ABSTRACT
Expectation plays an ambiguous role in the process of observation. In evaluative research, for example, it is a useful tool in setting up an analytical model. How do professionals create targets, rhetoric, aims and objectives about their practice? Observation, it is assumed, can then confirm that these expectations are being met or otherwise. On the other hand, such expectations may lead, as with Nazruddin and the Donkey or Avebury, to blindness in the face of the obvious. Both researcher and participant may be operating under false assumptions and understandings.
