| .............. |
.
.
.
|
First you need to find
out pre-entry information. 1
|
.
| Before
you enter the community in a public situation, you need to know several
things about the community. |
.
| This
page suggests various ways to obtain information. |
.
| It
is a bit of a paradox that some times even asking questions can result
in your breaking local prohibitions, but you need the answers to avoid
breaking local prohibitions. |
.
| By
moving carefully, remembering that you have twice as many ears as mouths,
you can map out what behaviour is acceptable, and take appropriate action. |
.
| The
following are a set of approaches you can adopt. |
.
| Try
to meet people who are familiar with the community, first those who are
living outside the community, later those who may be living there. |
.
| These
include teachers, church, temple or mosque leaders, regional or district
governmental officials, extension (health, agriculture) agents who visit
the community. |
.
.
| Any
of these might direct you to a person who has more intimate knowledge of
the community and who can give you guidance about acceptable protocol for
your finding out more. |
.
| Before
people get to learn that you will visit a community, conduct a quick informal
survey to determine critical information that will affect your planning
for entry to that community. |
.
.
| Engage
in casual conversations to discover critical factors affecting community
co-operation and organising. |
.
| Try
to find out, in casual conversations and with a trusted informant, who
the "hijacking politicians" are, those who will try to control things for
their own benefit. |
.
.
| When
you meet persons that you feel would be good informants, ask them to point
out similar minded persons. |
.
| Ask
about local protocol, for activities such as greetings, gifts, and praise. |
.
.
| These
kinds of fact gathering can complement previous, orthodox unobtrusive research,
such as looking at available census data, newspaper reports, library research
and governmental publications. |
.
| Later,
you will guide the community members through participatory appraisal to
assess current conditions, and the more you know about the community first,
the better you will be able to do that. |
.
Footnote:
1. These guidelines do
not apply, of course, to those of you who are doing research on your own
family or community. .Except
one: "make notes." |
.
|
