Methodology and Interpretation in Pedagogical-Psychological Research (Possibilities of School Ethnography in Excluded Localities)

The project focuses on the difficulties occurring during the ethnographic research related to the process of education in excluded localities and to intercultural communication between clients and professionals providing help to them (social workers, teachers, etc.).
The project reviews and summarizes the experience gained during the research projects carried out from 2005 to 2015 and evaluates them within the framework of pedagogical-psychological sciences. The significant and key issue of the present research is the relation between ethics/morals and identity and individual levels of the research process.

The project analyses methodological approaches applied in research projects granted by the GAČR from 2005 to 2015:

2012-2015 “Decision-Making Processes of Helping Professions in the Area of
Intercultural Relationship” (GA ČR P407/12/0547)
2008-2010 “Function of Cultural Models” (GA ČR 406/08/0805)
2005-2007 “Education and Its Value from Roma Perspective (Education as Seen by Roma Mothers)” (GA ČR 406/05/P560),

The projects focused on education provided to people from socio-culturally disadvantaged backgrounds and on assisting professions operating in excluded localities. The processed data and information are reflected, and the research and interpretation approaches are analyzed. The ethics of the research and the ethical significance of excluded localities are placed at the centre of attention within the educational framework.
The research results will be published in a monograph focusing on perspectives and interpretations of the qualitative research findings. The prospective factors stem from the possibilities of an individual taking various perspectives regarding the research problem of the lived social reality of individual participants in the research or the actual perspective transformation in relation to time and experience. The effect of various perspectives is possible to be processed via the Rashomon approach (Heider 1988), which enables the capturing of meanings imposed by participants (incl. researchers) on the social reality. Considering the variability of perspectives on the lived social reality, it is necessary to highlight the arduousness of a particular phenomenon interpretation, which can be seen absolutely differently (when comparing the participants) or interpreted differently (via a selected theory or form) without losing certain credibility (Geertz 1988). Finding a compact and fitting conclusion does not condition a valid result but manifests the ability of a researcher to create a self-contained shape out of the researched social reality, a shape that can be easily communicated (cf. Kahneman 2012).
Qualitative research will be introduced as a means of enabling a relatively deep understanding of the examined reality (Giami 2001) and mediating this understanding to various audiences. The boundaries between the researcher and the research participants in the sense of “who is being examined” are blurred, yet there exists a dynamic correlation of mutual identification and influence. The researcher is a subject in touch with the surroundings s/he examines. The researcher’s personality is transformed by the surroundings, and his thought concepts are changed (Lakoff 2006); these can influence the theoretical understanding in retrospect. The reflection of the original (researcher’s) theory is thus a necessary result of the interaction of scientific concepts and concepts of the research reality.
That acquired understanding and the research results can possibly be mediated to various audiences. Depending on their character (general public vs. academia, professionals) and in relation to the expectations of readers, the text is transformed in its form so that the reader would grasp the essence of its findings at maximum.

References
• GEERTZ, Clifford. Works and lives: The anthropologist as author. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
• GIAMI, Alain. Counter-Transference in Social Research: Georges Devereux and beyond
• HEIDER, Karl G. Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree. American Anthropologist 90(1), 1988, 73-81.
• KAHNEMAN, Daniel. Myšlení rychlé a pomalé. Brno: Jan Melvil Publishing, s.r.o., 2012.
• LAKOFF, George. Ženy, oheň a nebezpečné věci: co kategorie vypovídají o naší mysli. Praha: Triáda, 2006.
• STRAUSS, Anselm a Juliet CORBINOVÁ. Základy kvalitativního výzkumu: Postupy a techniky metody zakotvené teorie. Boskovice: Albert, 1999.