ABSTRACT
My time with W’s team has been immensely enlightening [W is the pseudonym I have given for my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time of research]. Perhaps because the dynamics of the team was rather different than the group of volunteer tourists I had based my research on in South Africa, or perhaps ’cause of the outsider perspective I had, many things I might have otherwise taken for granted appeared to be very significant to me. Despite not being able to interview anyone in the team, I realized that in the short time I spent with them, I had made many very interesting observations and notes in my field journal. But then despite this, I don’t think I can include these observations in my research can I? The leaders of the team have very explicitly said they would prefer it if I didn’t interview any of their team members. Does this also mean that I am not allowed to document participant observation? . . . So is this form of covert observation ethical? Can I include these sorts of covert observation in my research? There seems to be so many interesting strands of thought I could develop simply from reading my field journals of the past few days. But when they have already said no upfront to interviewing, I suppose it’s also a general no to being included in research at all isn’t it? I suppose I should just leave these parts out then. I’d feel guilty to include them in, yet I almost feel guilty too – like I’m manipulating my data and intentionally including bits and excluding bits. Everything I’ve read about the power of the researcher in controlling what is represented or not – what a difficult position to be in.
