Introduction
Ethnography is a qualitative research process used for carrying out an investigation of the day-to-day life of culture by associating closely with its members. Naturally, ethnographers are holistic; carry the record of the ethnicity, their traditional environment and practices under study. The researcher has to consider the framework, work of art, as well as environment of the themes and their relations to one another. As opposed to most research designs where a researcher is an expert, in ethnography, the researchers presume to a place where he or she understands very little and is ready to learn from the research environment (LeCompte & Schensul, 2010, p. 32).
Challenges of Ethnography
Time-consuming
To carry out their research, ethnographers (field workers) have to live among the community they are learning. They have to engage in participant observation, meaning that they must fully involve themselves in the community’s daily life whilst taking a keen interest in conducting the survey. Additionally, ethnographers may use a method such
as triangulation to get information sources, such as meetings, site archives, which work commonly to manage research claims.
Difficulty gaining full access
This usually occurs in close access type of ethnography, in that a field worker has to seek permission and introduction from the janitor to gain access. Hospitals and schools are good examples of closed access. Without full access, the ethnographer cannot conduct any study.
Variability of Methods
Interview techniques, protocols and video techniques are the various methods used to collect and analyze data. Since there are no set standards for scheming the collected variables, styles of implementing these techniques vary from researcher to researcher. In addition, making use of combining any two or all the mentioned techniques in various locations make cross-referencing a difficult task.
Resource Intensive
Owing to the research temperament, its design commands that it resource ravenous. This, usually applies where the assessment of videos need specific
facilities and infrastructure. Since the process is manual, its low speed limits its effectiveness, making it impracticable where direct involvement such as an interview is of importance.
Subjectivity and Culture
The behavioural and communal aspects of design, its cultural view and subjectivity, are the parts that are not easy to manage, in turn affecting the research progression. With no standardized approach and testing, it is quite difficult to compare the results of diverse cultures. It is not easy to prove correctly the outcome of large sets of statistics against the theory based on different cultural settings.
Important Ethical Guidelines
Professionalism
A relevant and statistical analysis is relevant to every ethnographer. They are supposed to take on projects they are sure to get valid results. It is important to address proficiently the subject-matter issues and some statistical practices that identify the stage of analysis and the size of the data for use. In addition, the field worker has to ensure that they use dynamic methods when conducting their research; that is, yesterday’s methodologies may not precisely work for today and tomorrow’s studies.
Be Responsible to Research Subjects
An ethnographer has to avoid too much risk and nuisance to research subjects on their confidentiality and time. They should know what rules to hold on to in order to guard human subjects by planning a practical assessment of the research legitimacy of the expected results.
Objectivity
An ethnographer with a preconceived notion may affect the results of data analysis, personnel resolution, or other aspects of the study he or she is required to carry out. Additionally, disclosure of personal or financial interests may affect the research.
Ethnographic Themes
Gender Roles
Gender typing is a process where kids acquire motives, behaviours, and cultural values in a society. They develop gender stereotypes that are reflected later on in their gender roles. These cultural gender roles may vary in different cultures depending on the occupation, level of education, age, as well as ethnicity. For example, an African American family is unlikely to adhere to strict gender-role differences when entertaining their kids, whereas a Mexican-American family is more likely to highlight gender diversity.
Religious Diversity
People from different cultures and settings may have different prospects, different skills of teaching and learning and may feel they are unable to take part in some activities which may have an impact on their lives on daily partaking in learning institutions. Most cultures believe that only their religion offers a way to deliverance and think other religious convictions are partially true, and some believe that religion is an issue of belief.
Archival Research
Archival Research is the examination of hard information from records that associations or organizations have. Archival exploration is more tedious than library and internet searching, owing to difficulties in recognizing, finding, and translating relevant records. With the exceptional nature of archival records, ethnographers are always ready to get access to them to fulfil their goals.
Interviews
Interviews use open-ended questions to ask important information from the target. The approach to interviews depends on the objective of carrying it out. Every ethnographer has to use his or her own exceptional way when carrying out interviews, to get most and correct information from the interviewees. Despite the emphasis on permitting the person met to reply without constraining by predefined decisions, this is something that separates subjective from more quantitative or demographic methodologies. More often than not, an ethnographic meeting looks and feels minimal not the same as an ordinary discussion and undoubtedly over the long duration of member perception, most discussions have no plan in particular.
Elite Interviews
This is a special type of interview in that it varies from other interview rules. It presents personal accounts, individual insights and overcomes privacy. They are important in ethnography to learn the works and interpretations of the culture under study. It is a supplement to data and archival sources as it makes the research, though it has shortcomings.
Conclusion
Social anthropologists share enthusiasm from telling stories about being human through ethnographic work. The other way is that the skilful task of watching and portraying other people may not appear similar to the unspoken personal undertaking of finding out about themselves. It is the legitimate truth of hands-on work that these two undertakings are constantly embroiled in one another (Hoey, 2014, p. 12).
Good ethnography perceives the transformative way of firsthand work whereas we look for responses about people we may find in the stories of others. The purpose of ethnography is to recognize a common item conceived of the entwining of the lives of the ethnographer and his or her subjects.
References
Hoey, B. A. (2014). Opting for elsewhere: lifestyle migration in the American middle class. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
LeCompte, M. D., & Schensul, J. J. (2010). Designing & conducting ethnographic research: An introduction. Lanham: AltaMira Press.