Week 6 Research Journal

 Creswell and Poth, Chapter 4: "Five Qualitative Approaches to Inquiry"
(Focus on ethnography)

Ethnography (as defined by Harris, 1968): a qualitative design in which the researcher describes and interprets the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group

Participant observation: researcher immerses him/herself into the everyday lives of the participants

Ethnography is both the study and the final product; it takes its origins from anthropology

Defining characteristics:

  • focus on complex, complete description of the culture of a group
  • pinpoints patterns to understand social organization and ideational systems
  • draws on theory (i.e. Marxism, acculturation, innovation) to focus their observations
  • combines extensive fieldwork with interviews, observations, symbols, artifacts, and other data
  • analyzes data by synthesizing emic (insider) perspectives (quoted verbatim) through the etic (outsider) perspective to create a picture which readers can understand
  • results in the understanding of how the culture-sharing group works
    • "What do people in this setting have to know and do to make this system work?"
    • "If culture, sometimes defined simply as shared knowledge, is mostly caught rather than taught, how do those being inducted into the group find their 'way in' so that an adequate level of sharing is achieved?"
Random thought: That last key question which is answered by ethnographies immediately made me think of Dances with Wolves and Avatar. But in those situations, once the outsider fully understood the culture-sharing group, he merged with it. While obviously these are fictitious examples, it does make you wonder if there are cases where this has happened. Additionally, now that I'm really thinking about it, this also reminds me of Heart of Darkness, although in that instance Kurtz gains entry into the culture-sharing group and then takes it over as a pseudo-god. If an instance like this were to actually occur, wouldn't that change the whole group dynamic? Obviously Kurtz wasn't a researcher, but I do believe that ethnographic researchers could use this example as a warning of what could happen if you tried to impose your worldview upon the worldview of the culture-sharing group being studied. Ok, so maybe this "random thought" wasn't as random as I originally believed it to be!

Types of ethnographies: confessional, life history, autoethnography, feminist, visual, and ethnographic novels.

Realist ethnographies: traditional; anthropologists favor this approach; objective account written in third-person; while it reflects a particular stance, it is written from an omniscient POV simply reporting facts

Critical ethnographies: more modern approach; "authors advocate for the emancipation of groups marginalized in society"; researchers speak out, taking a more active role than the traditional ethnographic approach

Procedures for Conducting an Ethnography:
  • Determine if ethnography is appropriate for the study
  • Identify/locate culture-sharing group
  • Select parameters of study (themes, issues, theories)
  • Determine type of ethnography to use
  • Fieldwork (gathering information in context)
  • Generate overall cultural interpretation based on data collected and patterns observed
  • Present findings
Challenges in Ethnographic Research: understanding all the concepts (history, religion, politics, economy, environment, etc.) that create a cultural system; time involved in fieldwork; storytelling approach of presenting results may alienate some audience members and be difficult for some writers; SOME RESEARCHERS "GO NATIVE"!!!

Random thought follow-up: As noted by my caps emphasized finding above, my random thought was actually pretty spot on! "Going native" is exactly what I was describing in my ramblings, and the fact that this is a challenge would indicate that this does indeed happen! It would be interesting to study how frequently "going native" results from ethnographic studies.

Additional random thought: The situation of "going native" also reminds me of method actors who so fully immerse themselves in their character that they have a hard time finding themselves again after the project is complete. There are many cases of this causing mental breakdowns and even suicides. If a researcher "goes native" and then tries to return to his/her own culture, could similar problems arise?

Discussion Question #1: Do ethnographic studies always have to take the form of an "outsider" interpreting a culture? Can someone from inside a culture conduct an ethnography on a culture-sharing group they are part of? I know that with an autoethnography you can center yourself, but can the same be done with a more broad ethnographic study? Could you separate yourself from the study or since you are already a native, would that contaminate the findings in the same way an outside researcher "going native" would?

Discussion Question #2: What if the sample for the culture-sharing group you have selected is not representative of the population you are trying to represent? For clarification, there are numerous outsiders who have studied Appalachia by focusing on subjects who are not indicative of the whole population (e.g., The Wild Wonderful Whites of West Virginia), yet are presented as such. How do we ensure that we do not inadvertently engage in this same type of practice (accidental or not) within any ethnographic research we conduct? 


Ciesielska, Bostrom, and Ohlander, Chapter 2: "Observation Methods" 
(Focus on observation)

Participant (like ethnographic research) vs. non-participant observational research

Observational Research Design

  • Research aims: Observation can be a main method or a support for other qualitative research
  • Access to the field: Must be a defined space that researchers can access; gatekeepers block the flow of information
  • Sampling: researcher must adapt to the flow and not interfere; the key is to pay attention! Things to note:
    • Time & space management (of sample)
    • Objects
    • Social Actors
    • Interactions
    • Routines, rituals, episodes
*We cannot observe around the clock; we will miss things, so we have to pick the focus. Of particular importance are:
    Time: define observation periods
    People: observe samples of all people (ages, genders, positions, etc.), but not all people
    Context: "frontstage" vs. "backstage" behavior; we need samples of it all
  • The observer
    • Completely participating: blend into the environment; "going native" can allow access to "tacit, embodied knowledge," so it's maybe not a bad thing after all?
    • Partially participating: participate in activities to inform context, but don't participate in the specific behavior being observed
    • Non-participant: observes with no involvement; but can we ever truly remain neutral?
  • Notes taking
    • Can't focus on everything, so decide main goal of observation and stick to it!
    • Make regular notes
    • Note the details
    • Focus on reactions of observed people, not your own reactions
    • Try to understand what the event means for those being observed
    • Describe, don't judge!
    • Recording/transcribing speech is preferable to summarizing
    • Notes should address research topic
Observation Techniques
Direct Participant Observation: is stressful, tiring, and time-consuming; can help researcher delineate between what is spoken and what is done, which can vary; rarely used "in disguise" because that isn't ethical

Direct Non-participant Observation: researcher stays in the background and lets life go on around them; "a nosy but friendly cousin from abroad" (lol) so you can ask questions; but the researcher can influence people just by their presence, so care needs to be taken; gaining the trust of those being observed is key

Indirect Observation: one-sided mirrors, hidden cameras and voice recorders; can also be used for past/present situations the researcher does not have direct access to
  • Physical trace evidence and field visits: "Garbage Project"
  • Audio and video recordings: covert recordings; ethical concerns
  • Auto-observation: can be facilitated by researcher; interview, questionnaire, diary
  • Documentation analysis: archival studies; content analysis (themes, keywords, codes); narrative analysis (form, style, and content of events narrated)
  • Netnography: virtual ethnography; uses the internet to get materials for analysis
Sensory Ethnography: exploring a given environment with different senses
Dirty Ethnography: researcher's feelings of being dirty from exploiting someone in a vulnerable state

Discussion Question #3: How prevalent are these "sneaky" research methods? This reading made mention of using disguises, one-sided mirrors, hidden cameras, and hidden audio, so that makes me think that these might be used more than I'm comfortable with thinking about. I would think that all of these things are unethical, but is there ever a situation in which they could be considered an ethical means of observation?

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