More than methodology: reflections on qualitative field research
Introduction
Jon Sears and Madlela Skhobokhobo, the emcee at the 2025 Bulawayo Arts Festival concert. Photo by festival event staff.
In June 2025, as I walked along Leopold Takawira Avenue to the Bulawayo City Hall parking lot, I did not expect that I would end up dancing on stage with a celebrity emcee. What's more, I never could have imagined the social media footprint of the video of this encounter would exceed 90,000 views and 3,000 likes and counting. Ultimately, I came to a deeper understanding of what shapes me as a qualitative researcher.
The crowd was still growing on June 7th as a 2025 Bulawayo Arts Festival concert got underway. As the lone white person there, I was easily picked out by the emcee, Bulawayo-based comic actor and musician, Madlela Skhobokhobo. His enthusiasm was compelling and contagious as he enlisted the crowd to encourage me to join him onstage. I tried my best to match Madlela's steps, and as the dancing came to an end he expressed gratitude for my willingness to take the risk and dance with him, highlighting how music and dance can unite people from diverse backgrounds.
A "Say Yes" Moment
Given my weak dancing abilities, I felt vulnerable as I crossed the parking lot and climbed the stairs to the stage. Madlela quickly put me at ease with friendly questions ('What's your name, where are you from, will you learn some steps with me?') Although I knew that I might look foolish, I embraced the joy of connecting with him, the music, and the crowd. This was a 'say yes' moment.
The crowd at the 2025 Bulawayo Arts Festival Tshibilika concert. Photo from the Bulawayo Arts Festival Facebook page.
This small act of reciprocity was important to me because so many Zimbabweans (from strangers to colleagues becoming friends) had already 'said yes' to me – welcoming me into their country, communities, workplaces, homes, and lives. With a very few words of isiNdebele, I was able to thank Madlela as my host, and by extension express the gratitude I felt towards those who had made me feel so welcome in Zimbabwe in 2024 and 2025. In retrospect, my attending the concert aligns with the community engagement approaches of the LINCZ project overall and of its research components, including mine.
Research Context
Jon, Bulisani M. (MCC Zimbabwe Learning and Research Hub Coordinator) and Perseverance N. (Research Assistant) after interviews at Dabane Trust in Bulawayo.My LINCZ research, Everyday governance of climate change adaptation in Zimbabwe, asks how stakeholders, from the local to the national level, understand, develop, and implement responses to climate change impacts to sustain livelihoods and conserve biodiversity. To explore these and related policy issues, I work with research assistants and facilitators using open-ended key informant interviews. Together we elicit and build knowledge along with the interviewees, including national policymakers and consultants, local government officials, traditional leaders, and community members. Building on mostly rural field work from June—July 2024, in June 2025 we went to the district and provincial capital Gwanda, the national capital Harare, and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city.
Research Persona: Expectations and Embodied Realities
Although a social science researcher might be perceived as a detached observer with scientific neutrality, field research goes beyond methodology. The researcher's lived experience and character (with features and flaws) shape the research process and its outcomes. Embodied, flexible, and conversational approaches help explore how abstract policies or texts can be meaningful in people's daily lives. When working in this way and reflexively recognizing these character influences, narrowly academic concerns are complemented by curiosity about many aspects of people's lives. Engaging with music, food, traditional knowledge, church, and family life, a 'researcher' becomes a participant, guest, and co-learner.
Visiting with the family of Agree D. (MCC Zimbabwe Program Manager), after braai in Luveve and with a mini tour of nearby neighbourhoods such as Lobengula, Entumbane, and Makokoba.Recognizing my privileged position, I strive to approach my work with humility and flexibility, which has offered opportunities for mutual exchange. Over nearly 30 years of experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa, I've engaged in various roles, from 10-month research sojourns to two-week program evaluations. During the seven weeks I have spent in Zimbabwe between 2024 and 2025, I found fulfillment in simply being present with people. My focus has been on creating a comfortable atmosphere rooted in curiously and building relationships.
By saying yes to activities with colleagues, their families, and their communities (church services, Father's Day braai / barbeque, family visiting, and attending a concert or talent show), I have been given many chances to reflect on the character traits that shape my approach to qualitative research and recognize their impact on my practice. I've made some small efforts to learn a few words in isiNdebele and ChiShona, and I've been grateful for the positive responses from others. It has been a humbling experience. Building trust arises in shared meals and cultural learnings—curiosity beyond my research expertise has connected me with people inside and outside of the LINCZ project and brought me support and encouragement in many forms.
Insights from the Field: Governance Relations Beyond Policy
June 15, 2025 Service at Nguboyenja Brethren In Christ Church, where Agree is among the church leadership. Photo from the Brethren In Christ Nguboyenja Facebook page.By emphasizing everyday governance, research approached in these ways can move beyond policy documents to foreground the ongoing work of interpreting, interrogating, and implementing the principles and practices of climate change adaptation. This attention is especially crucial at the local level where the impacts and responses are perhaps most obvious, where the relationships and agency of community members matter the most. It is thus an honour, pleasure, and privilege to be invited into some of those spaces of relationship – in homes and offices, churches and parking lots, fields and forests – and to say yes to being a learner, novice, guest, and contributor. It is a rich blessing to be invited into trust and to help build insights in the face of a common crisis and in the service of shared values.