Main Points

The Nature and Value of Ethnographic Research

• Ethnographic research is particularly appropriate for behaviors that are best understood by observing them within their natural settings.
• The key techniques in all ethnographic studies are in-depth interviewing and highly detailed, almost continual, ongoing participant observation of a situation.
• A key strength of ethnographic research is that it provides the researcher with a much more comprehensive perspective than do other forms of educational research.

Ethnographic Concepts

• Important concepts in ethnographic research include culture, holistic outlook, contextualization, emic perspective, and multiple realities.

Topics That Lend Themselves Well to Ethnographic Research

• These include topics that defy simply quantification; those that can best be understood in a natural setting; those that involve studying individual or group activities over time; those that involve studying the roles that individuals play and the behaviors associated with those roles; those that involve studying the activities and behaviors of groups as a unit; and those that involve studying formal organizations in their totality.

Sampling in Ethnographic Research

• The sample in ethnographic studies is almost always purposive.

• The data obtained from ethnographic research samples rarely, if ever, permit generalization to a population.

The Use of Hypotheses in Ethnographic Research

• Ethnographic researchers seldom formulate precise hypotheses ahead of time. Rather, they develop them as their study emerges.

Data Collection and Analysis in Ethnographic Research

• The major means of data collection in ethnographic research are participant observation and detailed interviewing.
• Researchers use a variety of instruments in ethnographic studies to collect data and to check validity. This is frequently referred to as "triangulation."
• Analysis consists of continual reworking of data with emphasis on patterns, key events, and use of visual representations in addition to interviews and observations.

Fieldwork

• Field notes are the notes a researcher in an ethnographic study takes in the field.
• They include both descriptive field notes (what he or she sees and hears) and reflective field notes (what he or she thinks about what has been observed).
• Field jottings refer to quick notes about something the researcher wants to write more about later.
• A field diary is a personal statement of the researcher's feelings and opinions about the people and situations he or she is observing.
• A field log is a sort of running account of how the researcher plans to spend his or her time compared to how he or she actually spends it.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethnographic Research

• A key strength of ethnographic research is that it provides a much more comprehensive perspective than other forms of educational research. It lends itself well to topics that are not easily quantified. Also, it is particularly appropriate to studying behaviors best understood in their natural settings.
• Like all research, ethnographic research also has its limitations. It is highly dependent on the particular researcher's observations. Furthermore, some observer bias is almost impossible to eliminate. Lastly, generalization is practically nonexistent.