Features of the Buddy Evaluation

Ethical Issues

The challenges presented by hearing the Waxman parents describe the traumas experienced within the family after the computer came into their home raised serious ethical issues for Cynthia. For example, during her interviews with the Waxmans, she was very conscious of changes in the behaviour of the four boys when their parents mentioned how close they had come to separating as a result of the computer's impact.

"In addition to simply being a researcher, I knew that every word we were saying was having an impact on them. It was partially research but it was also partially them constructing the story of what this meant to their family ... It was one of the more interesting challenges for me as a researcher to realise that I had an ethical obligation to do no harm. In the process of gathering this information the one thing I didn't want was for the children and the parents to have to re-live it in a harmful way."

The problems in Laura and Russell Waxman's marriage, with their attendant impact upon their children, were not completely resolved the time of the case study. Although they felt that the worst was behind them, the Waxmans were still trying to figure out "what to do and what place the computer should have in their lives". Cynthia was acutely aware how careful she needed to be as she worked through her role as researcher, conscious of the fine line between neutral observation and intervention.

The Drawings

In the second of her three interviews with the four families, Cynthia asked each member to draw their impressions of how the computer fit into their lives. This turned into a revelatory exercise. For all the families, but especially for the Waxmans, the children gave little or non-committal responses when asked about their reaction to the computer (such as, "I like the computer") during the interviews.

By contrast, the drawings tapped into more profound meanings. When some of the Waxman boys wrote on their drawings, "I hate this thing; I hate them", Cynthia knew how deep an impact the computer had made on the family and that, through the drawings, she was getting a more complete picture of what was happening. 

Impact on Subsequent Professional Experience

The ethical dimensions from the evaluation, especially those arising from the Waxman family case study, strongly indicated that rules and guidelines on conducting research are a necessary but not sufficient guide to cover what you do as a researcher. This forms a valuable set of issues which has informed Cynthia's research and which she incorporates in her work with students since the BUDDY evaluation:

"I find that the Waxman study, where I had to explicitly take into account not just my own research protocol but everything that was happening in front of me, is good preparation for people who are going to be researching in the same kinds of circumstances."

One of the main emphases from this study is the responsibility of a case study researcher. As Cynthia herself concludes about a case study report: it has the power to change lives.