How Things Work - Doha Academy of Tertiary Studies

102 QUaLItatIVe ReSeaRCH
BOX 5.5. Field Notes, NYsP
It’s an elegant hotel in Kansas City. The three of us from CIRCE introduced
ourselves individually to the several members of the Advisory
Board we didn’t know—a cordial moment—before taking chairs against
the wall. It was our first opportunity to observe an Advisory Board
meeting.
We had the agenda on our laps and were surprised when the
National Director opened the meeting with a request to Chuck, the
senior internal evaluation person, to describe the progress of our external
evaluation project, now 5 months old. We were unaware that our
work would be discussed and unprepared to participate.
Chuck said, “The researchers from CIRCE visited 20 of our 170
campuses last summer, surveying the students, interviewing the coaches,
counselors, administration and campus officials. They had some serious
data-gathering problems.” This latter was news to the three of us. Since
Chuck was the liaison between the Advisory Board and the CIRCE team
and had participated in access arrangements and some summer feedback,
we had talked with him frequently but had not learned that someone
had seen flaws in our work.
The National Director and Chuck and the three of us were Caucasian.
The Board and the 10- to 15-year-olds at the sports camps were
predominantly African American. One Board member, James, asked
Chuck, “Were the problems a matter of insensitivity to Black children
and their parents?” Chuck said, “That seemed to be part of it.”
James turned to us and asked, “Did you ask our children racist
questions? Did you invade their privacy?” I tried to think what he could
be talking about. In a whisper, I asked Kathryn and Rita if they knew.
“No.” “No.” So I said, “Most of our questions were drawn from surveys
of children used before in research projects. They were piloted at
trial sites.” I could have said that we had sent them in advance to project
headquarters for review.
James said, “But you asked what their mothers thought, not their
fathers. Why not? You asked children when they had last smoked a cigarette.”
“That’s true. Part of your program is drug and alcohol education.
We needed to know something about the frequency of smoking of the
youth because, according to the National Center for Alcohol and Substance
Abuse, the proper training depends on frequency of use.”
Carswell said, “I wasn’t aware that this was information we wanted.
Don’t you find out what it is your employers want to know?” He went
(cont.)