ABSTRACT
If risk is an accepted element of fieldwork then it should be included as part of early
instruction on research and students should be taught to evaluate risk consciously. By
acclimatizing students to a continuum of fieldwork that may range from what they find
‘slightly’ risky to situations that approximate more risky environments I believe they
are helped to recognize the ways in which risk can inform their understanding of the
topic under study. It was not until I began to think more about how to teach social
research methods that I began to evaluate the usefulness of risk and danger in research
in a more comprehensive manner. Risk can be a part of pedagogy in at least the
following ways. First it may be used as a short-term confrontation of personal ideas or
beliefs. It may also be used as a vehicle for focusing the intensity of research. Third, it
can function as a way of giving students (undergraduate or graduate) their first
conscious evaluation of the risk and danger of ethnographic research.
