Professional Documents
Culture Documents
There are several ways researchers conduct ethnographic research. Each, however, is
designed to perform a specific task. Each method is designed to solicit a particular
kind of information from participants. Some methods widely used by ethnographic
researchers include:
Participant Observation
Researcher's Role in Participant Observation
Possible Research Roles
Role
Description
Use
Observer
Participant
Participantobserver
Insiderobserver
Interviewer
On-site observation
Prolonged data collection
Participants' constructed realities that can be verbal, nonverbal, and tacit
Corroboration of field observations through multiple methods, multiple
participants, and multiple situations
5. Salient observations about who, what, where, when, how, and why?
6. Recording observations
Example
Ethnographic Interviews
Ethnographic interviews are open-response questions to obtain data of participant
meanings--how individuals conceive of their world and how they explain or "make
sense" of the important events in their lives. There are three types of interviews:
informal conversation interview, interview guide approach interview, and
standardized open-ended interview.
Sequence of Interview
Effective interviews depend on following a number of guidelines:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Types of Artifacts
1.
2.
3.
4.
Personal documents
Official documents
Objects
Erosion measures
Literature Review:
Life History:
detailed. Unless you have a very experienced professional to make sense of all
the details, life histories can sit in file cabinets, unavailable to anyone.
Focus Groups:
Field notes:
Mapping:
Try It Yourself
Is it so obvious?
Interview
Interviews and participant observation are perhaps two of the more well-known
ethnographic methods. Interviewing allows an ethnographer to personally connect
with an individual while obtaining first hand information that is useful in answering a
question or questions that have obvious answers.
To get a feel of how interviewing works, try this.
Think of a job, position, or activity that you see people around you perform
everyday. Maybe someone who is a data specialist in your office, a supervisor,
a crossing guard, teacher, janitor, street vendor, etc.
Having this activity in mind, interview two people (they can each have
different jobs) and ask questions that address what it is they
actually doeveryday. You want to find out how they do this, step-by-step.
To begin, make a list of five questions that you would like to ask. For example,
what is the title of your job? What are your qualifications? When do you
perform your job? Is there a procedure to performing your job, etc.
After you have made this list, ask your fist interviewee these five questions.
When you have completed that interview, seek out interviewee number 2.
This time, ask interviewee 2 open-ended questions like what is it that
you doeveryday? Can you describe it to me?
Were their answers to your questions obvious? Is there a difference in the responses
that you received? Was one interview more informative or effective than the other?
Did you ask them how much money they make, and if not why not? Which questions
did you feel comfortable asking?
Try It Yourself
Grocery Store
Mental Maps and Observations
Mental maps provide valuable information about a place of study. The way in which
people remember a place or space can give insight into their impressions of that place,
its use, what was seen as being important enough to observe, and how they organize
Take a few moments to map out your local grocery store on a piece of paper.
After you have mapped it, look for patterns throughout the store. Are certain
foods found near each other? Are beverages in more that one section, if so
why?
Can you categorize the various sections of your grocery store?
Now, after making a mental map, go to the grocery store to see if you were
correct.
Did you leave out anything? Have you noticed changes in the store since you
began shopping there?
Does this give you any perspective on what you might find of importance in
the grocery store?
There are also examples of ethnographic research conducted for the NPS.
El Santuario de Chimayo.
people and animals with whom they live and work. The primary ethical
obligation is to the people, species, and materials studied. They should gain
informed consent and can implement measures to ensure anonymity. There is to
be no intentional harm done to the people, animals or environment.
scholarship and science. Anthropologists should not intentionally deceive or
misrepresent information, should preserve opportunities for future fieldwork
for others who may come after them, and should consider all reasonable
requests to access data for purposes of research.
the public. Results of research should be accessible to the public,
anthropologists and non anthropologists alike.
students and trainees. No discrimination based on race, gender, class,
political position, etc should exist. Anthropologists are also responsible for the
encouragement of students and their interest, training of students, and the
acknowledgement of students and trainees publicly who contribute to research.
References
1. McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. S. (1997). Research in education: A
conceptual introduction. New York: Longman.