Using a selective approach for my Participant Observation might have arbitrarily limited my findings. While analysing my thick descriptions I was surprised to find that I had included notions of the teacher using examples and presenting diverse opinions. It was no longer comprehensible for me why I had considered these methods “uncommon”. This makes me wonder which interesting methods may, on the other hand, have escaped my notice due to my perceived focus on the “uncommon” and whether an all encompassing approach might not have been more suitable.

As my descriptions which are gained from notes rather than from participant observation, only contain small parts of the respective class session and are limited to those aspects which I remembered, I am unsure whether they can be referred to as “Thick Descriptions“. They might be missing the required depth to be called thickly descriptive. (This problem is connected to the influence of the ethical requirements on which I reflect here.)

Reflection on my use of semi-standardised interviews
It is very unfortunate that none of the participants has used the opportunity to actively get involved with the research by commenting… read more.