Colegio dela Purisima Concepcion

School of Graduate Studies

EDUC 300 - Qualitative Research

ETHNOGRAPHY
KIM CARILLO
JAY D. BOLANO
Reporters

DR. LEO ANDREW B. BICLAR

Professor
Subtopics
I . W H AT I S E T H N O G R A P H I C R E S E A R C H ?
I I . H O W D O E S A N E T H N O G R A P H E R S TA RT ?
I I I . W H AT D O E T H N O G R A P H E R S D O ?
I V. W H AT A R E T H E S TA G E S I N C O N D U C T I N G
ETHNOGRAPHY?
V. W H AT S H O U L D W E D O W I T H A L L T H E
D ATA ?
V I . W H AT P I T FA L L S S H O U L D W E WAT C H
OUT FOR?
 WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHIC
RESEARCH?
• Ethnography, from the Greek ethnos (“foreign people”) and graphein (“to
write”),

• It is the systematic study of a particular cultural group or phenomenon.

• It is the primary research methodology for anthropologists; it seeks

to answer anthropological questions concerning the ways of life of
living human beings.
I. WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHIC
RESEARCH?
American anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1973)
famously differentiated ethnographic research
from other kinds of research not by its methods,
but by its “elaborate venture into thick
description”

By thick description Geertz refers to an

action, practice, or event and the meaning and
symbolic importance given to it by members of a
particular society.
INFORMANTS
• Unlike respondents, who “respond to survey questions,” or subjects,
who are the “subject of some experiment,” participants in
ethnographic research are called informants.

• “tell you what information you need to know about their culture”

• Informants are really teachers; they are experts about their lives and
their practices. And if an ethnographer is fortunate, respectful, and
successful, an informant will share that expert knowledge.
 However, despite the best intentions of the ethnographer, informants are not always
cooperative in providing open access to information.

• Satish Saberwal (1969) recounted trying eighteen different times to

obtain information from an informant in Kenya before finding any
success.

• Norma Diamond (1970) wrote about the difficulties of working with

Taiwanese women her own age who had no place to put Diamond’s
status as a single woman.
 Strategies to make the ethnographer’s presence “more familiar
and less threatening”

• Employing multiple informants and multiple research methods

• Relying on local assistants to make introductions and model appropriate

social behavior

• Allowing time to breed familiarity

ETHNOGRAPHY IS NATURALISTIC

• In order to craft descriptions of cultural events and cultural practices,

an ethnographer studies real people doing what they do to meet the
everyday demands with which they are confronted.

• Ethnographers focus on real people and their everyday activities in their

natural environment, whatever that may be.
 CLASSIC ETHNOGRAPHIC
•
RESEARCH
Conducted in the early and mid-twentieth century was focused on a
single society in a single place, and resulted in monographs on the
practices of particular groups of people.

• Raymond Firth (1936) spent a year in Tikopia, in the western Pacific, and
his account of that visit, We the Tikopia ,has become one of the great
classics of ethnography

• E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1940) studied the Neur people of east Africa and

produced The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and
Political Institutions of a Nilotic People, another classic of British social
anthropology.
 MULTI-SITED ETHNOGRAPHIES
• More recently ethnographers have found that the activities that are of
interest take place over a range of sites, rather than at a single locale.

• An example of multi-sited ethnography is Nancy Scheper-Hughes’s work

on the black market for the trade of human organs. In her research
Scheper-Hughes (2001, p. 2) follows
the movement of bodies, body parts, transplant doctors, their patients,
brokers, and kidney sellers, and the practices of organs and tissues
harvesting in several countries—from Brazil, Argentina, and Cuba in
Latin America to Israel and Turkey in the Middle East, to India, South
Africa, and the United States
• It is important to remember that ethnographers do not study these sites— villages,
classrooms, or global networks—themselves.

“The locus of the study is not the object of study”

The object of ethnography is not the place, but

particular cultural phenomena that happen to be
located in one or several places.
KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF ETHNOGRAPHY
• First, it is conducted on-site or in a naturalistic setting in which real
people live.
• Second, it is personalized since you as the researcher are both observer
and participant in the lives of those people.
• Ethnography also collects data in multiple ways for triangulation over an
extended period of time. The process is inductive, holistic and requires a
long-term commitment from you.

• Finally, ethnography is dialogic since conclusions and interpretations

formed through it can be given comments or feedback from those who
are under study.
 II. HOW DOES AN ETHNOGRAPHER
START?
• CHOOSING A TOPIC
Starting ethnographic research involves choosing a topic or
problem to study and figuring out where to study it. In the past,
ethnographers focused on documenting everything about a
particular society. But now, they often focus on a specific
problem or topic that interests them.
• FIND A PLACE TO STUDY
Once they've chosen a topic, ethnographers need to find a place
to do their research. This can be tricky because they need access to
the people and places they want to study. They might need
permission from gatekeepers, like school principals or village
leaders. Sometimes, getting access requires building relationships
and gaining trust over time.
• Making sure the research is ethical and respectful of the people involved.

Ethnographers also need approval from institutional review

boards (IRBs) to make sure their research is ethical and doesn't harm
anyone. They have to get informed consent from the people they
study, which means explaining the research and making sure
participants understand and agree to take part. Ethnographers also
promise to keep participants' information confidential and ensure
they're not harmed or exploited.
• Assess your time and resources

Do you have the time to conduct the study? What about your other
obligations and commitments? What types of resources do you
have? What types of equipment will you need? Who will fund the
study?
 III. WHAT DO ETHNOGRAPHERS DO?

• FIELDWORK

Ethnographers spend time in the places where people live and

work to observe their daily lives firsthand.
• FIELDWORK
The rule is that time in the field should consist of at least one full cycle of
activities.

Because a full cycle encompasses the period from start to finish,

an educational ethnographer would, on the one hand, typically spend a
semester, if not an entire school year, in a classroom or other school
setting. An ethnography of an agricultural society, on the other hand,
would extend over at least one planting season.
• FIELDWORK
The long-term, intensive nature of fieldwork is unique and rewarding; it can also
be uncomfortable, frustrating, and full of anxiety.

Ethnographers also encounter difficulties that are unique to the

settings in which they study. For Scott Grills (1998) the dilemma was
how to remain nonpartisan in a highly politicized local cell of the
Communist Party of Canada.
• FIELDWORK

Shaffir and Stebbins (1991) identify four stages of fieldwork:

(a) entering the field setting;

(b) learning how to play one’s role while there, whether it be
that of researcher or someone else;
(c) maintaining and surviving the several kinds of relations
that emerge; and
(d) leaving the setting
• PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

This means actively taking part in the activities of the

community while also observing them. Ethnographers
immerse themselves in the community, ask questions, and
participate in rituals or events to understand them better.
• INTERVIEWS

Ethnographers talk to people in the community to learn

about their experiences and perspectives. These interviews
are often informal and open-ended, more like conversations
than structured interviews. They might also use focus groups,
where small groups of people discuss specific topics together.
• SURVEYS

Sometimes ethnographers use surveys to collect

information from a larger group of people in the community.
These surveys are usually done toward the end of the
fieldwork and help gather data on specific topics that were
observed or discussed during the research.
• KEY INFORMANTS

Certain individuals in the community, known as key

informants, have extensive knowledge and play important
roles. Ethnographers often develop close relationships with
these people, who help guide and inform their research.
• WRITTEN RECORDS AND ARTIFACTS

Ethnographers collect and analyze written documents, like

books or reports, as well as physical artifacts to understand
the historical and cultural context of the community they're
studying.
 IV. WHAT ARE THE STAGES IN
CONDUCTING ETHNOGRAPHY?

• Problem formulation

Defining the main focus of the study by formulating the

problem about which you wish to learn more.
• Selecting a research setting
The first question is knowing and deciding where to begin.
The setting should permit clear observation. It is also
helpful to select a setting that you can readily fit in but this
does not mean that you are intimately familiar with it.
• Gaining access
How do you get into a group that you wish to study? You
may need to seek formal permission which can be
facilitated if you have a friend who can vouch for you. You
can also get your foot in the door if you first participate in
the group as a volunteer and not as a researcher.
• Presenting oneself
You need to decide how you will present yourself to those
in the field. Will you be conducting covert research? What
roles will you need to adopt and relate to others? How
active will you be participating in other people’s lives? If
you present yourself as a researcher, will others be able to
accept you in their daily lives?
• Gathering and recording information
Always carry a notepad for brief jottings. Sometimes there
is no alternative but to wait and record observation after
you leave the setting. You should record the observations as
soon as possible to minimize recall problems. You may also
rely on equipment such as audiorecorders, video cameras,
etc.
• According to Singleton and Straits (2005), your field notes or detailed
descriptive accounts of any observation made during a given period should
include the following elements:

• Running description: This is the record of the day’s

observations. The objective is to record accurately what
you observe.

• Forgotten episodes: These are accounts of previous

episodes that you have forgotten but are remembering
again while you are in the field.
• Ideas and notes for further information use: These refer
to spur-of-the moment ideas related to data analysis, data
collection, speculations about relationships, etc.

• Personal impressions and feelings: These refer to

recordings regarding the subjective reactions you had
while working the field. They may provide clues to
biases which might be clouding your observations.
V. WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH ALL THE
DATA?
• Ethnographers can collect great quantities of material
to describe what people believe and how they behave
in everyday situations; therefore, data analysis and
interpretation can be challenging (Roper & Shapira,
2000).
• Coding for descriptive labels: Since the materials
collected are in the form of written words, those words
must first be grouped into meaningful categories or
descriptive labels, then organized to compare, contrast
and identify patterns.
• Sorting for patterns: The next step is to sort or group
the descriptive labels into smaller sets. One begins to
develop themes from those groupings and a sense of
possible connections between the information.
• Identifying outliers: Cases, situations, events or
settings that do not “fit” with the rest of the findings
may be identified. These cases should be kept in mind
as the different steps in the research process are
developed, for example, should we collect more
information about those cases?
• Generalizing constructs and theories: The patterns or
connected findings are related to theories in order to
make sense of the rich and complex data collected.
Existing literature is also reviewed.
• Memoing with reflective remarks: Memos are insights
or ideas that one has about the data. They are written so
that the researcher can know if anything needs further
clarification or testing. It also helps the researcher to
keep track of their assumptions, biases and opinions
throughout the whole research process.
VI. WHAT PITFALLS SHOULD WE WATCH
OUT FOR?
• Reactivity is the degree to which your presence as the
researcher influences the behaviors of others because
they know they are in a study may cause those under
study to act differently (Neuman, 2003). You being
unobtrusive or disruptive, and familiarizing yourself
with the lives of others may reduce the effect of
reactivity.
• Reliability in field research addresses the question of whether you
are able to collect data that are internally and externally
consistent, and credible (Neuman, 2003). Data are internally
consistent when the researcher records behaviors that are
consistent over time and in different social contexts. External
consistency can be achieved by verifying or cross-checking data
with other sources. Ethnographic researchers also depend on what
others tell them; therefore, credibility of the source of information
needs to be assessed.
• Validity in field research is the confidence placed in your ability
to collect and analyze data accurately, representing the lives or
culture under study (Neuman, 2003).
VI. DISADVANTAGES TO CONDUCTING
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
• Ethnography can be very labor intensive and time
consuming. Ethnographic researchers can spend years
in the field. Because field research is rarely an entirely
detached observation, field participation often becomes
a question of “how much” (Singleton & Straits, 2005).
• Balancing the requirements of both participating and
observing can be very difficult (Singleton & Straits,
2005). As you become more familiar with the setting
and develops attachment and empathy for, and trust
and rapport with those under study, you may be drawn
into the lives of those people more as a participant than
as an observer.
• Field work lacks the level of structure and control
found in laboratory settings that may help ensure
objectivity. If you are not careful, your personal values
and attitudes may lead to bias.
• Issues of confidentiality and privacy; your
unintentional revelation of identities; deception and
misrepresentation of yourself; identification of your
biases; your involvement with illegal behavior or
activity; violation of your own basic personal moral
standards in order to conform; your identification with
those lacking power in society.
• KEY IDEAS

• Ethnography is the systematic study of a particular

cultural group or phenomenon.
• Ethnography is naturalistic; ethnographers focus on real
people and their everyday activities in their natural
environment.
• Ethnographers engage in extended fieldwork to
document beliefs and practices from people’s own point
of view