The concept "participant observation" was first coined in 1924 by Eduard C. Lindeman (1885-1953), an American pioneer in adult education influenced by John Dewey and Danish educator-philosopher N.F.S.Grundtvig, in his 1925 book Social Discovery: An Approach to the Study of Functional Groups.
The method, however, originated earlier and was applied in the field research linked to European and American voyages of scientific exploration.
In 1800 one of precursors of the method, Joseph Marie, baron de Gérando, said that: "The first way to get to know the Indians is to become like one of them; and it is by learning their language that we will become their fellow citizens.
Participant observation was used extensively by Frank Hamilton Cushing in his study of the Zuni people in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
[4] The practice emerged as the principal approach to ethnographic research by anthropologists and relied on the cultivation of personal relationships with local informants as a way of learning about a culture, involving both observing and participating in the social life of a group.
The postmortem publication of Grenville Goodwin's decade of work as a participant-observer with the Western Apache[5] established him as a prominent figure in the field of ethnology.
Since the 1980s, some anthropologists and other social scientists have questioned the degree to which participant observation can give veridical insight into the minds of other people.
[6][7] At the same time, a more formalized qualitative research program known as grounded theory, initiated by Glaser and Strauss (1967),[8] began gaining currency within American sociology and related fields such as public health.
In response to these challenges, some ethnographers have refined their methods, either making them more amenable to formal hypothesis-testing and replicability or framing their interpretations within a more carefully considered epistemology.
[9] The development of participant-observation as a research tool has therefore not been a haphazard process, but instead has involved a great deal of self-criticism and review.
Traditional participant observation is usually undertaken over an extended period of time, ranging from several months to many years, and even generations.
The researcher must have clearly established boundaries before the onset of the study, and have guidelines in place should any issues cross the line of ethical behavior.