Whose Interpretation Matters? Centering Participants Through Observation Debrief

Abstract

While observation research strives to capture the diverse experiences of participants, a researcher’s interpretation is often foregrounded in the work. As a result, those observed and how they interpret the meaning of their actions can fade into the background. I argue for a shift in traditional models of observation to include an observation debrief to unite the purpose of interview and observation while centering the participant’s perspective through a more immediate reflection of a participant’s observed experience. I describe the benefit of an observation debrief through a narrative account of one participant in a study about parents’ mathematical interactions with young children.