The purpose of this study was exploration of the role shift from participant to observer in educational research and evaluation. Examples and counter-examples of graduate students who were experiencing the role shift were explored. Generalizations were made in order to abstract the data, and draw the conclusion that ethnographic approaches facilitate objectivity and an increased sensitivity and awareness to one's environment and one's role in that environment. These are areas where, by definition, every educator might seek "to grow and improve." To have a more complete sense of what it means to be a learner or teacher, all educational participants should be encouraged to inquire into their own lives. One thinks of teaching pupils as well as their teachers to be field workers in their own settings and thereby bringing a different instructional dimension with a participant problem solving stance to educational events that have so far eluded curriculum reformers and other attempts at large-scale educational improvement. (Author/KM)