Participant observation, a tool for intercultural research in school and university education

Abstract

A multitude of research conducted in the recent years has been employing  participant observation as a tool, thus implementing a principally sociological and ethnological methodology in educational environments, and that with intercultural features.

Within intercultural environments, the researcher- observer is to be seen as the protagonist of an interaction among individuals- bearers of different cultural identities, who experiences the special relationship with the difference he/ she is trying to interpret, grasp, accept and familiarise themselves with.

To the researcher-observer, the meeting with intercultural group members constitutes the  starting point, the initiation of the process of reaching one another, which can even result in a cultural observer- observed interbreeding , thus confirming one of the features of intercultural communication, namely  mutual influence.

Within the framework of the present lecture  we will try to indicate the main problems of participant observation concerning

1. The risk of influencing  the identity references of the observer
2. The observer’s objectivity
3. The typicality of the study cases.

Moreover, we will seek to show that if the results of research conducted in intercultural environments  are duly exploited  in formal education, they could trigger the use of  groundbreaking educational tools, based on the principles of interculturality.