It is still not very common for a researcher to be aware that no matter what your approach to a study is, you are inevitably a tool for research. Your perceptions, your biases, your ways of thinking, all have bearing on the study you are doing. This is especially true when it comes to learning more about fellow human beings. Qualitative approaches understand this from the outset, acknowledging that a qualitative researcher’s skills, capability and quality will only grow as the researcher undertakes more research. RCA takes this realization further and puts measures in place to enable RCA researchers to grow over time while at the same time ensuring that the study is done to highest standards. Constant checks for biases, rigorous triangulation and acknowledging, first and foremost, that it is RCA researchers who  would be ‘changed’ by fieldwork are only some of the reasons why RCA is not only a quality qualitative research but it is also a practice of research excellence in general. RCA researchers are constantly reminded to make people to people connections during fieldwork and reject a ‘we know better’ attitude in the field. 
​
On a personal level, I love how I am truly a learner when I go to do RCA fieldwork. I am not some highly educated scholar applying my sophisticated complex academic framework to reality, I am a mere human being making connections with others. Often, I stumbled, felt awkward, and looked ridiculous, but I discovered that barriers are broken and ice melts when people feel it is them who have things to teach you rather than when they see you as ‘the more knowledgeable one.’ What I found through making genuine efforts to relate to people were crucial, candid and poignant insights that I would never have  had the opportunity to learn if I hung on to my ‘expert’ hat. RCA studies are some of the hardest, most challenging studies I have ever experienced. But they are also the most enlightening. I really consider it an honour to call myself an RCA researcher.

RCA descriptions and study reports often suggest that RCA generates insights rather than findings. The use of the word insights is not unique to RCA but is a widely adopted in other qualitative methods descriptions and reports. But recently we were challenged that insights may be a smokescreen for ‘unvalidated findings or a slightly less robust finding’ .

This is in complete contrast to the reasons why we use the term.

Oxford Dictionary defines insight as ‘the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something’. Collins Dictionary defines ‘insight’ as ‘a penetrating and often sudden understanding of complex situation or problem’.

We believe that what turns findings into insights is engagement. Insight is gained through digging deeper through active listening and active participation. Insights bear more responsibility than findings as they include the behavioural implications of findings. There are often plenty of findings but we need insights to understand how development interventions can work better. Insights are generated when we spend time with target groups, immersing in their lives and understanding how and why people make the choices they do.
​
So, for example,  RCA study insights have provided an understanding of why road workers in far west Nepal did not wear their safety boots (too big, too hot and workers felt less safe in them), why people in haze affected areas in Indonesia do not heed warnings because they feel generations have coped before and are not aware of the real risks and how, again in parts of Indonesia, the literal understanding of TV baby milk powder advertisements led people to curtail breast feeding and buy formula to make their kids ‘smart’ or ‘tall’. Understanding people’s perspectives of phenomena comes from looking out for and gaining insights.

After graduating in anthropology I participated in various studies using different social research methodologies which I had only learned about in theory as an undergraduate. But these were always conducted within rigid frameworks and it left me frustrated.

Then earlier this year I was introduced to RCA. For the first time I enjoyed the freedom to explore with people and understand their contexts.  The immersion provided more time to relax with my research participants and by taking part in their daily activities it helped me to become an insider within the community.

My last immersion in Bangladesh was with a farming family. It was their paddy harvest time. On the first evening the sky suddenly became dark and I saw every member of the family and their neighbours panic because they were worried that heavy rain would ruin their crops. We all ran out to the fields to bring the paddy sheaves home and under shelter. As we ate together later the father thanked me and said ‘see! This is how we live; rain for just a few hours can ruin our future’. His sons added, ‘That’s why we are keen to leave farming’. This sparked a long conversation about the trials of farming, their dreams, aspirations, and future plans.

On the third day the family had a cousin from Dhaka visit. He had left the village a few years before with his parents for better work prospects. We all went to play cricket and returning to the house he shared how he had wanted to become a cricketer but now wants to be a good son who can help his family. He asked his cousins what their plans were.  This started an argument about different jobs. Just listening, I learned insights from each of them on different jobs. On other days I stayed in the village I had conversations with others on various topics, though those had little to do with the study itself but it helped me to build a comfortable relationship with them and helped me understand their context.

​This is the beauty of RCA whereby a researcher has the freedom to go with the flow; he or she has the freedom to act according to the situation and bide their time so that conversations come naturally and spontaneously. There is no preplanned or scheduled format for the study. Before RCA, I used to go to the field with a structured plan for only a very short time and I had to take notes or records during the field work. Often I found myself feeling like a journalist or investigative officer trying to dig fast into something. But RCA liberated me from that feeling of being constrained, following a format. But it is not just the researcher who is liberated- how much freer do study participants feel when they can build a relationship with someone from outside instead of having someone suddenly appearing and digging into their life? I see RCA as a learning process which assures freedom for both the researcher and study participants.

Despite using RCA for 2 years and working on my biases, I still have some.

This last study gave me an opportunity to stay with a woman village head. I was keen to know more about this woman who had been in the news. Everyone called her Ibu Desa (Mother of the village). How difficult had it been for Ibu Desa to become village leader in a patriarchal society? Sounds like bias to you? But, I was not aware.

I spent quality time with her, and she told me about the elections, her role and work. She was very busy returning at midnight from an important meetings and yet she calling the village staff to finish reports despite being Sunday. She is very impressive.

Then I met her husband. A simple and quite man. On the second day we chatted and what he said taught me a very important lesson on gender equity, which is more important than any gender workshop that I ever attended. He had planned to run for village head himself seven years ago. But he decided to withdraw because he needed to earn from fish pond cultivation for his family. He then proposed his wife to become a village head even though some might object. He said “if woman has potential but is not given opportunity, I think her soul will not happy, she will not be a happy woman. She will feel imprisoned, I see strength in my wife and I decided to support her”.

Their daughter joined our conversation, and giggled when her father told me that many times there was no meal in the house as Ibu Desa had meetings until late. “It is easy, we will just run to my mother house and eat there. Domestics work is not a big deal” He said. 

I’m sure this quite husband was not there when Emma Watson spoke at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2014 saying “Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend you a formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too”. This husband had given the opportunity to his wife years before Emma Watson delivered her speech on the UN stage.

I looked back on the days before the study, keen to meet Ibu Desa, the empowered woman village head. But the gender understanding that I got was not from her but from her husband.

​The strength of RCA is the non-stop learning process. I (again) made mistakes by still retaining unconscious assumptions and bias. I need to hear more of men voices to learn about gender equity I think. 

I was very excited yet nervous before the recent Nepal RCA study in; this was the first time we were undertaking a study in semi urban locations. But also Nepal is still struggling with the aftermath of the earthquake and the subsequent border blockade affecting supply of food and fuel. We worried that households would refuse to let us stay with them. We decided to take some food with us to offer to the households to ease the potential reluctance to accommodate us. But food was not short as they still had their farm and stocks and the fuel shortage was not affecting them as they used firewood from the nearby forest. 

RCA  doesn’t have any space for assumptions but that doesn’t mean that researchers aren’t allowed to have any assumptions. Like everyone, I have plenty, but I don’t let my assumptions distort the reality that I am trying to reflect. Every time I go out there as an RCA researcher I challenge my assumptions and test their validity which ultimately enhances my ability to view things and situations through different lenses. From previous work, I have developed assumptions about urban situations. They are comparatively more challenging as people are busy, they have shorter attention spans and are less trusting. They tend to question you more regarding your affiliations and purpose rather than just sitting down and talking.

The beauty of RCA as a method is you don’t have to rush yourself. You can take your time and indulge in conversations which can be completely off topic on some occasions. I still vividly remember my conversations in rural areas; The Rock being a better wrestler than John Cena or Anil Gurung being a better striker than Jumanu Rai. These kinds of conversations had nothing to do with the study but it made me feel good and more importantly it also made the people with whom I was interacting feel good. It helped me in breaking the ice and opening a pathway into their lives. But if urban people are busy and less trusting, would I be able to do this?  My biggest worry was that they might let me into their house but not into their lives and I might end up with superficial stories.

But the household with whom I stayed proved most of my assumptions wrong. They were indeed busy; father went into Kathmandu every afternoon until late evening, the son left home at 6 am for college and returned mid-afternoon, the daughter was at work from  10am until late evening. But I could spend fruitful afternoons chatting with mother while we both removed lice from the buffalo’s body. Other ladies from nearby households joined us in the front yard to bask in the sun and chitchat and I could just sit there and listen. Sometimes they would help us with the lice as well! I was able to interact with the other family members either early in the morning or late in the evening before dinner. Father, son and I would sit by the fire and talk. I would just listen to their stories and share some of my mine although mine was never as interesting as theirs. I would get them to help me understand some of the confusing things that I had heard during the day. The only time I could chat with the daughter was either while making morning tea or later in the evening while making dinner. Although I am not good with pots and pans, I would go in the kitchen to help make dinner. I couldn’t risk ruining a nice meal so I would just assist them in cutting vegetables, even that required quite a bit of convincing. We had rich conversations about her work and how she managed chores as well. She readily initiated many of the chats. With all of the family I felt we had close honest interaction.

And it wasn’t that they were less trusting just more knowledgeable. The family was a very educated one; all their children were studying in Kathmandu and father had too.  Generally during other RCAs when asked about my educational background, I tend to give vague answers such as the importance of knowledge coming out of life experiences and the need to complement the knowledge coming from books. But this time around I had to be specific with my academic credentials as they knew the academic institutions in the city and wanted to know where and what I studied. Usually we play down our academic qualifications to reduce the power distance between us and the family. But this time I had to be specific, vagueness might have raised suspicion about my presence there.
​
One aspect of RCA which makes it stand out from other approaches is that it isn’t rigid and is constantly evolving by embracing the shortcomings of every study. Maybe we need to have some more RCAs in urban areas to get more insights into how to manage these without compromising the integrity of RCA. I would like to raise the following for further reflection: 

• How do we manage personal revelations and post study relationships?
• Should we increase the number of nights spent with the family from the conventional 4 nights to enable greater interaction?

There is a first time for every single thing and my first RCA outside my own country (Indonesia) was definitely anticipated to be quite unique and thrilling. There isn’t always a chance for firsthand experience for the things I love doing, sometimes I have to be satisfied with listening to or reading others’ shared stories. In RCA, each experience is firsthand. So if firsthand experiences stick longer in my memory, I reckon first-time firsthand ones would stick even longer. 

RCA experience has been and is always meant to be professional exposure, but the way it touches and shapes me on a personal level has been priceless. It humbles me over and over again, and is a constant reminder of what humanity is all about – both in the sense of how ordinary humans interact with one another, as well as how compassion, sympathy and empathy emerge strongly because one experiences firsthand being in other people’s shoes.

No matter whether it is within own country or outside, I look forward to being surprised in seeing and experiencing differences as well as similarities which humanity can offer. I could see some common threads between rural areas from staying in two villages of far-western Nepal and the villages in Papua, Indonesia. Whether a farmer in the steep rocky hills of Nepal or in the fertile coastal land of Papua, my papas welcomed me in their homes and treated me as the sister of their own daughters. My Papuan father gave me his secret trick of getting hold of good quality seeds which he could guarantee make very sweet rambutan fruits – it turned out to be a hilarious secret which made me laugh so hard that I can’t share with anyone else! My Nepali father gave me a very useful tip to have beautiful hair like my sisters there: the mustard plant they grew themselves in front of their house. He even told mom – his wife – to pack their home-made mustard oil for me to bring home. Of course I regretfully, kindly turned down their generosity… but it is those exact generosity and warmth presented by my host families and their close-to-nature life that I bring home and reminisce.      

Furthermore, the experience taught me that although the two countries may face different seasons and consequently different challenges, as well as having dissimilar traditional social stratifications and groupings, our coping strategies and how we rise above challenges indicate that we are not that unalike. 

But of course, I am ready to have these conclusions challenged in my next international opportunity!

Have you as an enumerator, surveyor or researcher, had experience of being scolded by a teacher during fieldwork? Yes, I have.

…
​
The first time I joined the RCA, the word of ‘triangulation’ was confusing for me. Should we have conversation(s) with (at least) three people about one subject? What about if everybody has a different opinion? What kind of conclusion should I end up with? I tried to figure it out.

One morning in NTB, I was taking a bath behind the school. It was 7:30 am and seemed quiet for a school day. One or two students had turned up but the teacher arrived later. As I sat to observe, one teacher greeted me and we chatted about the school – “what are they all doing today, Pak?” “Today a Maths class, Bahasa class, Natural Science class, and… what else?” He asked another teacher who was sitting in front of the teacher’s office, as the students continues playing in the field.

Then I went back ‘home’ and asked my ‘mom’ what the kids are doing at school. “They’re playing football. The teacher just teaches them how to play football all day!” I nodded. Later, her son came home, “hey, what did you do at school?” he said, “nothing.”

How could I understand the situation if teacher, parent, or student said something different?

But RCA requires only that everyone’s voice is valued. Validity comes from observation, not just conversation. Not only what we hear, but also what we see, and what we experience.

On another RCA study, I talked with a male teacher and the school seemed great! Then at night, I chatted with the students. They shared stories about how cruel the teacher can be. It was a horrible story!

Next morning I went to school and the students welcomed me into the class because they already knew who I was. While we talked about the red guava that we picked in the morning before school, THAT male teacher came in and hit the table with a rattan stick!

He scolded us because we were noisy and threatened to hit us if we made any sound! It was a horrible experience which lasted for 5 minutes. As soon as he has left the class all the kids were giggling (not affected by what he had said). I remained shocked. Then the teacher returned (again!) to explain why the students had to be punished and how he had not seen me there before.

After that happened, everyone (students, parents, and teachers) felt able to talk about punishment at school (because they knew I had experienced it for myself). Even then everybody has a different opinion about punishment, but I started to understand what triangulation really means.

Triangulation through the RCA is fun. We need to recognize that people can be honest, critical, beating about the bush, offensive, using the ‘mask’ of official status or fantasizing their stories. But being aware of the need for careful triangulation, we are still able to discover what REALLY happened in the community.