Ethnography 1 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E. The purpose of ethnography is to describe and...

Ethnography 1

CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

The purpose of ethnography is to describe and interpret the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing

group (Harris, 1968)

Agar (1980) notes that ethnography is both a process and an outcome of the research

Ethnography involves extended observations of the group in which the researcher is immersed in their

daily lives

ETHNOGRAPHY:DEFINITION AND

BACKGROUND

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Ethnography begin in the early 20th century in comparative anthropology

Today subtypes of ethnography include structuralism and symbolic interactionism that have different theoretical orientations and aims

ETHNOGRAPHY:DEFINITION AND

BACKGROUND

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The approach is the traditional approach to ethnography

The account of the situation is objective and written in the third person

The ethnographer remains in the background and reports the facts

The details of daily life often providedThe ethnographer produces participant views through

closely edited questions and has the final word on how culture will be interpreted

TYPES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES:

REALIST ETHNOGRAPHY

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The goal is the advocacy and the emancipation of marginalized groups

The orientation in the study is value-laden The status quo is challenged

The concerns of power and control are addressed

The issues of power, empowerment, inequality, dominance, repression, hegemony, and victimization are studied

TYPES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES:

CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY

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Determine if ethnography is the appropriate research design for the problem

Identify and locate a culture-sharing group to studySelect cultural themes to study about the group (e.g.,

enculturation, socialization, learning, domination)

Begin by examining people in interaction in ordinary settings

Culture is inferred by the researcher by looking at what people do and say and the potential tensions between what

they do and ought to do, and their artifacts

ETHNOGRAPHY RESEARCH PROCEDURES (WOLCOTT

1999)

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Determine the type of ethnography (realist or critical)Gather data where the group works and lives (field

work)

Gather information where the group lives and works

Respect the individuals at the research site

Collect many sources of data

Analyze the data for a description of the group focusing on a single event and then moving into

overall themesThe final product is a wholistic portrait of the group that incorporates both the views of the participants

(emic) and the views of the researcher (etic)

ETHNOGRAPHY RESEARCH PROCEDURES

(WOLCOTT 1999)

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Overview of the studyThe study described the core values of the straight edge (sXe)

movement that emerged on the east coast of the US in the early 1980s from the punk subculture

The study involved White middle-class males from ages 15-25

The movement was linked with the punk music genre

Security made a large X on each hand before they entered punk concerts to show they were underage

The sXers adopted a clean living ideology

The ethnography examined how subculture group members expressed opposition individually and as a reaction to other

subcultures

ETHNOGRAPHY EXAMPLE: (HAENFLER 2004)

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Overview of the methodology

The author participated in the movement for 14 years and attended more than 250 concerts

The data consisted of 28 interviews with men and women, newspaper stories, music lyrics, web pages, and sXe magazines

The author provided a detailed description of the subculture

T-shirt slogans

Song lyrics

Use of the symbol X

ETHNOGRAPHY EXAMPLE: HAENFLER (2004)

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Overview of the findings:

The author described the cultural group

The author identified five themes

Positivity/clean living

Reserving sex for caring relationships

Self-realization

Spreading the message

Involvement in progressive causes

The author concluded the article with a broad understanding of the sXers’ values


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Features of ethnography

The study focused on a culture-sharing group and their core values

The author first described the group and themes about the group, and ended with a suggestion of how the subculture

worked

The author positioned himself by describing his involvement in the subculture and his role of the group for many years

The author used a critical ethnographic perspective to examine the issue of resistance to opposition

The author concluded with comment about how the subculture resisted the dominant culture


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This article examines how the

work and the talk of stadium

employees reinforce certain

meanings of baseball in

society, and it reveals how

this work and talk create and

maintain ballpark culture.

(Trujillo, 1992, p. 351)

THE PURPOSE STATEMENT:AN ETHNOGRAPHIC EXAMPLE

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Elements of Ethnography•Culture-sharing group•Language and cultural behavior•Cultural beliefs

work and the talkwork and the talk stadiumstadium

meanings of baseballmeanings of baseball

employees employees

ballpark cultureballpark culture

An ethnography example (Haenfler, 2004)

No central question was posed in the article

A possible central question: What are the core values of the straight edge movement, and how do members construct and understand their subjective experiences of being a part of the

subculture?

The central question identifies a culture-sharing group

The central question begins by asking for a description of core values

The central question uses the description of the core values to build an understanding of the experiences that are presented as

themes in the study

THE CENTRAL QUESTION

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Select a site to be observedIdentify a gatekeeper who can give you access to the

siteIdentify who will be observed and for how long

Determine your role as an observer

Complete participant (going native)

Participant observer

Complete observer

You can vary roles (e.g., be an outsider at the beginning and become an insider over time)

COLLECTING DATA: OBSERVATIONS

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Types ethnographic tales

Realist tale: conveys a scientific or objective perspective

Confessional tale: researcher focuses in on the experiences of the fieldwork rather than on the culture

Impressionistic tale: a personalized account of the fieldwork case in dramatic form

Critical tale: focuses on large social, political, symbolic, or economic issues

ETHNOGRAPHY: OVERALL RHETORICAL STRUCTURE

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Types ethnographic tales

Formalist tale: used to build, test, generalize, and exhibit theory

Literary tales: ethnographers write like journalists and borrow fiction-writing techniques from novelists

Jointly told tales: the study is jointly authored by fieldworkers and informants that open up shared discursive

narratives

ETHNOGRAPHY: OVERALL RHETORICAL STRUCTURE

(VAN MAANEN, 1998)

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Figures of speech (e.g., troupes)

Ways of depicting scenes

Thick descriptions

Dialogue

Ways of telling a “good story”

Develop “rules” about how the culture-sharing group works

ETHNOGRAPHY: EMBEDDED RHETORICAL STRUCTURE

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The researcher must be grounded in cultural anthropology and the meaning of a social-cultural

system

The researcher needs extensive time in the field to collect data

The researcher must be aware that the audience for the work may be limited because of the narrative

story-telling approach to writing that is often needed

ETHNOGRAPHY CHALLENGES

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The researcher must be aware of the danger of going native

The researcher must be sensitive to the needs of the individuals being studied including

The researcher must be aware of his or her impact on the people and places studied

ETHNOGRAPHY CHALLENGES

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Ethnography 1 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E. The purpose of ethnography is to describe and...

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