Ethnography

ETHNOGRAPHY

Joanne Weber, ED 910

ETHNOGRAPHY

DEFINITION

FOCUS

PRINCIPLES

ROLE

DEFINITION

“Ethnography literally means to illustrate culture which makes it most suitable as a way of gathering data for research questions that require an understanding of cultural norms, politics or transitions. Within ethnography, the way that culture is illustrated is through the process of observing, recording and writing. At the base of the ethnographic method is systematic fieldwork. Fieldwork means observing the practices of the culture and social interaction where they occur.”

(Picken, 2009, p.338)

PRINCIPLES

Way of seeing, thinking and writing Aims to be an “uncomfortable

science” – unconventional, exposed Demands empathy – attentive to

feelings to others on their terms

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pp. 3-4)

FOCUS

“…look at social groups or culture, at actions and interactions of individuals and groups.”

(Rossman and Rallis, 2012, p. 90)

ROLE

“Ethnography is actively situated between powerful systems of meaning. It poses its questions at the boundaries of civilisations, cultures, classes, races and genders.”

(Clifford and Marcus, 1986, cited in Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 38)

HISTORY

HISTORY

ROOTS

FAMOUS PEOPLE

AND MOVEMEN

TS

ANTHROPOLOGY ROOTS

19th Century Western Anthropology descriptive account of a community or a culture historical and and comparative analysis of

Western and non-Western cultures 20th Century - ethnography adopted as a

research model for sociology ie. Chicago school later half of 20th century - rise in cultural studies

which overlapped with anthropology and sociology - then spread into psychology and human

geography(Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007, p.1)

FAMOUS PEOPLE - MALINOWKSI

pioneer of ethnography original ethnography done in exotic

faraway places concerned with the exotic, unusual

and untoward rather than everyday life

set out the conditions for effective ethnography - Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922)

(Pole & Morrison, 2003, p. 12)

MARGARET MEAD

First ethnographer of education Much of her work is based on Freudian

concepts Focused on informal educational cultures Specifically did ethnographic research

on adolescent behaviour in Samoa and applied it to American mores

Became the “grande dame of American cultural anthropology and a sixties counter-culture icon” (Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 26)

CHICAGO SCHOOL

1. Focus of research in 1920’s and 1930’s anthropology turned its attention to

documenting and understanding the mundane and everyday life

sociologists studied their own city (Chicago)

Albion Small, Robert Park, Ernest Burgess

research based on participation in the rich and varied social life of Chicago(Pole & Morrison, 2003, pp.12-13)

CHICAGO SCHOOL (2)

were outsiders attempting to become insiders, seeking first hand knowledge and experiences of the lives of citizens of Chicago.

approach now known as 'participant observation’

(Pole & Morrison, 2003, pp.12-13)

CHICAGO SCHOOL (3)

Studies: homelessness (Anderson, 1923)gangs (Thrasher, 1927)life in the ghetto (Wirth, 1928)crime and vice (Reckless, 1933) prostitutes (Cressey, 1932)Gold Coast - prosperous area of Chicago (Zorbaugh, 1926)

CHICAGO SCHOOL (4)

2. Methodology qualitative quantitative

3. Influence on direction of research areas of health, industry, work,

deviance, social movements and education

RESEARCH

DESIGN

ONTOLOGY

EPISTEMOLOGY

THEORY/METHODOLO

GY

METHODS

ETHNOGRAPHY IN RESEARCH DESIGN

Ontology

IdealismNon essentialist or non foundationalist-meaning is socially constructed

Epistemology

Subjectivism

Theory

Interpretivism• Symbolic

Interactionism• Phenomenolog

y• Hermeneutics

Methodology

EthnographyGenres- Critical - Performance- Auto- Online - Visual- Institutional

Methods

Participant ObservationField NotesInterviewsAnalysis of data

EVOLVING DESIGN IN ETHNOGRAPHY

Design has to be an ongoing concern - going back and forth between a “blueprint” and problems as they arise

Research questions and design can and should change over the course of the study

“Failure is at the heart of ethnography” (Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 43)

ONTOLOGY

“Generally speaking, ontology is the study of being (the word derives from the Greek for ‘existence’) and deals with questions concerning what things exist or can be said to exist.”

(Bekerman & Zembylas, 2014, p. 53)

ESSENTIALIST OR NON ESSENTIALIST?

“The key issue is whether there is something ‘real out there’ that is independent of our knowledge of it (Hay, 2006). For example, are there essential differences between racial or ethnic identities that exist in all contexts and at all times? An essentialist or foundationalist ontological position would say ‘yes’, whereas an anti-foundationalist position would emphasize the social construction of these phenomena.”

(Bekerman & Zembylas, 2014, p. 53)

ONTOLOGICAL MODELS

“Ontology is that branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of reality and refers to the status of being in which a person exists.”

Objectivism Subjectivism

Interpretivism Ethnography

Relationalism Constructionism

(Hart, P., 2014, class notes)

(Soanes, 2004 as cited in Milroy and Storbeck, found in Hammersley & Atkinson 2007, p. 2)

(Soanes, 2004)

INTERPRETIVIST ONTOLOGICAL FRAME

(Rossman and Rallis, 2012, pp. 43-44)

Attempts to understand the world from the perspective of individual experience

Predicting behaviours is not part of this research ontological frame; goal is to generate “thick description” of actor’s worldviews

Focus is on actor agency - how they create or shape their world

Research engages directly with participants

REFLEXIVITY

“…reflexivity denies the possibility of ethnographers ever achieving an entirely objective position in relation to research… because researchers are part of the social and educational worlds they are studying…such awareness is not just implicated in the kinds of ethnography… but also in the way such orientations affect all aspects of research design.” (Pole & Morrison, 2003,

p. 103

ETHNOGRAPHY IN RESEARCH DESIGN

Ontology

IdealismNon essentialist or non foundationalist-meaning is socially constructed

Epistemology

Subjectivism

Theory

Interpretivism• Symbolic

Interactionism• Phenomenolog

y• Hermeneutics

Methodology

EthnographyGenres- Critical - Performance- Auto- Online - Visual- Institutional

Methods

Participant ObservationField NotesInterviewsAnalysis of data

SAMPLE ONTOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION

“This study is situated within the symbolic interactionist paradigm, whereby recognition is given to the importance that encounters have upon personal development and group dynamics (Berger and Luckmann 1966; Blumer 1969; Geertz 1973; LeCompte and Schensul 1999).”

(Slobodzian, 2009, p. 183)

EPISTEMOLOGY

“Epistemology, on the other hand, is the study of knowledge … and reflects one's view of what we can know about the world and how we can know it (Audi, 2010). The key issue here is whether an observer can identify ‘real’ or ‘objective’ knowledge and if so, how. Evidently, this takes us back to ontology; if, for example, one adopts an anti-foundationalist position, then the assumption is that there is not a ‘real’ world out there which exists independently from the meaning we ascribe to it.” (Bekerman & Zembylas, 2014, p. 53)

MULTIPLE EPISTEMOLOGIES

“Most proponents of multiple epistemologies argue that knowledge is socially (or situationally, or contextually) constructed and is power oriented or power driven (i.e., constructed by a group or groups in power or with a high-status position in society). There is no separation of the knower and the knowledge/understanding that has been attained—which means, essentially, that all knowledge/understanding is biased, theory laden, and relative (typically with respect to the individual or group).” (Paul & Moores, 2010, p. 419)

STANDARD EPISTEMOLOGY

For sure, we can assert that Deaf epistemologies, like other multiple epistemologies, do not indiscriminately support the basic tenets of the standard epistemology such as objectivity, foundationalism, and generalization (beyond time, culture, situation, etc.; see, e.g., Lehrer, 2000; Noddings, 1995; Ritzer, 2001; Tanesini, 1999). (Paul & Moores, 2010, p. 419)

THEORY – METHODOLOGY -ETHNOGRAPHY

Primary goal is to understand a phenomenon

INTERPRETIVE TRADITION METHODOLOGY

Symbolic Interactionism

Ethnography• Critical• AutoPhenomenology• ethnomethodolog

yNarrative Inquiry

Phenomenology

Hermeneutics

METHODOLOGY VS METHODS

Methodology Methods

Refers to theories that provide a rationale for how research should proceed

Techniques or strategies for gathering information• Interviewing• Surveys• Participant

ObservationProvide the reasons for using the techniques or methods in relation to the kind of knowledge or understandings

ETHNOGRAPHY AS PROCESS

ETHNOGRAPHY AS

PROCESSTOOLS

SPACE

DATA COLLECTI

ON(Primary)

DATA COLLECTI

ON(Secondar

y)

ANALYSIS

TOOLS

Participant observation Cultural interviews Formal and informal interviews Interpretation of artifacts Researcher’s experience of events

and processes Document reviews and analysis

(Rossman and Rallis, 2012, p. 93 )

SPACE

Ethnographic research design is not limited to physical space

Focus on “spheres of knowledge” - analytical and epistemological domains

This has lead to multi-sited ethnography

Test of time - different types of ethnography will become absorbed into mainstream over time

(Morton and Mills, 2013, pg. 95)

MULTIPLE SPACES

“Ethnographers are place makers… ethnography turns someone’s everyday place into another very particular sort of place”

Multi-stranded methodology - not limited to one location but to multiple locations, contexts and knowledges

Still need to delimit object or field of study, and gain access to critical social actors; need to consider ethics when doing this

(Madden, 2010, p.38, cited in Mills & Morton, 2013. p. 61-64)

SCHOOL AS AN INTERSECTION OF MULTIPLE SITES

school is an intersection between students, parents, school boards, companies, universities, local and national organizations, professional organizations, parent organizations, community based organizations, law enforcement, social services agencies..

need to figure out new ways of doing school ethnographies that addresses the complexities of a school environment

(Pole and Morrison, 2003, p.119)

MULTIPLE SITES IN EDUCATIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY (1)

Can schools be explored as limited entities confined to a building or a geographical location?

Need to look at school’s relationship

to other places and cultures, to history and to other academic disciplines

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 65-66)

MULTIPLE SITES IN EDUCATIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY (2)

Cannot ignore questions of scale – ie. National debates become connected to local agendas; global issues are often understand in local terms

Includes actor-network theory – human and non human agents together shape social worlds

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 65-66)

DATA COLLECTION

SECONDARY DATA

PRIMARY DATA

PRIMARY DATA: FIELD NOTES

Issues of recording Pen and pencil – what gets left out or

included Tone, narrative, style Virtual, hyperlinked Field notes speak for themselves vs.

Ethnographer’s interpretation of field notes (and what gets left out or included) (Mills & Morton, 2013, p )

PRIMARY DATA INCLUDES:

Linguistic terms, local language Empirical detail with personal asides

and impressions Skills: active looking, improving

memory (detailed social maps), informal interviewing, writing detailed field notes, and patience

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 89-91)

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION – HOW TO START

Broad sweep and move to focusing on small units of detail

Thick description – copious detail - “preservation of concreteness”

(Hammersley and Atkinson, 2007, cited inMills & Morton, 2013, pg. 83-84)

PRIMARY DATA: INFORMAL SOURCES

Headnotes – field knowledge that is never written down

Scratch notes - quick scribbles, drawings, sketches and jottings, mneumonics (that fix observation) Encourages reflexivity and creativity Draws attention to the tangential and

unexpected Captured embodied experiences in ways

that transcend text(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg 89-91)

SECONDARY DATA

Texts Existing quantitative surveys Official statistics Diaries Photographs Art and Artefacts Policies

Events Social networks (Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 90)

(Pole & Morrison, 2003, pp. 50-72)

ANALYSIS (1)

• Analysis is an emergent and ongoing process

• Iteration and recursivity become “embodied” in the researcher (don’t just consider relationship between data and theory)

• Bibliography of a research piece indicates the theoretical influences upon the interpretation of the data (Madden 2010, p. 24, cited in

Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 125)

ANALYSIS (2)

• Juxtaposition between what the data is saying and what the theory is saying

• Creative and experimental• NOTE: If not informed by scientific

principles (systematic data collection, analysis and presentation) - if not, it is not good ethnography

(Madden 2010, p. 24, cited inMills & Morton, 2013, p. 125)

STAGES OF ANALYSIS (1)

Immersion – spend time with research materials – read and re read field notes, transcripts, diaries and artifacts -

open coding - don’t impose preconceived notions on data; sorting and labelling

Focused coding - further exploration of categories and themes in more depth – create an index

Compare data with other contexts and cases - see if there are relationships

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 120-123)

STAGES OF ANALYSIS (2)

Continue to compare and contrast - spot the recurring themes and issues

move from description to concept and back again

Can write memos before formal fieldwork – make lists of different types of people in order to understand their “force fields”- political, economic and social(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 120-123)

CAQDAS

Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software

Assists in coding large amounts of data More than 20 software packages

available How to pick the right software for you?

Read reviews at CAQDAS networking project - http://www.surrey.ac.uk/sociology/research/researchcentres/caqdas/support/choosing/index.htm

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 125-126)

http://www.surrey.ac.uk/sociology/research/researchcentres/caqdas/support/choosing/index.htm








SOFTWARE RECOMMENDED FOR ETHNOGRAPHERS

Software Features

NVivo • Supports grounded theory approach• Modelled on Microsoft Outlook• http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo.asp

x• Data is external and internal

ATLAS.ti • Simpler than Nvivo• Data is in an external file• http://www.atlasti.com/index.html

MAXQDA • Designed for analysis of political discourse• Used for qualitative and mixed methods• http://www.maxqda.com/

TransAna • Useful for ethnographic and video and audio data• http://www.transana.org/

http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo.aspx

http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo.aspx

http://www.atlasti.com/index.html

http://www.maxqda.com/

http://www.transana.org/

ETHNOGRAPHY AS

PRODUCT

WRITING/REPORTI

NGGENRES

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING (1)

1. Gaze and theoretical frameworks - must work from a theory i.e. post structuralism, post modernism, actor-network theory.2. Immersion - fieldwork must be designed to collect information about what people say and do, how they represent themselves and others, what belief systems might underpin their actions, what actions constitutes processes and routines, and in these, what materials and technologies are important.

(Picken, 2013, p. 342-344, cited in Walter, ed., 2013. Social Research Methods)


3. Duration in the field - … it is generally accepted that, for ethnographers, more time in the field is more…There is a point of diminishing ethnographic insights from our time in the field, so determining how long in the field is enough depends on how much time you have and your judgement about the comprehensiveness of your data.



4. Observing and recording - Thick description is a thorough and multidimensional description that captures a wide range of aspects of social behaviour, including items such as emotion, activity, sounds, smells, silences and attitudes.



5. Field Notes and Writing Up - The aim of the ethnographer is to produce a written account that conveys a ‘uniquely adequate’ explanation for the situation (Latour 2008, 2)


MANIFESTO – POLE & MORRISON 2003

1. Ethnography is 'pragmatic' - avoids standardized methods that are restrictive 2. Ethnography - (usually) includes the generation of concepts and/or theories.3. Emergent theories should be grounded in empirical data.4. Ethnography is a journey of discovery.


MANIFESTO – POLE & MORRISON 2003 (2)

5. Ethnography evolves and is uncertain as to who participates prior to fieldwork.6. Ethnography avoids 'theoretical saturation' - when additional analysis fails to add anything "new" to the understanding of the phenomena being studied.


MANIFESTO - MILLS & MORTON, 2013 Virtues

Modesty • be a modest witness - be embodied, located and accountable ie. reflexivity

• appreciate the work of other scholars - show how your work builds on their contributions

• acknowledge the strengths and limitations of existing work

• identify how the questions in your (and theirs) research might be developed and taken forward

Honesty • be frank about own scholarly ambitions and motivations

• about the limits of the research• about things that could have been done better• display some scepticism about results confirming

pre-existing hunches

Analytical Insight

• narrative and analysis is framed in the context of larger scholarly debates(Mills & Morton, 2013, pp. 147-150)

WRITING FROM FIELD NOTES

What to focus on? Images and impressions more important than factual details? Recurring patterns of behavour, action and conversations? The mundane or the puzzling? The relevant and the interesting?

Located knowledge - research values author’s biographies and fieldwork experiences

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 79-85)

WRITING CONSIDERATIONS

Telling vignettes Capture flow of events Rhetoric, voice and tense Detached third person account First person – evokes raw emotions,

impressions, sensibilities – ethnology usually adopts a first person perspective

Over interpreting? (Mills & Morton, 2013, pp. 83-85)

GENRES IN ETHNOGRAPHIES

Autobiographies Experimental dialogues Collaborate accounts with informants Auto ethnographies Ethnographic portraits Ethnographic blogs

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 154)

NEW APPROACHES IN ETHNOGRAPHY

Virtual ethnography - Internet, social media and mobile technologies

Para ethnography Performance ethnography Auto ethnography Ethno drama Other kinds are associated with political

positions Others are associated with theoretical

positions (Mills & Morton, pg. 94-96)

InternetEthnography

Auto Ethnography Institutional Ethnography

Critical Ethnography

Analyze websites

Analyze Self or others in relation to selfCritical autobiographyEthnobiographyEthnographic poeticsEmotionalismEvocative narrativesFirst person accounts

Analyze institutions – look at work processes or relationships; use feminist and sociological theories

Examine power and oppression in social settings; search for ways to emancipate oppressed peoples

Analyze with view to understanding current social patterns of interaction

Relate the personal experience to the social, cultural, political environment; disrupts dominant discourses

Explain how larger social forces shape behaviour in “local” ways’;

Use critical theory (mostly Marxist and neo- Marxist thought) to explain power and oppression

Sample Topics: Identity

Rhetorical devices: personal reflections, poems, journal entries

Rely on empirical observations

Conventional ethnographic research

(Rossman and Rallis, 2012, pp. 93-95)

POLICY ETHNOGRAPHY

Purpose is to understand the effect of policy decisions (programming, institutional structures, pedagogy, resources) upon individual students and teachersStructure Agency

• Focus on political economy• Influence of institutional

structures on pedagogy; reproduction of inequalities

• Berstein (1971, 1996), Bourdieu (1977); Bourdieu and Passeron (1977)

• Problem - trickle down logic is questionable (from ideology to actual events)

• Micro level of social life – roles, symbols, signs that shaped social relationships

• Record fine empirical detail (ie. Dialogue and social interactions)

• Microethnography• Foucault - is used by many

researchers to explain complex relationships between power-knowledge relationships(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 96-97)

POLICY ETHNOGRAPHY (2)

Scrutinize process of policy formation – policy is a fundamental organizing principle of society

Research policy making elites Show how policy shapes consciousness

and subjectivity (ie. Show how pedagogy supports ideology)

How to write about influence of international, national and local policies on everyday lives? (Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 96-97)

POLICY ETHNOGRAPHY (3)

Relationship between institutions and people are multi-faceted and complex For example: “audit culture” - virtues of

transparency and accountability that are traced back to examinations held at Oxford and Cambridge in the eighteenth century

Suggests that students and academics are not just victims of institutional policies

Respond to policy through our own interpretations and decisions(Strathern, 1997; 2000, cited in

Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 99-100)

SENSORY ETHNOGRAPHIES

Fieldnotes need to capture participants’ emotions and the way they are expressed

Need to pay attention to body language and language of other people

Influenced by phenomenologists: Levinas, Merleau-Ponty (mid 1980’s)

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 100-104)

SENSORY ETHNOGRAPHIES (2)

Subgenres - performance ethnography –

ethnographic insight through drama and bodily movements

Visual ethnography - photography, film, digital video journals

Issue of ethical research with young people with using visual means as traces are left all over the internet

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 100-104)

VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY

Methodological possibilities Analyze websites Participate in chat rooms Asynchronous interviews Collaborative approaches Ethical Issue: should researchers

use anonymity to gather information(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 106-107)

VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY (2)

New technologies have led to disembodied virtual spaces, experiences, relationships

Chat rooms – early research focused on virtual environments that had an offline component

Debate as to whether research can focus exclusively on online environments (without a real life component) or whether research must focus on both real life and online environments

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 104-107)

VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY (3)

Increasing number of educational ethnographies on educational environments

Beginning to focus on rich and complex relationships between virtual worlds and offline lives rather than focusing on one or the other

Establishing boundaries between social worlds on and off line is a challenge in ethnographic research - internet is not just an analytical space but a research tool - the lines become blurred

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 104-107)

CRITQUES OF

ETHNOGRAPHY

OUTSIDE

CRITQUES

INSIDE CRITIQU

ES

OUTSIDE CRITIQUES

most of the criticism comes from researchers associated with quantitative methods

associated with positivism tradition criticisms are epistemological

challenges, NOT methods

(Pole & Morrison, 2003, p. 15-16)

OUTSIDE CRITIQUES (2)

Validity issues imprecise being subjective lacking rigor tendency to describe and characterize

events instead of quantifying content amounting to anecdotes and

opinions using style more in common with

journalism being unable to generalize findings unable to contribute to wider social issues(Pole & Morrison, 2003, p. 15-16)

INSIDE CRITIQUES – ISSUES AND TENSIONS

ISSUES

CRISIS OF REPRESENTAT

ION

AUTHORITATIVE RESEARCH

VS SUBVERSIVE RESEARCH

SELF VS. OTHER

EXPLICITNESS VS

ELECTICISM RECIPROCITY

VS EXPLOITATION

SHORT TERM VS. LONG

TERM FIELDWORK

ADVOCACY VS

PRODUCTION OF

KNOWLEDGE

SHORTER RESEARCH PERIODS VS LONG TERM ENGAGEMENT

“…the consequences of moving from the older anthropological model of ethnographic fieldwork to its more recent forms, in which we study only parts of people’s lives over relatively short time periods, perhaps only being in the field a few days each week. There are problems of sampling and generalisation here, and a danger of failing to recognise both cyclical variability and fundamental patterns of change.” (Hammersley, 2006, p. 6)

OBJECTIVITY VS SUBJECTIVITYOBJECTIVITY SUBJECTIVITY

-ethnography is weak for producing general conclusions

Generalizability and validity - originally associated with statistics and quantitative data; reinterpret these words to mean modest generalizations

- Ethnography cannot identify or physically control variables

Analytical generalizations - created hypotheses that can be tested for their applicability to other settings

- Does not make use of statistical controls (used in surveys); cannot use statistical sampling theory

Changed scale and defend importance of case studies - nuanced, detailed and fine grained analyses - bring out the complexity and singularity of social worlds

- Cannot provide causal models that are true over time and across contexts.

Created a new language for discussing the process of ethnographic knowledge production ie. new terms such as reflexivity, situated knowledge, partial truths, positioned rationality


(Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007, pp. 233-234)

CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION

Crisis of representation – originated in the 1980’s

Issue of the authority of the ethnographic text – who does it really represent? The ethnographer, the subjects of the study?

Prior to 1980’s - a single analytic paradigm was used - focus was on providing realist data and interpretations

Post 1980’s – this view was challenged – ethnographer is accused of controlling the “voices” of the participants(Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007, pp. 203-204)

CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION (2)

Now adopt several different writing styles and voices, shifting viewpoints (can include ethno-drama, fictionalized narratives and poems).

Is argued that postmodern ethnographies are no more than self-consciously artful compositions.

(Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007, pp. 203-204)

RECIPROCITY VS EXPLOITATION

Research relationships – require empathy, judiciousness and judgement, ability to read social situations, body language and emotions

Ability to codeswitch - go between two languages, sets of expectations, behaviours, and manners affects one’s ability to collect relevant data and respect the particpant’s voice.

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 68-69)

RECIPROCITY VS EXPLOITATION (2)

Methodological relativism - don’t jump to conclusions or positions which may not be true of the population being studied

Sharing data from the study – workshops, seminars, news articles

(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 68-69)

EXPLICITNESS VS ECLECTICISM

Researcher is responsible for defending the methods and designs they have chosen to use and explain why their choices fit the research question

Focus is on “calling theory to account” (p. 45)

Micro-ethnographic work - empirical research is used to critique theoretical ideas and develop new ones


EXPLICITNESS VS ECLECTICISM (2)

Attempts to establish objective truths and is suspicious of ‘advocacy research” - mixing politics and scholarships, using theoretical “isms” is not accepted

Does not allow for additional questions posed by theories such as postmodernism or feminism

Concerned about being accountable to the scholarly community

METHODOLOGICAL ECLECTICISM

Experimental, profane theoretical methodology - willingness to become disoriented and confused

Shy away from terms: objectivity, validity and generalizability

Can often lapse into imprecision – fail to tell how they did their research, who they talked to, how and why

Concerned about being accountable to the community being researched(Mills & Morton, 2013, pg. 46-49)

EXPLICITNESS VS ECLECTICISM - PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Methodological Explicitness Methodological eclecticism

Suspicious of participation Okay to feel enmeshed in situation

Researcher role comes first Empathetic sensibility – take time to listen, discuss and appreciate

Danger in “going native” – losing one’s detachment and scholarly identity

Look for themes to emerge during one’s involvement; Find the design in the course of inquiry

Focus on accountability Focus is on participation

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 52-55)

AUTHORITATIVE RESEARCH VS SUBVERSIVE RESEARCH

Realist (based on past efforts)

Relativist (based on future efforts)

Ethnographic monographs are primary sources for comparative works of others

Ethnographic knowledge is “messy” and constructed; is more open to critical appraisal

Published works are prestigious and authoritative

Personal archives are often unpublished and are subversive

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 89 – 91)

FIRST PERSON VS. OTHER

Narcissistic self indulgence Assumptions that one’s experience is

true of everyone else who is in the same position

Authoethnography - pay attention to physical feelings, thoughts and emotions

All ethnography needs to find a way go between the self and other - that need for a space

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p.151)

FINAL CONSIDERATI

ONS

ETHICS

QUALITY OF

STUDIES

ETHICS

Confidentiality Informed consent – can be

renegotiated on an ongoing basis Overt, covert and researcher identity Avoidance of harm Anonymity

(Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 69-73)

ASSESSMENTS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH (1)

1. What is the text about? What educational

phenomenology/policy/change/process is being addressed?

What are the research themes, questions or issues driving the writing?

How are these questions and empirical themes generated, and why are they seen to matter?

(Fortun, 2009; cited in Mills & Morton, 2013, pp. 35-36)


2. Space How does the text define or create

ethnographic research space or landscape? Is it one school, a school’s community, a regional economy, a policy, a transnational imaginary? How does it cross or link spaces? How much is this space created by the ethnographer themselves?

(Fortun, 2009; cited in Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 35-36)


Does this ethnographic landscape dwell on the empirical or seek to combine theory and context, time and space, the empirical and the analytical?

Does the ethnography connect different empirical and conceptual scales?

How are the new virtual social spaces incorporated?

Is there an attempt at holism, or is the focus on tracing one object or idea through space?



3. Time How is time framed? Does it have a

historical trajectory? Is memory important? How much historical context is provided, and how important is that?

Are key historical events at the heart of the text? The opening of a school, or the launch of a policy?



4. People and other social agents Who or what are the significant

actors, participants or relationships in the account?

If people, how are they chosen and why? What explanation is given for these decisions?



How is human agency, and that of non-humans, presented? Are they at the centre of the narrative?

How is children’s agency presented and evoked?

How are the different actors related and connected?



5. Power and its disguises How, if at all, is power shown to

operate within the educational and social systems described by the text?

What sort of theory of power is implicit (or explicit)?

And how are people and social agents written into, or out of, this theory of power?



Does an attention to gender, age and other forms of social hierarchy and stratification inform the text?

Are social practices and structures involved and absorbed? Is there a focus on maintenance?

Is there an attention to the politics of representation, and the power of the text itself?

What ethical issues are raised by the research? How are these resolved? If none are raised, why not?(Fortun, 2009; cited in Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 35-36)


6. Evidence What sorts of evidence and ‘data’

are mobilized? Interviews? Documents? Fieldnotes?

How much are we told about this evidence and how it was collected?

Is there missing evidence that would have been useful to hear?



How does the text make use of other sensory evidence ie. visual evidence or bodily experiences

How important is this for the analytical argument being made?

How is the ethnographic ‘evidence’ analyzed?



7. Rhetoric and authority Is a narrative genre adopted? What

other genres are used? How well do they work? How important is trust?

How does it represent existing ethnographic literature in their work?

Does the text challenge this work? How important are the views of other writers and authors? (Fortun, 2009; cited in Mills & Morton, 2013, p. 35-36)


Are the analytical arguments convincing? How do they relate to the empirical presentation?

Is there an implied audience? Does it make a contribution to policy and popular debates? How effective is this?


TOP TEN RESOURCES

1. Picken, F. (2009). Ethnography. M. Walter ed. Social Research Methods. Australia. Oxford University Press.

2. Pole, C. J., & Morrison, M. (2003). Ethnography for education. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

3. Mills, D., and Morton M. (2013). Ethnography in Education. London. Sage.

4. Hamersley, M., Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnography. Principles in Practice. London. Routledge.

TOP TEN RESOURCES (2)

5. Hammersley, M. (2006). Ethnography: Problems and prospects. Ethnography and Education, 1(1), 3-14.

6. Bloch, Maurice. (1993). The uses of schooling and literacy in the village of a Zamfimaniry village. In Brian Street (ed). Cross Cultural Approaches to Literacy. Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture. Cambridge University Press.


7. Tobin, J., Hayashi, A. Reframing a Visual Ethnography of a Japanese Preschool Classroom. Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 28, Issue 1, pp. 13–31

8. Degarrod, L. (2013). Making the unfamiliar personal: arts-based ethnographies as public-engaged ethnographies. Qualitative Research 2013 13: 402-413

9. Chari, S., Donner, H. (2010). Ethnographies of Activism: A Critical Introduction. Cultural Dynamics 22(2) 75–85


10. McIlroy, G., Storbeck, C. (2011). Development of Deaf Identity: An Ethnographic Study. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 16:4 Fall 2011 pp. 494-511

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Knowles, J. G., & Cole, A. L. (2008). Handbook of the arts in research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues. London: SAGE.Lewin, C., & Somekh, B. (2011). Theory and methods in social research. London: SAGE.Meneley, A., & Young, D. J. (2005). Auto-ethnographies: The anthropology of academic practices. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (2)

Paul, P.V., Moores, D. F. (2010). Perspectives on Deaf Epistemologies. American Annals of the Deaf, 144:5,417-420Riemer, F.J., Blasi, M. (2008) Rethinking Relationships, Reconfiguring Teacher Research: Teachers as Ethnographers of Culture, Childhood, and Classrooms. Action in Teacher Education, 29:4, 53-65

BIBLIOGRAPHY (3)

Rossman, G. B., & Rallis, S. F. (2012). Learning in the field: An introduction to qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE

Slobodzian, J. T. (2009) The devil is in the details: issues of exclusion in an inclusive educational environment. Ethnography and Education, 4:2, 181-195

ETHNOGRAPHY

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Ethnography

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