For this assignment, you will complete one of the following assignments, depending on your community:
Observation Consent
OR
Public Community Explanation
It is very important that any research conducted on and with people is conducted ethically and with consideration for the people involved. The reading “Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context” will address these issues more fully.
If you plan to observe a private or small community, you will need to either get verbal permission or a signed consent form for your research before starting any observations.
Examples of private or small communities: Any club (for example: knitting club, gaming club, etc), Arcade, coffee shop, any privately owned business
If you plan to observe a public community, you will write an explanation of how you know that your community is public and what steps you will take to still ensure that you are respectful of people's privacy and boundaries.
Examples of public and large communities: Parks, large stadiums, festivals, concerts, common areas of a mall
For this assignment, you will need to turn in ONE of the following:
Observation Consent, which will involve one of the following:
Signed consent form (see example on following page) OR
Verbal Consent Documentation (see example on following page)
OR
Public Community Explanation (see below example)
Further instructions for each assignment type can be found below.
If you are observing a club or small community, please talk to the community about what you will be doing, show them the assignment sheet and discuss any potential risks (and explain that you will be anonymizing their names, etc).
For privately owned businesses, I recommend talking to a manager or owner about what you’d like to do (consider what their concerns might be ahead of time and come to the discussion prepared).
It will be up to you whether you want a written consent form that can be signed by participants or whether you will just get verbal consent. You will need to either include the consent forms or a write-up with an explanation of what you told your participants, who you talked to (no names needed, just an explanation), and whether consent was given.
For private communities, you can either get verbal consent and write a Verbal Consent Explanation OR you can use a consent form (see below).
Sample Verbal Consent Explanation
At the start of the knitting club meeting on [date here], I, [name here], explained the type of research I was looking to conduct, and any possible risks to them as participants. I also explained that I would keep all notes and data anonymous and would only include observational research on participants that have expressly consented to participate. I explained they could withdraw this consent and discontinue participation at any time.
Consent Form Example
Note: You may design your consent form however you like as long as it’s covering the basics listed below. Regardless of whether you ask for verbal or written consent, you should plan on having a conversation with your participants and establish report.
I agree to be observed at _______________ for two hours each week beginning _________________ until _________________ as a part of a student research project. The nature and general purpose of the research procedure have been explained to me. I understand that any further inquiries I make concerning this procedure will be answered. I understand my identity will not be revealed in any publication, document, recording, photograph, computer data storage, or in any other way which relates to this research. Finally, I understand that I am free to withdraw my consent and discontinue participation in the research at any time.
Signature __________________________________ Date ____________________
For any community that is not public (think parks, large stadiums, large malls (in the main area) etc, where you are not going to be observing the same people week after week): It won’t be possible to get consent from all participants in this situation, but you are still expected to conduct yourself ethically and with consideration for your participants.
In either case, you will be expected to conduct yourself respectfully when taking notes and if you choose to take any photographs, make sure they are not of individual people unless you have express consent (I’d recommend asking about this as well and whether that would be allowed).
Since you will not be doing the verbal consent explanation or consent form for a public community, you will need to write up a roughly 100-200 word explanation of how your community is public and how you will consider your ethical obligations while conducting research in this public space. (For example, if you will be observing a mall: how are you planning on observing these spaces? What will you need to still pay attention to in order to ensure that you are taking people’s privacy into consideration?)
Example Public Community Explanation
I will be observing the Detroit Zoo for this project. This is a large, public community. I know it is public because anyone can go there as long as they pay an admission fee. There are many people who are there daily, and it's unlikely that anyone would recognize the individuals from my observations given the number of people who tend to pass through. I plan on observing at a distance and taking notes on my phone so as to not seem odd or disruptive. Additionally, I will use fake names for individuals, as I would not know their names anyways, and I will not describe people in my notes or my paper in a way that will identify them individually. If I overhear conversations that I wish to include I will consider the best way to ensure that people's privacy is still protected.
An example Public Community Explanation from a previous student is available in the Project 1 Example Google Drive folder.