Self-Reporting

Abstract

Research methods that utilize self-reporting can yield extremely useful information. Self-reporting can come in many forms. For example, if a researcher were conducting a study about education in a refugee camp, s/he might request a camp teacher to ask each of her students to draw a picture about what everyday life is like in the camp. The pictures that would result from this kind of exercise are a form of self-reporting and would contain many clues as to the kind of social and cultural consciousness the child is currently experiencing while living in this camp situation. If many children drew pictures, for example, that involved the procurement of basic sources of nourishment, such as standing in line to obtain a meal or a ration of rice for the family, or carrying water from a communal watering truck or well, then it would be reasonable to conclude that children in this camp spend a great deal of their time worrying about having enough to eat or drink. The researcher can then take this bit of information and expand upon it. Is food and water actually a problem to obtain in this particular camp? If not, why do the children seem to be so preoccupied with the issue—does it, for example, relate to other anxieties that children have about their own futures and whether or not they feel that as they in turn become adults they will be able to provide the basic things of life for themselves and their families?