ETHNOGRAPHY: AN INSIDER’S VIEW

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

‘Qualitative Research…involves finding out what people think, and how they feel -
or at any rate, what they say they think and how they say they feel. This kind of
information is subjective. It involves feelings and impressions, rather than
numbers’ Bellenger, Bernhardt and Goldstucker

Insights and understanding are provided by qualitative method of research stressing on

how something has happened giving an in depth understanding about individual, culture
and their experiences.
Qualitative research should not be considered as an easy option to Quantitative study. It
requires extensive commitment and time of the researcher to gain a perspective from the
field. To get authentic, “insider” information there are different steps which need to be
covered and various hurdles ranging from gaining access to developing good report with
the participants. Researcher has to “participate in the form of social and human science
research that does not have firm guidelines or specific procedures and is evolving and
changing constantly” Creswell(1987).
Thus the job of researcher becomes all the more difficult expecting to be up to date with
the recent trends of researches as well as have good understanding of extensive work
done previously.

Designing a qualitative study contains various several unique features, different from
quantitative study.” for designing a study a set of philosophical assumptions guides it
explicitly or implicitly.” Creswell.(1998)
Open ended question guide the research at every step with questions changing during the
course of research for increased understanding. Four basic type of information gathering
ways are there: interview, observation, documents and audio visual materials.
Although with technological developments and development of different modes of
communication, information gathering resources are adding to multiple sources of
information. Information gathering is not just a process of collection of views, it involve
various other factors. Various ethical issues should also be considered at this stage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Cohen, L. & Manion, L. (1989), Research methods in education. New York Routledge

Creswell, J. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design; Choosing Among Five
Traditions; Thousand Oaks. California: Sage Publications

James H.Macmillon Sally Schumacher (1989) Research in education a conceptual

introduction. Harper Collins publishers (U S A)
Kumar, Vinay