ABSTRACT
Observational data are attractive as they afford the researcher the opportunity to gather ‘live’ data from ‘live’ situations. The researcher is given the opportunity to look at what is taking place in situ rather than at second hand (Patton, 1990:203-5). This enables researchers to understand the context of programmes, to be openended and inductive, to see things that might otherwise be unconsciously missed, to discover things that participants might not freely talk about in interview situations, to move beyond perception-based data (e.g. opinions in interviews), and to access personal knowledge. Because observed incidents are less predictable there is a certain freshness to this form of data collection that is often denied in other forms, e.g. a questionnaire or a test.
