia teaching materials together with such
printed teaching materials. What a
multimedia teaching material, we assume, is like is as follows. [15]
a. A multimedia
teaching material is created as a supplementary teaching material for self
study which is used by students for their better understanding of lectures.
b. A printed
textbook and a multimedia teaching material (CD-ROM) are allowed to have
moderate connection with each other and to produce effects as media mix.
Under
these conditions, the following ideas have been adopted.
(1) All the
references cited in the printed textbook are recorded on CD-ROM.
(2) The regions,
people and phenomena indicated in the printed textbook are recorded on CD-ROM
in the form of a beautiful color image or digital movie.
(3) The actual
cases of the fieldwork carried out by the collaborators are introduced as
multimedia titles.
(4) The authors
are introduced using their natural voices via the digital movie recorded on
CD-ROM so that students feel a sense of closeness to them.
The
development of a CD-ROM teaching material has proceeded based on these ideas.
First,
we started the creation of content, assuming the content created to be as
follows. The content
consists of two major parts. The
first part is for introduction of case studies, in which 7 researchers or fieldworkers
introduce and explain their own fieldwork experiences through multimedia.
The
second part is a PDF file of the full text of references or papers introduced
or cited in the printed textbook by the researchers or fieldworkers which is
for supplementing the students’ learning using printed textbooks.
It
goes without saying that the heart of the above described CD-ROM teaching
material is the 7 multimedia titles in the first part, which are made up of
images, sounds and texts and produced using Director by MacroMedia Inc., as a
authoring software.
In
the teaching material, the fieldwork case studies by the 7 researchers or
fieldworkers are formed into 7 individual titles which are branched from the
main page. The teaching material
is so configured that when it is used together with the printed textbook,
learners can better understand the fieldwork case studies having been carried
out by the authors of the printed textbook.
F. One Example of
Developed Multimedia Contents – Fieldwork in Life History Research
This
section takes the case of “Shuga ken firudo no hotori de – Hawai nikkeijin nisei
no raihu hisutori (Living by Sugar Cane Fields: Life History Research on the Second Generation of
Japanese Americans in Hawaii) ”, one of the multimedia contents developed, and
summarizes the characteristics of the content and an effect the content
expected to have on fieldwork education.
The content is about the process of fieldwork activities in life history
research on the second generation of Japanese in Hawaii and produced based on
the field research carried out by Hayato Yamanaka.
Table
1 is a configuration script for creating a multimedia content. In the column, indicated are 9
headings: 1 page layout, 2 chapter title, 3 section title, 4 page title, 5
image file name, 6 caption, 7 text, 8 narration, and 9 direction of hyperlink
and linked page/file, whereas in the row, scenes are arranged from top to
bottom in the form of cards so that they follow the progress of the content’s
story in time series.
The
material files prepared in advance, which are equivalent to parts, are
fabricated by following the configuration script. The fabrication of material files is generally known as
authoring. At the bottom of the
script, indicated are a group of subscripts showing the operations which the
respective files carry out when linked.
By
authoring, graphics, sounds, video movies, texts, scanned reference data, etc.
which have been recorded separately are organically fabricated into a
multimedia title.
Those
having experienced the fabrication of multimedia title should readily understand
that the multimedia title fabricated using this script is a highly
story-oriented one in which a story is developed mainly on time scale.
Multimedia
titles are generally classified into three major types: story-telling type in which a story is
developed on time scale; data-base type which is not story-oriented, but has a searching
function; and hyper-text type which stands between the above two types and
enables the interactive selection and configuration of more than one story by
hypertext.[16] Of the above three
types, Yamanaka selected the first type of one, a story-telling type of
teaching material.
The
reason he selected such a type of teaching material is that fieldwork
experiences, which are researcher’s personal experiences, are done basically on
time scale, and thus the expression form adopted in such a type of teaching
material is most suitable for dramatizing the
experiences.
It
goes without saying that story-telling type of teaching material, which is
fabricated on time scale, is not always optimum. For example, one of the multimedia titles created in this
attempt, “Omori Yasuhiro, Eiga to iu firudowaku - Huransu ni okeru idomin Manouche no eizou minzokugaku (Yasuhiro Omori,
Fieldwork as Shooting Film - Film Ethnology of Manouche,
nomads in France)”, has a configuration based on another scale, that is, space
scale. However, this also includes
a story, wandering of nomads, developed with the passage of time, because it is
under automatic running program.
In
Matori Yamamoto, “Malaga to Tomoni Tabi-shite (Matori
Yamanamoto, Traveling with a Malaga or Samoans’ Traditional Tour Group)”, two stories based on time scale, one is a story of
a group tour of Samoan immigrants and the other is a long term research done in
West Samoa by the anthropologist, are connected by hyperlink. It can be said that these cases are a
combined type in which the first type, story-telling type, and the third type,
hypertext type, are used in combination.
As
described so far, in the design of authoring configuration, it is necessary to
fully examine which type should be used as a basic configuration in association
with the theme of the content.
I. Conclusion
An attempt has just been started to make fieldwork
experiences into a work using an expression technique, multimedia, and trial
and error is expected to be repeated even from now on. However, for expression of fieldwork
experiences by visual images, the experiences in visual anthropology or
ethnographic films should give us some valuable hints. It is greatly necessary, I believe, to
continue watching the changes in fieldwork education created by the use of
multimedia, novel expression technology.
[1] William F.
Whyte, “Preface for Japanese Edition,” Street Corner Society, (translated by Michihiro Okuda et al.),
Yuhikaku, 2000, p.ii
[2] For example,
Hiroaki Yoshii states that the meaning of the term “field” includes: not only
the location or region where research is conducted and people as the subject of
research; but the interaction between the subject and “I”, the researcher, how “I”
involve in other people or circumstances physically or emotionally, and the
development of interest in more fundamental sociological issues (Hiroaki Yoshii
and Atsushi Sakurai (eds.), Firudowaku no keiken (Fieldwork Experiences), Serica Shobo, 2000,p.8) and
argues that fieldwork experiences themselves should be the subject of the
study. A recent trend in
statements about fieldwork is toward John Van Maanen, Firudowaku no monogatari –
esunogurafi no bunsyou sahou (Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography), Gendai Shobo, 1999, which is an essay
that gives consideration to the style of ethnography or Takashi Nakano and
Atsushi Sakurai (eds), Raihu hisutori no syakaigaku (sociology of life history), Kobundo,
1995, which is, so to speak, a sociological study of research activities which
deals with the relationship between the subject who does research on life
history and the object of the research.
Essays that give critical consideration to the subject who undertakes
fieldwork and ethnography include: for example, Teruo Sekimoto, Firudowaku
noninnsiki ron
(Epistemology of Fieldwork); and Kanji Ito and Toshinao Yoneyama (eds), Bunka
jinnruigaku eno apurochi
(Approach to Cultural Anthropology), Minerva Shobo, 1988.
[3] To these new
type of fieldwork participants, fieldwork might be, if I may venture to say so,
just like an excavation site to amateur archaeologists who appears markedly in
the field of ancient history.
[4] Ikuya Sato, Firudowaku
- Syo wo motte machi e deyou
(Fieldwork – Let’s read books and go out into the streets), Shinyosha Press.
1992, p.31
[5] Yasuko
Minoura, Firudowaku no gihou to jissai – maikuro esunogurafi nyumonn (Technique and Practice of Fieldwork –
Introduction to Microethnography), Minerva Shobo, 1999, pp.3-4
[6] Hisashi
Nakamura and Hiroyuki Hirooka (eds), Firudowaku no shingihou (New Technique of Fieldwork), Nippon
Hyoronsya, 2000, is one of good examples.
[7] Toshio
Sugiman, Yomigaeru komyuniti – Firudowaku ninngenkagaku (Restoration of Community – Fieldwork
Humanics), Minerva Shobo, 2000.
The significance of this argument seems to originate from the fact that
the author is originally a researcher of natural science. As a matter of fact, the participation
of a researcher him- or herself in the field has already been discussed exhaustively
in some part.
[8] Kenichi Sudo
(ed), Firudowaku wo aruku – bunnkakei kennkyuusya no chishiki to keikenn (Strolling through Fieldwork - Knowledge
and Experiences of a Researcher of Cultural Science), Sagano Shoin, 1996
[9] Isamu Yamada, “Firudowaku
towa” (What is fieldwork?), Isamu Yamada (writer and editor), Firudowaku no saizensen miru, kiku, aruku – Kyodai tannkennbu ga hokoru 15
nin no seieitachi (Front
of Fieldwork, Watch, Listen and Walk -15 Picks of exploratory circle of Kyoto
University), Kobundo, 1996, p.5
[10] In Horoyuki
Hirooka, “Firudowaku no shintenkai (New Development of Field Research),”
Hisashi Nakamura and Hiroyuki Hirooka (writers and editors), Firudowaku no shingihou (New Technique of Fieldwork), Nippon Hyoronsya, 2000,
Hirooka states that the approach of system science is applicable to field research.
… field research can be conducted as a means of information collection for its
modeling. … I encourage carrying out fieldwork in combination with research by
enquete method (pp. 84-85), and he proposes the introduction of system science
to fieldwork.
[11] Ikuya Sato,
the above mentioned book, 1992
[12] Julia G.
Crane and Michael.V. Angrosino, Field projects in anthropology. Waveland Press, Inc. Prospect Heights:
Illinoi, 1992. (translated by Nobukiyo Eguchi, Jinruigaku firudowaku nyuumonn ”,
Showado, 1994)
[13] For example,
in the above mentioned book by Ikuya Sato, many of the results achieved by
Chicago School in American sociology and those by B.K. Malinowski in
anthropology are introduced. In
addition, a wealth of research cases by the author himself, such as Bosozoku
no esunogurafi (Bosozoku,
Flow in Japanese Motorcycle Gangs), Shinyo sha, 1985, are also introduced.
[14] This research
was carried out as part of “Advanced Utilization of Multimedia to promote
Higher Educational Reform”, 2000 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on
Priority Areas (A) from The Ministry of Education. The representative: Hayato Yamanaka
Collaborators:
Shigeto Sonoda (Professor, Chuo University), Matori Yamamoto (Professor, Hosei
University), Ikuya Sato (Professor, Hitotsubashi University, quit midway
through the research because of leaving Japan as a research worker abroad),
Harumichi Yamada (Assistant Professor, Tokyo Keizai University)
[15] For the
development of the printed teaching material, cooperation has been obtained not
only from the above mentioned collaborators, but from Michihiro Okuda
(Professor, Chuo University) and Yoshikazu Wakabayashi (Professor, Kochi
University). The development of experimental
textbook is not all we have done.
After giving consideration to putting the developed textbook to
practical use, we have decided to entrust the editing and publishing of the
teaching material to Yuhikaku Publishing Co., Ltd., a publisher having an
excellent reputation for publication of sociological textbooks, and Chieko Matsui
and Makoto Omae, the second editorial department of Yuhikaku, are in charge of
compiling the textbook.
[16] For further
details of the three types, see the author’s report “Maruchimedia kyoiku
kotohajime, media kobo no keiken to kyokun, jyugyo eno donyu, maruchimedia
repoto no seisaku sido (Start of Multimedia Educatrion, Experience of and
Lesson from Multimedia Studio, Introduction of Multimedia to Class, Guidance on
Preparation of Multimedia Report),” Shichokaku Kyoiku (Audiovisual Education), no. 626, 2000,
December, pp. 20-23.