Angles of Vision: Enhancing Perception in Qualitative Research

Abstract

This article develops the idea of consciously using different lenses for the purpose of expanding the perceptual efficacy of the researcher. Lenses provide a means of opening into or looking into. They alert and arouse us to mobilize resources of interest, energy, time, and attention. To be so mobilized is to foreground and background what is out there and thus to construct what is available to see. The author assumes that although researchers always use one or another lens while engaged in the process of observation, they can learn to see in unexpected but useful ways if they are aware of a range of possible focal points. Nine such focal points are developed in this article.