Going Native-Theoretical

The phrase "going native" always makes me think of hairy armpits. I know it's terrible. But it makes me think of not shaving my legs or my armpits.  I'll go for counseling after the doctoral work-no time now!  HA!

I like the thoughts the researcher presents on page 15 of My Freshman Year. The researcher suggests that despite her alcohol busts and the bonding that followed, she was still "never really one of them" and that her personal experiences as a middle-aged woman "cannot say anything directly about the undergraduate experience" since she's not in the student's position if being 18, a peer, feeling peer pressure and so forth. Further she states "one can never really "go native" or expect that one's experience is indicative of the experience of others born in the culture.

Thus, even though a researcher may be completely submerged in a culture and may even feel he/she is now part of the culture, because he/she joined the culture and was not born into it the fundamental assumptions cannot be the same as an individual who inherits those assumptions/values and so forth.

I like how the author does note that although one can't ever really go native, one can be immersed and the immersion experience informs the context and questions. So, even when immersed, just as Heifetz describes a leader as one who can envision him/herself on the dance floor while also envisioning him/herself on the balcony and viewing the dance floor from above, the researcher still hovers, considering the questions, the values, and the cultural assumptions from an exterior perspective rather than blind acceptance.