Fitting in with the Setting: A Problem of Adjustment for Both Students and the Researcher

Abstract

The account presented here is based on the fieldwork collected for a doctorate which comprised a case study of a journalism school for post-graduate journalism students. The research, on occupational socialisation, which was primarily carried out by participant observation took place over one academic year (1984/85) and followed a cohort of students through their training at the school. This paper looks at the re-socialising function of the first term at journalism school, which because of the demands it makes upon the time and commitment of students is presented as a `Greedy Institution'. During their first term students are expected to discard their lay perspectives on journalism, and also the academic style which characterises their undergraduate education, in favour of the school's version of occupational practice. The paper also takes issue with the ways in which the researcher must fit in with the day-to-day requirements of practice demanded by the school and how, in many ways, her academic and research interests are incompatible with the task of re-socialisation which staff at the journalism school set out to achieve. The paper highlights how greedy institutions may have particular implications for the participant observer.