Ethnography 1 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

The purpose of ethnography is to describe and interpret the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group (Harris, 1968) Agar (1980) notes that ethnography is both a process and an outcome of the research Ethnography involves extended observations of the group in which the researcher is immersed in their daily lives ETHNOGRAPHY: DEFINITION AND BACKGROUND Ethnography 2 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Ethnography begin in the early 20 th century in comparative anthropology Today subtypes of ethnography include structuralism and symbolic interactionism that have different theoretical orientations and aims ETHNOGRAPHY: DEFINITION AND BACKGROUND Ethnography 3 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

The approach is the traditional approach to ethnography The account of the situation is objective and written in the third person The ethnographer remains in the background and reports the facts The details of daily life often provided The ethnographer produces participant views through closely edited questions and has the final word on how culture will be interpreted TYPES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES: REALIST ETHNOGRAPHY Ethnography 4 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

The goal is the advocacy and the emancipation of marginalized groups The orientation in the study is value-laden The status quo is challenged The concerns of power and control are addressed The issues of power, empowerment, inequality, dominance, repression, hegemony, and victimization are studied TYPES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES: CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY Ethnography 5 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Determine if ethnography is the appropriate research design for the problem Identify and locate a culture-sharing group to study Select cultural themes to study about the group (e.g., enculturation, socialization, learning, domination) Begin by examining people in interaction in ordinary settings Culture is inferred by the researcher by looking at what people do and say and the potential tensions between what they do and ought to do, and their artifacts ETHNOGRAPHY RESEARCH PROCEDURES (WOLCOTT 1999) Ethnography 6 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Determine the type of ethnography (realist or critical) Gather data where the group works and lives (field work) Gather information where the group lives and works Respect the individuals at the research site Collect many sources of data Analyze the data for a description of the group focusing on a single event and then moving into overall themes The final product is a wholistic portrait of the group that incorporates both the views of the participants (emic) and the views of the researcher (etic) ETHNOGRAPHY RESEARCH PROCEDURES (WOLCOTT 1999) Ethnography 7 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Overview of the study The study described the core values of the straight edge (sXe) movement that emerged on the east coast of the US in the early 1980s from the punk subculture The study involved White middle-class males from ages The movement was linked with the punk music genre Security made a large X on each hand before they entered punk concerts to show they were underage The sXers adopted a clean living ideology The ethnography examined how subculture group members expressed opposition individually and as a reaction to other subcultures ETHNOGRAPHY EXAMPLE: (HAENFLER 2004) Ethnography 8 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Overview of the methodology The author participated in the movement for 14 years and attended more than 250 concerts The data consisted of 28 interviews with men and women, newspaper stories, music lyrics, web pages, and sXe magazines The author provided a detailed description of the subculture T-shirt slogans Song lyrics Use of the symbol X ETHNOGRAPHY EXAMPLE: HAENFLER (2004) Ethnography 9 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Overview of the findings: The author described the cultural group The author identified five themes Positivity/clean living Reserving sex for caring relationships Self-realization Spreading the message Involvement in progressive causes The author concluded the article with a broad understanding of the sXers’ values ETHNOGRAPHY EXAMPLE: HAENFLER (2004) Ethnography 10 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Features of ethnography The study focused on a culture-sharing group and their core values The author first described the group and themes about the group, and ended with a suggestion of how the subculture worked The author positioned himself by describing his involvement in the subculture and his role of the group for many years The author used a critical ethnographic perspective to examine the issue of resistance to opposition The author concluded with comment about how the subculture resisted the dominant culture ETHNOGRAPHY EXAMPLE: HAENFLER (2004) Ethnography 11 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

This article examines how the work and the talk of stadium employees reinforce certain meanings of baseball in society, and it reveals how this work and talk create and maintain ballpark culture. (Trujillo, 1992, p. 351) THE PURPOSE STATEMENT: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC EXAMPLE Ethnography 12 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E Elements of Ethnography Culture-sharing group Language and cultural behavior Cultural beliefs work and the talk stadium meanings of baseball employees ballpark culture

An ethnography example (Haenfler, 2004) No central question was posed in the article A possible central question: What are the core values of the straight edge movement, and how do members construct and understand their subjective experiences of being a part of the subculture? The central question identifies a culture-sharing group The central question begins by asking for a description of core values The central question uses the description of the core values to build an understanding of the experiences that are presented as themes in the study THE CENTRAL QUESTION Ethnography 13 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Select a site to be observed Identify a gatekeeper who can give you access to the site Identify who will be observed and for how long Determine your role as an observer Complete participant (going native) Participant observer Complete observer You can vary roles (e.g., be an outsider at the beginning and become an insider over time) COLLECTING DATA: OBSERVATIONS Ethnography 14 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Types ethnographic tales Realist tale: conveys a scientific or objective perspective Confessional tale: researcher focuses in on the experiences of the fieldwork rather than on the culture Impressionistic tale: a personalized account of the fieldwork case in dramatic form Critical tale: focuses on large social, political, symbolic, or economic issues ETHNOGRAPHY: OVERALL RHETORICAL STRUCTURE Ethnography 15 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Types ethnographic tales Formalist tale: used to build, test, generalize, and exhibit theory Literary tales: ethnographers write like journalists and borrow fiction-writing techniques from novelists Jointly told tales: the study is jointly authored by fieldworkers and informants that open up shared discursive narratives ETHNOGRAPHY: OVERALL RHETORICAL STRUCTURE (VAN MAANEN, 1998) Ethnography 16 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

Figures of speech (e.g., troupes) Ways of depicting scenes Thick descriptions Dialogue Ways of telling a “good story” Develop “rules” about how the culture-sharing group works ETHNOGRAPHY: EMBEDDED RHETORICAL STRUCTURE Ethnography 17 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

The researcher must be grounded in cultural anthropology and the meaning of a social-cultural system The researcher needs extensive time in the field to collect data The researcher must be aware that the audience for the work may be limited because of the narrative story-telling approach to writing that is often needed ETHNOGRAPHY CHALLENGES Ethnography 18 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E

The researcher must be aware of the danger of going native The researcher must be sensitive to the needs of the individuals being studied including The researcher must be aware of his or her impact on the people and places studied ETHNOGRAPHY CHALLENGES Ethnography 19 CRESWELL QUALITATIVE INQUIRY 2E