Course II

Assignment I
ETHNOGRAPHY
Ethnographic Research
 GROUP MEMBERS

1. D’COSTA FLEUR
2. GAIKWAD SUPRIYA ROHIDAS
3. KHOPKAR PRADNYA NARENDRA
4. MAGAR NIVRUTTI G.
 Overview
 Ethnography explained
 Purpose of ethnography research
 Why ethnography?
 When to do ethnography ?
 Steps in conducting ethnographic research
 Characteristics of ethnographic research
 Ethnography as a method
 Methodological principles of ethnographic research
 Ethnographic research methods
 Data collection in ethnography research
 Advantages of ethnographic research
 Disadvantages of ethnographic research
 Ethical concerns in ethnography research
 EXAMPLES
 ETHNOGRAPHY EXPLAINED
 “Ethnography is the art and science of describing a group or culture the
descriptions may be of a small tribal group in an exotic land or a
classroom in middle class urban..” --- David M.Fetterman,1998..
 Ethnography came from the Greek ,

Ethno = people
Graphics =writing
 Ethnography is a branch of human inquiry.
 It is associated with the field of anthropology.
 A qualitative approach that studies the cultural patterns and perspectives of

participants in their natural settings.

 Purpose of Ethnography Research

 The main purpose of ethnography is to obtain a deep

understanding of people and their culture
 One distinguishing feature is fieldwork
 In ethnographic research , the context is what defines the

situations and makes it what it is………

 Why Ethnography?
 Why do some cultures expect their daughter to marry before
the age 18?
 How does a person’s specific family values impact the way
he or she acts in public with friends?
 These are complicated questions that cannot be answered
through a simple survey or other quantitative methods
 When to do Ethnography ?
 When searching for meaning of cultural norms and views
 When examining or trying to find reasons for certain behaviors or
practices
 When examining social trends and instances and encounters
 When examining social trends and instances like divorce, illness
 And when trying to understand the role of families, relationship and
organizations
STEPS IN CONDUCTING ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

 Identify intent and type of design and relate intent to your research problem
 Discuss approval and access consideration
 Collect appropriate data emphasizing time in field , multiple sources,
collaboration
 Analyze and interpret data within a design
 Write report consistent with your design
 Characteristics of Ethnographic research
 Contextual
The research is carried out in the context in which the subjects
normally live and work
 Unobtrusive

The research avoid manipulating the phenomena under investigation

 Longitudinal

The research is relatively long

 Organic
There Is interaction between questions/hypothesis and data
collection /interpretation.
 Collaborative

The research involves the participation of stakeholders other than

the researcher
 Interpretative

The researcher carries out interpretative of the data

 Ethnography as a Method
 People’s behavior is studied in everyday on texts , rather than under
experimental conditions created by the researchers.
 Data are gathered from a range of sources , but observation and/or
relatively conversations are usually the main ones.
 The approaches to data collection is unstructured. It means that in the data
collection process a detailed plan is not followed.
 Methodological principles of
Ethnographic research
 Naturalism
That the aim of social research is to capture the character of naturally
occurring human behavior
 Understanding

We can understand the situation of the base human background and we not
misunderstand anything to happen in the research.
 Discovery

Research is based on inductive or discovery based.

Ethnographic research methods
 Informal conversations

 Individual or group interviews

 Documentary materials / cultural artifacts

◦ E.g., diaries, letters, class essays, organizational documents, newspapers, photographs,
and audiovisual aids Population or sample surveys

 Audiovisual methods 
Classroom setting
  Activities

 Participation structures

 Behaviours of persons and groups

 Conversations and interactions 

 People say and do things which are consciously and unconsciously shaped
by the social situation.

 Sensitivity is important

 He should carefully establish a role that facilitates the collection of

information
 Participantobserver cultivating his role in the
study of student aggression and the hitting.
 Is he someone the principal had sent?

 Do they feel he is sympathetic toward the teacher point of view?

 Did the students consider him to be a teacher-like person?

 The participants might consciously color what they said

Observational Study

 Researchers can observe the same people or groups on a regular basis for
several weeks or months at a time.
 Undertaking a holistic, ethnographic study of an institution or department
to investigate the daily activities and interactions therein

 Participant observation of a lecturer’s own teaching and interaction (using

video or audio recordings of teaching sessions for example)

 Non-participant observation of student interaction and activities in the

laboratory or field environment
Paired Observation
 The researchers can interview two people within the same culture.

 They may be related to each other in some way or involved in different

actions.
Participant Observation
 The researcher joins a group of people being studied, either by living with
them or by observing them for an extended period of time during the day.

 They record what they see.

 Disguised participant observation

 Undisguised participant observation.

Problems faced
 Selectivity

 Memory limitations

 Post-hoc rationalization

 Stereotyping
Interview

 The ethnographic interview often results from the participant observation

method where the ethnographer actively engages with the members of the
research group in order to find out more about their lives.
Surveys
 The aim of carrying out an analytic induction is to discover the causative
factors of certain habits of the research group and come up with accurate
explanations for these behaviors. 
Data Collection in Ethnography Research
 Data collection in ethnography research in based on mainly three types,
there are
1. Interview
2. Observation
3. Documents
In ethnography research we can get data through this kinds of tasks…….
Watching what happened /listening to what is said /asking questions in
formal and informal ways
Advantages of ethnographic research
 One of the most valuable aspects is the depth of understanding
 Can challenge ‘taken for granted’ assumptions
 Ability to see first-hand how users interact with technology in their natural
environment
 Identify unexpected issues that you might not have encountered in a usability
test
 Opportunity to test new product ideas before they are released to the market
to see what demand is like
Disadvantages of ethnographic research
 Takes a long time
 Does not have much breath
 It can be difficult for some to write up the findings for a journal article.
 Because there is a greater insight into the user it takes much longer to generate and
analyse all the findings.
 Short studies may not get a user acting naturally as they are aware of the researchers
present.
 The cost of conducting ethnographic studies is typically much higher than conducting a
usability test.
Ethical concerns in Ethnography research
We conduct the ethnography research we concern about
some kind of a major ethical concerns ……. Those are …
 Informed consent
 Privacy
 Harm
 Exploitation
 EXAMPLES

 A Study on “poverty affects on schooling children's”

 Research on education “studying abroad”
 Researcher on smokers community ‘bumming

cigarettes’
Thank You !