naturalistic, qualitative and ethnographic research

NATURALISTIC, QUALITATIVE AND ETHNOGRAPHIC

RESEARCH

Cathrine Beaunae, Ph.D.

2013 International Conference on English Education & Studies. Wenzao Ursuline College

of Languages

22- 6- 2013Adapted from Cohen, L. Manion, L & Morrison, K (2011). Research Methods

in Education. (7th Ed). NY: Routledge

WHY QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?

• Valuable in education because:– The world of education is a messy place– Education is infused with ambiguities and

contradictions – The real answers are in people and situations – Multilayered and complex

NATURALISTIC METHODS ASK (Lofland, 1971)

• What are the characteristics of a social phenomenon?

• What are the causes of the social phenomenon?

• What are the consequences of the social phenomenon?

TYPES OF NATURALISTIC INQUIRY

• Case study

• Comparative studies

• Longitudinal studies

• Ethnography/participant observer

• Grounded theory

MAIN METHODS OF NATURALISTIC INQUIRY

• Participant observation

• Interviews and conversations

• Documents and field notes

• Notes and memos

THE QUALITATIVE PARADIGM

• Humans actively construct their own meanings of situations

• Meaning arises out of social situations and is handled through interpretive processes

• Behavior and data are socially situated, context-related,

context-dependent and context-rich • Realities are multiple, constructed, and holistic

• Knower and known are interactive, inseparable


• Research must include ‘thick descriptions’

• The attribution of meaning is continuous and evolving over time

• People are deliberate, intentional and creative in their actions

• Social research needs to examine situations through the eyes of the participants

• Researchers are the instruments of the research


• Researchers generate theories rather than test hypotheses

• Researchers do not know in advance what they will see

• Human phenomena seem to require even more conditional stipulations than do other kinds

• Meanings and understandings replace proof

• Situations are unique – not necessarily generalizable

• The processes of research and behavior are as important as the outcomes


• People, situations, events and objects have meaning conferred upon them rather than possessing intrinsic meaning

• Social research should be conducted in natural, uncontrived, real world settings

• Social reality, experiences and social phenomena are capable of multiple, sometimes contradictory interpretations

• All factors have to be taken into account

• Data are analyzed inductively

PROCESSES OF QUALITATIVE ENQUIRY

• Studies take place in natural settings/context influences meaning

• Humans are the research instrument

• Utilization of tacit knowledge is inescapable

• Purposive sampling can explore the full scope of issues

• Data analysis is inductive rather than deductive

PROCESSES OF QUALITATIVE ENQUIRY

• Theory emerges (is grounded)

• Research designs emerge over time

• Research outcomes are negotiated

• Idiographic interpretation replaces nomothetic interpretation

• Applications are tentative and pragmatic

• Trustworthiness replaces conventional views of reliability and validity.

TEN ELEMENTS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

• 1. People construct their own actions – they are deliberate intentional and creative

• 2. People attribute to, and construct meanings of, their situations and behavior; people impose meanings on situations

• 3. Significance of subjective meanings and the symbols and symbol systems (e.g. language and communication) by which they are produced and represented


• 4. Understanding individuals’ definitions in their terms, i.e. in any situation there are many definitions of the situation – multiple realities; the self is a social product, constructed through interaction with ‘significant others’ which occurs in relation to multiple ‘reference groups’

• 5. Significance of negotiation – the process by which meanings are constructed

• 6. Significance of the natural, social context/environment/ setting in understanding meaning and meaning construction

• 7. Situations and people are unique and individual (idiographic)


• 8. The nature of a ‘career’ – the moving perspective in which people regard their own and others’ lives, based on the meanings which are being formed; ‘career’ includes notions of commitment and identity

• 9. Research must include ‘thick description’ – detailed accounts of the situation and participants’ meanings and behavior

• 10. Analysis is ‘emic’ rather than ‘etic’ – generating meaning through participants’ subjective constructed accounts

ETHNOGRAPHIES CONCERN . . . • The production of descriptive cultural knowledge of a group

• The description of activities in relation to a particular cultural context from the point of view of the members of that group

• Features that constitute membership in a group or culture

• The description and analysis of patterns of social interaction

• The provision as far as possible of ‘insider accounts’

• The development of theory.

CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY• Conventional ethnography concerned with what is, critical

ethnography concerned with what could be

• Theoretical basis in critical theory and ideology critique.

• Concerned to expose oppression and inequality in society with a view of emancipating groups towards collective empowerment

• Research is an inherently political enterprise: ethnography with a political intent

• It has an explicit agenda and ‘ethical responsibility’ to promote freedom, social justice, equity and well-being.

CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY• Power, control and social exploitation are problematic/need

to be changed, rather than investigated or discovered • Research and thinking are mediated by power relations

• These power relations are socially and historically located

• Facts and values are inseparable

• Relationships between objects and concepts are fluid and mediated by the social relations of production

CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY

• Language is central to perception

• Certain groups in society exert more power than others

• Inequality and oppression are inherent in capitalist relations of production and consumption

• Ideological domination is strongest when oppressed groups see their situation as inevitable, natural or necessary

• Forms of oppression mediate each other and must be considered together (e.g. race, gender, class).

CRITICAL THEORETICAL RESEARCH

• Looking at how life in a democratic society should be.

• What does that mean – what life should be like in a democratic society?

• How do we know that life isn’t as it should be in a democratic society?

CRITICAL THEORETICAL

PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH

PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH

CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY

IDEOLOGY CRITIQUE

FEMINIST

POLITICAL RESEARCH

A deliberately political reading of education and research

POST-COLONIAL THEORY

QUEER THEORY

CRITICAL APPROACHES (MACRO AND MICRO)

EQUALITY POWER

EMANCIPATION

FREEDOM

NORMATIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE

INTERESTS

IDEOLOGY CRITIQUE

DESCRIBE EXISTING SITUATION

UNDERSTAND REASONS FOR EXISTING SITUATION

INTERROGATE LEGITIMACY OF REASONS FOR/CAUSES OF EXISTING SITUATION

SET AN AGENDA TO IMPROVE THEEXISTING SITUATION

PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH(Bottom-up research)

Groups (e.g. community groups) themselves establish/implement interventions to bring about change, development and improvement to their lives, acting collectively rather than individually.

Research with people and communities rather than doing research to or for people and communities.

Ordinary people are entirely capable of reflective and critical analysis of their situation.

Research with a practical intent, for transforming lives and communities, making the practical more political and the political more practical.

FEMINIST RESEARCH• Commitment to revealing core processes and

recurring features of women’s oppression

• Insistence on the inseparability of theory and practice

• Insistence on the connections between the private and the public, between the domestic and the political

• Concern with the social/cultural construction and reproduction of gender and sexual difference

• Need to change the status quo, not just to understand or interpret it

FEMINIST RESEARCH

• Rejection of positivism and objectivity as male mythology

• Increased use of qualitative, introspective biographical research techniques

• Recognition of the gendered nature of social research and the development of anti-sexist research strategies

• The research process as consciousness and awareness raising and as fundamentally participatory

• Rejection of hierarchies in social research;

POST-COLONIAL THEORY

•After-effects, or continuation, of ideologies and discourses of imperialism, domination and repression, value systems (e.g. the domination of western values and the delegitimization of non-Western values)

•After-effects of colonialism on the daily lived experiences of participants

•Regard in which peoples in post-colonial societies are held

•Valorization of multiple voices and heterogeneity in post-colonial societies

•Resistance to marginalization of groups within post-colonial societies

•Construction of identities in a post-colonial world.

QUEER THEORY

• Queer theory explores the social construction and privileging or denial of identities, sexual behavior, deviant behavior and the categorizations and ideologies involved in such constructions.

• Halperin (1997: 62): Queer theory ‘acquires its meaning from its oppositional relation to the norm. Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant’.

• Queer theory explores, problematizes,interrogates gender, sexuality and also their mediation by other characteristics or forms of oppression, e.g. social class, ethnicity, color, disability.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY

• Racism is ordinary and on-going – difficult to cure and address

• White-over-color ascendency – racism advances the interests of white elites (materially) and working class (psychically) – no incentives to change a system of racism

• Race is socially constructed – not based on biology

• Differential racialization – what groups of people are currently being racialized?

PLANNING A QUALITATIVE STUDY

1. Locate a field of study.2. Decide research questions3. Address ethical issues.4. Decide from whom to obtain data (sampling)5. Finding a role – access & permission6. Find informants:

– reliability– Importance in giving accounts– Knowledge/knowledgeability– Status– Contacts – gatekeepers– Representativeness– Relationships to others.

PLANNING A QUALITATIVE STUDY7. Develop and maintain relationships in the field: trust;

confidence; rapport; discretion; sensitivity; empathy

8. Collect data in situ and in several contexts (field notes and triangulation)

9. Collect data outside the context

10. Analyze data

11. Leave the field/close relationships

12. Write the final report.

REFLEXIVITY

• Researchers are part of the social world that they are researching

• This social world is an already interpreted world by the actors

• Researchers bring their own biographies to the research situation

• Researchers should acknowledge and disclose themselves in the research, seeking to understand their part in, or influence on, the research

OBSERVER ROLES

OUTSIDER INSIDER

Detached Observer

Observer as participant

Participant as observer

Complete participant

SOME DIFFICULTIES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

• Definition of the situation

• Reactivity

• Halo effect

• Implicit conservatism

• Focusing on the familiar

• Open-endedness/diversity

• Neglect of wider social contexts and constraints

• Generalizability

• Writing up multiple realities

• Ownership of the data