About EthnographyDr. Elizabeth McGibbon, PhD, RNSt. Francis Xavier University Underpinnings of Ethnography More on the researcher’s framework or worldview Definitions and Genres of ethnography In the real world: A Glimpse of Institutional Ethnography and a mini in-class research project

Ethnographic Underpinnings The ‘natural setting’

At the micro level: “to understand how behaviours reflect the entire group”

At the macro level: to understand systems (e.g. health, legal, government) and national and global processes

Methods of data collection can include: Participant observation, strucutred or unstructured

interviews, artifact and document/text collection…

Localities and Subjectivities: Temporal-Spatial-Historical Situatedness

Historical context of ethnographyEthnography has shifted, with many other

research traditions, along the lines of evolution from positivistism, post-positivism and on to racialized discourses, critical and Marxist models, cultural studies, queer theory…

The Researcher’s Interpretive framework, or worldview…Is the net containing the researcher’s

ontological (the nature of reality), epistemological (the nature of knowledge), and methodological lenses may be seen as an interpretive framework or paradigm

But how de we indentify our interpretive lens? How do we ‘see’ our worldview?

Definition of Ethnography (classic)… Ethnography is a qualitative research approach

that attempts to interpret human behavior in the cultural context in which it is embedded.

It provides a description and interpretation of a cultural group that is gleaned from the researcher’s prolonged examination of the observable patterns of behaviour, language, customs, interactions, and ways of life of the culture-sharing group (Creswell 1998; Gillis & Jackson, 2002; see pp.203-214)

Critical ethnography is grounded in critical theories that assume that society is structured by class and status, as well as race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, to maintain the oppression of marginalized groups (Marshall & Rossman, 1999).

Critical ethnography begins with an ethical responsibility to address processes of unfairness or injustice within particular lived domain (Madison, 2005)

Where do Ethnographers look for research questions and data?

…being ethnographers (today), we look to the everyday world for data…The example of a gender lens..

More ethnographic sources of data

More methods of data collection: Data in the Everyday World (Bansky)

Some genres of ethnography

Some genres of Ethnography:Autoethnography

Performance Ethnography

(Biomedical ) Technography

An In-depth look at one kind of ethnography: Institutional Ethnography

Ethnography as Interrogation of Societal Power Structures

Institutional Ethnography:Guiding Framework, Assumptions Everyday life as a point d’appui (starting point) for investigation

Standpoint: the notion of social ‘location’

Sociopolitical and economic contexts are central

Hence, Critical Social Perspectives such as Critical Social Theory, Feminism are often provide guiding principles

Everyday life is always articulated to institutional power

“Institutions” describe systemic structures

More on Guiding Assumptions:Using the Interpretive Lens of Institutional EthnographyTHE GOALS OF IE: Identifying ‘Institutional’ Power Structures

Engaging in everyday/everynight activities: The actors in their local world, (including the texts of everyday life)

Mapping Social Relations

Data collection in the everyday world, in addition to textual analysis, institutional ethnography may use:

Participant observation…the ‘field’ In-depth Interviews Focus Groups Community workshops, gatherings of many forms

A step by step example of institutional ethnography:‘A reformulation of the nature of

stress in PICU Nursing’

A step by step example of ethnography: ‘A reformulation of the nature of stress in PICU Nursing’ Background and Context:

1. Occupational stress and burnout

2. Moral distress 3. Trauma: Vicarious

Trauma & Post traumatic

stress

Research Question(s)

1. How does the work itself influence nurses’ experiences of at work?

2. How does being a member of a predominately female workforce influence nurses’ experiences at work?

Research Approach Institutional Ethnography: Looking for how

everyday nursing practice in PICU is connected to (articulated to) institutional power

Methods In-depth interviews Focus groups Textual analysis

Ethical Considerations

A vulnerable population ‘all round’ Negotiating entrée Researcher positioning as a clinician More about ethics to come…

Validity (Interpretive validity) Description of how the researcher accounts for her/his

approaches to the research (design and methods; problems in the field)

Reflexive accounting for the substance of the research (detailed description of the research context- hx, physical setting, activities…)

Acknowledgement of the role of tacit knowledge (experience is different than words and symbols)

Reflexive accounting for ourselves throughout the research (entrée, evolution of role & relationships)

Analysis 1. Themes (Boyatzis’ (1998) thematic analysis)

2. Identifying institutional power at work in nurses’ everyday practice: mapping social relations

What did I find?Themes and Institutional Power: Emotional distress

Everyday/everynight caring for the living, the dying, and the dead

Technoscience and saving-life-preserving-organs (the multinational corp technological imperative)

Constancy of presence The temporal-spatial presence of nurses

Burden of responsibility Monitoring and doing the jobs and the work of other

clinicians; The Jane-of-all-Trades: Making sure hospital work processes go forward

Negotiating a power-based hierarchy

Bodily Caring The gendered nature of bodily caring: “dirty work” Bodily caring and accounting for the unaccounted

Human connection ‘Being mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts’: mapping

nurses work to feminist analyses of relational ethics

So What??

Knowledge Translation: Where does our research go and how do we get it there?

An everyday in-class example of engaging in the practice of Institutional EthnographyAnalyzing the ‘texts’ of :

Alcohol Advertising in Nova Scotia: The NS Liquor Commission ‘Occasions’ Campaign

Skipress Blockbuster news and previews

Research Questions

What is the nature of the images in ‘Occasions’…?

What is the nature of the text in ‘Occasions’…?

What are the points of articulation of the images and texts to ruling relations? (What institutional powers are at play?)

The Findings: Articulation of the everyday world to institutional power

Ethnographic Conclusions: The ‘So What’

The Endurance of Institutional power…

SO…

Institutional ethnography is a particular kind of ethnography: “Ethnography is a qualitative research

approach that attempts to interpret human behavior in the cultural context in which it is embedded. “

In our mini-study, we explored the cultural context in the ‘texts of alcohol advertising in NS’. Since it was an institutional ethnography, we looked for the institutional power context in particular.