Interested in conducting fieldwork? If you never have before, it’s easy to imagine what conducting research or working in the field might be like. TC has many resources devoted to preparing students for fieldwork, but there are some lessons that can only be learned through praxis. CAE sat down with 2022’s CAE Travel Grant winners, ICEd MA students Kella Merlain-Moffat and Sa'adat Mohammed, to discuss their experiences with fieldwork, how they navigated surprises, how theoretical concepts from their courses applied to real-life scenarios, and how their experiences led them to grow as researchers and practitioners.
CAE: How did you find your experience different from what you expected when you first applied for the grant? I'm just curious to know if there is anything unexpected that came up in your travels or something you would just like to share that you thought was a particularly salient experience for you.
Kella Merlain-Moffat: I think when you learn about different things in class, it's easy to think that this is just a classroom lesson, but obviously lessons are often based in reality.
So, I had reached out to someone to do an interview and they had said that they would be more than willing to chat with me. They then texted me saying that they understand that they can't receive any compensation, but they do feel that there should be an honorarium for their time and so they felt like I should come to the interview prepared to essentially meet that need.
I thought it was a really interesting experience because it was definitely an ethical dilemma of: am I meeting you and providing the honorarium that you're requesting, or am I not? And am I just going to trust the process and hope that I'm able to find someone else to interview and get the amount of interviews that I want?
So I thought that [the experience] was rather fascinating because it wasn't something that I expected by any means, but definitely was a part of the process that sticks with me. And so I guess in some ways I'm glad it happened because otherwise I think that classroom experience [in EiE] would have stayed as just a classroom lesson. I wouldn't have had that practical, in-person lived experience with it.
CAE: Do you mind talking about what ended up happening with the interview?
Kella Merlain-Moffat: I had texted and said I can't provide an honorarium, would you still like for me to come? They never responded; I didn't go. And then eventually I found another person to interview with.
It worked out. But what was funny is that a lot of people, since I used a snowball method and I had people recommend others to me, people would keep bringing up that person like, "Oh, you should speak to them." And I was like, "Well, I can't do that."
Sa'adat Mohammed: To me, I guess it was just interesting because in EiE class we discussed the unbalanced relationships between local staff and foreign staff you see on some [development] projects and I could see the type of relationships we discussed [in EiE] because we had some local staff also join us during the training in Mallorca and they didn’t really see themselves as having a say or a part in discussing how programs were run and just letting the foreign staff take control, which was something the trainers did try to address. They did an amazing job actually of trying to address this and bringing the local staff voices forward, but I guess [that dynamic] is not something that could be solved over a period of a couple of days.
CAE: How do you think that your experience over the summer has led to growth either as a student, researcher, or practitioner with positionality trying to navigate our field?
Kella Merlain-Moffat: I think for me, it just reaffirmed that I really do enjoy doing research. I really enjoy speaking with people and learning about their experiences and seeing how that fits in with larger topics and conversations that are and are not being had.
Since the ethnic group that I was looking at is also the ethnic group that I am a part of though I grew up in America. I am removed to a degree, so I didn't think things would impact me in certain ways but there were definitely times where I was interacting with people in the country and I could see themes of feeling isolated or marginalized or disregarded that interview participants had spoken about in the interviews that I saw myself experiencing. I knew I was frustrated and I was annoyed at times. At the same time, I thought, this is just my experience for these six weeks that I'm here. Imagine if this was my experience for 30-something years of living here with this identity.
Some people in my interviews had expressed how they had never had a space before to have the conversations that we were having and so they really appreciated it for that. And it wasn't until I was experiencing those things that I felt I really understood what they meant by that and was really glad that space was able to be created in the first place for them to have that kind of dialogue.
Sa'adat Mohammed: That's a tough question, but I guess what I can speak on is just the fact that we hear and talk a lot about decolonizing aid and recognizing and fixing these issues, but then you just see how difficult it is in the field to decolonize aid and it's like, where do you begin? Our generation can see what's wrong with it, but then we can also see it rubbing off on us and repeating the same cycle. Like, we're falling into the same trap that has always been there. So you see the system and its injustice and I guess I've always seen it, but then it's like, it’s 2022 and we’re still seeing the same thing. So, how do we actually really make change? We can have these training sessions as much as we want but we have to try to do it differently, right? Not to just have the same training, but take it out of the box. I guess I don't know if that's the answer: to keep trying or find another method.
Kella Merlain-Moffat: One thing that I wrestled with a lot is knowing that my interviews took place in English. Mind you, I went to look at the fact that there's a medium of instruction policy that's saying that people can't learn their indigenous language and what are the implications of that. And here I am not even doing interviews in this indigenous language. Like, there are stories in this community that were not explored whatsoever by the limitation of my study. And I think that also makes me think a lot about positionality and power and privilege in research as well, and how you can even go in with really good intentions but when you really strip it down, sometimes the global hegemony of languages wins and that's really unfortunate.
The experiences of students out in the field for the first time varies greatly, but for last year’s travel grant winners some of their biggest takeaways were the importance of flexibility and growth as one navigates the field. CAE’s travel grant allows students to take what they learn in the classroom and carry these lessons into the field and to familiarize themselves with the realities of working in the field.
Congratulations to this year’s travel grant winners Ismael Hammoudi, Sarah Etzel, and Kemi Richardson! We are looking forward to hearing from them next fall about their experiences in the field as TC students.