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Group Projects

1. Divide the class into four groups. Each group is assigned a type of participant observation role: covert observation, complete observation, participant observation, and covert observation. A member from each group is assigned to a given location or publically accessible event. After completing a given amount of time in their role and on location, each student tasked with the same location should meet and exchange their impressions, research findings, and difficulties. Students should, as a group, write up this information. Then, students should regroup by observation role and discuss how they felt in their role, as well as what they experienced in their given location, One representative from each of these groups should then address the class on this subject.
    
2. This project is most successful if the professor can attract a number of social work ‘professionals’ (either real or actors prepared to fulfill these roles). The professional lives of these professionals should be given to students two weeks prior to the interview day. Students should select their preferred interview and be grouped accordingly. Students will then, as a group, write an intensive interviewing guide, covering topics they know their interview subject can respond to. After writing this guide, they will have time to consult with the professor to make sure they’ve covered all pertinent information and are prepared to ask all sensitive questions in a considerate manner. Students will then have the opportunity to put this guide into action, record the results, and write them up. They should also include a section where they discuss how they could have better prepared for this opportunity as well as what they thought they did particularly well.
    
3. Systematic observation of public spaces is relatively easy for students.  Propose a project to study the general environment of a class.  Ask each group to design a standardized from that can be filled out while observing in a class.  If they need some help, suggest counting the number of students, the number of chairs, the estimated distance between the blackboard and the back of the room, the amount of trash left after a class meeting, the gender of the instructor, etc. Ask students to complete the form in all of their other classes (with explicit instructions to notify their other instructors of what they are doing).  It is not a problem if students record observations about the same class, as these forms can be compared to test inter-observer reliability.  When groups have performed their observations, have them compile a report based on their observations.
     
4. Ask a small group to identify a social setting where none are “regulars” or “participants,” but where they would be comfortable doing some observation (e.g., a church, mosque, or synagogue where they do not usually attend, a hospital waiting room, a local club).  Have each member independently conduct one hour of observation at the field site, during which time they sketch a map of the site and record social activities as they occur.  After these hours of observation have been completed, the group should come up with a series of questions that they could ask of participants in the setting.  If possible, they should also try to get interviews with participants.  (If nothing else, this can be a good exercise in learning how to approach informants; many will be suspicious of an interview and will decline.)  If interviews cannot be conducted, more observation should occur.  In a final report, the group should try to develop some grounded theory based on their observation, and citing their field notes where relevant.  Make sure each member turns in his or her field notes and maps!
    

Mini-Projects

1. Qualitative Literature Review 
This exercise is particularly useful if students are conducting their own research projects in your course. 

1. Locate five research articles in social work journals that present qualitative research that is relevant to a single topic of research.  (The articles need not be on exactly the same topic, but they must be relevant.)
2. Collate all portions of this research, including research methods, size of sample, and conclusions.
3. Identify differences, similarities, as well as strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
4. How do these similarities and differences as well as aggregated conclusions help you reflect on your own analysis and research proposal? How does aggregated qualitative research compare in its statistical significance to single qualitative studies and all quantitative data analysis?

2.  Social Behavior in Public Places 
For this project, you will conduct a short observational study of social behavior in a public place.

1. You may select an outdoor mall, school cafeteria, or some other setting with a large number of people that is open to the public and where you can hang around without appearing too conspicuous.  Go to the setting only to conduct this assignment—not because you have business or social plans there.
2. Plan to spend about 20 minutes conducting your study.  Allow at least that much time soon afterward to write up your notes (and, of course, more time than that to write the paper).  Prepare a tentative plan for observing, emphasizing phenomena that are of most interest to you and that you believe will be most helpful in understanding social behavior at this location.  Consider observing the frequency and type of interactions between people, and so on.  You should observe nonverbal ties and body language, exits and entrances, spatial arrangements of people, and so on.  Also review mentally from your previous experiences in this type of setting to help you decide how to focus your formal observational experience.
3. While you are observing, take brief notes as unobtrusively as possible.  Depending on the setting, you might want to go outside or to another area to unobtrusively jot down a few notes.
4. Write up your notes in as much detail as possible (try to record all that you observed) soon after leaving the setting (but do not try to record everything “while it is happening,” because you’ll miss too much!)  Record what you observed as accurately as possible.  Be sure to include in your notes a description of the place that you observed and of the types of people in the setting. Try to focus on the situation, the types of people in it, and how they interact, not on particular individuals or socially irrelevant activities (such as the color of clothes worn).  You may try to infer characteristics such as social class and mood from what you observe about people, but be sure and cite the evidence for your inferences.
5. You may wish to count the number of activities, persons of different types, and so on.  If anyone asks you what you are doing, you should mention that you are observing people’s behavior for a class assignment.
6. Begin your research report by identifying the issue(s) that you studied in the setting.  In a methods section, describe the setting and draw a map of it.  Report briefly on how your “study” developed:  how you entered the setting, what you first noticed in the setting, how you felt in the setting, what you did during the observational period, and what impact you seemed to have on the setting.  Present your findings, identifying the different types of behavior and types of interactions and/or groups you observed.  Note the frequency of occurrence of these behaviors, how their occurrence varied, and who engaged in which behaviors.  Try to identify the similarities and differences between people and groups engaged in different behaviors.
7. Analyze your observations.  What have you learned about social behavior in this setting?  Are differences in social status or other characteristics important in influencing behavior in this type of setting?  In your conclusions, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your study and explain how generalizable you believe your findings are.  What general conclusions about social relations or human behavior can you draw from your study?  How effective was your methodology?  What hypotheses and methods would you suggest for future research?  Note any influence that your own orientation toward or role in the setting may have had on your observations and interpretations. 

3.  Is social work research becoming more qualitative? 
Some say that social work research is more open to qualitative methods that they were in the past.  Here’s an opportunity to test that belief.

1. Select a social work journal for which your library has at least forty years of back issues. 
2. Review the abstracts three issues within the past two years.  For each article, note whether the article included any qualitative data.
3. Locate issues in the same journals from ten years ago.  Repeat step 2.
4. Do the same for twenty years ago, thirty years ago, and forty years ago. 
5. Write a brief report in which you assess how the number of articles using qualitative methods has changed during this time period (or hasn’t changed).
6. Look at journals that have developed more recently (ex. Affilia).  Are there more qualitative articles in the more recently developed journals?  What conclusions, if any, can you draw from what you have found?