'Creative solutions' and 'fibbing results': Enculturation in field ecology
W. M. Roth, G. M. Bowen 2001 Social Studies Of Science v31 p533-556

Abstract: This paper is concerned with enculturation in field ecology, where students are frequently required to spend long periods of time in the field with little or no contact with others. We document the practical choices that allow aspiring ecologists, more or less successfully (in their own accounts), to deal with the indeterminacy and open-endedness of independent fieldwork, involving a version of what Collins called 'the experimenters' regress'. 'Constraint satisfaction' is a suitable concept to describe how our participant dealt with this regress. However 'creative solutions' and 'fibbing results' become viable options when problems are deemed insurmountable.

Subject: Biology:Ecology
Research on Learning: Affective Domain:Student Motivation, Student Attitudes, Gender Differences , Ways Of Learning:In the FieldKeywords: constraint satisfaction, emergence of practices, inscriptions, replication, socialization, sexes, construction, knowledge, science