Ethnographic Observation

620 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Participant observation in anthropology

Instrumentation
Observation, checklist and interviews were the research techniques and instruments used to complete the study.
Observation
This instrument was used to determine the behaviour of the participants. It involved surveying the students and their events to obtain information relating to particular characteristics of the participants and these events. Observations were done at different points in time during the research. The researcher utilized participant observation or ethnography. It involved the “researcher participating in the respondents’ daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens; listening to what is said, and/or asking questions through informal and formal interviews” (Ch Lok 2018). The researcher utilized …show more content…

It is better used where the literacy level of the respondents is low.
2. It can almost be used for all segments of the population
3. It usually yields a much better sample of the population
4. It is flexible and this makes it a very useful, powerful and dependable technique for data collection
5. It promotes frank discussions on controversial issues and allows for the collection of in-depth information from the respondents to any issues.
6. Allows clarification
Checklist
A checklist is a tool for identifying the presence or absence of conceptual knowledge, skills, or behaviours (British Columbia Institute of Technology, 2010). Checklists are used for identifying whether key tasks in a procedure, process, or activity have been completed (British Columbia Institute of Technology, 2010). These are items that comprise of several questions on the topic and require the same response format. Checklists structure a person’s observation or evaluation of a performance or artifact (Rosenblatt, 2012). This study used simple lists of criteria that were marked as present or absent, and provided space for observer comments.
Data

Show More
Related

  • Ethnographic study

    2123 Words  | 5 Pages

    This essay is an ethnographic study of Whole Foods Market which is located in Kensington, London. Whole Foods Market is a niche supermarket that sells high quality organic and natural products at high prices. In this essay, I will provide a brief orientation of ethics with regards to the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility - macroethics and Business Ethics - microethics and the theoretical frameworks of consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics. I will be using deontology framework in ethics devised by Immanuel Kant to assess if the marketing strategy and the products sold at Whole Foods Market support their principle of ‘organic and natural’.

    Read More

  • Ethnography And Analysis: The Lion's Den

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    Strip Club by Kim Price-Glynn is an analysis of her 14 month ethnography at a strip club named The Lion’s Den. Kim Price-Glynn says she chose The Lion’s Den because of a connection with Angela, a student stripper and cocktail waitress at The Lion’s Den, who told Price-Glynn about an opening there. Angela also said she would give Price-Glynn a strong recommendation. Angela’s recommendation would be a very strong one because of her very good reputation at the Lion’s Den shown by having both titles of being “the club’s darling” and “Steve’s favorite”. So, Kim Price-Glynn had a pretty easy entrance into The Lion’s Den from her connection with Angela.

    Read More

  • Ethnography

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reflexivity has recently been designated as an indicator of postmodernism in anthropological texts. In this context, the practice is attacked as self-indulgent narcissism, but its true scope reaches much further. While some ethnographic texts exhibit an overemphasis on the author, and his position within the work, this is one extreme of the range reflexivity, which also serves as a methodological tool, unincorporated into the writing, and as a means to account for the ethnographers biases and affects on his informants. This entire span of meaning is shown in anthropological research and writings, in varying manners and to different ends.

    Read More

  • Participant Observation in Anthropology

    1760 Words  | 4 Pages

    Participant observation is a method of collecting information and data about a culture and is carried out by the researcher immersing themselves in the culture they observing. The researcher becomes known in the community, getting to know and understand the culture in a more intimate and detailed way than would be possible from any other approach. This is done by observing and participating in the community’s daily activities. The method is so effective because the researcher is able to directly approach the people in the community in a natural context as opposed to taking the participant out of their environment. The aim of participant observation is to gain an understanding the subject’s life from their perspective, with the purpose of collecting more detailed information about a community’s habits, opinions, relationships and issues.

    Read More

  • Exploring Ethnographic Observation in Middle and Higher Education

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    Regarding my high school students, Preparatoria de la Arquidiósesis de Monterrey, ethnographic observation can be done as an extension of the socioeconomic study each student has before each semester. The totality

    Read More

  • Ethnography

    1331 Words  | 3 Pages

    When I was a kid my parents always took me to Nathdwara to take the blessings of Lord Krishna every now and then because my parents are so religious. So by going there several times I am also attached to that place. Actually Nathdwara is situated in Rajasthan state and I live in the state called Gujarat and in the city called as Ahmedabad. It takes six hours drive from my city to Nathdwara and this is the only nearest place where I could get mental peace. This is very important place for me and my family because it is a tradition of our family that whoever goes there gives free food to the hungry and poor people. We do so because we think that if we do good work in our life we will be allowed by god to go to the heaven. [The two states on the left are Gujarat and Rajasthan. One in light blue color is Gujarat with the arrows and on the top of it with cream color is Rajasthan. I live in the middle of the state and Nathdwara is at the border of the Rajasthan]

    Read More

  • Cultural Anthropology

    4364 Words  | 9 Pages

    Almost all cultures world wide have highly developed traditions of music and dance. According to Mari Womack, author of Being Human: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, music and dance carry much importance within a culture. "As do other artistic forms, music and dance reflect cultural and social organization. Cultural values can be conveyed in the words of a song, and the performance of a song or a dance is dependent on the social context" (Womack 226). Music and instruments are of great significance in many places world wide. For example, the BaMbuti foragers from Africa's Ituri rain forest have an instrument which they call the molimo which looks like an extremely long pipe. The men of the BaMbuti culture are the owners of the molimo and behave as if it is alive. Women and young boys are forbidden any contact with the molimo, because of its importance in male initiation rites (Womack 226). In the United States, we also have extensive rituals involving music and dance. For example, in wedding receptions, many rules prevail about who dances with who when. The father-daughter dance, the bride and groom's dance, the mother-son dance, and the dollar dance are just a few of these rituals. Marching Band is another form of the music and dance combination. Marching may not sound like dancing, but, in reality, the marchers move in their individual paths which create forms that are constantly blending into each other and creating new forms. According to Jordan, my informant, "To me, it really is kind of art, just seeing all these forms move and mesh, with music to go with them and flags and stuff. It is a type of art, I guess." Along with just basic marching, the band adds choreography which produces wonde...

    Read More

  • Ethnography

    1625 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the most complex and interesting aspects of cultural anthropology is the ethnography. The idea of being able to read stories about groups of individuals is something that is intriguing to many people. With the ethnography, the authors many times feel that they have control and understanding over the individuals that they are writing about. Furthermore, many of these authors assume that the individuals among whom they are living and studying exemplify the entire society as a whole. Ethnographers have used many different means of establishing their ethnographic authority. One such method is the use of reflexivity in the ethnography. Ethnographers such as Renato Rosaldo in his work Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis and Bronislaw Malinowski in his work Argonauts of the Western Pacific assume their authority through the use of reflexivity. On the other hand, there are authors such as George E. Marcus in his work Ethnography Through Thick and Thin, who explain that reflexivity should be used as a means of demonstrating that one cannot assert such authority, and Dorinne Kondo, in her work Dissolution and Reconstruction of Self: Implications for Anthropological Epistemology, who use reflexivity to make a distinction between the ethnographer's role in the field, and the ethnographer’s role when writing the ethnography.

    Read More

  • Ethnography: Inductive Approach

    595 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ethnography Ethnography is rooted firmly in the inductive approach. It emanates from the field of anthropology. The purpose is to describe and explain the social world the research subjects inhabit in the way in which they would describe and explain it. This is obviously a research strategy that is very time consuming and takes place over an extended time period as the researcher needs to immerse herself or himself in the social world being researched as completely as possible. The research process needs to be flexible and responsive to change since the researcher will constantly be developing new patterns of thought about what is being observed.

    Read More

  • Kettle's Four Approaches To Reform By The US Government

    429 Words  | 1 Pages

    Kettle believes that all of the criteria that listed in the above are important. In my opinion, making a checklist for evaluating an organization which is the principle of bureaucracy or red tape is strict and inflexible. The checklist of Kettle’s book is not comprehensive for covering all of the indicators which have key roles. In fact, we should have a flexible and comprehensive checklist for every organization because each organization has its own unique structure. Albeit, he said, we cannot have all of them simultaneously, and the design of any organizational system needs tradeoffs among desirable

    Read More

  • Cultural Anthropology and Ethnographic Fieldwork

    1792 Words  | 4 Pages

    James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If ethnographies can provide answers to these difficult questions, then Spradley has correctly identified this method as revolutionary.

    Read More

  • Covert Participant Observation

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    very useful if you wanted to get valid data as you can really get to

    Read More

  • What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Survey Research

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lack of response is the main disadvantage for mail surveys. The group survey is another low cost form, however the individual respondent is interviewed in a group. The disadvantage with group surveys are the logistics of marshaling the respondents to one location and the perception by respondents that grouping posses less anonymity. Electronic surveys are a relatively new addition in survey research and could very well become comparable to the telephone survey. Electronic surveys are advantageous for the low cost as well as ease in delivery. Because the delivery method is through internet, and the general population does not

    Read More

  • Cross Cultural Differences In Anthropology

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    The purpose of their research is to acquire ethnography data. They anthropologist obtaining qualitative data and observing how the people they are researching are living and their day -to-day activities. Some of their methodology includes participant observations in which the anthropologist is involved in the day-to-day activities to observe from first-hand experience of how the people live.

    Read More

  • Importance And Importance Of Research Methodology

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    Striating from the research idea to the culmination of the findings, the research process entails many segments, all of which are imperative. By choosing the research methodology, the researchers can formulate the path to be used in conducting the study and reporting the findings. The methodology helps in the search of literature, development of research questions and the creation of the most suitable study design. It also assists in the interpretation of the results and the publication of the findings in journals.

    Read More

More about Ethnographic Observation

Open Document