ethnographic & grounded theory

ETHNOGRAPHIC

RESEARCH

&

GROUNDED THEORY

Instructor: Lê Hoàng Dũng, PhD

Group 5: Khánh Minh

Thanh Thư

Bạch Vân

ETHNOGRAPHIC

RESEARCH

WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH?

Ethnographic research is:

the study of cultural patterns and

perspectives of participants in their

natural settings

Culture: ideas, languages, way of life,

customs, beliefs, behavior of a particular

society

a qualitative research

subjective

EXAMPLES

E.g. gender influences on social

behavior of members at a private golf

club

WHEN TO USE ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Explore the nature of a particular social

phenomenon, rather than intend to test

hypotheses about it

Tend to work primarily with unstructured

data (e.g. official government reports,

personal diaries, letters, minutes of

interviewing)

Investigate of a small number of cases

HOW TO CONDUCT

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Observation

• Material items

• Behaviors

• Performances

Interview

• informal conversational interview

• interview guide approach

• open-ended interview

Collection of Cultural Artifacts

• Readable texts

• Diaries

• Photographs

• Objects

GROUNDED THEORY

WHAT IS GROUNDED THEORY?

The systematic generation of a theory from

data

Data collection -> Hypotheses formulation

Developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967)

WHEN IS GROUNDED THEORY USED?

Investigate phenomena and analyse the

data with no preconceived ideas or

hypothesis

Need a broad theory or explanation of a

process

Have inadequate or nonexistent current

theories about a phenomenon

WHY IS GROUNDED THEORY USED?

It is an effective approach to build new

theories and understand new phenomena

Findings and methods are always refined

and negotiated

The resulting theory and hypotheses help

generate future investigation into the

phenomenon

Data collection occurs over time, and at

many levels, helping to ensure meaningful

results

HOW IS GROUNDED THEORY USED?

Theoretical sampling

Coding

Constant comparison

The core variables and saturation

Developing grounded theory

Theoretical sampling

Data are collected until sufficient data

to create a theory

The sample size or representativeness

cannot be predetermined.

Coding

A form of content analysis to find and

conceptualize the underlying issues of

data

Coding

Example: “Pain relief is a major problemwhen you have arthritis. Sometimes, thepain is worse than other times, but whenit gets really bad, whew! It hurts so bad,you don't want to get out of bed. Youdon't feel like doing anything. Any reliefyou get from drugs that you take is onlytemporary or partial.” said aninterviewee .

=> PAIN -> INTENSITY -> PAIN RELIEF -> AGENT

OF PAIN RELIEF -> DURATION/EFFECTIVENESS

Coding

Types of coding

Open

• form initial categories by breaking down, comparing, conceptualizing, categorizing data…

Axial

• Identify a central phenomenon

• Explore causal conditions

• Identify the context and intervening conditions

• Specify strategies

• Delineate the consequences

Selective

• Select the core category

• Relate it to other categories

• Validate those relationships

• Fill in categories that need further development

CONSTANT COMPARISON

Compare the new data with existing

data and categories -> the categories

achieve a perfect fit with the data

Reach saturation

Compare data across a range of

situations, times, groups of people and

methods

THE CORE VARIABLES

AND SATURATION

Core variables: accounts for most data

and to which as much as possible is

related

Saturation: achieved when the coding

adequately supports and completes the

emerging theory

DEVELOPING GROUNDED THEORY

The grounded theory emerges from the

data in an unforced manner, accounting

for all of the data.