The Role of the Culture of Japanese Students in Acquisition of Academic English: An Ethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mertin, Patricia Anne

2014-01-01

This ethnographic study examines the role of Japanese students' culture and its effects on the rate of acquisition of academic English. It is based on observation of classes in Japanese schools, both in Japan and Germany, as well as in an international school, together with interviews, questionnaires, student responses and case studies over a…

Profiling Adult Literacy Facilitators in Development Contexts: An Ethnographic Study in Ethiopia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warkineh, Turuwark Zalalam; Rogers, Alan; Danki, Tolera Negassa

2018-01-01

Teachers/facilitators in adult literacy learning programmes are recognised as being vital to successful learning outcomes. But little is known about them as a group. This small-scale research project comprising ethnographic-style case studies of five adult literacy facilitators (ALFs) in Ethiopia seeks to throw some light on these teachers, their…

Exploring the Role of TPACK and Teacher Self-Efficacy: An Ethnographic Case Study of Three iPad Language Arts Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saudelli, Mary Gene; Ciampa, Katia

2016-01-01

This ethnographic research study investigated three elementary teachers' perceived self-efficacy beliefs and their attitudes toward mobile technology-enhanced instruction. Using technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) as a guiding theory, the authors sought to determine whether and how the three knowledge components that form the…

De Facto Language Education Policy through Teachers' Attitudes and Practices: A Critical Ethnographic Study in Three Jamaican Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nero, Shondel J.

2014-01-01

Using Jamaica, a former British colony where Jamaican Creole (JC) is the mass vernacular but Standard Jamaican English is the official language, as an illustrative case, this critical ethnographic study in three Jamaican schools examines the theoretical and practical challenges of language education policy (LEP) development and implementation in…

Ethnographic Households and Archaeological Interpretations: A Case from Iranian Kurdistan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kramer, Carol

1982-01-01

Shows how archaeological interpretation based strictly on the evidence of architectural remains may lead to inaccurate conclusions about social patterns in extinct societies. An ethnographic study of an Iranian Kurdish village is used to illustrate the possible variations of residential social relationships within buildings with similar…

Further Education Sector Governors as Ethnographers: Five Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clapham, Andrew; Vickers, Rob

2018-01-01

This paper considers how governors in the English "Further Education and Skills" (FE) sector examined their practice as ethnographers. The paper locates both FE governance and ethnography within the challenges of the performative and Panoptic environments facing English education. In doing so, the paper explores how the informants'…

Evolution Education in Policy and Practice: An Ethnographic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, David E.

2012-01-01

Evolution education in the US is conducted unevenly, or in cases is absent. Showing the strength of ethnography as a means of deeper explication in science education, this article explores the interactions of policy and practice in evolution education. Discussing vignettes from a larger ethnographic study, Creationist rationales and practices…

Misery in Dark Shadows behind the High Achievement Scores in South Korean Schooling: An Ethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwon, Soonjung; Kristjánsson, Kristján; Walker, David I.

2017-01-01

This article explores some of the hidden background behind the highly praised school results in South Korea. An ethnographic case study is used to cast light on how schooling is actually experienced by South Korean students. Two main results are reported from these data. First, evidence is presented of damaging "cultural elements" such…

Ethical Issues of Ethnography Method: A Comparative Approach to Subaltern, Self, and the Others

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Odeyemi, Christo

2013-01-01

Using urban and rural community settings, this review article focuses on ethical issues associated with ethnographer-participant interaction and draws from the ethnographic accounts of Bronislaw Malinowski and Susan Krieger. As such, the following sections intend to illuminate the issue of ethics in ethnography research. As case studies, the…

Differentiation through Individualisation--An Ethnographic Investigation of How One Swedish School Creates Inequality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gustafsson, Jan

2018-01-01

The present article examines the general debate on curriculum differentiation and individualisation. Based on a policy ethnographic case study of class 9a at Forest School, it critically analyses how curriculum differentiation and individualisation are enacted in and interfere with classroom practice. The results show how Forest School's…

An Ethnographic Approach to Syllabus Design: A Case Study of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramani, Esther; And Others

1988-01-01

Argues for an ethnographic reorientation to needs analysis and syllabus design in English for specific purposes in advanced postgraduate centers of science and technology. The seven-stage framework (specify learners, analyze needs, specify enabling objectives, select materials, identify teaching/learning activities, evaluate, and revise) used to…

When Does the Action Start and Finish? Making the Case for an Ethnographic Action Research in Educational Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bath, Caroline

2009-01-01

This paper explores how ethnographic and action research methodologies can be justifiably combined to create a new methodological approach in educational research. It draws on existing examples in both educational research and development studies that have discussed the use of ethnography and action research in specific projects. Interpretations…

The Meaning of Social Participation for Daily Mobility in Later Life: an Ethnographic Case Study of a Senior Project in a Swedish Urban Neighbourhood.

PubMed

Stjernborg, Vanessa

2017-01-01

This paper presents an ethnographic case study that aims to understand the meaning of social participation in a neighbourhood for daily mobility in later life. In the study, the mobility of the participants of a senior-citizen project was monitored over 18 months. The project was founded as a result of a municipal district's targeting of social sustainability. The results show that social participation had positive effects on the daily mobility of the participants. The implementation of broad-minded thinking from the municipality and the cooperation of various municipal actors were shown to be essential for the positive outcome of this project.

Ethnographic research in immigrant-specific drug abuse recovery houses.

PubMed

Pagano, Anna; Lee, Juliet P; García, Victor; Recarte, Carlos

2018-01-01

Access to study populations is a major concern for drug use and treatment researchers. Spaces related to drug use and treatment have varying levels of researcher accessibility based on several issues, including legality, public versus private settings, and insider/outsider status. Ethnographic research methods are indispensable for gaining and maintaining access to hidden or "hard-to-reach" populations. Here, we discuss our long-term ethnographic research on drug abuse recovery houses created by and for Latino migrants and immigrants in Northern California. We take our field work experiences as a case study to examine the problem of researcher access and how ethnographic strategies can be successfully applied to address it, focusing especially on issues of entrée, building rapport, and navigating field-specific challenges related to legality, public/private settings, and insider/outsider status. We conclude that continued funding support for ethnography is essential for promoting health disparities research focused on diverse populations in recovery from substance use disorders.

Epistemology as Ethics in Research and Policy: The Use of Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, John; Lukes, Dominik

2008-01-01

This article examines the ethnographic case study in education in the context of policy making with particular emphasis on the practice of research and policy making. The central claim of the article is that it is impossible to establish a transcendental epistemology of the case study on instrumental rationality. Instead it argues for the notion…

Informed consent, anticipatory regulation and ethnographic practice.

PubMed

Murphy, Elizabeth; Dingwall, Robert

2007-12-01

In this paper we examine the application of informed consent to ethnographic research in health care settings. We do not quarrel with either the principle of informed consent or its translation into the requirement that research should only be carried out with consenting participants. However, we do challenge the identification of informed consent with the particular set of bureaucratic practices of ethical review which currently operate in Canada, the US and elsewhere. We argue that these anticipatory regulatory regimes threaten the significant contribution of ethnographic research to the creation of more efficient, more effective, more equitable and more humane health care systems. Informed consent in ethnographic research is neither achievable nor demonstrable in the terms set by anticipatory regulatory regimes that take clinical research or biomedical experimentation as their paradigm cases. This is because of differences in the practices of ethnographic and biomedical research which we discuss. These include the extended periods of time ethnographers spend in the research setting, the emergent nature of ethnographic research focus and design, the nature and positioning of risk in ethnographic research, the power relationships between researchers and participants, and the public and semi-public nature of the settings normally studied. Anticipatory regulatory regimes are inimical to ethnographic research and risk undermining the contribution of systematic inquiry to understanding whether institutions do what they claim to do, fairly and civilly and with an appropriate mobilisation of resources. We do not suggest that we should simply ignore ethics or leave matters to the individual consciences of researchers. Rather, we need to develop and strengthen professional models of regulation which emphasise education, training and mutual accountability. We conclude the paper with a number of suggestions about how such professional models might be implemented.

Using Case Study Multi-Methods to Investigate Close(r) Collaboration: Course-Based Tutoring and the Directive/Nondirective Instructional Continuum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corbett, Steven J.

2011-01-01

This essay presents case studies of "course-based tutoring" (CBT) and one-to-one tutorials in two sections of developmental first-year composition (FYC) at a large West Coast research university. The author's study uses a combination of rhetorical and discourse analyses and ethnographic and case study multi-methods to investigate both…

Building a Dignified Identity: An Ethnographic Case Study of LGBT Catholics.

PubMed

Radojcic, Natasha

2016-10-01

This ethnographic case study offers insight into religiously devout sexual minorities and the reasons behind their continued participation in an anti-gay religious institution, the Roman Catholic Church. I demonstrate how members of Dignity, an organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Catholics, strategically use their identity as gay Catholics to initiate action, to build community, and to destigmatize other religious sexual minorities. Members leverage this unique identity to push for change and equality within the Church. At the same time, this identity also allows members to see their continued participation in the anti-gay Roman Catholic Church as activism, a positive and affirming identity, thereby alleviating potential conflict and contradiction between their sexuality and their spirituality as Roman Catholics.

Ethical and effective ethnographic research methods: a case study with afghan refugees in California.

PubMed

Smith, Valerie J

2009-09-01

SCHOLARLY STUDIES OF REFUGEES and other vulnerable populations carry special ethical concerns. In this invited case study of Afghan refugees in Fremont, California, I provide illustrations and recommendations of ethical research methods with refugees. I also compare and contrast some ethical issues in the U.S. with issues in Thailand. The qualitative, ethnographic methods I report here demonstrate how to conduct culturally sensitive investigations by ethically approaching gatekeepers and other community members to preserve autonomy, ensure confidentiality, build trust, and improve the accuracy of interpretations and results. Six groups at risk for being marginalized in multiple ways within refugee populations are described. Ten best practices are recommended for ethically acquiring an in-depth understanding of the refugees, their community, and appropriate research methods.

The Effect of School Culture on Science Education at an Ideologically Innovative Elementary Magnet School: An Ethnographic Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, Lori T.

2012-11-01

This ethnographic case study investigated the science practices of teachers at one public elementary magnet school in light of how school culture influenced science curriculum design and instruction. The purpose of the study was to address how school culture impacted the school's overall treatment of science as a viable content area. Key informant teachers were interviewed to explore their personal beliefs and values, teaching, access to materials, and views of the adopted integrated thematic curriculum model and magnet structure. The resulting data, triangulated with informal observation and artifact collection, were analyzed using a theoretical framework that emphasized five interdependent school culture indicators (values, beliefs, practices, materials, and problems). Findings suggest that the school's culture adversely influenced the treatment of science.

Literacy in Motion: A Case Study of a Shape-Shifting Kindergartener

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siegel, Marjorie; Kontovourki, Stavroula; Schmier, Stephanie; Enriquez, Grace

2008-01-01

This article presents a case study of a kindergarten girl from a Bangladeshi immigrant family who demonstrates her multiliteracies as she negotiates the multiple demands of the mandated literacy curriculum. The case is drawn from a year-long ethnographic inquiry of the literacy practices and cultural models in a balanced literacy curriculum where…

A Case Study of Learning Architecture and Reciprocity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Anne B.

2009-01-01

This ethnographic case study follows the trajectory of one child's learning disposition, reciprocity, and its relationship to the "learning architecture" of her early childhood and primary school learning environments, over eighteen months. Learning dispositions are coping strategies or habits of mind, and tendencies to respond to and select from…

Transformative Learning through Education Abroad: A Case Study of a Community College Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brenner, Ashley A.

2014-01-01

This case study examined how participating in a short-term education abroad program fostered transformative learning for a small group of community college students. As a participant-observer, I utilized ethnographic methods, including interviews, observations, and document analysis, to understand students' perceptions of their experiences…

Mapping a Process of Negotiated Identity among Incarcerated Male Juvenile Offenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abrams, Laura S.; Hyun, Anna

2009-01-01

Building on theories of youth identity transitions, this study maps a process of negotiated identity among incarcerated young men. Data are drawn from ethnographic study of three juvenile correctional institutions and longitudinal semistructured interviews with facility residents. Cross-case analysis of 10 cases that finds youth offenders adapted…

Relational Aggression and Burnout: Fight, Hide, or Run?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Culver, Mary K.

2007-01-01

This study looks at female relational aggression in an effort to illustrate factors involved in selecting appropriate responses for the situation. This ethnographic case study analyzes a principal's interview, personal journal, and artifact file to describe the situations and reactions present in a severe case of female relational aggression.…

Using Meta-Ethnographic Analysis to Understand and Represent Youth's Notions and Experiences of Learning in and out of Secondary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hernández-Hernández, Fernando; Sancho-Gil, Juana M.

2017-01-01

In the last four years, we have been researching how five groups of young people were learning inside and outside secondary schools. The novelty of this proposal was to invite these young people to act as researchers by carrying out their own ethnographic cases. As a result we produced 10 ethnographic reports--5 prepared by students and 5 by the…

Benefits of “Observer Effects”: Lessons from the Field

PubMed Central

Monahan, Torin; Fisher, Jill A.

2011-01-01

This paper responds to the criticism that “observer effects” in ethnographic research necessarily bias and therefore invalidate research findings. Instead of aspiring to distance and detachment, some of the greatest strengths of ethnographic research lie in cultivating close ties with others and collaboratively shaping discourses and practices in the field. Informants’ performances – however staged for or influenced by the observer – often reveal profound truths about social and/or cultural phenomena. To make this case, first we mobilize methodological insights from the field of science studies to illustrate the contingency and partiality of all knowledge and to challenge the notion that ethnography is less objective than other research methods. Second, we draw upon our ethnographic projects to illustrate the rich data that can be obtained from “staged performances” by informants. Finally, by detailing a few examples of questionable behavior on the part of informants, we challenge the fallacy that the presence of ethnographers will cause informants to self-censor. PMID:21297880

Scientific Discourse in the Academy: A Case Study of an American Indian Undergraduate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandt, Carol B.

2008-01-01

This case study explores how an American Indian woman experienced scientific discourse and the issues of language, power, and authority that occurred while she was an undergraduate student at a university in the southwestern United States. This ethnographic research, using a phenomenological perspective, describes her experiences as she searched…

Sounds of Silence: Race and Emergent Counter-Narratives of Art Teacher Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kraehe, Amelia M.

2015-01-01

This article presents case studies of two Black preservice art teachers and their racialized experiences in art teacher education. Drawing from a critical race theory perspective, their stories are conceptualized as emergent counternarratives of becoming an art teacher. The case studies are based on interviews from an ethnographic investigation of…

Distributed Leadership with the Aim of "Reculturing": A Departmental Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melville, Wayne; Jones, Doug; Campbell, Todd

2014-01-01

This article considers a secondary science department that has, since 2000, developed distributed leadership as a form of human capacity building. Using a longitudinal ethnographic case study allowed us to consider how distributed leadership can be nurtured and developed in a department. Our analysis centres on two key issues: the nature and…

The Advising Palaver Hut: Case Study in West African Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sy, Jobila Williams

2017-01-01

Although international research regarding advising is burgeoning, most of the research on the role of and advantages related to academic advising has been limited to U.S. colleges and universities. This ethnographic case study conducted at a Liberian university examined the organizational culture of advising from student, faculty, and staff…

Increasing Unit Effectiveness in a Dynamic Environment by Implementing a Leadership Mathematical Model

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-10

research . For example, Creswell presents five types of qualitative research : narrative , phenomenological , grounded theory , ethnographic research , and... case study (2007, 53). According to Denzin and Lincoln (2005) there are six research directions: case study , ethnography , grounded theory , life 32...commanders. A method could be a kind of theory . Hence, grounded

Culture Clash in the Multicultural Classroom: A Case Study from A Newcomer School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen-Thomas, Holly; Chennapragada, SriPadmini

2018-01-01

This ethnographic case study of a multicultural/multilingual classroom in a newcomer school describes an incident that occurred among new immigrant English Language Learners from widely diverse backgrounds in a secondary classroom in Texas. Increased numbers of immigrant students in U.S. schools have resulted in classrooms with tremendous…

Sarah's birth. How the medicalisation of childbirth may be shaped in different settings: Vignette from a study of routine intervention in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

PubMed

Scamell, Mandie; Altaweli, Roa; McCourt, Christine

2017-02-01

The expansion of the medicalisation of childbirth has been described in the literature as being a global phenomenon. The vignette described in this paper, selected from an ethnographic study of routine intervention in Saudi Arabian hospitals illustrates how the worldwide spread of the bio-medical model does not take place within a cultural vacuum. To illuminate the ways in which the medicalisation of birth may be understood and practised in different cultural settings, through a vignette of a specific birth, drawn as a typical case from an ethnographic study that investigated clinical decision-making in the second stage of labour in Saudi Arabia. Ethnographic data collection methods, including participant observation and interviews. The data presented in this paper are drawn from ethnographic field notes collected during field work in Saudi Arabia, and informed by analysis of a wider set of field notes and interviews with professionals working in this context. While the medicalisation of care is a universal phenomenon, the ways in which the care of women is managed using routine medical intervention are framed by the local cultural context in which these practices take place. The ethnographic data presented in this paper shows the medicalisation of birth thesis to be incomplete. The evidence presented in this paper illustrates how local belief systems are not so much subsumed by the expansion of the bio-medical model of childbirth, rather they may actively facilitate a process of localised reinterpretation of such universalised and standardised practices. In this case, aspects of the social and cultural context of Jeddah operates to intensify the biomedical model at the expense of respectful maternity care. In this article, field note data on the birth of one Saudi Arabian woman is used as an illustration of how the medicalisation of childbirth has been appropriated and reinterpreted in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Copyright © 2016 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A City Goes to War: A Case Study of Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1914-1917.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banit, Thomas

1989-01-01

Presents a case study used for teaching about World War I. Describes Bridgeport, Connecticut, during the period 1914-17. Includes maps, ethnographic data, and primary materials, such as newspaper accounts and speeches by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Provides learning objectives, study questions, and a glossary. Discusses the impact of the war on…

Human Trafficking and Education: A Qualitative Case Study of Two NGO Programs in Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spires, Robert Weber

2012-01-01

In this qualitative, ethnographic case study, I examine two Thai NGO shelters/schools working with human trafficking survivors and at-risk populations of children ages 5-18. The two NGOs had a residential component, meaning that children live at the shelter, and an educational component, meaning that children are taught academic and vocational…

The Education of Hindu Priests in the Diaspora: Assessing the Value of Community of Practice Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verma, Michele

2010-01-01

The utility and limitations of Lave and Wenger's social theory of learning can be evaluated through specific case studies which enhance our understanding of how education proceeds in diverse contexts. Here I provide an ethnographic case study of the training of Caribbean-born Hindu "pandits" ("priests") living and working in…

Learning in Collaboration: A Case Study of a Community Based Partnership Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Syam, Devarati S.

2010-01-01

This ethnographic case study investigated a multi-agency partnership project in a Midwestern city, the goal of which was to holistically address the health, safety and wellness issues of teen girls in an alternative school. The researcher was one of the eleven partners representing five different organizations that came together to create a…

Engaging Parents with Sex and Relationship Education: A UK Primary School Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alldred, Pam; Fox, Nick; Kulpa, Robert

2016-01-01

Objective: To assess an intervention to familiarise parents with children's books for use in primary (5-11 years) sex and relationship education (SRE) classes. Method: Case study of a 7-week programme in one London primary school, using ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with parents (n = 7) and key stakeholders…

A Case Study of Legitimate Literacies: Teens' "Small World" and the School Library

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comstock, Sharon L.

2012-01-01

This dissertation is a dual-site ethnographic case study of the lived information literacy experiences of students in their junior year of high school relative to their school library and librarians. What began as an investigation of an apparent gap in understanding between the views of teens and school librarians regarding "information…

Instrument-Making as Music-Making: An Ethnographic Study of "Shakuhachi" Students' Learning Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matsunobu, Koji

2013-01-01

Instrument-making is a powerful way to teach and learn music, especially world music. This case study looks at adult music learners whose engagement in music involves instrument-making and the long lasting practice of music. A case in point is Japanese and North American practitioners of Japanese bamboo flutes, especially the end-blown…

Considering the Continuing Development of Inclusive Teachers: A Case Study from Bangkok, Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grimes, Peter

2013-01-01

This article explores the barriers to and opportunities for supporting the development of inclusive teachers, based on a case study describing two schools in Bangkok, Thailand. Data were collected between 2003 and 2009 using an ethnographic approach whereby the author positioned as a consultant-researcher visited and worked alongside teachers in…

The Pragmatics of Making Requests in the L2 Workplace: A Case Study of Language Socialization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Duanduan

2000-01-01

An ethnographic case study focuses on the pragmatics of higher-stakes social communications. Illustrates how, through exposure to social interactions and assistance from more competent peers, an immigrant woman came to internalize target language and cultural norms and develop communicative competence in English as a Second Language in the…

Factors that influence case managers' resource allocation decisions in pediatric home care: an ethnographic study.

PubMed

Fraser, Kimberly D; Estabrooks, Carole; Allen, Marion; Strang, Vicki

2009-03-01

Case managers make decisions that directly affect the amount and type of services home care clients receive and subsequently affect the overall available health care resources of home care programs. A recent systematic review of the literature identified significant knowledge gaps with respect to resource allocation decision-making in home care. Using Spradley's methodology, we designed an ethnographic study of a children's home care program in Western Canada. The sample included 11 case managers and program leaders. Data sources included interviews, card sorts, and participant observation over a 5-month period. Data analyses included open coding, domain, taxonomic, and componential analysis. One of the key findings was a taxonomy of factors that influence case manager resource allocation decisions. The factors were grouped into one of four main categories: system-related, home care program-related, family related, or client-related. Family related factors have not been previously reported as influencing case manager resource allocation decision-making and nor has the team's role been reported as an influencing factor. The findings of this study are examined in light of Daniels and Sabin's Accountability for Reasonableness framework, which may be useful for future knowledge development about micro-level resource allocation theory.

Advocating for Ethnographic Work in Early Childhood Federal Policy: Problems and Possibilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adair, Jennifer Keys

2011-01-01

Initiated as part of the Council on Anthropology and Education's Policy Engagement Working Group, the policy brief "Ethnographic Knowledge For Early Childhood" focused on making the case for ethnography as evidence within early childhood federal policy. This article describes the creation and distribution of the policy brief as well as the…

Dialogic Instruction and Learning: The Case of One Kiswahili Classroom in Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lisanza, Esther Mukewa

2014-01-01

This paper reports on an ethnographic case study which was carried out in a Kenyan first-grade classroom. The classroom had 89 students with their 2 teachers who taught at different times. The classroom was very crowded and had a high paucity of literacy materials. The study was guided by sociocultural and dialogic frameworks which maintain that…

Interethnic Relations: A Case Study of Senior Students at an Australian High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willoughby, Louisa

2007-01-01

This article provides a case study of the relevance of ethnicity in senior student's social interactions at an Australian high school where over 90 per cent of the students speak a language other than English (LOTE) at home. Drawing on ethnographic methods it explores students' own views on the role of ethnic background in shaping who they are…

"They Wasn't Makin' My Kinda Music": A Hip-Hop Musician's Perspective on School, Schooling, and School Music

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kruse, Adam J.

2016-01-01

This article focuses on a hip-hop perspective of school, schooling, and school music. The study involves applications of ethnographic (including autoethnographic) techniques within the framework of a holistic multiple case study. One case is an adult amateur hip-hop musician named Terrence (pseudonym), and the other is myself (a traditionally…

Socio-Technical Relations in the Creation of an Interest-Driven Open Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ponti, Marisa

2011-01-01

The aim of this article is to present the findings from a small exploratory case study of an open course on cyberpunk literature conducted at the Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU), an online grass-roots organisation that runs non-accredited courses. Employing actor network theory to inform an ethnographic-inductive approach, the case study sought to…

John Dewey and School Culture: A Case Study of the South Boulevard Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beal, Heather K. Olson

2009-01-01

This ethnographic case study explores school culture through the lens of Dewey's (1915/2001) belief in the importance of creating schools with a sense of community in which all members are indispensable to the whole. Three aspects of the foreign language immersion curriculum at South Boulevard Elementary lead to a culture of community: commitment…

Theory and Contrastive Explanation in Ethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lichterman, Paul; Reed, Isaac Ariail

2015-01-01

We propose three interlinked ways that theory helps researchers build causal claims from ethnographic research. First, theory guides the casing and re-casing of a topic of study. Second, theoretical work helps craft a clear causal question via the construction of a contrast space of the topic of investigation. Third, the researcher uses theory to…

Portrait of a Science Teacher as a Bricoleur: A Case Study from India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharma, Ajay

2008-01-01

This paper presents a case study of science teaching in an eighth grade school classroom in India. It comes out of a larger ethnographic study done in 2005 that looked at how science was taught and learned in a rural government run middle school in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India. Subscribing to a sociocultural perspective, the paper presents…

Choices of Students, Parents, and Teachers and Their Effects on Schools and Communities: A Case Study of a New Enriched High School Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiGiorgio, Carla

2010-01-01

This study is an ethnographic case study of two schools as they implemented an enrichment program. The sample included students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and board and government personnel. Data was drawn from interviews and observations of participants, curriculum analysis, and communication between school, home, and the public.…

Struggle for Social Position in Digital Media Composition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doerr-Stevens, Candance

2013-01-01

This study investigates the processes and products of multimodal and multi-authored digital media composition. Using ethnographic case study and Mediated Discourse Analysis (Norris & Jones, 2005), this study focuses specifically on the digital media composition of radio and film documentaries, examining struggle among students, media, and…

L'école Gulliver and La Borde: An Ethnographic Account of Collectivist Integration and Institutional Psychotherapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boldt, Gail; Valente, Joseph Michael

2016-01-01

This article draws on ethnographic research at L'école Gulliver, a preschool in Paris that integrates children with disabilities in mainstream classrooms with non-disabled peers. The preschool provides a case example of a collectivist integration approach to constructing shared institutional life, which is conceptualized in part through their…

Nurses' experiences of ethnographic fieldwork.

PubMed

de Melo, Lucas Pereira; Stofel, Natália Sevilha; Gualda, Dulce Maria Rosa; de Campos, Edemilson Antunes

2014-09-01

To reflect on the experiences of nurses performing ethnographic fieldwork in three studies. The application of ethnography to nursing research requires discussion about nurses' experiences of ethnographic fieldwork. This article examines some of the dilemmas that arise during the research process. Three ethnographic studies conducted by the authors in the south and southeast of Brazil. Excerpts from field diaries created during each research are presented at the end of each topic discussed. This is a reflexive paper that explores the nurses' experience in ethnographic fieldwork. This article discusses the main tasks involved in ethnographic research, including defining the study aim, reading and understanding anthropological theoretical bases, and setting a timeframe for the study. The article also discusses the idiosyncrasies of the cultural contexts studied, the bureaucracy that may be confronted when gaining access to the field, the difficulty of transforming the familiar into the strange, why ethnocentric perspectives should be avoided, and the anthropological doubt that places the ethnographer in the position of apprentice. It also discusses the importance of listening to others, reflexivity and strategies to stay in the field. For researchers, ethnographic fieldwork can be a rite of passage, but one that provides invaluable experiences that emphasise the value of relationships based on dialogue, reflexivity and negotiation. The main tasks undertaken in ethnographic research discussed in this article could contribute to the nurse' experience of conducting ethnographic fieldwork.

What Does It Mean to Learn Oral and Written English Language: A Case Study of a Rural Kenyan Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lisanza, Esther Mukewa

2011-01-01

This study was an ethnographic case study that investigated oral and written language learning in a first grade classroom in Kenya. The languages used in this classroom were Swahili and English only. Kamba the mother tongue of the majority of the children, was banned in the entire school. In this classroom there were 89 children with two teachers,…

Supporting Creativity in Craft Brewing: A Case Study of iPhone Use in the Transition from Novice towards Mastery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Steve; Short, Ben; Parchoma, Gale

2013-01-01

This paper presents a case-study of an individual engaged in the practice of craft brewing and the ways in which his use of a mobile device has supported the informal learning underpinning his transition from novice towards mastery. Through participant observation, online ethnographic methods and interview data the authors present a description of…

Global Citizenship Education within a Context of Accountability and 21st Century Skills: The Case of Olympus High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiCicco, Marzia Cozzolino

2016-01-01

This article addresses the present gap in empirical research on the possibilities and challenges of global citizenship education in U.S. public schools by presenting findings from a five-year, ethnographic case study. The setting for this study is Olympus High School, a small, suburban public high school in Pennsylvania. Beginning in the 2009-2010…

Ethnography's Capacity to Contribute to the Cumulation of Theory: A Case Study of Differentiation-Polarisation Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hillyard, Sam

2010-01-01

The paper sets out to examine the role that ethnographic work can and should play in the development of sociological theory, focusing on the case study of differentiation-polarisation theory. It provides a detailed discussion of the work of Hargreaves (1967), Lacey (1970) and Ball (1981) and assesses the degree to which their work was ethnographic…

Ethnographic Depiction of a Multiethnic School: A Comparison to Desegregated Settings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Semons, Maryann

This report compares the findings of a recent ethnographic study of a multiethnic urban high school to some of the highlights of a series of ten-year-old ethnographic studies on court-ordered desegregated school settings. The study of the multiethnic urban school employed an ethnographic design whereby a participant-observer interviewed students…

A Case Study of a Collaborative Speech-Language Pathologist

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritzman, Mitzi J.; Sanger, Dixie; Coufal, Kathy L.

2006-01-01

This study explored how a school-based speech-language pathologist implemented a classroom-based service delivery model that focused on collaborative practices in classroom settings. The study used ethnographic observations and interviews with 1 speech-language pathologist to provide insights into how she implemented collaborative consultation and…

Social Identity Theories and Educational Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Sean

2009-01-01

There is a large body of research in studies of schooling, particularly ethnographic case studies, which posits that collective action among students undermines engagement in school and contributes to educational inequality. In this paper I review studies of engagement from a social identity theory perspective. To what extent can collective action…

Music Teaching and Learning in a Regional Conservatorium, NSW, Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klopper, Christopher; Power, Bianca

2012-01-01

This study documents and analyses the environment where music education happens in a regional Conservatorium in New South Wales, Australia. The study aimed to gain insight into the structure, nature and professional practice of a regional conservatorium, and identify innovative pedagogical possibilities. An ethnographic case study was undertaken…

Student's Social Interaction in Inquiry-Based Science Education: How Experiences of Flow Can Increase Motivation and Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellwood, Robin; Abrams, Eleanor

2018-01-01

This research investigated how student social interactions within two approaches to an inquiry-based science curriculum could be related to student motivation and achievement outcomes. This qualitative case study consisted of two cases, Off-Campus and On-Campus, and used ethnographic techniques of participant observation. Research participants…

Local Sociality in Young People's Mobile Communications: A Korean Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Kyongwon

2006-01-01

Drawing upon ethnographic data, this article explores how young Koreans appropriate mobile phones. By examining the role of local norms of sociality among young people, the study shows that this "individualizing" technology is articulated through "traditionalizing" forces. Despite dominant representations of young people's…

An Exploratory Study of the Implementation of Computer Technology in an American Islamic Private School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saleem, Mohammed M.

2009-01-01

This exploratory study of the implementation of computer technology in an American Islamic private school leveraged the case study methodology and ethnographic methods informed by symbolic interactionism and the framework of the Muslim Diaspora. The study focused on describing the implementation of computer technology and identifying the…

Middle School Hypermedia Composition: A Qualitative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garthwait, Abigail

2007-01-01

During a six-month naturalistic study, the author conducted an ethnographic examination of a seventh grade hypermedia unit. Beginning with the global question, "In what ways are computers used to support the education of middle school students?" the researcher coded and analyzed observations, interviews and projects. Three themes emerged: the…

Understanding Students' Precollege Experiences with Racial Diversity: The High School as Microsystem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Julie J.; Chang, Stephanie H.

2015-01-01

Few qualitative studies consider how high school experiences affect readiness for diversity engagement in college. Using data from an ethnographic case study, three central trends (student experiences within homogeneous high schools, racial divisions within diverse high schools, and students who attended diverse high schools but had little…

Learning Cultures and the Conservatoire: An Ethnographically-Informed Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perkins, Rosie

2013-01-01

Educational institutions, conservatoires remain largely unresearched and, crucially, relatively unchallenged. In particular, research has paid little attention to in-depth studies of culture, so that not enough is known of the cultural practices that characterise and shape a conservatoire education. This article addresses this gap through seeking…

Inside a Beginning Immigrant Science Teacher's Classroom: An Ethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kern, Anne L.; Roehrig, Gillian; Wattam, Donald K.

2012-01-01

Teaching is a highly personal endeavor shaped by "funds of knowledge" and beliefs about teaching, learning, and students. This case study examines how one Asian immigrant teacher's personal expectations and beliefs influenced his expectations of students and the teaching and instructional strategies he employed. His expectations of students'…

Shared Decision-Making and the Limits of Democratization: A Case Study of Site-Based Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radnofsky, Mary L.; Spielmann, Guy

This paper presents findings of an ethnographic study of a school district's Staff Development, Supervision, and Evaluation Program (SDSEP). Data were gathered through interviews, observations, participant observation, analysis of kinesics and proxemics, semiotic analysis of discourse, unobtrusive measures, and analysis of official documents. The…

The Reflexive Imperative among High-Achieving Adolescents: A Flemish Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Lancker, Inge

2016-01-01

The socio-cultural conditions of late modernity induce a "reflexive imperative" amongst young people, which also results in metapragmatic and metalinguistic behaviour, as has been demonstrated by linguistic ethnographers (LE). However, recent LE studies on reflexivity in Western European settings have mainly focused on how groups of…

Insights into Departure Intention: A Qualitative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Natoli, Riccardo; Jackling, Beverley; Siddique, Salina

2015-01-01

Efforts to address attrition rates at universities have been driven by Tinto's (1975) model of student engagement with its focus on student: (a) pre entry attributes; (b) academic engagement; and (c) social engagement. Using an ethnographic approach, the study involves interviews with business students to explore the links between these aspects…

Development and Maintenance of Identity in Aging Community Music Participants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dyer, William Leonard

2016-01-01

This ethnographic study contextualized identity development and maintenance within the field of community music through case studies of four performing groups and interviews with seven current members. The underlying question guiding this research was how does participatory music making contribute to the development and maintenance of identity in…

Partner Teaching: A Promising Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bronson, Carroll E.; Dentith, Audrey M.

2014-01-01

This paper describes an ethnographic case study of a partner or co-teaching classroom in an urban preschool classroom. As part of a larger project that evaluated classroom size and team teaching structures in Kindergarten classrooms in several high poverty urban schools, one successful co-teaching classroom was studied further. Systematic…

A Circle of Empowerment: Women, Education, and Leadership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irwin, Rita L.

This book describes two studies, the first of which is a single case study that interprets the practical knowledge of an exemplary fine arts supervisor. An analysis of ethnographic data portrays the supervisor's practical knowledge as constructed around a dialectical orientation between two constructs or landscapes of imagery: the empowerment and…

Using weather data to determine dry and wet periods relative to ethnographic records

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Felzer, B. S.; Jiang, M.; Cheng, R.; Ember, C. R.

2017-12-01

Ethnographers record flood or drought events that affect a society's food supply and can be interpreted in terms of a society's ability to adapt to extreme events. Using daily weather station data from the Global Historical Climatology Network for wet events, and monthly gridded climatic data from the Climatic Research Unit for drought events, we determine if it is possible to relate these measured data to the ethnographic records. We explore several drought and wetness indices based on temperature and precipitation, as well as the Colwell method to determine the predictability, seasonality, and variability of these extreme indices. Initial results indicate that while it is possible to capture the events recorded in the ethnographic records, there are many more "false" captures of events that are not recorded in these records. Although extreme precipitation is a poor indicator of floods due to antecedent moisture conditions, even using streamflow for selected sites produces false captures. Relating drought indices to actual food supply as measured in crop yield only related to minimum crop yield in half the cases. Further mismatches between extreme precipitation and drought indices and ethnographic records may relate to the fact that only extreme events that affect food supply are recorded in the ethnographic records or that not all events are recorded by the ethnographers. We will present new results on how predictability measures relate to the ethnographic disasters. Despite the highlighted technical challenges, our results provide a historic perspective linking environmental stressors with socio-economic impacts, which in turn, will underpin the current efforts of risk assessment in a changing environment.

"I Am a Scientist": How Setting Conditions That Enhance Focused Concentration Positively Relate to Student Motivation and Achievement Outcomes in Inquiry-Based Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellwood, Robin B.

2013-01-01

This research investigated how student social interactions within two approaches to an inquiry-based science curriculum could be related to student motivation and achievement outcomes. This qualitative case study consisted of two cases, Off-Campus and On-Campus, and used ethnographic techniques of participant observation. Research participants…

Research, Practice, and Policy Connections: The Artplay Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Robert; Jeanneret, Neryl

2017-01-01

This article explores the nexus between arts-based research, theory, practice, and policy. It does so through reference to a longitudinal study of ArtPlay, a unique Australian community arts center that offers artist-led workshops involving young people aged 3-13 years. The ethnographic and action research study investigated how children responded…

Becoming Science Learners: A Study of Newcomers' Identity Work in Elementary School Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gamez, Rebeca; Parker, Carolyn A.

2018-01-01

This study investigates how two newcomer students, Elena and Martin, identified with and in science within the context of a classroom utilizing a reform-based science curriculum where instruction occurred only in English. Using ethnographic case study methods, we drew from anthropological theories on identity development and sociocultural…

Journey through Transformation: A Case Study of Two Literacy Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duckworth, Vicky; Ade-Ojo, Gordon O.

2016-01-01

The study draws on life history, literacy studies, and ethnographic approaches to exploring social practices as a frame to explore the narratives of two UK adult literacy learners who provide a description of their engagement with a transformative curriculum and pedagogical approach. One of the learners reveals his frustration at the lack of…

How Rules Shape Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emo, Kenneth

2008-01-01

Rules guide and constrain participants' actions as they participate in any educational activity. This ethnographically driven case study examines how organizational rules--the implicit and explicit regulations that constrain actions and interactions--influence children to use science in the experiential educational activity of raising 4-H market…

Discourse Tracing as Qualitative Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LeGreco, Marianne; Tracy, Sarah J.

2009-01-01

This article introduces a qualitative research method called "discourse tracing". Discourse tracing draws from contributions made by ethnographers, discourse critics, case study scholars, and process tracers. The approach offers new insights and an attendant language about how we engage in research designed specifically for the…

Agency, time, and causality

PubMed Central

Widlok, Thomas

2014-01-01

Cognitive Scientists interested in causal cognition increasingly search for evidence from non-Western Educational Industrial Rich Democratic people but find only very few cross-cultural studies that specifically target causal cognition. This article suggests how information about causality can be retrieved from ethnographic monographs, specifically from ethnographies that discuss agency and concepts of time. Many apparent cultural differences with regard to causal cognition dissolve when cultural extensions of agency and personhood to non-humans are taken into account. At the same time considerable variability remains when we include notions of time, linearity and sequence. The article focuses on ethnographic case studies from Africa but provides a more general perspective on the role of ethnography in research on the diversity and universality of causal cognition. PMID:25414683

Piercing the veil: ethical issues in ethnographic research.

PubMed

Schrag, Brian

2009-06-01

It is not unusual for researchers in ethnography (and sometimes Institutional Review Boards) to assume that research of "public" behavior is morally unproblematic. I examine an historical case of ethnographic research and the sustained moral outrage to the research expressed by the subjects of that research. I suggest that the moral outrage was legitimate and articulate some of the ethical issues underlying that outrage. I argue that morally problematic Ethnographic research of public behavior can derive from research practice that includes a tendency to collapse the distinction between harm and moral wrong, a failure to take account of recent work on ethical issues in privacy; failure to appreciate the deception involved in ethnographers' failure to reveal their role as researchers to subjects and finally a failure to appropriately weigh the moral significance of issues of invasion of privacy and inflicted insight in both the research process and subsequent publication of research.

Gender Discourse in an Arab-Muslim High School in Israel: Ethnographic Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arar, Khalid

2014-01-01

Although the school constitutes a key cultural arena for the production and reproduction of gender identities, few studies have addressed gender discourse in educational institutions in developing societies. Such studies are especially sparse in Arab society in Israel. This study goes some way to addressing what is often absent from many…

Rural Principal: A Case Study of an Effective Disciplinarian.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Standard, Marilynn

1986-01-01

Describes discipline program initiated by the principal of a "tough" midwestern rural junior-senior high school. Includes ethnographic methodology; community characteristics; principal's background, self-concept, and leadership qualities; aspects of the program; and faculty, parent, and student perceptions of the principal and his…

Hybridization, Resistance, and Compliance: Negotiating Policies to Support Literacy Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kersten, Jodene

2006-01-01

This article discusses a veteran teacher's literacy pedagogy in response to policies at the district, state, and national level. The yearlong ethnographic case study analyzed the teacher's resistance, compliance, and innovative hybridization of both "official" and "unofficial" curriculum. The author collected data through…

Intercultural Learning on Short-Term Sojourns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Jane

2009-01-01

This paper presents an ethnographic case study of advanced second language (L2) students from Hong Kong who took part in a short-term sojourn in England after 14 weeks of preparation. While abroad, they lived with a host family, took literary/cultural studies courses, visited cultural sites, participated in debriefing sessions, and conducted…

An Examination of Educators' Perceptions of the School's Role in the Prevention of Childhood Obesity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Sharon Kay Harris

2011-01-01

Childhood obesity is a prevalent subject of research currently, and many researchers have studied the effectiveness of school programs in battling obesity among students. This case study, utilizing ethnographic tools of observation, interviews, and investigation of artifacts, examines educators' perceptions of the role of the school in the…

Maestras, Mujeres y Mas: Creating Teacher Networks for Resistance and Voice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montano, Theresa; Burstein, Joyce

2006-01-01

This ethnographic case study documents the socialization of Chicana teachers entering the teaching profession within the past 5 years. As college students, they were actively involved in social justice issues. The belief system of these teachers is based on critical pedagogy, multicultural and antiracist education, and Chicano/a studies--the…

Address Forms among University Students in Ghana: A Case of Gendered Identities?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Afful, Joseph Benjamin Archibald

2010-01-01

In the last two decades, scholars in discourse studies and sociolinguistics have shown considerable interest in how identity is encoded in discourses across various facets of life such as academia, home, politics and workplace. By adopting an ethnographic-style approach, this study shows how students in a Ghanaian university construct their…

A Cultural Epistemology of Success: Perspectives from within Three Cambodian Families.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canniff, Julie G.

Noting that success defines the American identity, this ethnographic case study examined the dynamics of culture, spirituality, and success in the lives of three generations of three Cambodian families. The study pursued three research objectives: (1) to challenge the dominance of quantitative measures to judge refugee students' academic success;…

Learning What To See: Comparing Chemical Photographic and Digital Imaging Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Katherine E.

An ethnographic case study was conducted over a 2-year period to assess stability and change in the photographic education program at a large West Coast university visual arts department. The study investigated the connections between the individual, interpersonal, and institutional development in an artistic community that made use of…

An Investigation of the Goals for an Environmental Science Course: Teacher and Student Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blatt, Erica N.

2015-01-01

This investigation uses an ethnographic case study approach to explore the benefits and challenges of including a variety of goals within a high school Environmental Science curriculum. The study focuses on environmental education (EE) goals established by the Belgrade Charter (1975), including developing students' environmental awareness and…

First Love: A Case Study in Quantitative Appropriation of Social Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Janssen, Diederik F.

2008-01-01

Peer love is a highly invested autobiographical marker, and its scientific ascent can be studied in terms of its literature's motives, stated objectives, exclusions, and delimitations. In this article an overview of numeric and selected ethnographic data on the timing of "first love" is presented, to inform an assessment of the ontological…

Cases Not Proven: An Evaluation of Two Studies of Teacher Racism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foster, Peter

1990-01-01

Evaluates two British ethnographic studies by Bruce Carrington and Edward Wood, and by Cecile Y. Wright claiming to find evidence of teachers' racist attitudes and behaviors toward Afro-Caribbean students that contributed to student underachievement. Delineates methodological flaws. Argues that Wright's findings that the source of racism is in…

The Color of Misbehaving: Two Case Studies of Deviant Boys.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emihovich, Catherine A.

1983-01-01

Drawing from ethnographic study of two kindergartens in a magnet school, suggests that teachers have different perceptions and expectations of Black and White children who misbehave. Holds that the referral of "problem" Black children to counseling and special classes often occurs as a response to administrative and community tensions over…

The Author's I: Adolescents Mediating Selfhood through Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLean, Cheryl A.

2012-01-01

This article looks across two ethnographic case studies on immigrant youth literacy practices in order to understand how two 10th-grade, Caribbean immigrant, high-school students use discourses of academic writing to mediate selfhood. Drawing on the concept of writing as ecology and Black Diaspora theory, the study asked the question: How do…

"Can't Nobody Sleep" and Other Characteristics of Culturally Responsive English Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adkins, Theresa A.

2012-01-01

In this article the author presents a collective case study of two English teachers identified as particularly successful with Black students. Through the use of ethnographic techniques, the study provides a snapshot of how these teachers facilitated academic gains in urban high schools through their use of culturally responsive English…

Understanding Human-Animal Relations in the Context of Primate Conservation: A Multispecies Ethnographic Approach in North Morocco.

PubMed

Waters, Siân; Bell, Sandra; Setchell, Joanna M

2018-01-01

Strategies for conserving species threatened with extinction are often driven by ecological data. However, in anthropogenic landscapes, understanding and incorporating local people's perceptions may enhance species conservation. We examine the relationships shepherds, living on the periphery of the mixed oak forest of Bouhachem in northern Morocco, have with animals in the context of a conservation project for Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). We analyse ethnographic data to provide insights into shepherds' conceptions of Barbary macaques and the species which bring the shepherds into the forest - goats (Capra hircus), domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), and the African wolf (Canis lupus lupaster). We interpret these data within the framework of boundary theory. Our multispecies ethnographic approach illuminates the different and, in the case of the domestic dog and the Barbary macaque, complex ways shepherds perceive each species. Some shepherds show intrinsic interest in the macaques, revealing potential recruits to conservation activities. As with any ethnographic study, our interpretations of human-animal relations in Bouhachem may not extrapolate to other areas of the Barbary macaque's distribution because of the unique nature of both people and the place. We recommend that conservationists examine complex place-based relations between humans and animals to improve wildlife conservation efforts. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Sexual Abuse Experiences of Women in Peru: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deboer, Rebekah E.; Tse, Luke M.

2010-01-01

This ethnographic study relied primarily on case notes and interviews with the president of Centro Prenatal Vida Nueva, a pregnancy center in Lima, Peru, to study the sexual abuse experiences of 33 Peruvian women. Given the language limitations of the researchers, the analyses were completed in collaboration with the president of the center, a…

Constructing and Resisting Disability in Mathematics Classrooms: A Case Study Exploring the Impact of Different Pedagogies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lambert, Rachel

2015-01-01

This study demonstrates the importance of a critical lens on disability in mathematics educational research. This ethnographic and interview study investigated how ability and disability were constructed over 1 year in a middle school mathematics classroom. Children participated in two kinds of mathematical pedagogy that positioned children…

Autonomous Pluralistic Learning Strategies among Mexican Indigenous and Minority University Students Learning English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Despagne, Colette

2015-01-01

This critical ethnographic case study draws on Indigenous and minority students' process of learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Mexico. The study specifically focuses on students who enrolled in a program called "A Wager with the Future." The aim of the study is to identify and understand contributing factors in these…

English Teachers' Cultural Models about Technology: A Microethnographic Perspective on Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curwood, Jen Scott

2014-01-01

Prompted by calls for research on technology-focused professional development, this ethnographic case study investigates how teachers' participation in learning communities may influence technology integration within the secondary English curriculum. In this article, I draw on educational psychology, cognitive anthropology, and sociolinguistics to…

The Social Weaving of a Reading Atmosphere

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sequeiros, Paula

2011-01-01

This paper discusses how public library readers in Almeida Garrett, Porto, create a reading atmosphere, focusing on meanings associated with aural conditions. Through a qualitative, single case study, ethnographic and interview techniques were applied. Readers' actual practices and discourses, through a theoretical sample, and those of managers,…

The Complex Relationship between Home and School Literacy: A Blurred Boundary between Formal and Informal English Literacy Practices of Greek Teenagers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothoni, Anastasia

2018-01-01

This article reports on findings of an ethnographically oriented multiple case study research study on teenagers' everyday literacy practices in English as a foreign language in contemporary Greece. Drawing on new literacy studies, discourse analysis, and ethnography, the study extended over a period of 18 months and employed multiple data…

How Second-Grade Students Internalize Rules during Teacher-Student Transactions: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meard, Jacques; Bertone, Stefano; Flavier, Eric

2008-01-01

Background: Vygotsky's theory of the internalization of signs provided the basis for this study. Aims: This study tried to analyse the processes by which second-grade students internalize school rules. Sample: Ethnographic data were collected on 102 lessons in a second-grade class (6-8 years) during 1 year. This study focused on three lessons…

Religious networking organizations and social justice: an ethnographic case study.

PubMed

Todd, Nathan R

2012-09-01

The current study provides an innovative examination of how and why religious networking organizations work for social justice in their local community. Similar to a coalition or community coordinating council, religious networking organizations are formal organizations comprised of individuals from multiple religious congregations who consistently meet to organize around a common goal. Based on over a year and a half of ethnographic participation in two separate religious networking organizations focused on community betterment and social justice, this study reports on the purpose and structure of these organizations, how each used networking to create social capital, and how religion was integrated into the organizations' social justice work. Findings contribute to the growing literature on social capital, empowering community settings, and the unique role of religious settings in promoting social justice. Implications for future research and practice also are discussed.

Reticence in Second Language Case Discussions: Anxiety and Aspirations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Jane

2002-01-01

An ethnographic study investigated the reticence of Chinese students in an English-medium undergraduate business course in Hong Kong. Used surveys, interviews, and observation and analysis to determine reasons for students' reticence. A complex mix of affective, sociocultural, and educational factors were found to play a significant role in…

Pupils, Power and the Organization of the School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Angus, Lawrence

1986-01-01

Recent arguments for democratization of schools ignore students' contribution to school organization. This ethnographic study of an Australian Catholic high school for boys advances a case for more democratic classroom relationships and for recognizing and encouraging the active role that students can play in constructing such relationships.…

Positive Coping Strategies among Immigrant Cambodian Families: An Ethnographic Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reiboldt, Wendy; Goldstein, Avery E.

2000-01-01

Interviews with two Cambodian immigrant families over 2 years revealed how they relied on each other more than formal service providers to cope with difficulties. They focused on children's education and safety, insulation of the family from external influences, and interdependence with the immigrant community. (SK)

Teacher Identity and Reform: Intersections within School Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bower, Heather Ann; Parsons, Eileen R. Carlton

2016-01-01

In the era of school accountability, school reform programs aimed at shifting school culture are often implemented in an attempt to increase student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. This ethnographic case study was conducted in Hawk Elementary, a low-performing, high-poverty school. Quantitative and qualitative data collected…

Popular Media, Critical Pedagogy, and Inner City Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leard, Diane Wishart; Lashua, Brett

2006-01-01

In this article, we explored ways youth, traditionally silenced, engaged with popular culture to voice experiences and challenge dominant narratives of public schools and daily lives. We also considered how educators use popular culture as critical pedagogy with inner city youth. Through ethnographic bricolage and case study methods, and drawing…

From Knowledge to Practice: A Gifted Educator's Journey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinhard, Jessica J.

2016-01-01

This qualitative case study of a third-year teacher of intermediate students in a self-contained gifted education classroom uncovers the relationship between knowledge of pedagogical practices from national gifted education standards and their transfer to classroom practice. Ethnographic methods of interviews, field observations, lesson documents,…

Bridging Language Barriers in Multilingual Care Encounters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jansson, Gunilla

2014-01-01

The present case study demonstrates how the multilingual practices of a linguistically diverse workforce contribute to the functioning of a modern workplace. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and recordings in a residential home for elderly people with dementia in Sweden, the article explores how multilingual immigrant care workers creatively use…

Intelligent Tutoring and the Development of Argumentative Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paneque, Juan J.; Cobo, Pedro; Fortuny, Josep M.

2017-01-01

This ethnographical study aims to interpret how an intelligent tutorial system, geogebraTUTOR, mediates to the student's argumentative processes. Data consisted of four geometrical problems proposed to a group of four students aged 16-17. Qualitative analysis of two selected cases led to the identification of the development of argumentative…

Participatory Science: Encouraging Public Engagement in ONEM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heaton, Lorna; Millerand, Florence; Liu, Xiao; Crespel, Élodie

2016-01-01

This article provides a case study of a participatory science project that involved collecting observations of a giant grasshopper and registering them online. Our objective is to reflect on conditions for meaningful amateur engagement on Web 2.0 science platforms. Our overall approach is qualitative and ethnographically informed and draws on…

Different Children's Perspectives on Their Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sandberg, Gunilla

2017-01-01

This article reports and discusses findings from an ethnographic case study, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of how different children perceive their learning environment in the first grade of primary school, with regard to social as well as academic aspects. The theoretical framework is based on an interactional perspective, where…

Identity and the Young English Language Learner. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Day, Elaine Mellen

This ethnographic case study examines the language socialization experiences of Hari, a Punjabi-speaking English language learner integrated into a mainstream kindergarten classroom in an urban area of British Columbia, Canada. The book begins by discussing theory and literature (e.g., mainstream second language acquisition research, language as…

Routine (Dis)Order in an Infant School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Simon; Thomson, Pat

2009-01-01

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is popularly understood to be a condition which resides in the person. In this scenario, the school is an innocent bystander, a container for the "maladjusted child". Drawing on an ethnographic case study of one classroom, the first stage of doctoral research into the production of the…

Success Structure for Accelerated Acquisition of English by Young ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohamed, Abdul Rashid; Tumin, Mahani; Omar, Hamzah

2008-01-01

This is an investigation into the accelerated acquisition of English among young ESL learners in an International School. It employed an ethnographic case study approach where data were gathered through non-participant observations, unstructured interviews, relevant documents, students' portfolios, field notes and biographical details. The sample…

Street Sex Work: Re/Constructing Discourse from Margin to Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCracken, Jill Linnette

2009-01-01

Newspaper media create interpretations of marginalized groups that require rhetorical analysis so that we can better understand these representations. This article focuses on how newspaper articles create interpretations of sex work that affect both the marginalized and mainstream communities. My ethnographic case study argues that the material…

Urban Sanctuary Schools for Diverse Populations: Examining Curricular Expectations and School Effectiveness for Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liou, Daniel D.; Marsh, Tyson E. J.; Antrop-González, René

2017-01-01

This ethnographic case study problematizes the current high stakes accountability efforts that have led many school leaders to inadvertently maintain a school environment in which deficit perspectives and low academic expectations in the classroom persist. Drawing from an urban sanctuary school framework, this study works to center the voices of…

Undocumented Student Allies and Transformative Resistance: A Ethnographic Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Angela Chuan-Ru; Rhoads, Robert A.

2016-01-01

This article examines staff and faculty allies working to help meet the needs of undocumented students at a large research university in the western region of the U.S. Drawing on scholarly work rooted in critical race theory and ethnic studies, the authors highlight forms of transformative resistance. They focus on four key findings: (1) student…

Family Literacy and Digital Literacies: A Redefined Approach to Examining Social Practices of an African-American Family

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Tisha Y.

2009-01-01

This dissertation examines the digital literacy practices of an urban African-American family. Using an ethnographic case study approach (Stake, 2000), this qualitative study explores the multiple ways a mother (Larnee) and son (Gerard) interacted with digital literacies in the home. Situated within the framework of sociocultural traditions from…

(Re)constructing and (Re)presenting Heritage: Education and Representation in an American Indian Homeland Preservation Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graybeal, Lesley Marie

2011-01-01

Experiences of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (Occaneechi) in constructing a heritage revitalization initiative known as the Homeland Preservation Project and organizing related educational programming were analyzed through an ethnographic case study. The purpose of the study was to understand the importance of the heritage museum as a…

Exploring the Impact of Reality Pedagogy: Understanding Its Implementation on Urban Immigrant Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taher, Tanzina; Mensah, Felicia Moore; Emdin, Christopher

2017-01-01

This ethnographic case study follows two urban immigrant students in their yearlong journey in an urban science classroom where the first two pedagogic tools of reality pedagogy (cogenerative dialogue and co-teaching) were implemented. This study examines the role reality pedagogy plays in the science classroom for these two students, while…

Socio-Spatial Practices in a Finnish Daycare Group for One- to Three-Year-Olds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutanen, Niina

2012-01-01

This qualitative case study approaches early childhood education and care practices from a socio-spatial point of view. One Finnish daycare group for one- to three-year-olds participated in the study. The ethnographic observations from the practices are analyzed together with the ECE practitioners' audio-recorded team meetings and video-elicited…

Sudanese Young People Building Capital in Rural Australia: The Role of Mothers and Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santoro, Ninetta; Wilkinson, Jane

2016-01-01

This article draws on an ethnographic study that consisted of in-depth case studies of eight Sudanese young people of refugee background living in rural Australia. Prompted by concern over deficit views of young refugees that pervade educational literature, we aimed to understand what facilitates their successful resettlement into Australian rural…

Integrated Literacies in a Rural Kenyan Girls' Secondary School Journalism Club

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kendrick, Maureen; Early, Margaret; Chemjor, Walter

2013-01-01

Our purpose in this paper is to foreground contextual issues in studies of situated writing practices. During a year-long case study in a rural Kenyan secondary school, we applied a number of ethnographic techniques to document how 32 girls (aged 14-18 years) used local cultural and digital resources (i.e., donated digital cameras, voice…

Learning to Lead the Risk-Conscious Organization: An Empirical Study of Five English Primary School Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pegg, Ann Elizabeth

2010-01-01

This article explores how organizational cultures shape workplace learning for those learning to be educational leaders. The discussion is illustrated with the data from an ethnographic case study which explored the workplace learning of five school leaders. The findings suggest that workplace boundaries were constructed in response to perceptions…

Gender Inequality among Japanese High School Teachers: Women Teachers' Resistance to Gender Bias in Occupational Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miyajima, Tomomi

2008-01-01

This study explores gender inequality in the occupational culture of Japanese high school teachers with special focus on women teachers' resistance to gender-biased practices. It examines the effectiveness of official and informal teacher training programmes in raising awareness of gender issues. Through an ethnographic case study conducted in…

Utilization of Standardized Mental Health Assessments in Anthropological Research: Possibilities and Pitfalls.

PubMed

Mendenhall, Emily; Yarris, Kristin; Kohrt, Brandon A

2016-12-01

In the past decade anthropologists working the boundary of culture, medicine, and psychiatry have drawn from ethnographic and epidemiological methods to interdigitate data and provide more depth in understanding critical health problems. But rarely do these studies incorporate psychiatric inventories with ethnographic analysis. This article shows how triangulation of research methods strengthens scholars' ability (1) to draw conclusions from smaller data sets and facilitate comparisons of what suffering means across contexts; (2) to unpack the complexities of ethnographic and narrative data by way of interdigitating narratives with standardized evaluations of psychological distress; and (3) to enhance the translatability of narrative data to interventionists and to make anthropological research more accessible to policymakers. The crux of this argument is based on two discrete case studies, one community sample of Nicaraguan grandmothers in urban Nicaragua, and another clinic-based study of Mexican immigrant women in urban United States, which represent different populations, methodologies, and instruments. Yet, both authors critically examine narrative data and then use the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale to further unpack meaning of psychological suffering by analyzing symptomatology. Such integrative methodologies illustrate how incorporating results from standardized mental health assessments can corroborate meaning-making in anthropology while advancing anthropological contributions to mental health treatment and policy.

Utilization of Standardized Mental Health Assessments in Anthropological Research: Possibilities and Pitfalls

PubMed Central

Mendenhall, Emily; Yarris, Kristin; Kohrt, Brandon A.

2017-01-01

In the past decade anthropologists working the boundary of culture, medicine, and psychiatry have drawn from ethnographic and epidemiological methods to interdigitate data and provide more depth in understanding critical health problems. But rarely do these studies incorporate psychiatric inventories with ethnographic analysis. This article shows how triangulation of research methods strengthens scholars’ ability (1) to draw conclusions from smaller data sets and facilitate comparisons of what suffering means across contexts; (2) to unpack the complexities of ethnographic and narrative data by way of interdigitating narratives with standardized evaluations of psychological distress; and (3) to enhance the translatability of narrative data to interventionists and to make anthropological research more accessible to policymakers. The crux of this argument is based on two discrete case studies, one community sample of Nicaraguan grandmothers in urban Nicaragua, and another clinic-based study of Mexican immigrant women in urban United States, which represent different populations, methodologies, and instruments. Yet, both authors critically examine narrative data and then use the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale to further unpack meaning of psychological suffering by analyzing symptomatology. Such integrative methodologies illustrate how incorporating results from standardized mental health assessments can corroborate meaning-making in anthropology while advancing anthropological contributions to mental health treatment and policy. PMID:27553610

Organizational Culture in a Successful Primary School: An Ethnographic Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Negis-Isik, Ayse; Gursel, Musa

2013-01-01

Even though they are perceived similar from outside, all schools have distinct characteristics and a culture that differ them from other schools. School culture, is one of the important factors that play role in school efficiency and success. The purpose of this study was to examine the culture of a successful school profoundly. This study was a…

The Multi-Literacy Development of a Young Trilingual Child: Four Leading Literacy Activities from Birth to Age Six

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Mi Song

2014-01-01

This study examines the multiplicity of literacies while incorporating multiple modes of meaning to understand a young trilingual child's meaning-making processes. This qualitative study reports the results of a combination of ethnographic observations and a longitudinal case study of one child's multi-literacy development from birth to…

Digital Literacy Integration in Educational Practice: Creating a Learning Community, through a Geographic Project in Mytilene Senior High School, Greece

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Exarchou, Evi; Klonari, Aikaterini; Lambrinos, Nikos; Vaitis, Michalis

2017-01-01

This study focused on the analysis of Grade-12 (Senior) students' sociocultural constructivist interactions using Web 2.0 applications during a geographical research process. In the study methodology context, a transdisciplinary case study (TdCS) with ethnographic and research action data was designed, implemented and analyzed in real teaching…

Tackling complexities in understanding the social determinants of health: the contribution of ethnographic research.

PubMed

Bandyopadhyay, Mridula

2011-11-25

The complexities inherent in understanding the social determinants of health are often not well-served by quantitative approaches. My aim is to show that well-designed and well-conducted ethnographic studies have an important contribution to make in this regard. Ethnographic research designs are a difficult but rigorous approach to research questions that require us to understand the complexity of people's social and cultural lives. I draw on an ethnographic study to describe the complexities of studying maternal health in a rural area in India. I then show how the lessons learnt in that setting and context can be applied to studies done in very different settings. I show how ethnographic research depends for rigour on a theoretical framework for sample selection; why immersion in the community under study, and rapport building with research participants, is important to ensure rich and meaningful data; and how flexible approaches to data collection lead to the gradual emergence of an analysis based on intense cross-referencing with community views and thus a conclusion that explains the similarities and differences observed. When using ethnographic research design it can be difficult to specify in advance the exact details of the study design. Researchers can encounter issues in the field that require them to change what they planned on doing. In rigorous ethnographic studies, the researcher in the field is the research instrument and needs to be well trained in the method. Ethnographic research is challenging, but nevertheless provides a rewarding way of researching complex health problems that require an understanding of the social and cultural determinants of health.

Diagnosing dementia: Ethnography, interactional ethics and everyday moral reasoning.

PubMed

Hillman, Alexandra

2017-02-01

This article highlights the contribution of ethnography and qualitative sociology to the ethical challenges that frame the diagnosis of dementia. To illustrate this contribution, the paper draws on an ethnographic study of UK memory clinics carried out between 2012 and 2014. The ethnographic data, set alongside other studies and sociological theory, contest the promotion of a traditional view of autonomy; the limiting of the point of ethical interest to a distinct moment of diagnosis disclosure; and the failure to recognise risk and uncertainty in the building of clinical 'facts' and their communication. In addressing these specific concerns, this article contributes to the wider debate over the relationship between sociology and bioethics (medical ethics). At the heart of these debates lies more fundamental questions: how can we best understand and shape moral decision-making and ethics that guide behaviour in medical practice, and what should be the guiding ideas, concepts and methods to inform ethics in the clinic? Using the case of dementia diagnosis, this article illustrates the benefits of an ethnographic approach, not just for understanding this ethical problem but also for exploring if and how a more empirically informed ethics can help shape healthcare practices for the better.

Diagnosing dementia: Ethnography, interactional ethics and everyday moral reasoning

PubMed Central

Hillman, Alexandra

2016-01-01

This article highlights the contribution of ethnography and qualitative sociology to the ethical challenges that frame the diagnosis of dementia. To illustrate this contribution, the paper draws on an ethnographic study of UK memory clinics carried out between 2012 and 2014. The ethnographic data, set alongside other studies and sociological theory, contest the promotion of a traditional view of autonomy; the limiting of the point of ethical interest to a distinct moment of diagnosis disclosure; and the failure to recognise risk and uncertainty in the building of clinical ‘facts’ and their communication. In addressing these specific concerns, this article contributes to the wider debate over the relationship between sociology and bioethics (medical ethics). At the heart of these debates lies more fundamental questions: how can we best understand and shape moral decision-making and ethics that guide behaviour in medical practice, and what should be the guiding ideas, concepts and methods to inform ethics in the clinic? Using the case of dementia diagnosis, this article illustrates the benefits of an ethnographic approach, not just for understanding this ethical problem but also for exploring if and how a more empirically informed ethics can help shape healthcare practices for the better. PMID:28255279

Socio-technical issues and challenges in implementing safe patient handovers: insights from ethnographic case studies.

PubMed

Balka, Ellen; Tolar, Marianne; Coates, Shannon; Whitehouse, Sandra

2013-12-01

Ineffective handovers in patient care, including those where information loss occurs between care providers, have been identified as a risk to patient safety. Computerization of health information is often offered as a solution to improve the quality of care handovers and decrease adverse events related to patient safety. The purpose of this paper is to broaden our understanding of clinical handover as a patient safety issue, and to identify socio-technical issues which may come to bear on the success of computer based handover tools. Three in depth ethnographic case studies were undertaken. Field notes were transcribed and analyzed with the aid of qualitative data analysis software. Within case analysis was performed on each case, and subsequently, cross case analyses were performed. We identified five types of socio-technical issues which must be addressed if electronic handover tools are to succeed. The inter-dependencies of these issues are addressed in relation to arenas in which health care work takes place. We suggest that the contextual nature of information, ethical and medico-legal issues arising in relation to information handover, and issues related to data standards and system interoperability must be addressed if computerized health information systems are to achieve improvements in patient safety related to handovers in care. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

From the teachers' eyes: An ethnographic-case study on developing models of Informal Formative Assessments (IFA) and understanding the challenges to effective implementation in science classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sezen, Asli

The emphasis on socio-cultural theories of learning has required the understanding of multi-dimensional, dynamic and social nature of acquiring the scientific knowledge and practices. Recent policy documents suggest a focus on formative and dynamic assessment practices that will help understand and improve the complex nature of scientific learning in classrooms. This study focuses on teachers' use of "Informal Formative Assessments (IFA)" aimed at improving students' learning and teachers' frequent recognition of students' learning process. The study was designed as an ethnographic case study of four middle school teachers and their students at a local charter school. The data of the study included (a) teachers' responses to history of teaching questionnaire (b) video and audio records of teachers' assessment practices during two different scientific projects (c) video and audio records of ethnographic interviews with teachers during their reflections on their practices, and (d) field notes taken by the researcher to understand the assessment culture of the school. The analytical tools from sociolinguistics (e.g., transcripts and event maps) were prepared and discourse analysis based in an ethnographic perspective was used to analyze the data. Moreover, Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was also introduced as an alternative data analysis framework for understanding the role of division of labor among the elements of the community on the challenges and the outcomes of IFA practices. The findings from the analysis of the classroom discourse showed three different types of IFA cycles: connected, non-connected, and repeating. The analysis of the teachers' reflections showed that the effectiveness of these cycles did not only depend on whether the cycles were connected, but also on other variables such as the phase of the lessons and student's identities and abilities. Teachers' reflections during researcher-teacher meetings on the concept and the aims of IFA improved through the use of academic literature on IFA and video-cases of their own practice. Teachers also reflected on the challenges for effective implementations of IFA and they emphasized challenges due to the division of labor among the classroom participants and the open nature of scientific knowledge. Through participation in the study, the teachers helped develop an IFA model for middle school science classrooms designed to capture the complex nature of teacher-student interaction. This model can be used for further analysis of IFA activity and professional development activities focused on assessment practices.

Tackling complexities in understanding the social determinants of health: the contribution of ethnographic research

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Objective The complexities inherent in understanding the social determinants of health are often not well-served by quantitative approaches. My aim is to show that well-designed and well-conducted ethnographic studies have an important contribution to make in this regard. Ethnographic research designs are a difficult but rigorous approach to research questions that require us to understand the complexity of people’s social and cultural lives. Approach I draw on an ethnographic study to describe the complexities of studying maternal health in a rural area in India. I then show how the lessons learnt in that setting and context can be applied to studies done in very different settings. Results I show how ethnographic research depends for rigour on a theoretical framework for sample selection; why immersion in the community under study, and rapport building with research participants, is important to ensure rich and meaningful data; and how flexible approaches to data collection lead to the gradual emergence of an analysis based on intense cross-referencing with community views and thus a conclusion that explains the similarities and differences observed. Conclusion When using ethnographic research design it can be difficult to specify in advance the exact details of the study design. Researchers can encounter issues in the field that require them to change what they planned on doing. In rigorous ethnographic studies, the researcher in the field is the research instrument and needs to be well trained in the method. Implication Ethnographic research is challenging, but nevertheless provides a rewarding way of researching complex health problems that require an understanding of the social and cultural determinants of health. PMID:22168509

Developing a Physics Expert Identity in a Biophysics Research Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Idaykis; Goertzen, Renee Michelle; Brewe, Eric; Kramer, Laird H.

2015-01-01

We investigate the development of expert identities through the use of the sociocultural perspective of learning as participating in a community of practice. An ethnographic case study of biophysics graduate students focuses on the experiences the students have in their research group meetings. The analysis illustrates how the communities of…

Orienting Schools toward Equity: Subgroup Accountability Pressure and School-Level Responses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garver, Rachel

2017-01-01

This article examines school-level responses to subgroup accountability pressure through an ethnographic case study of a school cited for failing to make adequate yearly progress for student subgroups. Concerns about the calculations and measures used to derive the citation and reservations about acting on accountability data delegitimized the…

Social Capital and the Role of Trust in Aspirations for Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuller, Carol

2014-01-01

This paper considers the role of social capital in the aspirations for higher education of a group of socially disadvantaged girls. Drawing on data from a longitudinal, ethnographic case study of an underperforming secondary school, the paper considers current conceptualisations of social capital and its role in educational ambitions. The paper…

From Remediation to Acceleration: Recruiting, Retaining, and Graduating Future Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrera, Socorro G.; Morales, Amanda R.; Holmes, Melissa A.; Terry, Dawn Herrera

2012-01-01

This ethnographic case study explores one mid-western state university's response to the challenge of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), especially Latino/a, student recruitment and retention. BESITOS (Bilingual/Bicultural Education Students Interacting To Obtain Success) is an integrated teacher preparation program implemented at a…

International Pre-Service Teachers' Practicum Experiences in the U.S.: Ethnographic Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Jihea

2017-01-01

Many colleges around the world have been undergoing demographic shifts under the influence of globalization. The population of international students continues to grow dramatically. As such increasing number of international students has been enrolling U.S colleges. Teacher education is not an exception. However, international teacher candidates'…

Number Words in "Her" Language, Dialogism and Identity-Work: The Case of Little Mariah

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chronaki, Anna; Mountzouri, Georgia; Zaharaki, Maria; Planas, Núria

2016-01-01

Based on an ethnographic study, we explore the potential of experimenting with multiple languages for number words as part of young children's mathematical activity. Data from a preschool classroom activity on "number words in 'other' languages" exemplify a complex process of discursive identity-work and dialogism amongst children,…

Classroom Interaction: Potential or Problem? The Case of Karagwe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wedin, Asa

2010-01-01

This paper discusses interactional patterns in classrooms in primary school in rural Tanzania, based on an ethnographic study on literacy practices. The paper argues that the official policy of Swahili-only in primary school, together with the huge gap between high expectations on educational outcome and lack of resources, have resulted in the…

Culturally Based Intervention Development: The Case of Latino Families Dealing with Schizophrenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrio, Concepcion; Yamada, Ann-Marie

2010-01-01

Objectives: This article describes the process of developing a culturally based family intervention for Spanish-speaking Latino families with a relative diagnosed with schizophrenia. Method: Our iterative intervention development process was guided by a cultural exchange framework and based on findings from an ethnographic study. We piloted this…

The Experience of the Hidden Curriculum for Autistic Girls at Mainstream Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moyse, R.; Porter, J.

2015-01-01

This article presents the findings of ethnographic case studies of three girls on the autistic spectrum attending mainstream primary schools and illustrates the difficulties they experience and the ways in which these are often unrecognised. The observations of the girls and subsequent individual interviews with their mothers, class teachers,…

Contextuality and Cultural Texts: A Case Study of Workplace Learning in Call Centres

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crouch, Margaret

2006-01-01

Purpose: The paper seeks to show the contextualisation of call centres as a work-specific ethnographically and culturally based community, which, in turn, influences pedagogical practices through the encoding and decoding of cultural texts in relation to two logics: cost-efficiency and customer-orientation. Design/methodology/approach: The paper…

Creative Teaching and Learning Strategies for Novice Users of Mobile Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masters, Jennifer

2013-01-01

This paper addresses perspectives of creative teaching and learning strategies in the new learning context of mobile technology, particularly for novice learners. The discussion presented here is framed by two case studies and uses an ethnographical approach, informed by participant observation to consider the experiences of users of mobile…

Shaped by Campus Culture: Intersections between Transformative Learning, Civic Engagement, and Institutional Mission

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCunney, Dennis

2017-01-01

This ethnographic case study describes how civically engaged students understand their commitment to social change. Literature on civic engagement and service-learning abounds, yet gaps remain in understanding how students understand and act on campus mission and culture with respect to civic engagement. Using the frameworks of transformative…

Mas' Making and Pedagogy: Imagined Possibilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fournillier, Janice B.

2009-01-01

In this article I draw on an ethnographic case study that examined mas' makers' perceptions of the learning/teaching practices at work in the production of costumes for Trinidad and Tobago's annual Carnival celebrations. During the 2005 Carnival season I spent four months in the field, my country of birth, and collected data through participant…

Change and Variation in Family Religious Language Policy in a West African Muslim Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Leslie C.

2016-01-01

This article examines variation in family religious language policy in a Muslim community in West Africa. Taking an ethnographically grounded case study approach, I situate families' choices with regards to their children's religious (language) education within the larger linguistic, social, and cultural context, focusing on new influences on…

Multilingual Literacies: Invisible Representation of Literacy in a Rural Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiramba, Lydiah Kananu

2017-01-01

In many countries, educational policies typically mandate school activities that promote a homogeneous and narrow range of academic literacies for all learners despite the diverse nature of human learning. This ethnographic case study examines how a 12-year-old Kenyan fourth-grade student performing below average on all standardized tests used…

Learning Mathematics: Perspectives of Australian Aboriginal Children and Their Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Peter; Perry, Bob

2005-01-01

Two key stakeholders in enhancing and building Aboriginal children's capacity to learn mathematics are teachers and the Aboriginal children themselves. In Australian schools it is often the case that the two groups come from different cultural backgrounds with very differing life experiences. This paper reports on an ethnographic study and focuses…

Training Social Justice Journalists: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Jacob L.; Lewis, Dan A.

2015-01-01

Journalism schools are in the midst of sorting through what it means to prepare journalists for a rapidly transitioning field. In this article, we describe an effort to train students in "social justice journalism" at an elite school of journalism. In our ethnographic analysis of its first iteration, we found that this effort failed to…

Funds of Knowledge in Child-Headed Households: A Ugandan Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kendrick, Maureen; Kakuru, Doris

2012-01-01

Much of the research on orphan and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa has focused on their risks and vulnerabilities. This article describes the "funds of knowledge" (Moll and Greenberg, 1990) and means of acquiring new knowledge of children living in child-headed households in Uganda's Rakai District. Using ethnographic methods,…

Korean Sojourners in the Deep South: The Push/Pull Dynamics of Immigration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lynn, C. Allen; Lee, Sun-A.

2013-01-01

Asians are now the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. And although disproportionately more likely to live in Western states, some are settling in nontraditional host communities. Focusing on one such instance in southeast Georgia, the present ethnographic case study considers a poultry processing plant's decision to recruit dozens…

Teachers' Code-Switching in Bilingual Classrooms: Exploring Pedagogical and Sociocultural Functions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cahyani, Hilda; de Courcy, Michele; Barnett, Jenny

2018-01-01

The pedagogical and sociocultural functions of teachers' code-switching are an important factor in achieving the dual goals of content learning and language learning in bilingual programmes. This paper reports on an ethnographic case study investigating how and why teachers switched between languages in tertiary bilingual classrooms in Indonesia,…

"You Want Us to Teach Outdoor Education Where?" Reflections on Teaching Outdoor Education Online

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, H. A.; Dyment, J. E.; Hill, A.; Downing, J.

2016-01-01

This article reports on the experiences of two lecturers working at the University of Tasmania required to teach outdoor and sustainability education (O&SE) courses online. Using an (auto)ethnographic case-study approach, the lecturers were interviewed with a view to exploring their perceptions, challenges, ethical dilemmas, tensions,…

Social Class as Flow and Mutability: The Barbados Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenhalgh-Spencer, Heather; Castro, Michelle; Bulut, Ergin; Goel, Koeli; Lin, Chunfeng; McCarthy, Cameron

2015-01-01

This article draws on ethnographic research that examines the contemporary articulation of class identity in the postcolonial elite school setting of Old College high school in Barbados. From the qualitative data derived from this study, we argue that social class is better conceived as a series of flows, mutations, performances and performatives.…

Between Continuity and Change: Identities and Narratives within Teacher Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curwood, Jen Scott

2014-01-01

This year-long ethnographic case study examined high school teachers' participation in technology-focused professional development. By pairing a dialogical perspective on teacher identity with a micro-level analysis of narratives, findings indicate that teachers use language and other semiotic resources to express their own identity as well as to…

Rewriting the Rules of Engagement: Elaborating a Model of District-Community Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishimaru, Ann M.

2014-01-01

In this ethnographic case study, Ann M. Ishimaru examines how a collaboration emerged and evolved between a low-income Latino parent organizing group and the leadership of a rapidly changing school district. Using civic capacity and community organizing theories, Ishimaru seeks to understand the role of parents, goals, strategies, and change…

Romanian Diaspora in the Making? An Online Ethnography of Romaniancommunity.net

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macri, Gloria

2013-01-01

This chapter presents a case study of an online ethnography which examines the Romanian Community of Ireland forum. Apart from highlighting the main challenges and advantages of engaging with an ethnographic methodology online, this chapter also showcases the key findings emerging in relation to the meanings which members of this community…

The Road Not Taken: Two African-American Girls' Experiences with School Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lim, Jae Hoon

2008-01-01

This article is a cross-case study exploring two young African-American adolescent girls' experiences with school mathematics and the impact of the socio-cultural context upon their motivation and mathematical identity. Based on repeated in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation of their mathematics classroom, the researcher portrays…

Talking about Writing: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Adolescents' Socialization into Academic Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilliland, Elizabeth A.

2012-01-01

This dissertation describes and analyzes the academic language socialization of culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents through a multi-case ethnographic study of high school writing instruction in California. I argue that there is a significant gap between the norms for writing in English language development classes and those in the…

Exploring Biliteracy Developments among Asian Women in Diasporas: The Case of Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Yu-Hsiu Hugo

2010-01-01

This study presents a broad overview of diasporic biliteracy developments in immigrant women after examining observation data in one Taiwanese community. Methodologies include a mixture of narrative inquiry with some ethnographic methods. Fifteen Asian women in diaspora, two Burmese, one Cambodian, one Filipino, four Indonesians, three Thai and…

Black Resistance in High School: Forging a Separatist Culture.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solomon, R. Patrick

This book is an ethnographic case study of the school experience of West Indian children in a high school in Toronto (Ontario, Canada), which focuses on how minorities fail to achieve upward social mobility through education. Chapter 1, "Black Cultural Forms in Schools," reviews theories of resistance and cultural inversion in the…

Designing for Communication at Work: A Case for Technology-Enhanced Boundary Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bakker, Arthur; Kent, Phillip; Hoyles, Celia; Noss, Richard

2011-01-01

In this article we conceptualise the challenges of communication between a mortgage company and its customers in terms of crossing boundaries between communities. Through an ethnographic study we first address the question: what are the challenges of communication between sales agents and customers of a mortgage company around mathematical…

Learning in Cyberspace: An Ethnographic Perspective on the Scottish "Chartered Teacher" Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holligan, Chris

2006-01-01

Although a substantial literature is devoted to the professional development of teachers, emerging dimensions located around e-facilitation techniques have yet to be documented and their implications understood. This paper is based around a case study of a professional group of highly experienced teachers from the state sector who were undertaking…

Leveraging a Relationship with Biology to Expand a Relationship with Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawtelle, Vashti; Turpen, Chandra

2016-01-01

This work examines how experiences in one disciplinary domain (biology) can impact the relationship a student builds with another domain (physics). We present a model for disciplinary relationships using the constructs of identity, affect, and epistemology. With these constructs we examine an ethnographic case study of a student who experienced a…

Revisiting the Occupational Aspirations and Destinations of Anglo-Australian and Chinese-Australian High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malik, Ranbir Singh

2015-01-01

Evidence from Australia lends support to the "Asian high achieving syndrome" in Chinese-Australian students and "self-deprivation syndrome" in Anglo-Australian students. Applying ethnographic case studies approach for doctoral thesis the author collected data on a longitudinal basis from homes and school of these students. All…

An Ethnographic Case Study of School Administrators' Responsiveness to the Cultural and Educational Needs of Afro-Caribbean Immigrant Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Aneita Elaine

2012-01-01

As the United States confronts increasing diversity, primarily attributable to migration and globalization trends, public schools are gradually becoming more ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse with groups including Black English-speaking students from the Caribbean. However, school personnel like administrators have the tendency to…

The "Accafellows:" Exploring the Music Making and Culture of a Collegiate a Cappella Ensemble

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paparo, Stephen A.

2013-01-01

Despite the growth in number and popularity of collegiate a cappella ensembles in the USA over the past 20 years, few researchers have studied these self-governed, student-run, popular music ensembles. This ethnographic case study examined the music making and culture of the "Accafellows", an all-male a cappella group at a mid-western…

Developing Twenty-First Century Competencies through the Arts: A Case Study of A High Performing Secondary School Band in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tan, Leonard

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the development of "21st Century Competencies" (21CC) through the secondary school band programme. The researcher used ethnographic research methods to document the lived musical experiences of students from a high performing secondary school band in Singapore, captured the voices of the…

Country Roads Take Me...?: An Ethnographic Case Study of College Pathways among Rural, First-Generation Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beasley, Sarah Elizabeth

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine college pathways or college access and success of rural, first-generation students. Most research on college pathways for low- and moderate-income students focuses on those students as a whole or on urban low-socioeconomic status (SES) students. (Caution is in order when generalizing the experiences of…

Students and Teachers' Discourses and Practices of Citizenship and Citizenship Education in Three Chilean High Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopez, Andrea

2017-01-01

In this dissertation I present the main findings of a multiple case study using an ethnographic approach to explore high school teachers and students' understandings and practices of citizenship and citizenship education in a public, a private-subsidized, and a private independent school in Santiago, Chile. The study showed how citizenship…

Educative Experiences of Rural Junior High History Fair Participants Seeking and Evaluating Online Primary Sources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Riley Todd

2012-01-01

This phenomenological ethnographic multi-case study's purpose was to gain insight into experiences of rural junior high History Fair participants as they searched for and evaluated online primary sources. Drawing on the theories of Dewey and Kuhlthau, the study examined how the participants searched the Internet, what strategies they used to…

Becoming (Less) Scientific: A Longitudinal Study of Students' Identity Work from Elementary to Middle School Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlone, Heidi B.; Scott, Catherine M.; Lowder, Cassi

2014-01-01

Students' declining science interest in middle school is often attributed to psychological factors like shifts of motivational values, decrease in self-efficacy, or doubts about the utility of schooling in general. This paper adds to accounts of the middle school science problem through an ethnographic, longitudinal case study of three…

The Application of Self-Directed Learning in a Marketing Strategy Capstone Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, David M.

2011-01-01

Capstone courses can create a space for students and educators to act as co-producers of desired learning outcomes which are directly relevant to the world of work. This study uses an auto-ethnographic case study approach to demonstrate how a mixed model learning approach evolved in a capstone marketing strategy unit in a marketing major at an…

Circles of Culture and Cognition: A Sociocognitive Study of Collaboration within and among Academic Groups of Teachers in a Rural School District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Linda L.

2011-01-01

This ethnographic case study examined the roles of district and school macro-culture and teacher sub-group micro-culture in influencing the nature and extent of teachers' professional collaboration. Informed by the sociocognitive theory that learning is rooted in social relationships and develops through interpersonal discourse and activity, the…

Transformational Issues and Challenges in South African Educational Reform: A Case Study of Two Schools in QwaQwa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Napier, Diane Brook; Napier, John D.; Lebeta, Vincent T.

Policies for creating a nonracial, democratic education system in South Africa are spawning implementation issues that reflect change and resistance to change in schools. This paper reports on a multiple-year ethnographic study in two contrasting schools in QwaQwa, South Africa. Faculty, administrators, and students were observed and interviewed…

Kicking the Habitus: Power, Culture and Pedagogy in the Secondary School Music Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Ruth

2008-01-01

Within a theoretical framework drawn from sociologists of education Bourdieu and Bernstein, this paper will examine some of the findings of an ethnographic case study conducted with a secondary school music teacher and one class of her pupils in Wales. This teacher attracted 25% of Year 10 (14-year-old) pupils to study music as an optional subject…

"Ganchulinas" and "Rainbowli" Colors: Young Multilingual Children Play with Language in Head Start Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Axelrod, Ysaaca

2017-01-01

The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to study the language development of 4-year-old emergent bilinguals in a bilingual (Spanish/English) Head Start classroom with flexible language practices. Data were collected throughout the 10-month school year by visiting the classroom 2-3 times per week. Data include: field notes (observations and…

Assessment of Current Knowledge about the Effectiveness of School Desegregation Strategies. Summary. Volume I: Strategies for Effective Desegregation: A Synthesis of Findings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawley, Willis D.; And Others

This project report examines strategies for effective school desegregation based on case studies of individual schools, national school surveys, ethnographic studies of classrooms, trend analyses, opinion surveys and conference interviews, and court documents. The strategies identified in the report include the attainment of one or more of the…

Fostering Growth in the Survivorship Experience: Investigating Breast Cancer Survivors' Lived Experiences Scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro from a Posttraumatic Growth Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burke, Shaunna M.; Sabiston, Catherine M.

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to use an ethnographic case study approach to explore breast cancer survivors' experiences scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro from a posttraumatic growth perspective. Three breast cancer survivors who participated in interviews and observations during a nine-day climb on the mountain were included in this study. Findings are…

Family Science: An Ethnographic Case Study of the Ordinary Science and Literacy Experiences of One Family

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Glenda M.

2012-01-01

Despite the copious research available on science learning, little is known about ways in which the public engages in free-choice science learning and even fewer studies have focused on how families engage in science to learn about the world around them. The same was true about studies of literacy development in the home until the 1980s when…

Thick Explanation in the Ethnographic Study of Child Socialization: A Longitudinal Study of the Problem of Schooling for Kwara'ae (Solomon Islands) Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson-Gegeo, Karen Ann

1992-01-01

Outlines a framework for examining children's socialization that combines microlevels and macrolevels. Applies the framework to a case study of student failure in the Solomon Islands. Concludes that children's failure had less to do with home socialization than with larger societal processes that shape schooling in the Solomons. (MM)

Writing and Retelling Multiple Ethnographic Tales of a Soup Kitchen for the Homeless.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Dana L.; Creswell, John W.; Olander, Lisa

An ethnographic study narrated three tales about a soup kitchen for the homeless and the near-homeless. To provide a cultural, ethnographic analysis, and share fieldwork experiences the study began with realist and confessional tales. These two tales emerged from the initial writing and presenting of the soup kitchen ethnography to qualitative…

Biosocial Conservation: Integrating Biological and Ethnographic Methods to Study Human-Primate Interactions.

PubMed

Setchell, Joanna M; Fairet, Emilie; Shutt, Kathryn; Waters, Siân; Bell, Sandra

2017-01-01

Biodiversity conservation is one of the grand challenges facing society. Many people interested in biodiversity conservation have a background in wildlife biology. However, the diverse social, cultural, political, and historical factors that influence the lives of people and wildlife can be investigated fully only by incorporating social science methods, ideally within an interdisciplinary framework. Cultural hierarchies of knowledge and the hegemony of the natural sciences create a barrier to interdisciplinary understandings. Here, we review three different projects that confront this difficulty, integrating biological and ethnographic methods to study conservation problems. The first project involved wildlife foraging on crops around a newly established national park in Gabon. Biological methods revealed the extent of crop loss, the species responsible, and an effect of field isolation, while ethnography revealed institutional and social vulnerability to foraging wildlife. The second project concerned great ape tourism in the Central African Republic. Biological methods revealed that gorilla tourism poses risks to gorillas, while ethnography revealed why people seek close proximity to gorillas. The third project focused on humans and other primates living alongside one another in Morocco. Incorporating shepherds in the coproduction of ecological knowledge about primates built trust and altered attitudes to the primates. These three case studies demonstrate how the integration of biological and social methods can help us to understand the sustainability of human-wildlife interactions, and thus promote coexistence. In each case, an integrated biosocial approach incorporating ethnographic data produced results that would not otherwise have come to light. Research that transcends conventional academic boundaries requires the openness and flexibility to move beyond one's comfort zone to understand and acknowledge the legitimacy of "other" kinds of knowledge. It is challenging but crucial if we are to address conservation problems effectively.

Palpable Pedagogy: Expressive Arts, Leadership, and Change in Social Justice Teacher Education (An Ethnographic/Auto-Ethnographic Study of the Classroom Culture of an Arts-Based Teacher Education Course)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barbera, Lucy Elizabeth

2009-01-01

"Palpable Pedagogy: Expressive Arts, Leadership, and Change in Social Justice Teacher Education" is an arts-informed ethnographic study of the pedagogy and culture engendered when the expressive arts are employed in social justice teacher education. "Palpable Pedagogy" is a qualitative study that examines the power of the expressive arts to…

So That We Do Not Fall Again: History Education and Citizenship in "Postwar" Guatemala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bellino, Michelle J.

2016-01-01

This vertical case study applies a transitional justice approach to analyzing curricular reform, as intended, enacted, and experienced in the aftermath of Guatemala's civil war. Drawing on ethnographic data, I juxtapose the teaching and learning of historical injustice in one urban and one rural classroom, examining how particular depictions of…

Foolish Dreams in a Fabled Land: Living Co-Existence in an Israeli Arab School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Court, Deborah

2006-01-01

This article presents the results of an ethnographic case study of an Israeli Arab middle school whose staff and students are Arab Israelis from the Moslem, Druze, and Christian population sectors. Against the Israeli backdrop of multiculturalism, political tensions, and terrorism, this school has created a multi-faceted curriculum for teaching…

Using Technology to Develop a Collaborative-Reflective Teaching Practice toward Synthecultural Competence: An Ethnographic Case Study in World Language Teacher Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webber, Dana E.

2013-01-01

Using technology to develop a collaborative-reflective teaching practice in a world language education methods course block for teaching certification creates unique opportunities for world language education undergraduates to learn to develop synthecultural competence for education. Such a program allows undergraduates to expand their capacity to…

My Cousin Talks Bad like You: Relationships between Language and Identity in a Rural Puerto Rican Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazak, Catherine M.

2012-01-01

This ethnographic case study uses participant observation and interviewing to explore the multiple, complex relationships between language and identities in a particular Puerto Rican community. Participants included students and teachers from a K-9 school-turned-community center in a rural municipality in Puerto Rico. Participants did not think…

Digital Discourse Markers in an ESL Learning Setting: The Case of Socialisation Forums

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shakarami, Alireza; Hajhashemi, Karim; Caltabiano, Nerina

2016-01-01

Analysis of the linguistic discourse plays an important role in the social, cultural, ethnographic, and comparative studies of languages. Discourse markers as indispensable parts of this analysis are reportedly more common in informal speech than in written language. They could be used at different levels, i.e. as "linking words,"…

Realities, Rewards, and Risks of Heritage-Language Education: Perspectives from Japanese Immigrant Parents in a Midwestern Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Endo, R.

2013-01-01

This ethnographic case study describes how three Japanese immigrant parents in a midsize urban community in the Midwest viewed heritage-language education in relation to their children's socioemotional development as bicultural Americans. The literature review offers a comparative and historical analysis of Japanese schools in the diaspora to…

School Culture Meets Sport: A Case Study in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burrows, Lisette; McCormack, Jaleh

2011-01-01

This article draws on ethnographic work undertaken with 21 students and several members of staff at an elite girls' school in New Zealand to investigate the relation between school culture, pedagogical practices and discourses of physical education and school sport. It explores what and who contours the participation of these young women in sport,…

Identity Construction and Negotiation within and across School Communities: The Case of One English-as-a-New-Language (ENL) Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Xiaoning

2010-01-01

Through a theoretical framework that builds on constructs of identity, community of practice, power relations, and investment (Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2001; Gee, 2001; Norton, 2000; Peirce, 1995; Wenger, 1998), this educational ethnographic study (Preissle, 1999) explores one English-as-a-new-language (ENL) student's identities within and across…

Interdisciplinary Curriculum and Student Outcomes: The Case of a General Education Course at a Research University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orillion, Marie-France

2009-01-01

Teacher Student relationship;This article examines the relationship between interdisciplinary curriculum and student outcomes. In this inquiry, the author uses data collected during a two-year ethnographic study of six courses in a general education reform at Southwestern University (all names are pseudonyms), a research university with a diverse…

Affordances and Constraints: Second Language Learning in Cleaning Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strömmer, Maiju

2016-01-01

This paper examines opportunities for language learning in a cleaning job, which is a typical entry-level job for immigrants. An ethnographic case study approach is taken to investigate examples of the conditions that allow or prevent language learning for the focal participant, a sub-Saharan man who works as a cleaner in Finland. This case…

Prospective TESOL Teachers' Beliefs, Understandings, and Experiences of Cooperative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallestad, Chizuko Konishi

2010-01-01

The purpose of this present ethnographic case study is to explore the initial and developing beliefs, understandings, and experiences of prospective language teachers as they engage in the process of learning about cooperative learning (CL) and in putting it into practice in a TESOL graduate program in the U.S. Data collection includes multiple…

Hybrid Literacies: The Case of a Quechua Community in the Andes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de la Piedra, Maria Teresa

2009-01-01

Drawing on data from an ethnographic study in a Quechua rural community in the Peruvian Andes, this article examines hybrid literacy practices among bilingual rural speakers in the context of the household and the community. I examine the coexistence of two types of textual practices that operate side by side, at times integrated in the same…

How the Cultural Contexts of Urban Teaching Affect Novice Science Educators: Implications for School Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duncan, Marlina

2014-01-01

While the challenge to retain highly competent teachers affects all schools, the crisis is critical in urban districts, which historically suffer from high teacher turnover (Ingersoll, 2004). This high turnover is especially problematic in the content areas of science (Ingersoll & Perda, 2010). Through ethnographic case studies the first year…

The Edge of Messy: Interplays of Daily Storytelling and Grand Narratives in Teacher Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Selland, Makenzie K.

2017-01-01

This paper examines the interplay of daily storytelling and societal narratives of teaching in one student teacher's experience. Drawing on narrative and post-structural theories, I conducted a case study using narrative inquiry and ethnographic methods to examine the moment-to-moment storytelling of one student teacher across a range of teaching…

Primary Discourse and Expressive Oral Language in a Kindergarten Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fiano, Darcy A.

2014-01-01

This seven-month ethnographic case study elucidated a kindergarten student's navigation through her first formal schooling experience with relation to expressive oral language. Gee's theory of Discourses and methodology of discourse analysis were used to examine expressive oral language in use. Two discursive contexts germane to…

Issues in Lecturing in a Second Language: Lecturer's Behaviour and Students' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Lindsay

2007-01-01

This article explores how Hong Kong Chinese engineering students with low English language proficiency manage to cope with their lectures given in English. An ethnographic case study approach was used with multiple sources of data triangulated to provide a picture of the lecture event from both the students' and the lecturer's perspectives. One of…

Re-Emplacing Place in the "Global Here and Now"--Critical Ethnographic Case Studies of Native American Language Planning and Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Teresa L.; Nicholas, Sheilah E.; Wyman, Leisy T.

2012-01-01

In Native American communities, the "global here and now" (Appadurai, 2001) is linked to twin movements for standardization and English supremacy, resulting in the decline of Indigenous languages and persistent educational disparities. This article takes up Appadurai's call to democratize research on globalization, juxtaposing theories that…

"It's Not Comfortable Being Who I Am"--Multilingual Identity in Superdiverse Dubai

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ONeill, Gary Thomas

2017-01-01

This ethnographic case study examines the factors that contribute to multilingual choices and the construction of identities in a linguistically diverse family within a linguistically diverse city, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on interviews with a female Emirati in her early thirties, the article examines this young woman's…

An Ethnographic Case Study of Collaborative Learning in a Higher Education Choral Ensemble

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Timbie, Renae

2016-01-01

As a choral director in higher education, I grew increasingly attentive to the role of globalization on society and similarly on higher education. Believing that cultural awareness informs music performance, I examined how choral music education in particular might lead the way in challenging students to see the world in its increasingly…

The Simultaneity of Experience: Cultural Identity, Magical Realism and the Artefactual in Digital Storytelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Honeyford, Michelle A.

2013-01-01

This paper explores how students, as multimodal storytellers, can weave powerful narratives blending modes, genres, artefacts and literary conventions to represent the real and imagined in their lives. Part of a larger ethnographic case study of student writing in a middle years class for immigrant students learning English as an additional…

Multilevel Dynamic Systems Affecting Introduction of HIV/STI Prevention Innovations among Chinese Women in Sex Work Establishments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weeks, Margaret R.; Li, Jianghong; Liao, Susu; Zhang, Qingning; Dunn, Jennifer; Wang, Yanhong; Jiang, Jingmei

2013-01-01

Social and public health scientists are increasingly interested in applying system dynamics theory to improve understanding and to harness the forces of change within complex, multilevel systems that affect community intervention implementation, effects, and sustainability. Building a system dynamics model based on ethnographic case study has the…

Performing the Grade: Urban Latino Youth, Gender Performance, and Academic Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foiles Sifuentes, A. M.

2015-01-01

This article examines the intersection of race, gender, class, and academic success through an ethnographic case study in a Texas charter high school. The 98% working-class, Latino student population was exposed to an array of stigmas ascribed to their persons based on negative social stereotypes of race, ethnicity, gender, and class due to the…

Engaging the Community Cultural Wealth of Latino Immigrant Families in a Community-Based Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gil, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative case study utilizing ethnographic methods was to understand how family members' participation in Digital Home, a community-based technology program in an urban mid-sized Midwestern city, built on and fostered Latino immigrant families' community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) in order to increase their abilities to…

From Refugee to Transformer: A Bourdieusian Take on a Hmong Learner's Trajectory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Costa, Peter I.

2010-01-01

This ethnographic case study of a male Hmong refugee, Vue Lang, is situated against a backdrop that is characterized by a burgeoning immigrant population in the United States and a growing need to provide them with English language instruction. The Bourdieusian concepts of "capital", "habitus", and "field" (Bourdieu, 1991) are used to explicate…

Discursive Power and the New Labor Force: The Metamorphosis of a Speech Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, Christopher

2010-01-01

This article describes the results of a six-month ethnographic case study of a French immigrant of Senegalese descent and how he recreates the culture of an American company's speech community. Data were collected through interviews, field notes, and shadowing the participant at his place of employment. The transcribed interviews and field notes…

Current Issues in Art and Design Education: Modularization and Course Ethos: The Case of Art and Design Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wayte, Gillian; Wayte, Nick

1990-01-01

Examines why art and design educators resist the modularization of degree-level courses. Identifies key characteristics of art education in England through an ethnographic study. Discusses government policy and rationales for modular and integrated courses. Concludes that the holistic approach to education allows students to expound and develop…

How Do Communities Act? Unique Events and Purposeful Strategies in the Formation of an Industrial Base in Rivertown. [Revised].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Ralph B.

Effective rural education depends on active community involvement. This ethnographic case study examines three models of community organization as an explanation of how community action occurs. The three models are: (1) individuals interacting in formal and informal groups; (2) networks of "weak ties" effective for diffusing information and…

Ethnicity vs. National Culture in One Nationalized Educational Site: The Case of the Annual School Trip

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markovich, Dalya Yafa

2016-01-01

This study examines the interface between ethnicity and nationality in a nationalized educational site--the annual school trip--that took place in a Jewish high school in Israel that serves underprivileged ethnic groups. Based on ethnographic field work, I analyze how the Ashkenazi (central-eastern European origin) hegemonic national culture that…

"Don't Give up on Me": Critical Mentoring Pedagogy for the Classroom Building Students' Community Cultural Wealth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liou, Daniel D.; Martinez, Antonio Nieves; Rotheram-Fuller, Erin

2016-01-01

This one-year ethnographic case study focused on students of color from a West Coast High School who faced a variety of academic challenges. Collectively, they shared perspectives on school improvement, and among the recommendations was the importance of mentorship in the classroom to develop students' aspirational, navigational, and informational…

Implementing the General Education Development (GED) Program in First Nations Communities: Struggles for Power

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shields, Tracy Jill; Melville, Wayne

2015-01-01

This paper describes an ethnographic case study of eleven First Nations adult learners in a Northern Ontario community attempting to earn secondary school equivalency through the General Education Development (GED) program. The paper maintains a focus on the power differentials at work in both the learners' prior educational endeavours and their…

Towards an Ethical Music Education? Looking through the Lens of Levinas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jourdan, Kathryn

2012-01-01

What happens when pupils encounter unfamiliar musical expressions in the music classroom? What responsibility do we have towards those whose music we "use"? Underlying these concerns is the need for an ethical underpinning for music education. Drawing on a year-long ethnographically informed case study of music-making in the lives of a…

They Didn't Tell Me Anything": Women's Literacies and Resistance in Rural Mexico

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyers, Susan V.

2011-01-01

Drawing from ethnographic case studies, this article considers issues of women's access to education by exploring the literacy experiences of four women in rural Mexico. Ironically, as physical access to education in this area has increased, women's literacy experiences have become more complex, rather than more libratory. Formal literacy, as it…

The Challenges of Adopting the Learning Organisation Philosophy in a Singapore School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Retna, Kala S.; Tee, Ng Pak

2006-01-01

Purpose: To report on a case study that examines how the Learning Organisation (LO) concept can be applied in a Singapore school and the challenges that the school faces in the process. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research inquiry was adopted using ethnographic methods. Data includes in-depth face-to-face interviews, observation of…

The Values-Based Infrastructure of Non-Formal Education: A Case Study of Personal Education in Israeli Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldratt, Miri; Cohen, Eric H.

2016-01-01

This article explores encounters between formal, informal, and non-formal education and the role of mentor-educators in creating values education in which such encounters take place. Mixed-methods research was conducted in Israeli public schools participating in the Personal Education Model, which combines educational modes. Ethnographic and…

HRD as an Emergent and Negotiated Evolution: An Ethnographic Case Study in the British National Health Service.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sambrook, Sally

2001-01-01

Using a contingency framework, three stages in the evolution of human resource development (HRD) in the National Health Service were identified: tell (training enacted within the classical management paradigm); sell (a competence approach to development for all employees); and gel (strategic HRD linked to corporate goals and future needs).…

The Varying Vulnerability of African Orphans: The Case of the Langi, Northern Uganda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oleke, Christopher; Blystad, Astrid; Moland, Karen Marie; Rekdal, Ole Bjorn; Heggenhougen, Kristian

2006-01-01

This article is based on a qualitative study carried out in Lira District, northern Uganda, to assess the situation of orphans cared for in extended families. The objective of the article is to bring attention to the varying vulnerability of different categories of orphans. The methods employed in data collection included ethnographic fieldwork,…

Recreating Realities: An Ethnographic/Case Study Approach to the Historic Composition Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Claywell, Gina

Traditional histories of American college composition instruction in the 19th and 20th centuries examine primarily the textbooks used in those courses, then draw conclusions based on the content of those textbooks about the activities and attitudes expressed in the classroom. The canon of composition historiography is lacking in several ways: the…

"Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!" A Case Study of Somali Literacy Teaching in Liverpool.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arthur, Jo

2003-01-01

Reports on an ethnographic research project in Liverpool, England. Aimed to build an understanding of the communicative and symbolic roles of languages and literacies in the Liverpool Somali community, which forms part of the Somali diaspora within Britain. The role of literacy is of particular interest in the context of a vigorous oral tradition…

"The Hands-On Model of the Internet": Engaging Diverse Groups of Visitors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shea, Michael

2014-01-01

Based on ethnographic field research at the Miraikan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, this article uses the "Hands-on Model of the Internet" in the Future, Innovation, and Society section of the museum as a case study in the various issues related to effective public engagement in science museums. Museum…

Discussions That "Tickle Our Brains": Constructing Interpretations through Multiple Ethnographic Data-Sets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lahelma, Elina; Lappalainen, Sirpa; Mietola, Reetta; Palmu, Tarja

2014-01-01

In this article, we discuss the usefulness of collaborative, multi-sited and cross-cultural ethnography. Giving three examples from our work, we suggest that it is possible to find new kinds of interpretations by joint reflections that draw from several studies with their own research questions. The cases presented discuss teachers' embodiment and…

Multiliteracies, Pedagogy and Identities: Teacher and Student Voices from a Toronto Elementary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giampapa, Frances

2010-01-01

In this article, I draw on an ethnographic case study of one Toronto elementary school, as part of a Canada-wide action research project: Multiliteracy Project (www.multiliteracies.ca). I have explored how Perminder, a grade-4 teacher, developed a multiliteracies pedagogy, drawing on her own and her students' identities and linguistic and cultural…

Surviving Job Loss: Motivation among Second Year Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karnes, Sandra Lee

2012-01-01

This ethnographic case study investigated second year college students who participated in the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program at a technical college in northeastern Pennsylvania. In order to understand how learners stayed motivated in a college setting, I selected participants who were in their second year of the TAA program. A total of…

"Who Wants to Be Sad Over and Over Again?": Emotion Ideologies in Contemporary German Education about the Holocaust

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krieg, Lisa Jenny

2015-01-01

Based on an ethnographic field study in Cologne, this article discusses the connection between memory practices and emotion ideologies in Holocaust education, using Sara Ahmed's concept of affective economies. Moral goals, political demands, and educators' care for their students lead to tensions in the education process. Two case studies…

"The Only Mexican in the Room": "Sobrevivencia" as a Way of Knowing for Mexican Transnational Students and Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kasun, G. Sue

2015-01-01

Drawing upon multisited ethnographic case studies in the United States and Mexico, I demonstrate "sobrevivencia", a survivalist way of knowing of Mexican-origin families. Through an underdog mentality, family members persisted and sometimes thrived. However, the grittiness of the underdog mentality did not always work out. By…

Working-Poor Mothers and Middle-Class Others: Psychosocial Considerations in Home-School Relations and Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Stephanie

2007-01-01

This article draws from a three-year ethnographic study of girls and their mothers in a high-poverty, predominantly white community. Informed by critical and feminist theories of social class, I present four cases that highlight psychosocial tensions within the mother-daughter-teacher-researcher triangle and argue that white, middle-class female…

Sensemaking as a Trigger for Change in University Emergency Response Routines: Ethnographic and Case Study Analyses of a Residential Life Department

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Molina, Danielle Knabjian

2010-01-01

In light of incidents like the Virginia Tech massacre, there is growing need for scholarship on emergency management in higher education. Traditional literature has typically focused on locating breakdowns, blame, and accountability by questioning whether emergency responses evidence departures from protocol. Yet, experience teaches that adhering…

The Social Interactions of Students with Disabilities in a 5th Grade Level Inclusive Classroom and the Effect on Academic Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marshall-Reed, Estella

2010-01-01

This dissertation is a qualitative, ethnographic case study of 3 students with disabilities. The purpose of this research study was to observe and collect descriptive accounts of the social interactions that exist between the cultures in a 5th grade level inclusive classroom, such as the interactions between the special education students, general…

Transcending an Urban-Rural Divide: Rural Youth's Resistance to Townization and Schooling, a Case Study of a Middle School in Northwest China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lou, Jingjing

2011-01-01

Based on an ethnographic study in a rural middle school in Northwest China, the author explores how the transition of the rural countryside, specifically townization, has challenged the urban-rural dichotomy being reproduced in and by formal schooling. Rural students express criticism of the chaos, pollution, and corruption they have experienced…

Once the Beat Gets Going It Really Grooves: Informal Music Learning as Experienced by Two Irish Traditional Musicians

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waldron, Janice

2007-01-01

The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to discover the manner in which two Irish musicians, Loretto Reid and Brian Taheny, taught/and or transmitted traditional music at the Celtic College Summer School in Goderich, Ontario. Two central questions, each followed by several sub-questions, served to focus the study: "How did you learn…

Bilingualism as Conceptualized and Bilingualism as Lived: A Critical Examination of the Monolingual Socialization of a Child with Autism in a Bilingual Family

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Betty

2016-01-01

This is an ethnographic and discourse analytic case study of a bilingual, minority-language family of a six-year-old child with autism whose family members were committed to speaking English with him. Drawing on "family language policy," the study examines the tensions between the family members' stated beliefs, management efforts, and…

Recognizing the Role of Community in Civic Education: Lessons from Hull House, Highlander Folk School, and the Neighborhood Learning Community. Circle Working Paper 30

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longo, Nicholas V.

2005-01-01

This study unearths and examines rich models of learning in which multiple institutions collaboratively play a role in promoting civic education. Using historical and ethnographic case study analysis, this paper addresses the research question: What is the role of community in civic education? Specifically, the author examines Hull House and the…

"We Txt 2 Sty Cnnectd": An African American Mother and Son Communicate: Digital Literacies, Meaning-Making, and Activity Theory Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Tisha Y.

2013-01-01

This research demonstrated how an African American mother and son communicated via texting and instant messaging at home. Data from a 2007 larger ethnographic case study of a family's digital literacy practices were collected and analyzed. Situated within the framework of New Literacy Studies and multimodality, this research explored: (a) how and…

Try to Be a Hero: Community Service Learning as a Pedagogy for Moral-Political Education and Leadership Development in the Chinese University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waite, Paul Daniel

2009-01-01

Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork, including more than 65 in-depth interviews with Chinese university students and higher education administrators, this study examines the roots of an emerging community service learning movement in mainland China. The dissertation focuses on a case study of a pioneering Chinese Party State-sponsored…

Does a Nurturing Approach That Uses an Outdoor Play Environment Build Resilience in Children from a Challenging Background?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McArdle, Karen; Harrison, Terri; Harrison, Daniel

2013-01-01

Children from challenging backgrounds were brought to a woodland for a programme that sought to promote resilience at Camphill School. This qualitative study of one programme uses an ethnographic approach to research the effectiveness of this type of intervention. Case studies of three of the children are used to illustrate the ways in which…

Employing an ethnographic approach: key characteristics.

PubMed

Lambert, Veronica; Glacken, Michele; McCarron, Mary

2011-01-01

Nurses are increasingly embracing ethnography as a useful research methodology. This paper presents an overview of some of the main characteristics we considered and the challenges encountered when using ethnography to explore the nature of communication between children and health professionals in a children's hospital. There is no consensual definition or single procedure to follow when using ethnography. This is largely attributable to the re-contextualisation of ethnography over time through diversification in and across many disciplines. Thus, it is imperative to consider some of ethnography's trademark features. To identify core trademark features of ethnography, we collated data following a scoping review of pertinent ethnographic textbooks, journal articles, attendance at ethnographic workshops and discussions with principle ethnographers. This is a methodological paper. Essentially, ethnography is a field-orientated activity that has cultural interpretations at its core, although the levels of those interpretations vary. We identified six trademark features to be considered when embracing an ethnographic approach: naturalism; context; multiple data sources; small case numbers; 'emic' and 'etic' perspectives, and ethical considerations. Ethnography has an assortment of meanings, so it is not often used in a wholly orthodox way and does not fall under the auspices of one epistemological belief. Yet, there are core criteria and trademark features that researchers should take into account alongside their particular epistemological beliefs when embracing an ethnographic inquiry. We hope this paper promotes a clearer vision of the methodological processes to consider when embarking on ethnography and creates an avenue for others to disseminate their experiences of and challenges encountered when applying ethnography's trademark features in different healthcare contexts.

Death, taxes, public opinion, and the Midas touch of Mary Tyler Moore: accounting for promises by politicians to help avert and control diabetes.

PubMed

Rock, Melanie

2003-06-01

Anthropologists have begun to publish ethnographic accounts of policy-making, but few have studied medical or health matters, despite broad acceptance in anthropology that "biopower" permeates contemporary societies. This article presents some findings from an ethnographic study of how diabetes gained recognition as a pressing public health problem in Canada. It underlines the importance of statistics for constituting power within and across nation states. Statistics imbricate people and things distributed across vast distances, but they still need to be generated and invoked by individuals to engender effects--as illustrated in this article by the contributions of researchers, aboriginal leaders, and an American actress, Mary Tyler Moore--in this case, the development of Canadian government policies justified in the name of averting and controlling diabetes. To make sense of these findings, subtle differences between two concepts coined by Michel Foucault, "biopower" and "governmentality," seem significant.

Sex Work, Heroin Injection, and HIV Risk in Tijuana: A Love Story.

PubMed

Syvertsen, Jennifer L; Bazzi, Angela Robertson

2015-01-01

The relationships between female sex workers and their non-commercial male partners are typically viewed as sites of HIV risk rather than meaningful unions. This ethnographic case study presents a nuanced portrayal of the relationship between Cindy and Beto, a female sex worker who injects drugs and her intimate, non-commercial partner who live in Tijuana, Mexico. Based on ethnographic research in Tijuana and our long term involvement in a public health study, we suggest that emotions play a central role in sex workers' relationships and contribute in complex ways to each partner's health. We conceptualize Cindy and Beto's relationship as a "dangerous safe haven" in which HIV risk behaviors such as unprotected sex and syringe sharing convey notions of love and trust and help sustain emotional unity amidst broader uncertainties, but nevertheless carry very real health risks. Further attention to how emotions shape vulnerable couples' health remains a task for anthropology.

Viewing Places: Students as Visual Ethnographers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Kimberly

2010-01-01

This article presents a micro-ethnographic study that took place during a summer research course for six undergraduate and four graduate students majoring in the disciplines of architecture, art education, geography, landscape architecture and an integrative arts program. The research sought to implement ethnographic, visual methods as a means to…

Integrating Quantitative and Ethnographic Methods to Describe the Classroom. Report No. 5083.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malitz, David; And Others

The debate between proponents of ethnographic and quantitative methodology in classroom observation is reviewed, and the respective strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches are discussed. These methodologies are directly compared in a study that conducted simultaneous ethnographic and quantitative observations on nine classrooms. It is…

A Focused Ethnographic Study of Sri Lankan Government Field Veterinarians’ Decision Making about Diagnostic Laboratory Submissions and Perceptions of Surveillance

PubMed Central

Sawford, Kate; Vollman, Ardene Robinson; Stephen, Craig

2012-01-01

The global public health community is facing the challenge of emerging infectious diseases. Historically, the majority of these diseases have arisen from animal populations at lower latitudes where many nations experience marked resource constraints. In order to minimize the impact of future events, surveillance of animal populations will need to enable prompt event detection and response. Many surveillance systems targeting animals rely on veterinarians to submit cases to a diagnostic laboratory or input clinical case data. Therefore understanding veterinarians’ decision-making process that guides laboratory case submission and their perceptions of infectious disease surveillance is foundational to interpreting disease patterns reported by laboratories and engaging veterinarians in surveillance initiatives. A focused ethnographic study was conducted with twelve field veterinary surgeons that participated in a mobile phone-based surveillance pilot project in Sri Lanka. Each participant agreed to an individual in-depth interview that was recorded and later transcribed to enable thematic analysis of the interview content. Results found that field veterinarians in Sri Lanka infrequently submit cases to laboratories – so infrequently that common case selection principles could not be described. Field veterinarians in Sri Lanka have a diagnostic process that operates independently of laboratories. Participants indicated a willingness to take part in surveillance initiatives, though they highlighted a need for incentives that satisfy a range of motivations that vary among field veterinarians. This study has implications for the future of animal health surveillance, including interpretation of disease patterns reported, system design and implementation, and engagement of data providers. PMID:23133542

Examining organizational change in primary care practices: experiences from using ethnographic methods.

PubMed

Russell, Grant; Advocat, Jenny; Geneau, Robert; Farrell, Barbara; Thille, Patricia; Ward, Natalie; Evans, Samantha

2012-08-01

Qualitative methods are an important part of the primary care researcher's toolkit providing a nuanced view of the complexity in primary care reform and delivery. Ethnographic research is a comprehensive approach to qualitative data collection, including observation, in-depth interviews and document analysis. Few studies have been published outlining methodological issues related to ethnography in this setting. This paper examines some of the challenges of conducting an ethnographic study in primary care setting in Canada, where there recently have been major reforms to traditional methods of organizing primary care services. This paper is based on an ethnographic study set in primary care practices in Ontario, Canada, designed to investigate changes to organizational and clinical routines in practices undergoing transition to new, interdisciplinary Family Health Teams (FHTs). The study was set in six new FHTs in Ontario. This paper is a reflexive examination of some of the challenges encountered while conducting an ethnographic study in a primary care setting. Our experiences in this study highlight some potential benefits of and difficulties in conducting an ethnographic study in family practice. Our study design gave us an opportunity to highlight the changes in routines within an organization in transition. A study with a clinical perspective requires training, support, a mixture of backgrounds and perspectives and ongoing communication. Despite some of the difficulties, the richness of this method has allowed the exploration of a number of additional research questions that emerged during data analysis.

How a Young Child Learns How to Take Part in Mealtimes in a Japanese Day-Care Center: A Longitudinal Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishiguro, Hiroaki

2016-01-01

This research is a longitudinal, ethnographic study that focuses on mealtimes with one boy from 9 to 78 months of age in a day-care center in Japan. It looks at routine interactions between a child, his nursery teachers, and the environment, which is a shared and mutually available communicative space between participants in collaboration. The aim…

The Meaning of Pain during the Process of Embodiment: A Case Study of Trainee Modern Dancers' Experiences of Pain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Sourabh

2011-01-01

A large number of sociologists have adopted the notion of the embodied subject to escape the trappings of the rational choice theory in sociological analysis. From a phenomenological perspective, the notion of an embodied subject refers to a subject who is in unity with the world. In this paper, I will present my ethnographic study of a group of…

Tourism and its effects on southeast Alaska communities and resources: case studies from Haines, Craig, and Hoonah, Alaska.

Treesearch

Lee K. Cerveny

2005-01-01

Tourism has become integral to southeast Alaska’s regional economy and has resulted in changes to the social and cultural fabric of community life as well as to natural resources used by Alaskans. This study incorporates an ethnographic approach to trace tourism development in three rural southeast Alaska communities featuring different levels and types of tourism. In...

Ethnographies of pain: culture, context and complexity

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

This article briefly introduces and discusses the value of ethnographic research, particularly research hailing from the discipline of social and cultural anthropology. After an introduction to ethnography in general, key ethnographic studies of pain are described. These show that ethnography provides a set of techniques for data collection and analysis, as well as a way of thinking about pain as socially and culturally embedded. Modern ethnographic writing is far removed from the literature of the past that sometimes described stereotypes rather than process and complexity. Ethnography provides the chance to describe the complexity and nuance of culture, which serves to counter stereotypes. The article concludes with an example from pain research conducted in a clinical setting. Through the use of ethnographic techniques, the research study provided greater insight than other methods alone might have achieved. The article includes references for further reading should readers be interested in developing their engagement with ethnographic method and interpretation. PMID:26516554

A "Responsibility to Speak Out": Perspectives on Writing from Black African-Born Male Youth with Limited or Disrupted Formal Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ripley Crandall, Bryan

2012-01-01

This ethnographic case study uses life history and qualitative methodologies to offer biographical profiles that highlight perspectives on writing of eight Black African-born male youth with limited and disrupted formal education enrolled at a secondary school in northeastern United States. Participants from Liberia, Sudan, and Somalia relocated…

Between Hosts and Guests: Conditional Hospitality and Citizenship in an American Suburban School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shirazi, Roozbeh

2018-01-01

This article utilizes the idea of hospitality to explore how educative practices contribute to the making of citizens at Light Falls High School (LHS), a suburban American secondary school that professes a strong commitment to racial equity and global awareness. The data are derived from an ethnographic case study which took place in 2013-2014. I…

(Re)Counting Meaningful Learning Experiences: Using Student-Created Reflective Videos to Make Invisible Learning Visible during PjBL Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Shaunna

2016-01-01

This ethnographic case study investigated how the process of learning during a yearlong after-school, project-based learning (PjBL) experience could be documented by student-created reflective videos. Guided by social constructivism, constant comparative analysis was used to explore the meaningful learning that took place in addition to the…

The Role of Parents in the Education of Children of Pre-School Age in Tropical Africa, India and the Maghreb Countries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris (France). Div. of Structures, Content, Methods and Techniques of Education.

The case studies summarized in this report are based on ethnographic surveys carried out mainly in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, and Senegal (collectively called "Tropical Africa" in the text). The surveys were also carried out in the Maghreb countries, especially Algeria and southern India. Their common objective…

Exposing the Impact of Opp(reg)ressive Policies on Teacher Development and on Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Alberto J.

2010-01-01

This case study draws attention to Pedro's story, a Grade 6 Latino teacher who, along with other grade 4-6 teachers, participated in a three-year professional development research project. By using data analyzed from multiple ethnographic interviews with teachers and students, and by drawing from the quantitative analyzes of concept map unit…

The Nature of Interactions between Chinese Immigrant Families and Preschool Staff: How Culture, Class, and Methodology Matter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heng, Tang T.

2014-01-01

While the parental involvement field has progressed from asking what the impact of parental involvement is to how we can better involve parents, research has lagged in finding out how sociocultural and class differentials between homes and schools affect immigrant families' interactions with schools. This case study uses ethnographic tools to…

Adult Education Goes to Market: An Ethnographic Case Study of the Restructuring and Reculturing of Adult Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beach, Dennis; Carlson, Marie

2004-01-01

The restructuring of adult education in Goteborg was first initiated experimentally with respect only to SFI education (an education in beginning Swedish for ethnic minorities living in Sweden). This was done on the basis of decisions in the Goteborg Municipal Council in 1999. But restructuring came into full force for all municipal adult…

Neoliberalism and Pedagogical Practices of Alienation: A Case Study Research on the Integrated Curriculum in Greek Primary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noula, Ioanna; Govaris, Christos

2018-01-01

In this article, we present insights from an ethnographic research that investigated the concept of citizenship in primary schools in Greece. We explored children's experiences of citizenship in school approaching citizenship as a set of habits that prescribe what is considered 'legitimate' in the public sphere. We focused on structures and agents…

Reading Queer Counter-Narratives in the High-School Literature Classroom: Possibilities and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helmer, Kirsten

2016-01-01

Drawing on an ethnographic case study of a 13-week Gay and Lesbian Literature course, this paper explores how a high-school teacher and her students engaged with queer-themed literature. Focused on episodes around the class' engagement with two of the novels read in the course--Rita Mae Brown's "Rubyfruit Jungle" and Michael Cunningham's…

"You Have to Hold Your Own": Investigating the Social Networks of a Diverse Group of Disenfranchised Urban Male Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Esposito, Jennifer; Happel, Alison

2015-01-01

This ethnographic case study investigates social networks and forms of social capital accessed by a group of five urban male youth (ages 15-19), from diverse racial backgrounds, who were disenfranchised economically. We refer to the youth as "disenfranchised" because they were disconnected from forms of institutional support, especially…

Understanding the Role of Identity and the Retention of Mexican American Students in Higher Education: A Qualitative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Leon, Juan, Jr.

2012-01-01

This qualitative ethnographic narrative inquiry explored the role of identity and the retention of Mexican American students in higher education. Leadership identity, a dimension of identity, was explored using narratives provided by 13 Mexican American students, attending a university in the northwest United States. Interview data was compiled,…

Constructing Membership Identity through Language and Social Interaction: The Case of African American Children at Faith Missionary Baptist Church

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peele-Eady, Tryphenia B.

2011-01-01

In this article, the author explores how African American children in a Black church Sunday school community in northern California developed positive membership identity. Focal participants were Sunday school children ages 9 to 12 and their Sunday school teachers. Drawn from a two-year ethnographic study, data showed that adults prepared children…

From "What Did I Write?" to "Is This Right?": Intention, Convention, and Accountability in Early Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wohlwend, Karen E.

2008-01-01

When children enter public kindergartens in the current atmosphere of high-stakes testing, they often encounter an emphasis on correctness that casts doubt on the integrity of their personally invented messages, prompting them to ask not "What did I write?" but "Is this right?" This ethnographic case study examines early writing by 23 kindergarten…

"¿Tu te Acuerdas de Ganchulinas?": Longitudinal Research with Young Emergent Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Axelrod, Ysaaca

2014-01-01

Drawing on the work of Celia Genishi, this article discusses data from an ethnographic case study of young Latina/o children, starting in their four-year-olds classroom in a Head Start Program through their first grade year in a dual-language program in a public school. The children attended a bilingual Head Start program that followed a…

Understanding the Complex Dimensions of the Digital Divide: Lessons Learned in the Alaskan Arctic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Subramony, Deepak Prem

2007-01-01

An ethnographic case study of Inupiat Eskimo in the Alaskan Arctic has provided insights into the complex nature of the sociological issues surrounding equitable access to technology tools and skills, which are referred to as the digital divide. These people can overcome the digital divide if they get the basic ready access to hardware and…

"Créolization" and the New Cosmopolitanism: Examining Twenty-First-Century Student Identities and Literacy Practices for Transcultural Understanding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lemrow, Erin Moira

2017-01-01

This paper considers the rapid demographic shifts in contemporary American society as they manifest themselves in today's classrooms in the United States. An effort to articulate these twenty-first-century student identities is highlighted in data from an ethnographic case study examining the literacy practices of one student of Filipino and…

The problem of privacy in transcultural research: reflections on an ethnographic study in Sri Lanka.

PubMed

Monshi, Bardia; Zieglmayer, Verena

2004-01-01

Western laws and codes of ethics frequently require that private health information be treated confidentially. However, cross-cultural research shows that it is not always easy to determine what members of a culture consider to be private or how they wish private information to be handled. This article begins by presenting an ethnographic study of patient-healer relationships in Sri Lanka; researchers were surprised to find that participants' views of health and privacy differed greatly from typical Western views, and that the privacy protections they had put in place caused discomfort among participants. Building on this ethics case study, the article explores two main questions. First, can a single definition of privacy possibly do justice to the cultural variations that exist, or does a conceptual definition inevitably run the risk of ethnocentrism? Second, to what extent is strict compliance with research regulations or ethics codes ethically justifiable when following the rules will obviously cause unease in international participants?

An Ethnographic Approach to Education: What Are You Doing in This Village?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yanik, Betül

2017-01-01

This study describes the ethnographic approach used in educational research, as seen through the eyes of an ethnographer. This work is the product of research that investigates the transition of young children to pre-school, within the cultural processes of their everyday lives. The article describes the village setting and the processes in which…

The Dani of West Irian. An Ethnographic Companion to the Film "Dead Birds". Module 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heider, Karl G.

The purpose of this study guide is to provide students of anthropology with an ethnographic accompaniment to Robert Gardiner's film about the Dani tribesmen, "Dead Birds." The first section offers an ethnographic profile of Dani culture, describing its most important features. These include: 1) their material culture, covering matters…

Using the Learners-as-Ethnographers Approach to Enhance Intercultural Learning among American College Students Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Minhui

2012-01-01

This study explored how the learners-as-ethnographers (LAE) approach facilitated intercultural learning among American students learning Chinese as a foreign language. Two research questions addressed the effectiveness of the LAE approach and students' learning experiences in a non-immersion context. I designed six ethnographic tasks for the…

A Culture of Solidarity?

PubMed

Centellas, Kate

2015-01-01

In this article, based on interviews, ethnographic data, and documentary evidence, I examine the case of a Bolivian-Iranian hospital in the context of south-south scientific and economic collaboration. This hospital provides a lens through which we can understand the tensions between local and global processes. Medicine, in particular, has become a site where such alignments are made visible and tangible: the term 'biogeopolitics' helps to describe this process. I use the hospital as a way to illustrate what theory from the south might look like ethnographically, and conclude with a discussion of the contradictions and promises of theory from the south within south-south collaborations.

Between Rights and Realities: Human Rights Education for Immigrant and Refugee Youth in an Urban Public High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bajaj, Monisha; Canlas, Melissa; Argenal, Amy

2017-01-01

This article presents data from a two-year ethnographic case study to explore how immigrant and refugee youth in the United States made sense of participation in a weekly human rights club after school. Three types of student responses to human rights education are exemplified through the profiles of students. The article offers new insights on…

From Fiction to Fact to Potential Action: Generating Prosocial Attitudes and Behaviors Using Young Adult Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hays, Alice

2017-01-01

This dissertation investigates the impact reading Young Adult Literature (YAL) has on students' empathetic responses as well as their capacity to take action regarding a social justice issue chosen by the student. Drawing on data from a 10th grade honors classroom at a Title 1 school in the Southwest, this ethnographic case study investigates how…

Writing to Learn and Learning to Perform: Lessons from a Writing Intensive Course in Experimental Theatre Studio

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Jim; Baker, Tammy Haili'opua

2015-01-01

This case study conducted by a writing specialist and a theatre specialist examines the ways in which writing to learn and learning to write took form in a course in which the ultimate goal was a staged production for a live audience. Using naturalistic methodology that deployed both ethnographic and autoethnographic approaches to analyze the…

Hierarchical Deficiencies: Constructed Differences between Adolescent Boys and Girls in a Public School Single-Sex Program in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glasser, Howard M.

2012-01-01

Although middle school is a critical time in adolescents' development, little is known about how that development is affected by public single-sex classes even though recent federal policy decisions have led more schools to provide these offerings. This case study used ethnographic methods to explore ways teachers, students, and courses in one…

Bridging Literacy Practices through Storytelling, Translanguaging, and an Ethnographic Partnership: A Case Study of Dominican Students at Bronx Community College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parmegiani, Andrea

2014-01-01

This article reports on my attempt to use storytelling as an entry point into academic discourse in a learning community designed to meet the learning needs of ESL students who recently emigrated from the Dominican Republic. Based on research suggesting a correlation between academic success in a second language and first language literacy skills,…

The Return of the Native: The Blurred Boundaries of Insider/Outsider Research in an English Secondary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perryman, Jane

2011-01-01

This paper outlines the methodological issues I faced during my research as a "returning native" in an English secondary school. The empirical research took the form of a three-year case study and used some ethnographic methods, as it comprised interviews carried out over a period of three academic years in the school in which I was once…

Children's Responses to the Interactivity of Storybook Apps in Family Shared Reading Events Involving the iPad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aliagas, Cristina; Margallo, Ana María

2017-01-01

This paper reports on some data on the effects of screen-based interactivity on children's engagement with storybook apps during family shared book reading that were gathered in a 2-year, small-scale ethnographic case study in Spain. Data analysis focuses on the complex interplay between the storybook app's interactive features and the children's…

Trends in Segregation of Hispanic Students in Major School Districts Having Large Hispanic Enrollment. Ethnographic Case Studies, Volume II. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aspira, Inc., New York, NY.

School desegregation did not lead to greater understanding of the Hispanic community by white educational personnel in two school districts analyzed to document the desegregation process and the impact of school desegregation on the Hispanic community. Each district was in a white-controlled, tri-ethnic community in its second year of successful…

Negotiating Cultural and Academic Expectations in a Minority Language School: The Inclusive and Exclusive Effects of a Principal's Vision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Digiorgio, Carla

2008-01-01

This paper shares the results of an ethnographic case study into the role a principal had in maintaining a growing minority language school while implementing an inclusive policy for students with learning and physical difficulties. The principal was very aware of the reputation and image of the school in the public eye. Maintaining a distinct…

Being Polish Scientists and Women--between Glorious Past and Difficult Present: The "Reverse Dynamic of Equality Construction"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Izabela; Finkielsztein, Mariusz; Czarnacka, Agata

2017-01-01

This paper focuses on the dynamics that animate the situation of women inside academia and the social world of science. Based on a long-term ethnographic study we chose specific cases (scientists educated in Poland) to illustrate the complexity of the career-making process in the 21st century. In this country, in a social and professional…

Interested Reader or Uninterested Dissembler?: The Identities Constructed by Upper Primary Aged Dyslexic Pupils during Silent Reading Sessions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Rosemary

2009-01-01

This article discusses the identities that may be constructed by upper primary aged pupils during silent reading sessions. The findings presented are taken from a 2-year ethnographic case study, which investigated how four dyslexic pupils, aged 10-11 (Y5-6), coped with the classroom reading they encountered at a large primary school in northern…

The Writing on the Wall: Enacting Place Pedagogies in Order to Reimagine Schooling for Black Male Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Latrise P.

2015-01-01

This ethnographic case study examines how Black educators at an urban middle school enacted critical place pedagogies in order to create a sense of community--that is, a sense of belonging to the place of school--and mutual nurturing between people and space in an attempt to transform how their Black males experienced school. Educators at Starks…

An Ancestral Language to Speak with the "Other": Closing down Ideological Spaces of a Language Policy in the Peruvian Andes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zavala, Virginia

2014-01-01

Using a multilayered, ethnographic and critical approach to language policy and planning, this article examines a language policy favoring Quechua in Apurímac in the Southern Peruvian Andes, which is being imagined as an integrated community unified by the local language. This study presents a case in which top-down policies open up ideological…

Deaf Culture and Competing Discourses in a Residential School for the Deaf: "Can Do" versus "Can't Do"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Brien, Catherine A.; Placier, Peggy

2015-01-01

From an ethnographic case study of a state-funded residential school for the Deaf, the authors employed Critical Discourse Analysis to identify competing discourses in the talk of educators. These discourses are embedded in the historical oppression and labeling of deaf people as disabled and the development of Deaf culture as a counter-discourse.…

El Libro de Recuerdos (Book of Memories): A Latina Student's Exploration of Self and Religion in Public School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reyes, Cynthia C.

2009-01-01

This article is an exploration of how an alternative text reflects the multiple identities of one high school Latina, focusing in particular on her religious identity. In this ethnographic case study, the author addresses three questions: 1) In what ways does literacy activity inside the school, in the form of the science scrapbook, allow for this…

Maternal deaths in eastern Indonesia: 20 years and still walking: an ethnographic study

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The delays in receiving adequate emergency maternal care described by Thaddeus and Maine twenty years ago are still occurring, as exemplified in this study of cases of maternal deaths in a subdistrict in rural eastern Indonesia. Methods An ethnographic design was conducted, recruiting eleven families who reported on cases of maternal deaths in one sub-district of Indonesia, as well as assessing the geographical and cultural context of the villages. Traditional birth attendants and village leaders provided information to the research team which was thematically and contextually analysed. Results Two stages to the first and second delays have been differentiated in this study. First, delays in the decision to seek care comprised time taken to recognise (if at all) that an emergency situation existed, followed by time taken to reach a decision to request care. The decision to request care resided variously with the family or cadre. Second, delays in reaching care comprised time taken to deliver the request for help and then time for help to arrive. A phone was not available to request care in many cases and so the request was delivered by walking or motorbike. In two cases where the decision to seek care and the delivery of the request happened in a timely way, help was delayed because the midwife and ambulance respectively were unavailable. Conclusions This study, although a small sample, confirmed that either a single delay or a sequence of delays can prove fatal. Delays were determined by both social and geographic factors, any of which alone could be limiting. Initiatives to improve maternal health outcomes need to address multiple factors: increased awareness of equitable access to maternal health care, village preparedness for emergency response, improved access to telecommunications and geographic access. PMID:24447873

From dioramas to the dinner table: An ethnographic case study of the role of science museums in family life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellenbogen, Kirsten M.

What we know about learning in museums tends to come from studies of single museum visits evaluating success according to the museum's agenda, neglecting the impressive cooperative learning strategies and resources that families bring to their museum experiences. This is a report of an ethnographic case study of four families that visit science museums frequently. The study used ethnographic research and discourse analysis as combined methodological approaches, and was grounded in a sociocultural perspective that frames science as a socially and culturally constituted activity. Over eighteen months, data were collected during observations of the families in science museums, at home, and at other leisure sites. The study generated two types of findings. First, macroanalysis based on established frameworks for understanding learning in museums revealed differences in the orientation and extent of the museum visits. Additionally, a hierarchical framework for measuring science learning in museums proved insensitive. These findings underscore limitations of some of the traditional frameworks for understanding family learning in science museums. Second, microanalysis of interactions around science objects at home and in museums revealed that parents provided children with opportunities to understand the "middle ground" of science. Analysis also revealed that families adapted the science content of the museum to renegotiate family identities. Interestingly, the types of discourse most valued in science education were least important for establishing family identity. These frequent museumgoers eliminated the distance between them and science objects by transforming their meanings to establish family identity. This study demonstrates that the families' mediating strategies shape not just an understanding of science, but also a family identity that is constructed in and through interactions with science. The results of this study provide a foundation for examining how families use museums over time and the network of learning resources that support family life. This study suggests possible ways for museum professionals to reconsider the design of learning activities, museum environments, and a shift in focus from the learning institution of the science museum to the learning institution of the family.

Experiencing leisure in later life: a study of retirees and activity in Singapore.

PubMed

Thang, Leng Leng

2005-12-01

In a society faced with rapid aging and extended life expectancy, older persons in Singapore are just beginning to see retirement as a new era in their lives that can be quite different from the later life experiences of their own parents. Presenting an ethnographic case study of one of the first retiree activity centers in Singapore, this article will examine (a) how older persons cope with retirement, social, and cultural norms, and (b) the strategies older adults adopt in order to stay relevant in a fast-paced society. The ethnographic study shows that extrafamilial social support and opportunities for new experiences in learning and leisure contribute significantly to positive and active living in old age. Although the discussion of aging in Asia usually focuses on the problems of health, finances, and caregiving, the present study suggests the need for policy makers to pay equal attention to issues such as activity participation in old age. Participation in leisure activities may act as a preventive measure to delay the onset of aging-related problems, while at the same time enhancing life satisfaction among seniors.

Intrahousehold resource allocation and child growth in Mozambique: an ethnographic case-control study.

PubMed

Pfeiffer, J; Gloyd, S; Ramirez Li, L

2001-07-01

This study examines the effect of intrahousehold cash income control and decision-making patterns on child growth in the rural town of Sussundenga in Manica Province, Mozambique. A case-control study design was used to examine the influence of men's and women's disaggregated cash incomes on child growth. The research tested whether greater maternal share of household cash income was associated with (1) increased maternal decision-making and bargaining power in the household, and (2) better child growth. Fifty case households, with children 1-4 years old exhibiting poor growth, were matched with 50 control households of similar socioeconomic status in which all children under five demonstrated healthy growth. Data were gathered on gender-specific income generation and expenditure, specific intrahousehold allocation processes, diet, and sociodemographic variables using a formal survey. Key informant interviews, focus groups, and observation over one year provided ethnographic context for the case-control findings. Case-control differences were analyzed using McNemar's test, paired t-test, and conditional logistic regression. In spite of matching households for socioeconomic status, control household incomes were still slightly greater than cases. Male spouse income was also higher among controls while maternal income, and maternal proportion of household income, were not significantly different. Household meat, fish and poultry consumption, and maternal education were significantly greater among control households than cases. Greater maternal share of household income was not associated with greater maternal decision-making around cash. However, mothers must spend what little cash they earn on daily food supplies and usually request additional cash from spouses to cover these costs. There is evidence that if mothers earn enough to cover these socially prescribed costs, they can spend cash for other needs. Above this threshold, women's earnings may confer more bargaining power. The research also revealed a nuclearization of households, attenuation of community bonds of mutual aid, and increasing importance of cash for survival.

Negotiating and Appropriating the "One Person, One Language" Policy within the Complex Reality of a Multilingual Crèche in Strasbourg

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caporal-Ebersold, Eloise; Young, Andrea

2016-01-01

The aim of this article is to analyse the early childhood education and care (ECEC) language policy in the city of Strasbourg, focusing on an ethnographic case study of a newly established bilingual English-French crèche in the city. In France, establishing an early childhood education structure--more specifically, a day care centre catering to…

From the Teachers' Eyes: An Ethnographic-Case Study on Developing Models of Informal Formative Assessments (IFA) and Understanding the Challenges to Effective Implementation in Science Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sezen, Asli

2011-01-01

The emphasis on socio-cultural theories of learning has required the understanding of multi-dimensional, dynamic and social nature of acquiring the scientific knowledge and practices. Recent policy documents suggest a focus on formative and dynamic assessment practices that will help understand and improve the complex nature of scientific learning…

"I Have to Be Three Steps Ahead": Academically Gifted African American Male Students in an Urban High School on the Tension between an Ethnic and Academic Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Anthony; Anderson, Kenneth A.

2008-01-01

This case study investigation of three Academically Gifted African American male high school seniors in a predominantly African American urban high school examines the interplay between their ethnic and academic identity. Using an embedded micro-ethnographic approach, we explore the extent to which these students value educational attainment, the…

A Focused Ethnographic Study of Alberta Cattle Veterinarians’ Decision Making about Diagnostic Laboratory Submissions and Perceptions of Surveillance Programs

PubMed Central

Sawford, Kate; Vollman, Ardene Robinson; Stephen, Craig

2013-01-01

The animal and public health communities need to address the challenge posed by zoonotic emerging infectious diseases. To minimize the impacts of future events, animal disease surveillance will need to enable prompt event detection and response. Diagnostic laboratory-based surveillance systems targeting domestic animals depend in large part on private veterinarians to submit samples from cases to a laboratory. In contexts where pre-diagnostic laboratory surveillance systems have been implemented, this group of veterinarians is often asked to input data. This scenario holds true in Alberta where private cattle veterinarians have been asked to participate in the Alberta Veterinary Surveillance Network-Veterinary Practice Surveillance, a platform to which pre-diagnostic disease and non-disease case data are submitted. Consequently, understanding the factors that influence these veterinarians to submit cases to a laboratory and the complex of factors that affect their participation in surveillance programs is foundational to interpreting disease patterns reported by laboratories and engaging veterinarians in surveillance. A focused ethnographic study was conducted with ten cattle veterinarians in Alberta. Individual in-depth interviews with participants were recorded and transcribed to enable thematic analysis. Laboratory submissions were biased toward outbreaks of unknown cause, cases with unusual mortality rates, and issues with potential herd-level implications. Decreasing cattle value and government support for laboratory testing have contributed to fewer submissions over time. Participants were willing participants in surveillance, though government support and collaboration were necessary. Changes in the beef industry and veterinary profession, as well as cattle producers themselves, present both challenges and opportunities in surveillance. PMID:23741397

Informant-Ethnographers in the Study of Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feer, Michael

1975-01-01

In the context of an anthropology curriculum, public high school students performed as informant-ethnographers of their own social milieu. Using the film and fieldwork techniques, students demonstrated that with training and sensitivity such studies could be more than simple academic exercises. (AUTHOR/NQ)

An Ethnographic Study of a Developing Virtual Organization in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Couch, Stephanie R.

2012-01-01

This ethnographic study answers calls for research into the ways that virtual organizations (or innovation-driven collaborative teams) form and develop, what supports and constraints their development, and the leadership models that support the organizations' work. The study examines how a virtual organization emerged from an intersegmental…

An Ethnographic Study of Elementary Teachers', Paraprofessionals', and Students' Language Exchanges during Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aaron-Stanton, Desiree

2014-01-01

This ethnographic study of language shows the importance of educators' appropriate use of linguistic, nonlinguistic, and paralinguistic communication techniques when working with elementary students within two classrooms who have behavioral and emotional disorders. This study focused on communication techniques used by teachers and…

[Ethnography for nursing research, a sensible way to understand human behaviors in their context].

PubMed

Bourbonnais, Anne

2015-03-01

Understanding human behaviours is at the heart of the nursing discipline. Knowledge development about behaviours is essential to guide nursing practice in the clinical field, for nursing education or in nursing management. In this context, ethnography is often overlooked as a research method to understand better behaviours in their sociocultural environment This article aims to present the principles guiding this qualitative method and its application to nursing research. First, the ethnographic method and some of its variants will be described. The conduct of an ethnographic study will then be exposed. Finally, examples of ethnographic studies in nursing will be presented. This article provides a foundation for the development of research protocols using ethnography for the advancement of nursing knowledge, as well as better use of ethnographic findings to improve care practices.

Training Drug Treatment Patients to Conduct Peer-Based HIV Outreach: An Ethnographic Perspective on Peers' Experiences

PubMed Central

Guarino, Honoria; Deren, Sherry; Mino, Milton; Kang, Sung-Yeon; Shedlin, Michele

2010-01-01

From 2005 to 2008, the Bienvenidos Project trained Puerto Rican patients of New York City and New Jersey methadone maintenance treatment programs to conduct peer-based community outreach to migrant Puerto Rican drug users to reduce migrants' HIV risk behaviors. Ethnographic research, including focus groups, individual interviews and observations, was conducted with a subset of the patients trained as peers (n=49; 67% male; mean age 40.3 years) to evaluate the self-perceived effects of the intervention. Results of the ethnographic component of this study are summarized. The role of ethnographic methods in implementing and evaluating this kind of intervention is also discussed. PMID:20141456

Ethnographic Auditing: A New Approach to Evaluating Management in Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fetterman, David

Ethnographic auditing is the application of ethnographic or anthropological concepts and methods to the appraisal of administrative controls over resources. Ethnographic auditing highlights the role of culture, subculture, values, rituals and physical environment in management in higher education. The ethnographic auditor measures the fiscal and…

Profiling adult literacy facilitators in development contexts: An ethnographic study in Ethiopia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Warkineh, Turuwark Zalalam; Rogers, Alan; Danki, Tolera Negassa

2018-02-01

Teachers/facilitators in adult literacy learning programmes are recognised as being vital to successful learning outcomes. But little is known about them as a group. This small-scale research project comprising ethnographic-style case studies of five adult literacy facilitators (ALFs) in Ethiopia seeks to throw some light on these teachers, their backgrounds and what they bring to their teaching, with a view to improving the effectiveness of their work. The researchers found that all of the ALFs had high levels of commitment, but none of the ALFs received much in the way of training, and professional support for their role was in some cases missing. The degree (and their perception) of their own literacy practices varied greatly among them, even in their common use of mobile phones. It also emerged that while they had all fought very hard for their own education, one of the main reasons all of them stated for going into literacy teaching was not a general belief in the value of education but their priority need of a regular income. Another insight is that the female ALFs struggled more than their male counterparts in engaging learners; the women were criticised more excessively than the men. This research reveals something of the diversity of facilitators, and concludes that further such studies are needed in different contexts.

Family science: An ethnographic case study of the ordinary science and literacy experiences of one family

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCarty, Glenda M.

Despite the copious research available on science learning, little is known about ways in which the public engages in free-choice science learning and even fewer studies have focused on how families engage in science to learn about the world around them. The same was true about studies of literacy development in the home until the 1980s when researchers (e.g. Bissex, 1980; Heath, 1983; Taylor, 1983) began documenting the literacy happenings and practices of young children in natural settings. Findings from intensive emergent literacy research studies have challenged traditional approaches to the teaching and learning of literacy, especially drawing attention to the active role children take in their own learning. Drawing upon those early literacy studies, this research project uses ethnographic case study methods along with a naturalistic inquiry approach, to document the daily explorations of one science-oriented family. Over a three year span, I have followed my own family, in our natural setting, through our day-to-day experiences with science and literacy as we seek to mediate and understand the world around us. In doing so, I have explored the ways we have shared knowledge and constructed learning through science books and read alouds, self-initiated inquiry learning, and communication. Throughout the three year research period, I have collected data and documented my own young children's understanding of the nature of science by observing their engagement with world around them.

Establishing a faith-based organisation nursing school within a national primary health care programme in rural Tanzania: an auto-ethnographic case study.

PubMed

Bischoff, Alexander

2016-01-01

In 2007, the Tanzanian government called for improvements in its primary health care services. Part of this initiative was to accelerate the training rate for nurses qualified to work in rural areas. The aim of this study was to reflect on the issues experienced whilst establishing and implementing a faith-based organisation (FBO) nursing school and make recommendations for other similar initiatives. This paper describes an auto-ethnographic case study design to identify the key difficulties involved with establishing and implementing a new nursing school, and which factors helped the project achieve its goals. Six themes emerged from the experiences that shaped the course of the project: 1) Motivation can be sustained if the rationale of the project is in line with its aims. Indeed, the project's primary health care focus was to strengthen the nursing workforce and build a public-private partnership with an FBO. All these were strengths, which helped in the midst of all the uncertainties. 2) Communication was an important and often underrated factor for all types of development projects. 3) Managing the unknown and 4) managing expectations characterised the project inception. Almost all themes had to do with 5) handling conflicts. With so many participants having their own agendas, tensions were unavoidable. A final theme was 6) the need to adjust to ever-changing targets. This retrospective auto-ethnographic manuscript serves as a small-scale case study, to illustrate how issues that can be generalised to other settings can be deconstructed to demonstrate how they influence health development projects in developing countries. From this narrative of experiences, key recommendations include the following: 1) Find the right ratio of stakeholders, participants, and agendas, and do not overload the project; 2) Be alert and communicate as much as possible with staff and do not ignore issues hoping they will solve themselves; 3) Think flexibly and do not stubbornly stick to original plans that might not be working; 4) Be realistic and do not romanticise. Embarking on such a project was a timely response to the Tanzanian's government call for strengthening Primary Health Care and for rapidly accelerating the training of nurses able to work in rural areas.

Establishing a faith-based organisation nursing school within a national primary health care programme in rural Tanzania: an auto-ethnographic case study

PubMed Central

Bischoff, Alexander

2016-01-01

Background In 2007, the Tanzanian government called for improvements in its primary health care services. Part of this initiative was to accelerate the training rate for nurses qualified to work in rural areas. The aim of this study was to reflect on the issues experienced whilst establishing and implementing a faith-based organisation (FBO) nursing school and make recommendations for other similar initiatives. Design This paper describes an auto-ethnographic case study design to identify the key difficulties involved with establishing and implementing a new nursing school, and which factors helped the project achieve its goals. Results Six themes emerged from the experiences that shaped the course of the project: 1) Motivation can be sustained if the rationale of the project is in line with its aims. Indeed, the project's primary health care focus was to strengthen the nursing workforce and build a public–private partnership with an FBO. All these were strengths, which helped in the midst of all the uncertainties. 2) Communication was an important and often underrated factor for all types of development projects. 3) Managing the unknown and 4) managing expectations characterised the project inception. Almost all themes had to do with 5) handling conflicts. With so many participants having their own agendas, tensions were unavoidable. A final theme was 6) the need to adjust to ever-changing targets. Conclusions This retrospective auto-ethnographic manuscript serves as a small-scale case study, to illustrate how issues that can be generalised to other settings can be deconstructed to demonstrate how they influence health development projects in developing countries. From this narrative of experiences, key recommendations include the following: 1) Find the right ratio of stakeholders, participants, and agendas, and do not overload the project; 2) Be alert and communicate as much as possible with staff and do not ignore issues hoping they will solve themselves; 3) Think flexibly and do not stubbornly stick to original plans that might not be working; 4) Be realistic and do not romanticise. Embarking on such a project was a timely response to the Tanzanian's government call for strengthening Primary Health Care and for rapidly accelerating the training of nurses able to work in rural areas. PMID:27238652

Silence No More: A Transformative Transcendental Phenomenological Study Investigating the Experiences of Teen Mothers Who Go to College in the Rural Southeast

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, Angela Marie Wilson

2010-01-01

According to ethnographer Kristin Luker (1996) "most poignantly, in the vast majority of cases, giving birth while still a teenager is a pledge of hope, an acted-out wish that the lives of the next generation will be better than those of the current generation, that this young mother can give her child something that she never had."…

Being a Learner Using Social Media in School: The Case of Space2cre8

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vasbø, Kristin Beate; Silseth, Kenneth; Erstad, Ola

2014-01-01

The aim of this article is to gain knowledge about what it means to be a learner using social media in an educational setting. The article presents an ethnographic study of students in a multiethnic community in Oslo who participate in a social networking site called Space2cre8 (S28). In this article, we set out to explore the kind of space for…

First Generation U.S.-Born Africans and the Expanded Nigrescence Theory: The Stretching of a Theory for a "Different" African American Experience at a Predominantly White Institution of Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Walt, Patrick S.

2009-01-01

This dissertation explores the applicability of a "stretched" Expanded Nigrescence theory (Cross and Vandiver 2001; NT-E) to the racial identities/attitudes of six First Generation U.S.-Born Africans (FGAs) at a predominantly White institution (PWI). This instrumental case study blended ethnographic techniques and surveys to tell the stories of…

Computer templates in chronic disease management: ethnographic case study in general practice.

PubMed

Swinglehurst, Deborah; Greenhalgh, Trisha; Roberts, Celia

2012-01-01

To investigate how electronic templates shape, enable and constrain consultations about chronic diseases. Ethnographic case study, combining field notes, video-recording, screen capture with a microanalysis of talk, body language and data entry-an approach called linguistic ethnography. Two general practices in England. Ethnographic observation of administrative areas and 36 nurse-led consultations was done. Twenty-four consultations were directly observed and 12 consultations were video-recorded alongside computer screen capture. Consultations were transcribed using conversation analysis conventions, with notes on body language and the electronic record. The analysis involved repeated rounds of viewing video, annotating field notes, transcription and microanalysis to identify themes. The data was interpreted using discourse analysis, with attention to the sociotechnical theory. Consultations centred explicitly or implicitly on evidence-based protocols inscribed in templates. Templates did not simply identify tasks for completion, but contributed to defining what chronic diseases were, how care was being delivered and what it meant to be a patient or professional in this context. Patients' stories morphed into data bytes; the particular became generalised; the complex was made discrete, simple and manageable; and uncertainty became categorised and contained. Many consultations resembled bureaucratic encounters, primarily oriented to completing data fields. We identified a tension, sharpened by the template, between different framings of the patient-as 'individual' or as 'one of a population'. Some clinicians overcame this tension, responding creatively to prompts within a dialogue constructed around the patient's narrative. Despite their widespread implementation, little previous research has examined how templates are actually used in practice. Templates do not simply document the tasks of chronic disease management but profoundly change the nature of this work. Designed to assure standards of 'quality' care they contribute to bureaucratisation of care and may marginalise aspects of quality care which lie beyond their focus. Creative work is required to avoid privileging 'institution-centred' care over patient-centred care.

Computer templates in chronic disease management: ethnographic case study in general practice

PubMed Central

Swinglehurst, Deborah; Greenhalgh, Trisha; Roberts, Celia

2012-01-01

Objective To investigate how electronic templates shape, enable and constrain consultations about chronic diseases. Design Ethnographic case study, combining field notes, video-recording, screen capture with a microanalysis of talk, body language and data entry—an approach called linguistic ethnography. Setting Two general practices in England. Participants and methods Ethnographic observation of administrative areas and 36 nurse-led consultations was done. Twenty-four consultations were directly observed and 12 consultations were video-recorded alongside computer screen capture. Consultations were transcribed using conversation analysis conventions, with notes on body language and the electronic record. The analysis involved repeated rounds of viewing video, annotating field notes, transcription and microanalysis to identify themes. The data was interpreted using discourse analysis, with attention to the sociotechnical theory. Results Consultations centred explicitly or implicitly on evidence-based protocols inscribed in templates. Templates did not simply identify tasks for completion, but contributed to defining what chronic diseases were, how care was being delivered and what it meant to be a patient or professional in this context. Patients’ stories morphed into data bytes; the particular became generalised; the complex was made discrete, simple and manageable; and uncertainty became categorised and contained. Many consultations resembled bureaucratic encounters, primarily oriented to completing data fields. We identified a tension, sharpened by the template, between different framings of the patient—as ‘individual’ or as ‘one of a population’. Some clinicians overcame this tension, responding creatively to prompts within a dialogue constructed around the patient's narrative. Conclusions Despite their widespread implementation, little previous research has examined how templates are actually used in practice. Templates do not simply document the tasks of chronic disease management but profoundly change the nature of this work. Designed to assure standards of ‘quality’ care they contribute to bureaucratisation of care and may marginalise aspects of quality care which lie beyond their focus. Creative work is required to avoid privileging ‘institution-centred’ care over patient-centred care. PMID:23192245

A Sociocultural Perspective on Young Deaf Children's Fingerspelling: An Ethnographic Study in a Signing Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roos, Carin

2014-01-01

This study, which is part of a larger longitudinal ethnographic study of young deaf children, reports on deaf children's use of fingerspelling. The children observed were early signers using Swedish Sign Language (SSL) in communication with teachers and peers. This study centres on the functions of fingerspelling in the children's everyday…

The pros and cons of researching events ethnographically

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Events (remarkable, disruptive happenings) are important subjects of study for understanding processes of change. In this essay, I reflect upon the issue of what the ethnographic method has to offer for the analysis of this social phenomenon. To do so, I review three recently published ethnographic studies of events. My conclusion is that it is indeed a very useful method for understanding the feelings and ideas of people who are experiencing eventful situations, for instance around protests or natural disasters. However, using this method also brings about practical difficulties, such as the ‘luck’ that an event occurs at the ethnographic fieldwork site. Next, as transformative responses to events are not bound by the place or time of the happening, other methods (interviews, discourse analysis, surveys) that make it easier to follow them in varying locations and periods might be more suitable for getting a comprehensive picture of their meaning-making dynamics. PMID:29081715

WWOOF Ecopedagogy: Linking "Doing" to "Learning"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakagawa, Yoshifumi

2017-01-01

WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) is an increasingly popular form of ecotourism in Australia. An ethnographic study of 10 young adult international tourists was conducted at five rural Victorian WWOOF sites. The objective was to examine the participants' nature experience. As part of the ethnographic study, this article selectively reports…

Implementing a Critically Quasi-Ethnographic Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murtagh, Lisa

2007-01-01

This paper provides an account of the methodological approach of a study designed to address some fundamental questions relating to formative assessment. The paper reports on the use of a critically quasi-ethnographic approach and describes the practicalities of adopting such an approach. The validity of the study is also considered, reflecting on…

Teacher Educators and the Production of Bricoleurs: An Ethnographic Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatton, Elizabeth

1997-01-01

Reports and discusses data from an ethnographic study of teacher educators in which a metaphor for teachers' work as bricolage generates a hypothesis about teacher education as a conservative determinant of teachers' work. Discusses the results and reasons why the theoretical adequacy of the bricolage explanation needs improvement. (DSK)

Instructional Leadership: Four Ethnographic Studies on Junior High School Principals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newberg, Norman A.; Glatthorn, Allan A.

This study explores the principal's role as instructional leader in four urban schools showing improvement in test scores. Data gathering procedures included ethnographic observations and interviews of principals; principals' logs of time use; interviews with teachers, school administrators, and students; and faculty surveys. The findings were…

Flauto: An Ethnographic Study of a Highly Successful Private Studio

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montemayor, Mark

2008-01-01

This study examined the instructional settings, pedagogical techniques, interpersonal dynamics and personal characteristics of a teacher and her adolescent students in a renowned private flute studio. Using ethnographic techniques including observations and interviews, four main themes emerged that seem to contribute to the satisfaction of the…

Personal Library Curation: An Ethnographic Study of Scholars' Information Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antonijevic, Smiljana; Cahoy, Ellysa Stern

2014-01-01

This paper presents findings of a Mellon Foundation-funded study conducted at Penn State University in University Park during Fall 2012 that explored scholars' information practices across disciplines encompassing the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Drawing on results of the Web-based survey and ethnographic interviews, we present…

Development of Deaf Identity: An Ethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McIlroy, Guy; Storbeck, Claudine

2011-01-01

This ethnographic study explores the identity development of 9 deaf participants through the narratives of their educational experiences in either mainstream or special schools for the Deaf. This exploration goes beyond a binary conceptualization of deaf identity that allows for only the medical and social models and proposes a bicultural…

The state of Danish nursing ethnographic research: flowering, nurtured or malnurtured - a critical review.

PubMed

Uhrenfeldt, Lisbeth; Martinsen, Bente; Jørgensen, Lene Bastrup; Sørensen, Erik Elgaard

2018-03-01

Nursing was established in Denmark as a scholarly tradition in the late nineteen eighties, and ethnography was a preferred method. No critical review has yet summarised accomplishments and gaps and pointing at directions for the future methodological development and research herein. This review critically examines the current state of the use of ethnographic methodology in the body of knowledge from Danish nursing scholars. We performed a systematic literature search in relevant databases from 2003 to 2016. The studies included were critically appraised by all authors for methodological robustness using the ten-item instrument QARI from Joanna Briggs Institute. Two hundred and eight studies met our inclusion criteria and 45 papers were included; the critical appraisal gave evidence of studies with certain robustness, except for the first question concerning the congruity between the papers philosophical perspective and methodology and the seventh question concerning reflections about the influence of the researcher on the study and vice versa. In most studies (n = 34), study aims and arguments for selecting ethnographic research are presented. Additionally, method sections in many studies illustrated that ethnographical methodology is nurtured by references such as Hammersley and Atkinson or Spradley. Evidence exists that Danish nursing scholars' body of knowledge nurtures the ethnographic methodology mainly by the same few authors; however, whether this is an expression of a deliberate strategy or malnutrition in the form of lack of knowledge of other methodological options appears yet unanswered. © 2017 Nordic College of Caring Science.

Video ethnography during and after caesarean sections: methodological challenges.

PubMed

Stevens, Jeni; Schmied, Virginia; Burns, Elaine; Dahlen, Hannah G

2017-07-01

To describe the challenges of, and steps taken to successfully collect video ethnographic data during and after caesarean sections. Video ethnographic research uses real-time video footage to study a cultural group or phenomenon in the natural environment. It allows researchers to discover previously undocumented practices, which in-turn provides insight into strengths and weaknesses in practice. This knowledge can be used to translate evidence-based interventions into practice. Video ethnographic design. A video ethnographic approach was used to observe the contact between mothers and babies immediately after elective caesarean sections in a tertiary hospital in Sydney, Australia. Women, their support people and staff participated in the study. Data were collected via video footage and field notes in the operating theatre, recovery and the postnatal ward. Challenges faced whilst conducting video ethnographic research included attaining ethics approval, recruiting vast numbers of staff members and 'vulnerable' pregnant women, and endeavouring to be a 'fly on the wall' and a 'complete observer'. There were disadvantages being an 'insider' whilst conducting the research because occasionally staff members requested help with clinical tasks whilst collecting data; however, it was an advantage as it enabled ease of access to the environment and staff members that were to be recruited. Despite the challenges, video ethnographic research enabled the provision of unique data that could not be attained by any other means. Video ethnographic data are beneficial as it provides exceptionally rich data for in-depth analysis of interactions between the environment, equipment and people in the hospital environment. The analysis of this type of data can then be used to inform improvements for future care. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

"Chiriguano" Astronomy - Venus and a Guarani New Year

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pereira, Gonzalo

A Supreme Decree emitted by the government of Bolivia instituted the celebration of the June solstices in view of the fact that the indigenous people, both the Andean highlands and the Amazon and Chaco, "have commemorated this event for thousands of years" (Gobierno del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Decreto Supremo N° 0173, June16, 2009, La Paz). In the case of the lowlands' indigenous, particularly the Guarani people, the decree mentions the planet Venus as the argument for this celebration. In this case of study and in light of astronomical and ethnographic evidence, we analyze the relevance of this decree in the case of the Guarani people of the Bolivian Chaco region, known as "Chiriguanos".

A Typology of Ethnographic Scales for Virtual Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boellstorff, Tom

This chapter outlines a typology of genres of ethnographic research with regard to virtual worlds, informed by extensive research the author has completed both in Second Life and in Indonesia. It begins by identifying four confusions about virtual worlds: they are not games, they need not be graphical or even visual, they are not mass media, and they need not be defined in terms of escapist role-playing. A three-part typology of methods for ethnographic research in virtual worlds focuses on the relationship between research design and ethnographic scale. One class of methods for researching virtual worlds with regard to ethnographic scale explores interfaces between virtual worlds and the actual world, whereas a second examines interfaces between two or more virtual worlds. The third class involves studying a single virtual world in its own terms. Recognizing that all three approaches have merit for particular research purposes, ethnography of virtual worlds can be a vibrant field of research, contributing to central debates about human selfhood and sociality.

Using ethnography to monitor the community health implications of onshore unconventional oil and gas developments: examples from Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale.

PubMed

Perry, Simona L

2013-01-01

The ethnographer's toolbox has within it a variety of methods for describing and analyzing the everyday lives of human beings that can be useful to public health practitioners and policymakers. These methods can be employed to uncover information on some of the harder-to-monitor psychological, sociocultural, and environmental factors that may lead to chronic stress in individuals and communities. In addition, because most ethnographic research studies involve deep and long-term engagement with local communities, the information collected by ethnographic researchers can be useful in tracking long- and short-term changes in overall well-being and health. Set within an environmental justice framework, this article uses examples from ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in the Marcellus Shale gas fields of Pennsylvania to describe and justify using an ethnographic approach to monitor the psychological and sociocultural determinants of community health as they relate to unconventional oil and gas development projects in the United States.

Using Unfamiliar People in Witness and Jury Pools: An Ethnographic Study of Interpersonal Skill Demands in Trial Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bintz, William P.

An ethnographic study explored the hypothesis that the use of "familiar" people in mock trial simulations contributes to student inattention to interpersonal skill demands necessary for proficient trial lawyering. Participants in the study included 12 third-year law school students, 1 adjunct instructor, 1 researcher, 12 local high…

Toward an Understanding of EFL Teacher Culture: An Ethnographic Study in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Hong; Yuan, Rui; Wang, Qiang

2018-01-01

Informed by an ethnographic approach, this study aims to investigate the professional culture of a group of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in a high school in China. Relying on data gathered through extended field observation and in-depth interviews, this study seeks to uncover the distinctive characteristics of EFL teacher culture…

Childbirth Supporters' Experiences in a Built Hospital Birth Environment: Exploring Inhibiting and Facilitating Factors in Negotiating the Supporter Role.

PubMed

Harte, J Davis; Sheehan, Athena; Stewart, Susan C; Foureur, Maralyn

2016-04-01

To explore inhibiting and facilitating design factors influencing childbirth supporters' experiences. Birthing women benefit from the continuous, cooperative presence of supporters. However, little research has investigated how birth room design facilitates or inhibits supporters' role navigation. We conducted an exploratory video ethnographic single case study of childbirth supporters' experiences, within an Australian hospital birth environment. Video, field notes, and video-cued reflexive interviews with the woman, her midwives, and supporters were thematically analyzed using ethnographic/symbolic interactionist perspectives to frame supporters' understandings. Findings suggest supporters' experiences are complex, made more complicated by sparse understanding or accommodation of their needs in the built environment. Supporters' presence and roles are not facilitated by the physical space; they experience "an unbelonging paradox" of being needed, yet uncertain and "in the way" during "tenuous nest-building" activities. Suggested design guidelines to facilitate supporters' well-being and their roles in designed hospital birth spaces are provided. © The Author(s) 2016.

Language and Anxiety: An Ethnographic Study of International Postgraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Lorraine

2008-01-01

This paper presents some findings from an ethnographic study of international postgraduate students at a university in the South of England, which involved interviews and participant observation over a 12-month academic year. One of the major themes that emerged from this research was students' anxiety over their level of English language.…

Competition between Public Supervision and Professional Management: An Ethnographic Study of School Governance Reforms in Switzerland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hangartner, Judith; Svaton, Carla Jana

2014-01-01

This article discusses insights from an ethnographic study of local governance practices in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, under changing policy conditions. Recent reforms introduced and strengthened the position of head teachers, enhanced the responsibility of the municipalities and introduced new quality management procedures in local…

Patterns of Indigenous Learning: An Ethnographic Study on How Kindergartners Learn in Mana, Fiji

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Chih-Yih; Sparks, Paul

2015-01-01

Technology has greatly impacted educational systems around the world, even in the most geographically isolated places. This study utilizes an ethnographic approach to examine the patterns of learning in a kindergarten in Mana, Fiji. Data comprised of interviews, observations and examination of related artifacts. The results provide baseline data…

The Cultural Ecology of Scholar-Practitioner Leaders: An Ethnographic Study of Leadership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenlink, Patrick M.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this critical ethnographic study was to examine the nature and meaning of cultural ecology in relation to preparing scholar-practitioner leaders. The ethnography focused on how the discourses and practices within the disciplinary setting of leadership preparation shape the identity of social scholar-practitioner leaders. The…

Researching My Own Backyard: Inquiries into an Ethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zulfikar, Teuku

2014-01-01

Ethnography is a prominent research methodology in the recent times. It is popular not only in the field of Anthropology but also in many other social sciences. My doctorate thesis was also conducted through an ethnographic study examining the ways in which young Muslims of Indonesian background living in Australia construct their identity. In…

Latino Trajectories in Barcelona: A Longitudinal Ethnographic Study of Latin American Adolescents in Catalonia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corona, Víctor

2016-01-01

The ethnographic research presented in this paper consists of two parts developed chronologically. The first part is based on a study (Corona, V., Nussbaum, L., & Unamuno, V. [2012]. The emergence of new linguistic repertoires among Barcelona's youth of Latin American origin. "International Journal of Bilingual Education and…

The Rhythms of Pedagogy: An Ethnographic Study of Parenting Education Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hopwood, Nick

2014-01-01

Educational research is increasingly turning to conceptual frameworks from a range of disciplines in order to enrich understandings of education, pedagogy and learning. This paper draws on the work of Henri Lefebvre, specifically rhythmanalysis, to explore the nature and the function of pedagogy. The context is an ethnographic study of parenting…

Elementary Administrators' Perceptions of the Blended Coaching Model on Their Development as Transformational Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noche, Alma

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this ethnographic research was to study the culture and experiences of elementary administrators who were coached in the blended coaching model. This study used a qualitative ethnographic design to explore the context and processes of the coaching experience of elementary administrators that enhanced transformational…

Landscapes of Literacy: An Ethnographic Study of Functional Literacy in Marginal Philippine Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canieso-Doronila, Maria Luisa

Thirteen marginal Philippine communities were examined in an ethnographic study of the meaning of functional literacy and whether literacy invariably promotes development. The 13 sites were purposely selected to provide a broad sampling from three standpoints: (1) major livelihood and form of economic activity (farming, fishing, urban poor,…

Insights into freshman weight issues: An ethnographic study of how first-year college students make decisions about eating

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The transition from high school to college represents a life turning point during which health behavior trajectories may be influenced. This study addresses the internal and external factors that guide students’ eating decisions as they are understood and relayed by students through ethnographic, qu...

Patients "Embodied" and "As-a-Body" within Bedside Teaching Encounters: A Video Ethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elsey, Christopher; Challinor, Alexander; Monrouxe, Lynn V.

2017-01-01

Bedside teaching encounters (BTEs) involve doctor-patient-student interactions, providing opportunities for students to learn with, from and about patients. How the differing concerns of patient care and student education are balanced in situ remains largely unknown and undefined. This video ethnographic study explores "patient…

On Ethnographic Intent.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolcott, Harry F.

1985-01-01

Defines the essence of ethnographic research as describing and interpreting cultural behavior. Clarifies why some characteristics of ethnography are not defining characteristics, considers what is meant by "culture," examines the ethnographic process, and discusses the application of ethnographic methods in the educational setting. (PGD)

Ethnographic research into nursing in acute adult mental health units: a review.

PubMed

Cleary, Michelle; Hunt, Glenn E; Horsfall, Jan; Deacon, Maureen

2011-01-01

Acute inpatient mental health units are busy and sometimes chaotic settings, with high bed occupancy rates. These settings include acutely unwell patients, busy staff, and a milieu characterised by unpredictable interactions and events. This paper is a report of a literature review conducted to identify, analyse, and synthesize ethnographic research in adult acute inpatient mental health units. Several electronic databases were searched using relevant keywords to identify studies published from 1990-present. Additional searches were conducted using reference lists. Ethnographic studies published in English were included if they investigated acute inpatient care in adult settings. Papers were excluded if the unit under study was not exclusively for patients in the acute phase of their mental illness, or where the original study was not fully ethnographic. Ten research studies meeting our criteria were found (21 papers). Findings were grouped into the following overarching categories: (1) Micro-skills; (2) Collectivity; (3) Pragmatism; and (4) Reframing of nursing activities. The results of this ethnographic review reveal the complexity, patient-orientation, and productivity of some nursing interventions that may not have been observed or understood without the use of this research method. Additional quality research should focus on redefining clinical priorities and philosophies to ensure everyday care is aligned constructively with the expectations of stakeholders and is consistent with policy and the realities of the organisational setting. We have more to learn from each other with regard to the effective nursing care of inpatients who are acutely disturbed.

Applying Ethnography in Educational Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schensul, Jean J.

1985-01-01

Explores reasons that anthropology has been applied only infrequently to the solution of education-related problems. Presents three case examples in which ethnographic research in the Hispanic community of Hartford, Connecticut, has been utilized to bring about changes in education-related services to Hispanics. (Author/GC)

Fulfilling Multiple Missions Concurrently: An Ethnographic Study of a Campus Children's Center's Trials and Triumphs in Serving Six Populations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calica, Corinna Dy-Liacco

2017-01-01

The study is a comprehensive ethnographic investigation into how a campus children's center and laboratory school site can simultaneously serve six major population groups (i.e., parents, college students, teachers, faculty, administrators, and researchers) while maintaining program operations. The study carefully examines the converging and…

Performativity, Guilty Knowledge, and Ethnographic Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puttick, Steven

2017-01-01

This paper applies Dennis' [(2009). "What does it Mean when an Ethnographer Intervenes?" "Ethnography and Education" 4 (2): 131-146] modes of ethnographic intervention to a fieldwork experience of an observed secondary school lesson in England. Ethnographic research raises numerous ethical dilemmas, in the face of which…

Sample of Second Grade Classroom Protocols from Special Study A of the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study for the California Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tikunoff, William J.; And Others

Second grade classroom protocols collected within this volume are examples of the protocols developed by the ethnographers associated with Special Study A: "An Ethnographic Study of the Forty Classrooms of the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study." Twenty teachers at both the second and fifth grades were observed for one week by an…

Sample of Fifth Grade Classroom Protocols from Special Study A of the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study for the California Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tikunoff, William J.; And Others

Classroom protocols collected within this volume are examples of the protocols from grade 5 developed by the ethnographers associated with Special Study A: "An Ethnographic Study of the Forty Classrooms of the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study." Twenty teachers at both the second and fifth grades were observed for one week by an…

The Aesthetics of Everyday Literacies: Home Writing Practices in a British Asian Household

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pahl, Kate

2014-01-01

This article explores young people's home literacy practices drawing on an ethnographic study of writing in the home of a British Asian family living in northern England. The theoretical framework comes from the New Literacy Studies, and aesthetic and literary theory. It applies an ethnographic methodology together with an engaged approach to…

The Experiences of Portuguese-Speaking Families with Special-Needs Children as Related by the Mothers: An Ethnographic Interview Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tellier-Robinson, Dora

A study examined Portuguese-speaking parents' involvement in and feelings about their special-needs children's education. Ethnographic interviews were conducted, in either English or Portuguese, with nine Portuguese-speaking limited-English-proficient and bilingual parents (eight mothers and one father) of severely challenged children. The report…

Diluting Education? An Ethnographic Study of Change in an Australian Ministry of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Sarah

2011-01-01

This ethnographic study captures the processes that led to change in an Australian public education system. The changes were driven by strong neo-liberal discourses which resulted in a shift from a shared understanding about leading educational change in schools by knowledge transfer to managing educational change as a process, in other words,…

Implementation of Health Education, Based on Ethnographic Study, to Increase the Colostrum and Decrease Early Solid Food Feeding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiryo, Hananto; Hakimi, M.

2005-01-01

Traditionally, mothers provide banana to their neonates as well as discharge their colostrum prior to breastfeeding, increasing the risk of perinatal morbidity and mortality. Health education modules, based on ethnographic study, to discourage these detrimental practices were developed for use by community leaders. Two thousand six hundred and…

Technology, Accuracy and Scientific Thought in Field Camp: An Ethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feig, Anthony D.

2010-01-01

An ethnographic study was conducted on an undergraduate field course to observe and document lived experiences of students. This paper evaluates one of several emergent themes: that of technology dependence, and how it informs students' understanding of scientific reality. In the field, students tried to arm themselves with as high a degree of…

Ethical Challenges in Participant Observation: A Reflection on Ethnographic Fieldwork

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Jun

2008-01-01

In this essay I reflect on the ethical challenges of ethnographic fieldwork I personally experienced in a female gambling study. By assuming a covert research role, I was able to observe natural occurrences of female gambling activities but unable to make peace with disturbing feelings of my research concealment. By making my study overt, I was…

Attribution of the Kazakh Traditional Dress in the Collections of the Russian Ethnographic Museum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kunanbayeva, Sholpan B.; Ibrayeva, Akmaral G.; Abzhanov, Hangeldy M.; Sadykov, Tlegen S.; Seitkazina, Kuralay O.

2016-01-01

The paper analyzes the collections of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (MAE RAS) and the Russian Ethnographic Museum (REM) (St. Petersburg, Russian Federation). Their study is of great importance both in the scientific-theoretical and practical aspects. In theory, their study is of particular interest, since at the turn…

The best of both worlds: a consideration of gender in team building.

PubMed

Rudan, Vincent T

2003-03-01

As teams continue to supplant individuals as the fundamental work unit, healthcare organizations increasingly are turning to high-performance care and service groups as keys to success. In this article, the author presents research and findings of an ethnographic case study of a mixed-gender work team of healthcare administrators. Focusing on gender issues and their impact on outcomes, the study offers insights for promoting cultural change and improving nursing practice systems that will influence health policy and support a new architecture for the healthcare industry.

Performance Matters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller-Day, Michelle

2008-01-01

After being told in an end-of-year job review that performances are not considered valuable research outcomes, the author argues in this essay that performance matters. This essay makes a case for recognizing performance ethnographies as research, pedagogy, and active service and concludes with guidelines for performance ethnographers who are…

Video observation in HIT development: lessons learned on benefits and challenges.

PubMed

Høstgaard, Anna Marie; Bertelsen, Pernille

2012-08-22

Experience shows that the precondition for the development of successful health information technologies is a thorough insight into clinical work practice. In contemporary clinical work practice, clinical work and health information technology are integrated, and part of the practice is tacit. When work practice becomes routine, it slips to the background of the conscious awareness and becomes difficult to recognize without the context to support recall. This means that it is difficult to capture with traditional ethnographic research methods or in usability laboratories or clinical set ups. Observation by the use of the video technique within healthcare settings has proven to be capable of providing a thorough insight into the complex clinical work practice and its context - including parts of the tacit practice. The objective of this paper is 1) to argue for the video observation technique to inform and improve health-information-technology development and 2) to share insights and lessons learned on benefits and challenges when using the video observation technique within healthcare settings. A multiple case study including nine case studies conducted by DaCHI researchers 2004-2011 using audio-visual, non-participant video observation for data collection within different healthcare settings. In HIT development, video observation is beneficial for 1) informing and improving system design 2) studying changes in work practice 3) identifying new potentials and 4) documenting current work practices. The video observation technique used within healthcare settings is superior to other ethnographic research methods when it comes to disclosing the complexity in clinical work practice. The insights gained are far more realistic compared to traditional ethnographic studies or usability studies and studies in clinical set ups. Besides, the data generated through video recordings provide a solid basis for dialog between the health care professionals involved. The most important lessons learned are that a well considered methodology and clear formulated objectives are imperative, in order to stay focused during the data rich analysis phase. Additionally, the video observation technique is primarily recommended for studies of specific clinical work practices within delimited clinical settings. Overall, the video observation technique has proven to be capable of improving our understanding of the interwoven relation between clinical work practice and HIT and to inform us about user requirements and needs for HIT, which is a precondition for the development of more successful HIT systems in the future.

Alternatives to the face-to-face consultation in general practice: focused ethnographic case study.

PubMed

Atherton, Helen; Brant, Heather; Ziebland, Sue; Bikker, Annemieke; Campbell, John; Gibson, Andy; McKinstry, Brian; Porqueddu, Tania; Salisbury, Chris

2018-04-01

NHS policy encourages general practices to introduce alternatives to the face-to-face consultation, such as telephone, email, e-consultation systems, or internet video. Most have been slow to adopt these, citing concerns about workload. This project builds on previous research by focusing on the experiences of patients and practitioners who have used one or more of these alternatives. To understand how, under what conditions, for which patients, and in what ways, alternatives to face-to-face consultations present benefits and challenges to patients and practitioners in general practice. Focused ethnographic case studies took place in eight UK general practices between June 2015 and March 2016. Non-participant observation, informal conversations with staff, and semi-structured interviews with staff and patients were conducted. Practice documents and protocols were reviewed. Data were analysed through charting and the 'one sheet of paper' mind-map method to identify the line of argument in each thematic report. Case study practices had different rationales for offering alternatives to the face-to-face consultation. Beliefs varied about which patients and health issues were suitable. Co-workers were often unaware of each other's practice; for example, practice policies for use of e-consultations systems with patients were not known about or followed. Patients reported benefits including convenience and access. Staff and some patients regarded the face-to-face consultation as the ideal. Experience of implementing alternatives to the face-to-face consultation suggests that changes in patient access and staff workload may be both modest and gradual. Practices planning to implement them should consider carefully their reasons for doing so and involve the whole practice team. © British Journal of General Practice 2018.

Alternatives to the face-to-face consultation in general practice: focused ethnographic case study

PubMed Central

Atherton, Helen; Brant, Heather; Ziebland, Sue; Bikker, Annemieke; Campbell, John; Gibson, Andy; McKinstry, Brian; Porqueddu, Tania; Salisbury, Chris

2018-01-01

Background NHS policy encourages general practices to introduce alternatives to the face-to-face consultation, such as telephone, email, e-consultation systems, or internet video. Most have been slow to adopt these, citing concerns about workload. This project builds on previous research by focusing on the experiences of patients and practitioners who have used one or more of these alternatives. Aim To understand how, under what conditions, for which patients, and in what ways, alternatives to face-to-face consultations present benefits and challenges to patients and practitioners in general practice. Design and setting Focused ethnographic case studies took place in eight UK general practices between June 2015 and March 2016. Method Non-participant observation, informal conversations with staff, and semi-structured interviews with staff and patients were conducted. Practice documents and protocols were reviewed. Data were analysed through charting and the ‘one sheet of paper’ mind-map method to identify the line of argument in each thematic report. Results Case study practices had different rationales for offering alternatives to the face-to-face consultation. Beliefs varied about which patients and health issues were suitable. Co-workers were often unaware of each other’s practice; for example, practice policies for use of e-consultations systems with patients were not known about or followed. Patients reported benefits including convenience and access. Staff and some patients regarded the face-to-face consultation as the ideal. Conclusion Experience of implementing alternatives to the face-to-face consultation suggests that changes in patient access and staff workload may be both modest and gradual. Practices planning to implement them should consider carefully their reasons for doing so and involve the whole practice team. PMID:29378697

The interplay of contextual elements in implementation: an ethnographic case study.

PubMed

McCullough, Megan B; Chou, Ann F; Solomon, Jeffrey L; Petrakis, Beth Ann; Kim, Bo; Park, Angela M; Benedict, Ashley J; Hamilton, Alison B; Rose, Adam J

2015-02-14

Contextual elements have significant impact on uptake of health care innovations. While existing conceptual frameworks in implementation science suggest contextual elements interact with each other, little research has described how this might look in practice. To bridge this gap, this study identifies the interconnected patterns among contextual elements that influence uptake of an anticoagulation clinic improvement initiative. We completed 51 semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations across five case study sites involved in an evidence-based practice (EBP) quality improvement initiative. We analyzed data in NVivo 10 using an a priori approach based on the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) model and an emergent thematic analysis. Key contextual elements, such as leadership, teamwork, and communication, interacted with each other in contributing to site-level uptake of the EBP, often yielding results that could not be predicted by looking at just one of these elements alone. Sites with context conducive to change in these areas predictably had high uptake, while sites with uniformly weak contextual elements had low uptake. Most sites presented a mixed picture, with contextual elements being strongly supportive of change in some areas and weak or moderate in others. In some cases, we found that sites with strong context in at least one area only needed to have adequate context in other areas to yield high uptake. At other sites, weak context in just one area had the potential to contribute to low uptake, despite countervailing strengths. Even a site with positive views of EBPs could not succeed when context was weak. Interrelationships among different contextual elements can act as barriers to uptake at some sites and as facilitators at others. Accounting for interconnections among elements enables PARIHS to more fully describe the determinants of successful implementation as they operate in real-world settings.

The insight and challenge of reflexive practice in an ethnographic study of black traumatically injured patients in Philadelphia.

PubMed

Jacoby, Sara F

2017-07-01

The integrity of critical ethnography requires engagement in reflexive practice at all phases of the research process. In this discussion paper, I explore the insights and challenges of reflexive practice in an ethnographic study of the recovery experiences of black trauma patients in a Philadelphia hospital. Observation and interviews were conducted with twelve patients who were admitted to trauma-designated units of the hospital over the course of a year. During fieldwork, I learned the ways that my background as a professional nurse structured my way of being in clinical space and facilitated a particular interpretation of clinical culture. In analysis, reflection on subjectivities through which I designed this ethnographic research allowed me to see beyond my preconceived and theoretically informed perspective to permit unexpected features of the field to emerge. Reflexive practice also guided my reconciliation of key practical and epistemological differences between clinical ethnographic research and the anthropologic tradition in which it is rooted. I conclude that with careful reflection to the subjectivities that influence the research process, interdisciplinary clinically relevant applied interpretations of critical ethnographic work can be used to generate detailed knowledge across contexts in clinical care, nursing practice, and patient experiences. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Culture, risk factors and suicide in rural China: a psychological autopsy case control study.

PubMed

Zhang, J; Conwell, Y; Zhou, L; Jiang, C

2004-12-01

Previous research on sociocultural factors for Chinese suicide have been basically limited to single case studies or qualitative research with ethnographic methodology. The current study examines the major risk factors and some cultural uniqueness related to Chinese rural suicide using a quantitative design. This is a case control study with 66 completed suicides and 66 living controls obtained from psychological autopsy interviews in rural China. Both bivariate analyses and the multiple regression model have found that the Chinese rural suicide patterns are basically similar to those in most other cultures in the world: strong predictors of rural Chinese suicide are the psychopathological, psychological, and physical health variables, followed by social support and negative and stressful life events. Other significant correlates include lower education, poverty, religion, and family disputes. Culture has an important impact on suicide patterns in a society.

Culture, risk factors and suicide in rural China: a psychological autopsy case control study

PubMed Central

Zhang, J.; Conwell, Y.; Zhou, L.; Jiang, C.

2009-01-01

Objective Previous research on sociocultural factors for Chinese suicide have been basically limited to single case studies or qualitative research with ethnographic methodology. The current study examines the major risk factors and some cultural uniqueness related to Chinese rural suicide using a quantitative design. Method This is a case control study with 66 completed suicides and 66 living controls obtained from psychological autopsy interviews in rural China. Results Both bivariate analyses and the multiple regression model have found that the Chinese rural suicide patterns are basically similar to those in most other cultures in the world: strong predictors of rural Chinese suicide are the psychopathological, psychological, and physical health variables, followed by social support and negative and stressful life events. Other significant correlates include lower education, poverty, religion, and family disputes. Conclusion Culture has an important impact on suicide patterns in a society. PMID:15521827

Ethnographic research with adolescent students: situated fieldwork ethics and ethical principles governing human research.

PubMed

Hemmings, Annette

2009-12-01

This paper explores ethical dilemmas in situated fieldwork ethics concerning ethnographic studies of adolescent students. While consequentialist and deontological ethics form the basis of the ethical stances shared by ethnographers and research ethics committees, the interpretation of those principles may diverge in school-based ethnography with adolescent students because of the particular role of the adult ethnographer vis-à-vis developmentally immature adolescents not held legally responsible for many of their actions. School ethnographers attempt to build trust with adolescent participants in order to learn about their hidden cultural worlds, which may involve activities that are very harmful to the youths involved. They face many difficult and sometimes unexpected choices, including whether to intervene and how to represent events and adolescents in published findings. Scenarios with examples drawn from research conducted in public high schools are used to illustrate and explicate dilemmas in formal research and latent insider/outsider roles and relations involving harmful adolescent behaviors, advocacy, and psychological trauma. Also examined are analytical procedures used to construct interpretations leading to representations of research participants in the resulting publication.

Corruption, NGOs, and Development in Nigeria.

PubMed

Smith, Daniel Jordan

2010-01-01

This article examines corruption in Nigeria's development sector, particularly in the vastly growing arena of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Grounded in ethnographic case studies, the analysis explores why local NGOs in Nigeria have proliferated so widely, what they do in practice, what effects they have beyond their stated aims, and how they are perceived and experienced by ordinary Nigerians. It shows that even faux NGOs and disingenuous political rhetoric about civil society, democracy, and development are contributing to changing ideals and rising expectations in these same domains.

On Teaching Ethnographic Film

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarfield, Geoffrey

2013-01-01

The author of this article, a developmental anthropologist, illustrates how the instructor can use ethnographic films to enhance the study of anthropology and override notions about the scope and efficacy of Western intervention in the Third World, provided the instructor places such films in their proper historical and cultural context. He…

An Ethnographic Diary Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Graham

2008-01-01

This article examines a small-scale ethnographic survey of a single classroom. Drawing on the collected data, the discussion focuses on some of the problems encountered whilst collecting and interpreting data through self-report diaries. Amongst the issues considered are the perceptions of teachers and learners and their ability to articulate…

An Ethnographic Investigation of Chauncey Elementary School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheerer, Marilyn A.

An ethnographic investigation of interrelationships between teacher efficacy attitudes, teacher behavior, students' performance, and organizational climate in a total school setting was conducted at Chauncey Elementary School in Athens, Ohio. Chauncey was studied because its teachers had begun to implement an open classroom model which promoted a…

The ethics of data collection: unintended consequences?

PubMed

Wainwright, Delia; Sambrook, Sally

2010-01-01

The aims is to consider the political and ethical challenges involved in conducting ethnographic managerial/organisational behaviour research within the highly regulated health and social care context, in light of the emergence of more stringent "ethical approval" policies and requirements set by Local Research Ethics Committees in the United Kingdom. In the attempt and requirement to protect "vulnerable" employees, this paper aims to present an unintended paradox of consequences when participants voluntarily revealed themselves. The authors briefly review literature on research ethics and present an understanding of the ethical regulations currently existing within the British National Health Service. Within an ethnographic case study exploring the psychological contract, the authors consider the issues that arose during one stage of data collection: a qualitative questionnaire survey with 13 participants, including members of the lead author's team. Incorporating excerpts from the researcher's reflexive journal, the paper exposes the struggles of being an "insider" researcher and the tensions this raises for data analysis when participants voluntarily revealed themselves. Ethnography is at "risk" within health and social care and ethnographic "managerial" research is likely to be unduly restricted and potentially threatened. The evidence suggests that some employees either did not wish to be protected or, conversely, felt compelled to reveal their identities, raising questions of their motivation and creating a paradox of unintended consequences. This paper offers an insight into the challenges of conducting nurse-managerial ethnography in compliance with ethical guidelines, yet disrupted by participants. The findings will be useful to other nurse-researchers attempting to conduct insider research.

Language as Cultural Practice: Mexicanos en el Norte.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schecter, Sandra R.; Bayley, Robert

This book offers an ethnographic account of language socialization practices within Mexican-background families residing in California and Texas. It illustrates cases where language is used by speakers to choose between alternative self-definitions and where language interacts differentially with other defining categories (ethnicity, gender, and…

A Mixed-Methods Exploration of an Environment for Learning Computer Programming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mather, Richard

2015-01-01

A mixed-methods approach is evaluated for exploring collaborative behaviour, acceptance and progress surrounding an interactive technology for learning computer programming. A review of literature reveals a compelling case for using mixed-methods approaches when evaluating technology-enhanced-learning environments. Here, ethnographic approaches…

GoPro as an Ethnographic Tool: A Wayfinding Study in an Academic Library

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinsley, Kirsten M.; Schoonover, Dan; Spitler, Jasmine

2016-01-01

In this study, researchers sought to capture students' authentic experience of finding books in the main library using a GoPro camera and the think-aloud protocol. The GoPro provided a first-person perspective and was an effective ethnographic tool for observing a student's individual experience, while also demonstrating what tools they use to…

"You Who Have Been to School, What Have You Become?": An Ethnographic Study of University Life in Benin

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hessling O'Neil, Marcy

2012-01-01

This dissertation examines the relationship between higher education and social mobility among students and their families in Benin, West Africa. In this study I draw on ethnographic research conducted at the public University of Abomey-Calavi in Cotonou, Benin in 2010. I utilize interviews, historical documents, and participant observation to…

The Contribution (or Not) of UN Higher Education to Peacebuilding: An Ethnographic Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kester, Kevin

2017-01-01

This paper examines the role of United Nations (UN) peace academics in teaching for peace within the UN higher education system, and questions what contribution, if any, UN peacebuilding education makes to the broader field of peace and conflict studies education, and in the lives of the people it touches. The study draws on ethnographic data…

The Divided Self: Overcoming the Internal Divisions in the Ethnographic Participant/Observer Role.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narney, Pam

A composition scholar conducted a study of peer response groups in a freshmen composition course to determine what leads to conflict among students in these groups. In the course of her study, however, she found herself deeply perplexed by conflicting roles she had to play as a participant/observer. The ethnographer as a participant/observer is,…

I Did That Wrong and It Sounded Good: An Ethnographic Study of Vernacular Music Making in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ezquerra, Victor N.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine vernacular music making in higher education. The participants, undergraduate music education majors (N = 23 for Fall, N = 10 for Spring), were investigated throughout the course of the 2012-2013 academic year. A constructivist philosophical framework was applied and data were collected using…

Sport and Physical Activity in a High Security Spanish Prison: An Ethnographic Study of Multiple Meanings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martos-Garcia, Daniel; Devis-Devis, Jose; Sparkes, Andrew C.

2009-01-01

Drawing on data generated by a two-year ethnographic study in a high security Spanish prison, this article explores the multiple meanings given to the social practices of sport and physical activity. We provide details of the following key themes that emerged from the analysis: (a) escaping time; (b) perceived therapeutic benefits; (c) social…

How Do They Research? An Ethnographic Study of Final Year Undergraduate Research Behavior in an Irish University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunne, Siobhán

2016-01-01

The objectives of this study were to identify how, when, and where students research; the impact of learning environments on research productivity, and to recommend improved supports to facilitate research. An ethnographic approach that entailed following five students in the final six weeks of their program enabled deep level analysis. The study…

Walking the Fine Line between Fieldwork Success and Failure: Advice for New Ethnographers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gill, Peter Richard; Temple, Elizabeth C.

2014-01-01

While the importance of ethnographic research in developing new knowledge is widely recognised, there remains minimal detailed description and discussion of the actual practice and processes involved in completing ethnographic fieldwork. The first author's experiences and struggles as an ethnographer of a group of young men from two locations (a…

A qualitative study of relationships among parenting strategies, social capital, the juvenile justice system, and mental health care for at-risk African American male youth.

PubMed

Richardson, Joseph B; Brakle, Mischelle Van

2011-10-01

For many poor, African American families living in the inner city, the juvenile justice system has become a de facto mental health service provider. In this article, longitudinal, ethnographic study methods were used to examine how resource-deprived, inner-city parents in a New York City community relied on the juvenile justice system to provide their African American male children with mental health care resources. The results of three case studies indicate that this strategy actually contributed to an escalation in delinquency among the youth.

Dream Interpretation as a Component of Researcher's Reflexivity within an Ethnographic Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miškolci, Jozef

2015-01-01

Researchers' "reflexivity" about how they shape the phenomena that they study within the data collection process is often presented as a crucial component of ethnographic research methodology. Nevertheless, academic literature about ethnography is mostly silent around whether researchers' dreams are relevant to the research process and…

Vignettes of Interviews to Enhance an Ethnographic Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobsen, Alice Juel

2014-01-01

This article explores challenges of applying an ethnographic approach, combining participant observation and interviews, to a study of organizational change. The exploration is connected to reform changes, as they are constructed in the interaction between managers and teachers, in a Danish Upper Secondary High School. The data material is…

The Effects of Migration on Children: An Ethnographic Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prewitt Diaz, Joseph O.; And Others

This report re-examines previously gathered ethnographic data derived from approximately 3,000 hours of interviews with migrants across the United States to determine what factors associated with migration affect children's educational outcomes. The data suggest the existence of a "culture of migrancy," which is manifested in similar…

"Just Go in Looking Good": The Resilience, Resistance, and Kinship-Building of Trans* College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicolazzo, Z.

2016-01-01

This article explores the strategies transgender college students use to navigate gender-dichotomous collegiate environments. Using a critical collaborative ethnographic methodology (Bhattacharya, 2008), this 18-month ethnographic study alongside 9 transgender students elucidated how gender operates as a discourse to regulate the collegiate life…

Reading Shop Windows in Globalized Neighborhoods: Multilingual Literacy Practices and Indexicality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collins, James; Slembrouck, Stef

2007-01-01

Shop and cafe signs in multiple languages are familiar features of polyglot immigrant neighborhoods. This paper examines such signs, presenting photographic, observational, and interview data from a multisited ethnographic study of language contact in Ghent, an urban Belgian city. Drawing upon diverse ethnographic sources, especially the…

Histories and Horoscopes: The Ethnographer as Fortune-Teller.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Mary

1998-01-01

Focuses on different ways participants in a research project may understand the research and use it themselves by describing how 20 adult students and 14 community members, participants in a recent ethnographic study of adult literacy in England, responded to the invitation to collaborate with researchers in interpreting interview data. (SLD)

An Ethnographic Account of the Composing Behaviors of Five Young Bilingual Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halsall, Sharen Weber

A study examined bilingual children's composing behaviors during classroom writing and their perceptions of writing. Students' descriptions of what occurred in their day-to-day environment were analyzed using ethnographic methods. The researcher observed five subjects--bilingual students in kindergarten through third grade--for 145 hours, and…

Methodological convergence of program evaluation designs.

PubMed

Chacón-Moscoso, Salvador; Anguera, M Teresa; Sanduvete-Chaves, Susana; Sánchez-Martín, Milagrosa

2014-01-01

Nowadays, the confronting dichotomous view between experimental/quasi-experimental and non-experimental/ethnographic studies still exists but, despite the extensive use of non-experimental/ethnographic studies, the most systematic work on methodological quality has been developed based on experimental and quasi-experimental studies. This hinders evaluators and planners' practice of empirical program evaluation, a sphere in which the distinction between types of study is changing continually and is less clear. Based on the classical validity framework of experimental/quasi-experimental studies, we carry out a review of the literature in order to analyze the convergence of design elements in methodological quality in primary studies in systematic reviews and ethnographic research. We specify the relevant design elements that should be taken into account in order to improve validity and generalization in program evaluation practice in different methodologies from a practical methodological and complementary view. We recommend ways to improve design elements so as to enhance validity and generalization in program evaluation practice.

Nursing and the ethnographic accomplishment.

PubMed

Patterson, Christopher; Procter, Nicholas; Toffoli, Luisa

2017-03-22

This issue of Nurse Researcher focuses on ethnographic research in nursing. The three themed papers provide an overview of the ethnographic accomplishment dealing with methodological issues in the conduct of ethnographic work and how nursing and nurses' work is represented. The authors take account of how contemporary approaches to ethnography are shaped by understandings of and approaches to nursing.

Computational Model for Ethnographically Informed Systems Design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iqbal, Rahat; James, Anne; Shah, Nazaraf; Terken, Jacuqes

This paper presents a computational model for ethnographically informed systems design that can support complex and distributed cooperative activities. This model is based on an ethnographic framework consisting of three important dimensions (e.g., distributed coordination, awareness of work and plans and procedure), and the BDI (Belief, Desire and Intention) model of intelligent agents. The ethnographic framework is used to conduct ethnographic analysis and to organise ethnographically driven information into three dimensions, whereas the BDI model allows such information to be mapped upon the underlying concepts of multi-agent systems. The advantage of this model is that it is built upon an adaptation of existing mature and well-understood techniques. By the use of this model, we also address the cognitive aspects of systems design.

Personal Safety in Dangerous Places

PubMed Central

Williams, Terry; Dunlap, Eloise; Johnson, Bruce D.; Hamid, Ansley

2009-01-01

Personal safety during fieldwork is seldom addressed directly in the literature. Drawing from many prior years of ethnographic research and from field experience while studying crack distributors in New York City, the authors provide a variety of strategies by which ethnographic research can be safely conducted in dangerous settings. By projecting an appropriate demeanor, ethnographers can seek others for protector and locator roles, routinely create a safety zone in the field, and establish compatible field roles with potential subjects. The article also provides strategies for avoiding or handling sexual approaches, common law crimes, fights, drive-by shootings, and contacts with the police. When integrated with other standard qualitative methods, ethnographic strategies help to ensure that no physical harm comes to the field-worker and other staff members. Moreover, the presence of researchers may actually reduce (and not increase) potential and actual violence among crack distributors/abusers or others present in the field setting. PMID:19809525

Reflections on Native Ethnography by a Nurse Researcher.

PubMed

Abdulrehman, Munib Said

2017-03-01

There are benefits and challenges associated with conducting research in a familiar setting, especially when the researcher is more an insider than an outsider. The aim of this article is to explore the author's experience as a native scholar conducting ethnographic research among the Swahili peoples of Lamu, Kenya. This article focuses on methodological issues related to conducting ethnographic research among the author's own people, including examining the issues of anthropological reflexivity as a native ethnographer and highlighting the author's experiences embodying multiple identities. Native ethnographers must consider the challenges associated with negotiating multiple roles in the research setting, especially in the presence of sociocultural factors such as gender stratification, complex kinship networks, socioeconomic hierarchies, illiteracy, and poverty. Embracing rather than being confused by the multiple levels of understanding native researchers bring to studies of their communities opens up new avenues of research and possibilities.

Live Theatre: A Dynamic Medium for Engaging with Intercultural Education Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Cynthia D.

2013-01-01

In this paper, I discuss live theatre as a highly effective and dynamic medium for facilitating meaningful engagement with research on intercultural education. I make the case that ethnographic, or research-based, theatre can productively showcase challenging social issues and the sometimes confusing, poignant and humorous complexities of…

Language Learning Memoirs as a Gendered Genre.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pavlenko, Aneta

2001-01-01

Argues that researchers should approach language learning memoirs as a genre and not simply as ethnographic data, subject to content analysis. Using gender as a case in point, analyzes 16 full-length language memoirs and seven essays within a theoretical framework, which combines sociohistoric, sociocultural, and rhetorical analyses of the…

"I Hate Group Work!": Addressing Students' Concerns about Small-Group Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allan, Elizabeth G.

2016-01-01

This article identifies the strategies used by architecture professors and their undergraduate students to mitigate common issues that students raise about group work. Based on participant-observation, interviews with students and faculty, and analysis of instructional materials and student work, this IRB-approved ethnographic case study…

Is Leadership Observable? Qualitative Orientations to Leadership for Diversity. A Case from FE

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrison, Marlene; Lumby, Jacky

2009-01-01

Currently, ethnographic interest in leadership is relatively sparse. This paper's focus derives from research about integrating diversity in leadership, and how some leaders are included and excluded from organisational influence in Further Education. Specific interest is in methodological opportunities to research leadership as observed…

New Perils for the Contract Ethnographer.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fetterman, David M.

1981-01-01

Conditions of contract research may lead some workers to ignore publication rights of colleagues whose reports are of limited circulation. The author presents a case example of how this process occurred with the use of his own work and argues for rigorous ethical standards in the publication of contract research results. (Author/GC)

Masculinities and experimental practices in physics: The view from three case studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonsalves, Allison J.; Danielsson, Anna; Pettersson, Helena

2016-12-01

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] This article analyzes masculinity and experimental practices within three different physics communities. This work is premised on the understanding that the discipline of physics is not only dominated by men, but also is laden with masculine connotations on a symbolical level, and that this limited and limiting construction of physics has made it difficult for many women to find a place in the discipline. Consequently, we argue that in order to further the understanding of gender dynamics within physics communities and enrich the current understandings about the lack of women in physics, perspectives from masculinity studies are crucial. The article draws on three different ethnographic case studies dealing with undergraduate students, graduate students, and research scientists.

Native Hawaiian Ethnographic Study for the Hawaii Geothermal Project Proposed for Puna and Southeast Maui

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Matsuoka, J.K; Minerbi, L.; Kanahele, P.

This report makes available and archives the background scientific data and related information collected for an ethnographic study of selected areas on the islands of Hawaii and Maui. The task was undertaken during preparation of an environmental impact statement for Phases 3 and 4 of the Hawaii Geothermal Project (HGP) as defined by the state of Hawaii in its April 1989 proposal to Congress. Since the state of Hawaii is no longer pursuing or planning to pursue the HGP, DOE considers the project to be terminated. Information is included on the ethnohistory of Puna and southeast Maui; ethnographic fieldwork comparingmore » Puna and southeast Maui; and Pele beliefs, customs, and practices.« less

Ordinary Lives: An Ethnographic Study of Young People Attending Entry to Employment Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell, Lisa; Simmons, Robin; Thompson, Ron

2011-01-01

This paper discusses the findings from a one-year ethnographic study of young people attending Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in two local authorities in the north of England. The paper locates E2E within the broader context of provision for low-achieving young people and of UK government policy on reducing the proportion of young people who…

An Ethnographic Field Study of the Influence of Social Interactions during the School Day for Children Diagnosed with ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feder, Kim Michéle; Bak, Carsten Kronborg; Petersen, Kirsten Schultz; Vardinghus-Nielsen, Henrik; Kristiansen, Tine Mechlenborg

2017-01-01

The aim of this ethnographic field study was to investigate the influence of school-day social interactions on the well-being and social inclusion of children diagnosed with ADHD. The empirical data consisted of participant observations and informal interviews over a three-month period at a Danish primary school. Two ADHD-diagnosed 11-year-old…

Youth Studies and Timescapes: Insights from an Ethnographic Study of "Young Night Drifters" in Hong Kong's Public Housing Estates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groves, Julian M.; Ho, Wai-Yip; Siu, Kaxton

2012-01-01

This article draws on insights from the sociology of time to examine how scheduling influences social interaction and identity among young people and those who work with them. Drawing on an ethnographic analysis of "Young Night Drifters" and youth outreach social workers in Hong Kong's public housing estates, we create a framework to…

On Becoming a Civic-Minded Instructional Designer: An Ethnographic Study of an Instructional Design Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yusop, Farrah Dina; Correia, Ana-Paula

2014-01-01

This ethnographic study took place in a graduate course at a large research university in the Midwestern United States. It presents an in-depth examination of the experiences and challenges of a group of four students learning to be Instructional Design and Technology professionals who are concerned with the well-being of all members of a society,…

Black Student School Success: An Ethnographic Study in a Large Urban Public School System. A Preliminary Report Submitted to the Spencer Foundation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fordham, Signithia

This preliminary report examines the complex relationship between black adolescents' school performance and black Americans' intragroup social organization, as well as the intrusive influence of the larger social structure. It is based on a two-year ethnographic study of high school students in a black section of Washington, D.C. Emphasis is on…

Muddling through School Life: An Ethnographic Study of the Subculture of "Deviant" Students in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Lin; Xie, Ailei

2016-01-01

This paper reports the findings of an eight-month ethnographic study of a small group of at-risk youths in a school of a southern coastal city in China. The process leading to the young students being marginalised by the school system and how they developed a "muddling through" subculture to counteract this marginalisation is revealed.…

Becoming a Networked Public: Digital Ethnography, Youth and Global Research Collectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Kathleen; Wessels, Anne; Ntelioglou, Burcu Yaman

2013-01-01

The following article describes a research context that has privileged both virtual and placed-based ethnographic fieldwork, using a hybrid methodology of live and digital communications across school sites in Toronto, Canada; Lucknow, India; Taipei, Taiwan; and Boston, USA. The multi-site ethnographic study is concerned with questions of school…

From Ethnography to Items: A Mixed Methods Approach to Developing a Survey to Examine Graduate Engineering Student Retention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crede, Erin; Borrego, Maura

2013-01-01

As part of a sequential exploratory mixed methods study, 9 months of ethnographically guided observations and interviews were used to develop a survey examining graduate engineering student retention. Findings from the ethnographic fieldwork yielded several themes, including international diversity, research group organization and climate,…

Parent-Research as a Process of Inquiry: An Ethnographic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kabuto, Bobbie

2008-01-01

This article illustrates how an ethnographic perspective can provide a descriptive methodological approach to parent-research as a process of inquiry within the field of education. By juxtaposing data and illuminating reflexive accounts from a longitudinal parent-research study, I suggest that such a perspective provides critical insights into the…

"Everyone Has Their Own Qualities": Tracking and Academic Self-Appraisal in Flemish Secondary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Praag, Lore; Demanet, Jannick; Stevens, Peter A. J.; Van Houtte, Mieke

2017-01-01

Track position has an impact on students' perceptions of educational success. These perceptions matter as they relate to educational and professional aspirations and choices. In this ethnographic study, based on ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews in three secondary schools in Flanders (northern part of Belgium), we want to…

How Older Adults Make Decisions regarding Smart Technology: An Ethnographic Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davenport, Rick D.; Mann, William; Lutz, Barbara

2012-01-01

Comparatively little research has been conducted regarding the smart technology needs of the older adult population despite the proliferation of smart technology prototypes. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived smart technology needs of older adults with mobility impairments while using an ethnographic research approach to…

A Potentially Heteroglossic Policy Becomes Monoglossic in Context: An Ethnographic Analysis of Paraguayan Bilingual Education Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mortimer, Katherine S.

2016-01-01

Ethnographic and discursive approaches to educational language policy (ELP) that explore how policy is appropriated in context are important for understanding policy success/failure in meeting goals of educational equity for language-minoritized students. This study describes how Paraguayan national policy for universal bilingual education…

Unintended Social Reproduction in Community College Vocational ESL (VESL): An Ethnographic Lens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ketzenberg, Laurie

2010-01-01

This ethnographic study focuses on a community college VESL program in the Pacific Northwest that attempts to address the critical employment needs of a growing number of English language learners (ELLs). Immigrants are routinely barred from mainstream career and technical programs because content is linguistically inaccessible. This college VESL…

"Rocking the Boat": Developing a Shared Discourse of Resistance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Sara Lewis-Bernstein

2010-01-01

The purpose of this critical ethnographic study is to provide an account from within a public school of some of the ways that heterosexist discourses and silences are reproduced and challenged. As a classroom teacher and critical ethnographer, I conducted this research with straight-identified high school students as they came to understand,…

Ethnography as a Tool for Research in Student Activities at Small Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, James V.

During the 1979-80 academic year, a study was conducted to determine the beliefs and attitudes held by individuals in four groups (students, parents, teachers, and administrators) directly associated with the student activity program in a small Mississippi high school using ethnographic techniques. Ethnographic techniques involve the direct…

The Viability of Ethnographic Research for Hispanic Consumer Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asahina, Roberta R.

A study explored whether ethnographic research is appropriate and feasible for Hispanic consumer research. Subjects, 41 Hispanic advertising executives (out of an original group of 80) in advertising agencies listed in the Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and San Antonio, answered a 23-item…

Students' Experience of Synchronous Learning in Distributed Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Anissa R.; Harlow, Danielle B.; DeBacco, Kim

2011-01-01

This article reports on a two-year ethnographic study of learners participating in multi-site, graduate-level education classes. Classes sometimes met face-to-face in the same physical location; at other times part of the class met physically elsewhere. Yet all were linked through the virtual space. Ethnographic analysis of four data types…

Patient and family perspectives on peritoneal dialysis at home: findings from an ethnographic study.

PubMed

Baillie, Jessica; Lankshear, Annette

2015-01-01

To discuss findings from an ethnographic study, considering the experiences of patients and families, using peritoneal dialysis at home in the United Kingdom. Peritoneal dialysis is a daily, life-preserving treatment for end-stage renal disease, undertaken in the patient's home. With ever-growing numbers of patients requiring treatment for this condition, the increased use of peritoneal dialysis is being promoted. While it is known that quality of life is reduced when using dialysis, few studies have sought to explore experiences of peritoneal dialysis specifically. No previous studies were identified that adopted an ethnographic approach. A qualitative design was employed, utilising ethnographic methodology. Ethical and governance approvals were gained in November 2010 and data were generated in 2011. Patients (n = 16) and their relatives (n = 9) were interviewed and observed using peritoneal dialysis in their homes. Thematic analysis was undertaken using Wolcott's (1994) three stage process: Description, Analysis and Interpretation. This article describes four themes: initiating peritoneal dialysis; the constraints of peritoneal dialysis due to medicalisation of the home environment and the imposition of rigid timetables; the uncertainty of managing crises and inevitable deterioration; and seeking freedom through creativity and hope of a kidney transplant. This study highlights the culture of patients and their families living with peritoneal dialysis. Despite the challenges posed by the treatment, participants were grateful they were able to self-manage at home. Furthermore, ethnographic methods offer an appropriate and meaningful way of considering how patients live with home technologies. Participants reported confusion about kidney transplantation and also how to identify peritonitis, and ongoing education from nurses and other healthcare professionals is thus vital. Opportunities for sharing experiences of peritoneal dialysis were valued by participants and further peer-support services should thus be considered. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Re-bordering spaces of trauma: auto-ethnographic reflections on the immigrant and refugee experience in an inner-city high school in Toronto

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feuerverger, Grace

2011-08-01

The objective of this research study is to offer a glimpse into the lives of some newly-arrived students of different racial, linguistic and religious backgrounds as they confront the process of immigration and therefore personal and social displacement within the context of a Toronto inner-city high school. These students carry with them hidden but enduring scars that influence all aspects of their educational lives. In many cases their experience is steeped in trauma. Using auto-ethnographic methodology, this research is devoted to giving voice to these students who inhabit a space filled with suffering and loss but also resilience and cautious hope. If we really care about these vulnerable students in our classrooms, we must rethink and reshape our understanding of teaching and learning that is more fundamentally linked to the lived experiences of students coming from places of war and other oppressions. These issues are crucial for the future of nation-building and citizenship education in pluralistic Western societies such as Canada, both in and out of school.

Science in the community: An ethnographic account of social material transformation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Stuart Henry

This dissertation is about the learning and use of science at the level of local community. It is an ethnographic account, and its theoretical approach draws on actor-network theory as well as neo-Marxist practice theory and the related notion of situated cognition. This theoretical basis supports a work that focuses on the many heterogeneous transformations that materials and people undergo as science is used to help bring about social and political change in a quasi-rural community. The activities that science becomes involved in, and the hybrid formations as it encounters local issues are stressed. Learning and knowing as outcomes of community action are theorized. The dissertation links four major themes throughout its narrative: scientific literacy, representations, relationships and participatory democracy. These four themes are not treated in isolation. Different facets of their relation to each other are stressed in different chapters, each of which analyze different particular case studies. This dissertation argues for the conception of a local scientific praxis, one that is markedly different than the usual notion of science, yet is necessary for the uptake of scientific information into a community.

The impact of nursing leadership and management on the control of HIV/AIDS: an ethnographic study.

PubMed

Nawafleh, Hani; Francis, Karen; Chapman, Ysanne

2012-10-01

This paper reports on an aspect of a larger ethnographic study that sought to investigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on the practice of primary care nurses in Jordan. Nursing leadership and the style of management adopted by senior nursing and medical administrators at the Ministry of Heath were identified as factors impacting on the practice of the nurses and their capacity to raise community awareness and contribute to the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. The study was undertaken in three rural and three urban primary health care centres (PHCC). Data collection included participant observation, key informant interviews, and document analysis. These data informed the development of descriptive ethnographic accounts that allowed for the subsequent identification of common and divergent themes reflective of factors recognized as influencing the practice of the nurse participants.

The value of ethnographic alcohol studies: a psychologist's perspective.

PubMed

Johnson, P B

1993-07-01

Drinking behavior has been studied by scientists from a variety of social science disciplines including anthropology, economics, sociology, and psychology. The very nature of their narrow, discipline-based training and work, however, has often prevented these scientists from appreciating each other's different methodologies and from conducting cooperative, interdisciplinary studies. In this paper, I discuss how my own experience with ethnographic alcohol studies influenced my research on drinking behavior. I then outline a research strategy that could be used to foster interdisciplinary alcohol studies.

Receptionist input to quality and safety in repeat prescribing in UK general practice: ethnographic case study

PubMed Central

Greenhalgh, Trisha; Russell, Jill; Myall, Michelle

2011-01-01

Objective To describe, explore, and compare organisational routines for repeat prescribing in general practice to identify contributors and barriers to safety and quality. Design Ethnographic case study. Setting Four urban UK general practices with diverse organisational characteristics using electronic patient records that supported semi-automation of repeat prescribing. Participants 395 hours of ethnographic observation of staff (25 doctors, 16 nurses, 4 healthcare assistants, 6 managers, and 56 reception or administrative staff), and 28 documents and other artefacts relating to repeat prescribing locally and nationally. Main outcome measures Potential threats to patient safety and characteristics of good practice. Methods Observation of how doctors, receptionists, and other administrative staff contributed to, and collaborated on, the repeat prescribing routine. Analysis included mapping prescribing routines, building a rich description of organisational practices, and drawing these together through narrative synthesis. This was informed by a sociological model of how organisational routines shape and are shaped by information and communications technologies. Results Repeat prescribing was a complex, technology-supported social practice requiring collaboration between clinical and administrative staff, with important implications for patient safety. More than half of requests for repeat prescriptions were classed as “exceptions” by receptionists (most commonly because the drug, dose, or timing differed from what was on the electronic repeat list). They managed these exceptions by making situated judgments that enabled them (sometimes but not always) to bridge the gap between the idealised assumptions about tasks, roles, and interactions that were built into the electronic patient record and formal protocols, and the actual repeat prescribing routine as it played out in practice. This work was creative and demanded both explicit and tacit knowledge. Clinicians were often unaware of this input and it did not feature in policy documents or previous research. Yet it was sometimes critical to getting the job done and contributed in subtle ways to safeguarding patients. Conclusion Receptionists and administrative staff make important “hidden” contributions to quality and safety in repeat prescribing in general practice, regarding themselves accountable to patients for these contributions. Studying technology-supported work routines that seem mundane, standardised, and automated, but which in reality require a high degree of local tailoring and judgment from frontline staff, opens up a new agenda for the study of patient safety. PMID:22053317

Receptionist input to quality and safety in repeat prescribing in UK general practice: ethnographic case study.

PubMed

Swinglehurst, Deborah; Greenhalgh, Trisha; Russell, Jill; Myall, Michelle

2011-11-03

To describe, explore, and compare organisational routines for repeat prescribing in general practice to identify contributors and barriers to safety and quality. Ethnographic case study. Four urban UK general practices with diverse organisational characteristics using electronic patient records that supported semi-automation of repeat prescribing. 395 hours of ethnographic observation of staff (25 doctors, 16 nurses, 4 healthcare assistants, 6 managers, and 56 reception or administrative staff), and 28 documents and other artefacts relating to repeat prescribing locally and nationally. Potential threats to patient safety and characteristics of good practice. Observation of how doctors, receptionists, and other administrative staff contributed to, and collaborated on, the repeat prescribing routine. Analysis included mapping prescribing routines, building a rich description of organisational practices, and drawing these together through narrative synthesis. This was informed by a sociological model of how organisational routines shape and are shaped by information and communications technologies. Results Repeat prescribing was a complex, technology-supported social practice requiring collaboration between clinical and administrative staff, with important implications for patient safety. More than half of requests for repeat prescriptions were classed as "exceptions" by receptionists (most commonly because the drug, dose, or timing differed from what was on the electronic repeat list). They managed these exceptions by making situated judgments that enabled them (sometimes but not always) to bridge the gap between the idealised assumptions about tasks, roles, and interactions that were built into the electronic patient record and formal protocols, and the actual repeat prescribing routine as it played out in practice. This work was creative and demanded both explicit and tacit knowledge. Clinicians were often unaware of this input and it did not feature in policy documents or previous research. Yet it was sometimes critical to getting the job done and contributed in subtle ways to safeguarding patients. Conclusion Receptionists and administrative staff make important "hidden" contributions to quality and safety in repeat prescribing in general practice, regarding themselves accountable to patients for these contributions. Studying technology-supported work routines that seem mundane, standardised, and automated, but which in reality require a high degree of local tailoring and judgment from frontline staff, opens up a new agenda for the study of patient safety.

Multilevel dynamic systems affecting introduction of HIV/STI prevention innovations among Chinese women in sex work establishments.

PubMed

Weeks, Margaret R; Li, Jianghong; Liao, Susu; Zhang, Qingning; Dunn, Jennifer; Wang, Yanhong; Jiang, Jingmei

2013-10-01

Social and public health scientists are increasingly interested in applying system dynamics theory to improve understanding and to harness the forces of change within complex, multilevel systems that affect community intervention implementation, effects, and sustainability. Building a system dynamics model based on ethnographic case study has the advantage of using empirically documented contextual factors and processes of change in a real-world and real-time setting that can then be tested in the same and other settings. System dynamics modeling offers great promise for addressing persistent problems like HIV and other sexually transmitted epidemics, particularly in complex rapidly developing countries such as China. We generated a system dynamics model of a multilevel intervention we conducted to promote female condoms for HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention among Chinese women in sex work establishments. The model reflects factors and forces affecting the study's intervention, implementation, and effects. To build this conceptual model, we drew on our experiences and findings from this intensive, longitudinal mixed-ethnographic and quantitative four-town comparative case study (2007-2012) of the sex work establishments, the intervention conducted in them, and factors likely to explain variation in process and outcomes in the four towns. Multiple feedback loops in the sex work establishments, women's social networks, and the health organization responsible for implementing HIV/STI interventions in each town and at the town level directly or indirectly influenced the female condom intervention. We present the conceptual system dynamics model and discuss how further testing in this and other settings can inform future community interventions to reduce HIV and STIs.

Education and Training for Young People at Risk of Becoming NEET: Findings from an Ethnographic Study of Work-Based Learning Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmons, Robin; Thompson, Ron

2011-01-01

This report provides a summary of findings from an ethnographic study of work-based learning provision for 16-18-year-olds who would otherwise fall into the UK Government category of not in education, employment or training (NEET). The research project took place in the north of England during 2008-2009, and investigated the biographies,…

The Meanings of Outdoor Physical Activity for Parentally Bereaved Young People in the United Kingdom: Insights from an Ethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brewer, Joanne; Sparkes, Andrew C.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the meanings of outdoor physical activity in the natural environment for parentally-bereaved young people. It draws on data generated from a two-year ethnographic study that focused on the experiences of those involved with the Rocky Centre, a childhood bereavement service in the UK. Data was collected via…

"Confessing to Wilful Disobedience": An Ethnographic Study of Deaf People's Experience of Catholic Religious Schooling in the Republic of Ireland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connell, Noel Patrick

2018-01-01

This ethnographic study examines deaf people's experience of the Roman Catholic Sacrament of Confession in two Catholic schools for deaf children in the Republic of Ireland from 1950 to 1990. The article fills a gap in Catholic deaf education literature that fails to uncover the experiences of deaf children. It provides space for their storied…

Design and integration of ethnography within an international behavior change HIV/sexually transmitted disease prevention trial

PubMed Central

2008-01-01

Objective To use a common ethnographic study protocol across five countries to provide data to confirm social and risk settings and risk behaviors, develop the assessment instruments, tailor the intervention, design a process evaluation of the intervention, and design an understandable informed consent process. Design Methods determined best for capturing the core data elements were selected. Standards for data collection methods were established to enable comparable implementation of the ethnographic study across the five countries. Methods The methods selected were participant observation, focus groups, open-ended interviews, and social mapping. Standards included adhering to core data elements, number of participants, mode of data collection, type of data collection instrument, number of data collectors at each type of activity, duration of each type of activity, and type of informed consent administered. Sites had discretion in selecting which methods to use to obtain specific data. Results The ethnographic studies provided input to the Trial’s methods for data collection, described social groups in the target communities, depicted sexual practices, and determined core opinion leader characteristics; thus providing information that drove the adaptation of the intervention and facilitated the selection of venues, behavioral outcomes, and community popular opinion leaders (C-POLs). Conclusion The described rapid ethnographic approach worked well across the five countries, where findings allowed local adaptation of the intervention. When introducing the C-POL intervention in new areas, local non-governmental and governmental community and health workers can use this rapid ethnographic approach to identify the communities, social groups, messages, and C-POLs best suited for local implementation. PMID:17413263

A day in the life of third-year medical students: using an ethnographic method to understand information seeking and use.

PubMed

Twiss-Brooks, Andrea B; Andrade, Ricardo; Bass, Michelle B; Kern, Barbara; Peterson, Jonna; Werner, Debra A

2017-01-01

The authors undertook this project to learn how third-year medical students seek and use information in the course of daily activities, especially activities conducted in clinical settings in a variety of institutions. We recruited sixty-eight third-year undergraduate medical school students to create a mapping diary of a day that included clinical activities. We conducted semi-structured interviews based on the mapping diaries. Using content and thematic analyses of the resulting interview transcripts, we developed an ethnographic case study for each participant. In the studied sample, we identified a broad range of information resources used for personal, clinical, and educational use. Participants relied heavily on technology throughout their day, including desktop computers, smart phones, handheld tablets, and laptops. Time management was a pervasive theme in the interviews, with participants squeezing in time to study for exams wherever and whenever they could. Selection of a particular information resource or technology to use was governed largely by the convenience of using that resource or technology. When obstacles were encountered, workarounds might be sought, but in many cases, the resource or technology would be abandoned in favor of a more convenient solution. Convenience was also a consideration in choosing spaces to use for clinical duties or for study, with specific considerations of available technology, proximity to clinical areas, and security for belongings contributing to choices made. Some of our results align with those of other recent studies of information use among medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. In particular, the fast-paced clinical setting favors use of information resources that are fast and easy to use. We demonstrated that the methods used are suitable to better understand clinicians' discovery and use of information.

A day in the life of third-year medical students: using an ethnographic method to understand information seeking and use*

PubMed Central

Twiss-Brooks, Andrea B.; Andrade, Ricardo; Bass, Michelle B.; Kern, Barbara; Peterson, Jonna; Werner, Debra A.

2017-01-01

Objective The authors undertook this project to learn how third-year medical students seek and use information in the course of daily activities, especially activities conducted in clinical settings in a variety of institutions. Methods We recruited sixty-eight third-year undergraduate medical school students to create a mapping diary of a day that included clinical activities. We conducted semi-structured interviews based on the mapping diaries. Using content and thematic analyses of the resulting interview transcripts, we developed an ethnographic case study for each participant. Results In the studied sample, we identified a broad range of information resources used for personal, clinical, and educational use. Participants relied heavily on technology throughout their day, including desktop computers, smart phones, handheld tablets, and laptops. Time management was a pervasive theme in the interviews, with participants squeezing in time to study for exams wherever and whenever they could. Selection of a particular information resource or technology to use was governed largely by the convenience of using that resource or technology. When obstacles were encountered, workarounds might be sought, but in many cases, the resource or technology would be abandoned in favor of a more convenient solution. Convenience was also a consideration in choosing spaces to use for clinical duties or for study, with specific considerations of available technology, proximity to clinical areas, and security for belongings contributing to choices made. Conclusions Some of our results align with those of other recent studies of information use among medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. In particular, the fast-paced clinical setting favors use of information resources that are fast and easy to use. We demonstrated that the methods used are suitable to better understand clinicians’ discovery and use of information. PMID:28096741

Ethnographic Portraits of Veteran Teachers: Portraits of Survival and Commitment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Rosetta Marantz

This paper offers a synopsis of the findings of a full-length ethnographic study which dealt with the phenomenon of the strong, veteran teacher who has succeeded in remaining enthusiastic over the course of a 30-year career. Subjects were five secondary school teachers of varied ethnic backgrounds representing a range of disciplines and teaching…

A Proposed Theory of School Librarian Leadership: A Meta-Ethnographic Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Everhart, Nancy; Johnston, Melissa P.

2016-01-01

This paper uses a meta-ethnographic approach to examine a core body of research conducted primarily by one iSchool research center that has bolstered its curriculum in support of school librarian leadership in the past decade. Substantive studies, conducted by faculty and doctoral students, have focused on various phases of leadership from…

Understanding Teacher Identity from a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Two Ethnographic Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smit, Brigitte; Fritz, Elzette

2008-01-01

In this ethnographic inquiry we portray two teacher narratives reflecting educational change in the context of two South African schools. The study was conducted as part of a larger inquiry into ten schools in urban South Africa. A decade of democracy begs some attention to educational progress and reform, from the viewpoint of teachers and with…

An Ethnographic Intervention Using the Five Characteristics of Effective Teacher Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patahuddin, Sitti Maesuri

2010-01-01

This paper is aimed to describe an ethnographic intervention study of supporting a Low Use Internet (LUI) teacher to use the Internet for his professional development. Five characteristics of effective professional development were identified and applied. This description is followed by a reflection on the process to get a deeper insight about…

Generating Ethnographic Research Questions: An Anthropological Contribution to the Study of Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friberg, Torbjörn

2016-01-01

As part of recent complex transformations, it seems that higher educational organisations are being forced to reorganise, standardise and streamline in order to survive in the new political and economic context. How are ethnographers in general going to approach these contemporary phenomena? By drawing on the conceptual history of anthropology,…

Challenging Segregational Practices in a Spanish Secondary School: Results from an Ethnographic Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanchez-Valero, Joan-Anton; Padilla-Petry, Paulo

2016-01-01

This article presents partial results of a multi-sited ethnographic study about the role of multiple literacies in young people's learning in and outside school. In one of the five participant secondary schools, fourth grade students were segregated in groups according to their special needs. We start with a critical review on segregated and…

Utilising a Blended Ethnographic Approach to Explore the Online and Offline Lives of Pro-Ana Community Members

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dyke, Sarah

2013-01-01

The article critically interrogates contemporary discourses and practices around "anorexia nervosa" through an ethnographic study that moves between two sites: an online pro-anorexia (pro-ana) community, and a Local Authority-funded eating disorder prevention project located in schools and youth centres in the north of England. The…

Schooltime, Classtime, and Academic Learning Time in Rural Highland Puno, Peru.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornberger, Nancy H.

1987-01-01

Uses data from ethnographic study in two Quechua-speaking communities of Puno, Peru, to explore schooltime spent in other-than-academic endeavors. Documents uses to which schooltime is put in these communities, and then seeks to account for observed uses of time in terms of ethnographically derived insights as to social, cultural, economic, and…

The Profitable Adventure of Threatened Middle-Class Families: An Ethnographic Study on Homeschooling in South Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seo, Deok-Hee

2009-01-01

South Korean society in the late 1990s was confronted with socio-economic setbacks and discursive turbulence concerning the quality of education being provided. It was at such a particular historical juncture of South Korean society that I conducted ethnographic research on homeschooling families. Based on field data collected from four…

Bridging the Gap: The Case for Expanding Ethnographic Techniques in the Marketing Research Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freeman, Lynne; Spanjaard, Daniela

2012-01-01

This article challenges the content of most marketing research courses whereby students are indoctrinated into the qualitative-then-quantitative archetype commonly found in scholarly research, under the assumption that it is both sufficient and appropriate when equipping students with the necessary skills for business. By following this standard…

"A Slow Revolution": Toward a Theory of Intellectual Playfulness in High School Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fine, Sarah M.

2014-01-01

In this essay, Sarah M. Fine explores the misalignment between instructional practices in secondary classrooms and the interests and capabilities of adolescent learners. Drawing on a series of ethnographic cases, she explores the potential consequences of this misalignment and attempts to conceptualize an alternate reality in which high school…

Patterns of Tight and Loose Coupling in a Competitive Marketplace: The Case of Learning Center Franchises

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aurini, Janice Danielle

2012-01-01

The concept of coupling--the relationship between the environment, administrative goals, and instructional practices of education organizations--is a staple in New Institutional research. Yet processes of coupling have remained elusive. Drawing on ethnographic research of the "Ontario Learning Center" (OLC) franchise, along with…

Identifying Overlapping Language Communities: The Case of Chiriquí and Panamanian Signed Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parks, Elizabeth S.

2016-01-01

In this paper, I use a holographic metaphor to explain the identification of overlapping sign language communities in Panama. By visualizing Panama's complex signing communities as emitting community "hotspots" through social drama on multiple stages, I employ ethnographic methods to explore overlapping contours of Panama's sign language…

Corruption, NGOs, and Development in Nigeria

PubMed Central

Smith, Daniel Jordan

2013-01-01

This article examines corruption in Nigeria’s development sector, particularly in the vastly growing arena of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Grounded in ethnographic case studies, the analysis explores why local NGOs in Nigeria have proliferated so widely, what they do in practice, what effects they have beyond their stated aims, and how they are perceived and experienced by ordinary Nigerians. It shows that even faux NGOs and disingenuous political rhetoric about civil society, democracy, and development are contributing to changing ideals and rising expectations in these same domains. PMID:24265511

AIDS NGOS and corruption in Nigeria

PubMed Central

Smith, Daniel Jordan

2011-01-01

Using two ethnographic case studies, the intersecting dynamics of inequality, morality, and corruption are examined as they play out in Nigerian AIDS NGOs. To the Nigerian public, local AIDS organizations are widely seen as conduits for corruption. But local opinions of particular NGOs and their leaders turn less on whether donor resources were misused and more on the ways that people who accumulate the benefits of corruption use them socially. Nevertheless, discontent swirls about corruption in general, a fact that suggests a gradual change in people's understandings of the processes that produce inequality in Nigeria. PMID:22469532

Changing constructions of machismo for Latino men in therapy: "the devil never sleeps".

PubMed

Falicov, Celia Jaes

2010-09-01

This paper presents current narratives about masculinity that question simplistic negative stereotypes of machismo for Latino heterosexual men. Various models of masculinity within Latino cultures are described using evidence from ethnographic studies, research data, and clinical observation. Therapeutic advantages of including positive cultural masculine traits such as respect and dignity are illustrated with an extensive case study. The case highlights contradictions in the coexistence of constructions of masculinity and traces progressive stages for transforming these constructions. In this strength-based approach, attention is directed to elements of cultural memory that reclaim a strong relational ethic present in the indigenous cultures. "Within the culture" definitions of masculinity contribute alternative constructions toward a more empowering cultural narrative for Latino men than the usual negative stereotypes. 2010 © FPI, Inc.

Implementation in the midst of complexity: Using ethnography to study health care-associated infection prevention and control.

PubMed

Knobloch, Mary Jo; Thomas, Kevin V; Patterson, Erin; Zimbric, Michele L; Musuuza, Jackson; Safdar, Nasia

2017-10-01

Contextual factors associated with health care settings make reducing health care-associated infections (HAIs) a complex task. The aim of this article is to highlight how ethnography can assist in understanding contextual factors that support or hinder the implementation of evidence-based practices for reducing HAIs. We conducted a review of ethnographic studies specifically related to HAI prevention and control in the last 5 years (2012-2017). Twelve studies specific to HAIs and ethnographic methods were found. Researchers used various methods with video-reflexive sessions used in 6 of the 12 studies. Ethnography was used to understand variation in data reporting, identify barriers to adherence, explore patient perceptions of isolation practices and highlight the influence of physical design on infection prevention practices. The term ethnography was used to describe varied research methods. Most studies were conducted outside the United States, and authors indicate insights gained using ethnographic methods (whether observations, interviews, or reflexive video recording) as beneficial to unraveling the complexities of HAI prevention. Ethnography is well-suited for HAI prevention, especially video-reflexive ethnography, for activating patients and clinicians in infection control work. In this era of increasing pressure to reduce HAIs within complex work systems, ethnographic methods can promote understanding of contextual factors and may expedite translation evidence to practice. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Old age and vulnerability between first, second and third person perspectives. Ethnographic explorations of aging in contemporary Denmark.

PubMed

Grøn, Lone

2016-12-01

This paper is based on an ethnographic fieldwork aimed at exploring ethnographically how vulnerability in old age is perceived and experienced in contemporary Denmark. The fieldwork showed remarkable differences between two phases of the fieldwork: the first addressing vulnerability from the "outside" through group interviews with professionals, leaders and older people who were not (yet) vulnerable; and the second from the "inside" through more in depth fieldwork with older people who in diverse ways could be seen as vulnerable. After a short introduction to anthropological and social gerontological literature on characteristics of "Western" aging: medicalization, successful, healthy and active aging, I present findings from both phases of this ethnographic fieldwork arguing that the ethnographic approach reveals the composite and complex nature of vulnerability in old age and the constant interactions between first, second and third person perspectives. Through these methodological and analytical moves a complex and empirically tenable understanding of vulnerability in old age has emerged which 1. moves beyond rigid dichotomies that have characterized the study of old age, 2. integrates individual experience, social interaction and the structural and discursive context into the analysis, and 3. reveals the complex interplay between vulnerability and agency in diverse situations and settings of old age. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Junior High School Integrated Science: The Actual Teaching Process in the Perspective of an Ethnographer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adu-Gyamfi, Kenneth; Ampiah, Joseph Ghartey

2016-01-01

Science education at the Basic School (Primary and Junior High School) serves as the foundation upon which higher levels of science education are pivoted. This ethnographic study sought to investigate the teaching of Integrated Science at the Junior High School (JHS) level in the classrooms of two science teachers in two schools of differing…

Teen Fathers in the Inner City: An Exploratory Ethnographic Study. A Report to the Ford Foundation Urban Poverty Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Mercer L.

Ethnographic interviews and observations were conducted with a group of teenage males from one inner-city neighborhood who were biological and/or social fathers, i.e., males who were fulfilling fathering roles toward the children of their girlfriends. Some of the respondents were not supporting their children, but most were contributing partial…

The Effects of the "Welcome Schools" Program in Madrid, Spain: An Ethnographic Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

del Olmo, Margarita

2010-01-01

The aim of this paper is to share the conclusions of a recent ethnographic study carried out in Madrid from 2005 to 2008 to analyze the effects of a program implemented by the Community of Madrid, Spain, to address diversity in schools. The Program was given an English name--"Welcome Schools"--and was aimed at preparing children recently…

Giving My Heart a Voice: Reflection on Self and Others through the Looking Glass of Pedagogy--An Autoethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neyman, Vera L.

2011-01-01

To improve students academic outcomes this auto-ethnographic dissertation examines my teaching practice in the Ukraine and in the United States, and the similarities and differences between the two educational systems. This study, designed in the form of auto-ethnographic vignettes, explores the effect of my personal and professional metamorphosis…

Older People Becoming Successful ICT Learners over Time: Challenges and Strategies through an Ethnographical Lens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sayago, Sergio; Forbes, Paula; Blat, Josep

2013-01-01

A growing ageing population and an increasing reliance on information and communication technologies (ICT) to conduct activities associated with daily living means that addressing how older people learn to use ICT is timely and important. By drawing on a four-year ethnographical study with 420 older people in two different environments, this paper…

Compelled to Be Connected: An Ethnographic Exploration of Organizational Culture, Work-Life Balance, and the Use of Mobile Workplace Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Kristopher J.

2013-01-01

This study is an ethnographic exploration of organizational culture, work-life balance, and the use of information and communication technology ("ICT") in the work and home settings. The researcher was embedded for nine weeks within the Information Technology ("IT") department at the corporate headquarters of a mid-sized…

Friendship fosters learning: The importance of friendships in clinical practice.

PubMed

Roberts, Debbie

2009-11-01

This paper reports on one of the key findings from a recent ethnographic study (Roberts, D., 2007. Friendships and the community of students: peer learning amongst a group of pre-registration student nurses. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Salford, UK) and aims to highlight the importance of friendships for student nurses in clinical practice. An interpretive ethnographic approach was taken in order to reveal the student experience during their pre registration programme. Data was collected using ethnographic interviewing (Sorrell, J.M., Redmond, G.M., 1995. Interviews in qualitative nursing research: differing approaches for ethnographic and phenomenological studies. Journal of Advanced Nursing 21, 1117-1122.) and participant observation. Within this paper I argue that student nurses exist on the edge of the community of practice (of the qualified staff) and therefore form their own parallel community where students are all seen as being in the same boat. In particular students use the friendships they develop in clinical practice to enable them to learn; developing an 'ask anything' culture where all students are perceived as valuable sources of knowledge. Furthermore, it appears that knowledge is contextually bound and not therefore linked to seniority, or length of time served on the course.

Moving from ethnography to epidemiology: lessons learned in Appalachia

PubMed Central

Kuzara, Jennifer; Copeland, William E.; Costello, E. Jane; Angold, Adrian; Worthman, Carol M.

2009-01-01

Background Anthropologists are beginning to translate insights from ethnography into tools for population studies that assess the role of culture in human behavior, biology, and health. Aim We describe several lessons learned in the creation and administration of an ethnographically-based instrument to assess the life course perspectives of Appalachian youth, the Life Trajectory Interview for Youth (LTI-Y). Then, we explore the utility of the LTI-Y in predicting depressive affect, controlling for prior depressed mood and severe negative life events throughout the life course. Subjects and methods In a sample of 319 youth (190 White, 129 Cherokee), we tested the association between depressive affect and two domains of the LTI-Y - life course barriers and milestones. Longitudinal data on previous depressed mood and negative life events were included in the model. Results The ethnographically-based scales of life course barriers and milestones were associated with unique variance in depressed mood, together accounting for 11% of the variance in this outcome. Conclusion When creating ethnographically-based instruments, it is important to strike a balance between detailed, participant-driven procedures and the analytic needs of hypothesis testing. Ethnographically-based instruments have utility for predicting health outcomes in longitudinal studies. PMID:19353406

How second-grade students internalize rules during teacher-student transactions: a case study.

PubMed

Méard, Jacques; Bertone, Stefano; Flavier, Eric

2008-09-01

Vygotsky's theory of the internalization of signs provided the basis for this study. This study tried to analyse the processes by which second-grade students internalize school rules. Ethnographic data were collected on 102 lessons in a second-grade class (6-8 years) during 1 year. This study focused on three lessons (ethnographic data completed by video-recordings, post-lesson interviews with the teacher, and re-transcriptions of the verbal interactions of the lessons and interviews). The longitudinal observation data were broken down into discrete transactions, crossed with the recorded data, and analysed in a four-step procedure. The results showed that the students' self-regulated actions (voluntary performance of prescribed actions) corresponded to the teacher's presentation of the rules, which was varied and personalized. She used explanation/justification, negotiation, persuasion, or imposition as a function of the situation and the students concerned. The results revealed: (a) Multiple actions of explanation/justification of the rules, negotiation and persuasion to the entire class, (b) Personalized actions of persuasion and rule imposition in instances of heteronomous actions by students, (c) Actions adjusted to the dynamics of the transactions. This study demonstrates how closely the actions of teacher and students are linked. More than a linear process of rules internalization, education looks like a co-construction of rules between teacher and students. These results can serve as a basis for the tools of teacher teaching.

Learning through Ethnographic Dialogues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landis, David; Kalieva, Rysaldy; Abitova, Sanim; Izmukhanbetova, Sophia; Musaeva, Zhanbota

2006-01-01

This article describes ways that conversations constituted ethnographic research for students and teachers in Kazakhstan. Through dialogues with local community members, students worked as researchers to develop knowledge about cultural patterns and social life. Ethnographic research and writing provided valuable language and research experiences…

Occupational patterns of people with dementia in residential care: an ethnographic study.

PubMed

Holthe, Torhild; Thorsen, Kirsten; Josephsson, Staffan

2007-06-01

This paper describes an ethnographic study that sought to gain knowledge of the occupational patterns of persons with dementia in a care home and how the residents perceived the group activities in which they participated. The residents' ages ranged from 82 to 92 years. They were seven women and one man. Both participant observation and interviews were used to collect data. Data analysis resulted in an ethnographic story organised around two key themes: (1) the occupational patterns of the residents, and (2) the residents' perceptions of the activities offered. In this story residents appeared passive, playing the role of guests in the care home. Residents were dependent on staff to engage in daily occupations. Interviews revealed that residents perceived participation in activities as important to their mental and physical health and an advantage of living in the care home.

Ethnographic Approaches in Primatology.

PubMed

Dore, Kerry M; Radford, Lucy; Alexander, Sherrie; Waters, Siân

2018-01-01

The shared evolutionary histories and anatomical similarities between humans and non-human primates create dynamic interconnections between these alloprimates. In this foreword to Folia Primatologica's special issue on "Ethnographic Approaches in Primatology," we review the ethnographic method and existing literature at the intersection of primatology and ethnography. We summarize, compare and contrast the 5 contributions to this special issue to highlight why the human-non-human primate interface is a compelling area to investigate via ethnographic approaches and to encourage increased incorporation of ethnography into the discipline of primatology. Ethnography is a valuable and increasingly popular tool with its use no longer limited to anthropological practitioners investigating traditional, non-Western peoples. Scholars from many disciplines now use ethnographic methods to investigate all members of our globalised world, including non-humans. As our closest living relatives, non-human primates (hereafter "primates") are compelling subjects and thus appear in a range of contexts within ethnographic investigations. The goal of this special issue is to highlight the trajectory of research at the intersection of primatology and ethnography and to illustrate the importance of ethnographic methods for the advancement of primatology as a discipline. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

On ``The Congressional Fellowship as an Ethnographic Extravaganza''

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narasimhan, T. N.

2006-06-01

Josh Trapani's emerging experience as an AGU Congressional Fellow (Eos, 87(7), 76, 2006) is educational. Spectacular developments in the physical sciences tempt us to believe that finer and finer dissection of matter and sophisticated manipulation of molecules will soon enable us to control nature at will. Increasing knowledge, though, about the Earth and its interconnected biological systems makes us skeptical about the enthusiastic vision of physical sciences. Living things, unlike the nonliving things that are the concern of physical sciences, possess the attribute of `behavior,' associated with `mind' and `instinct.'. Trapani's ethnographic extravaganza is merely a subset of behavior, which lies beyond the scope of relativity, quantum mechanics, or thermodynamics. Rationally, one would expect that with its fine program of liberal education, congressional fellowships, and prestigious academies of sciences, the United States will enjoy a most harmonious interrelationship between science and national policies. Such rational thinking, a reflection of our training in the physical sciences, is valid in the case of inanimate things that are faithfully subject to physical laws. When on occasion we feel dismayed at a lack of harmony between what science tells us and how national policies take shape, we would do well to be reminded by Trapani's ethnographic extravaganza that `behavior' of even the most technologically advanced living things transcends the rationality of the physical sciences.

Ethnographic process evaluation in primary care: explaining the complexity of implementation.

PubMed

Bunce, Arwen E; Gold, Rachel; Davis, James V; McMullen, Carmit K; Jaworski, Victoria; Mercer, MaryBeth; Nelson, Christine

2014-12-05

The recent growth of implementation research in care delivery systems has led to a renewed interest in methodological approaches that deliver not only intervention outcome data but also deep understanding of the complex dynamics underlying the implementation process. We suggest that an ethnographic approach to process evaluation, when informed by and integrated with quantitative data, can provide this nuanced insight into intervention outcomes. The specific methods used in such ethnographic process evaluations are rarely presented in detail; our objective is to stimulate a conversation around the successes and challenges of specific data collection methods in health care settings. We use the example of a translational clinical trial among 11 community clinics in Portland, OR that are implementing an evidence-based, health-information technology (HIT)-based intervention focused on patients with diabetes. Our ethnographic process evaluation employed weekly diaries by clinic-based study employees, observation, informal and formal interviews, document review, surveys, and group discussions to identify barriers and facilitators to implementation success, provide insight into the quantitative study outcomes, and uncover lessons potentially transferable to other implementation projects. These methods captured the depth and breadth of factors contributing to intervention uptake, while minimizing disruption to clinic work and supporting mid-stream shifts in implementation strategies. A major challenge is the amount of dedicated researcher time required. The deep understanding of the 'how' and 'why' behind intervention outcomes that can be gained through an ethnographic approach improves the credibility and transferability of study findings. We encourage others to share their own experiences with ethnography in implementation evaluation and health services research, and to consider adapting the methods and tools described here for their own research.

Teaching Consumer-Oriented Ethnographic Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Andrew D.; Wu, Lan

2012-01-01

Despite an increasing demand for marketing researchers familiar with ethnographic methods, ethnographic consumer research has received little coverage in current marketing curricula. The innovation discussed in the present paper addresses this problem: it introduces the notion of "cultural relativism" and gives students hands-on experience in…

The Influences of an Exemplary Ballet Teacher on Students' Motivation: "The Finnish Way"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chua, Joey

2017-01-01

This ethnographic case story aims to illuminate the instructional practices and decisions of an exemplary ballet teacher, Minna Stenvall at the Finnish National Opera Ballet School. Minna is considered to be exemplary in her field because she received the Best Ballet Pedagogue Award in 2014. Spurred on by the literature on the significant role…

Types and Dynamics of Gendered Space: A Case of Emirati Female Learners in a Single-Gender Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alzeer, Gergana

2018-01-01

This article is concerned with gendered spaces as they emerge from exploring Emirati female learners' spatiality in a single-gender context. By conducting ethnographic research and utilising Lefebvre's triad of perceived, conceived and lived space for the analysis and categorisation of students' spaces, three types of gendered spaces emerged:…

Multilevel Dynamic Systems Affecting Introduction of HIV/STI Prevention Innovations among Chinese Women in Sex-work Establishments

PubMed Central

Weeks, Margaret R.; Li, Jianghong; Liao, Susu; Zhang, Qingning; Dunn, Jennifer; Wang, Yanhong; Jiang, Jingmei

2015-01-01

Social and public health scientists are increasingly interested in applying system dynamics theory to improve understanding and to harness the forces of change within complex, multilevel systems that affect community intervention implementation, effects, and sustainability. Building a system dynamics model based on ethnographic case study has the advantage of using empirically documented contextual factors and processes of change in a real world and real time setting that can then be tested in the same and other settings. System dynamics modeling offers great promise for addressing persistent problems like HIV and other sexually transmitted epidemics, particularly in complex rapidly developing countries like China. We generated a system dynamics model of a multilevel intervention we conducted to promote female condoms (FC) for HIV/STI prevention among Chinese women in sex-work establishments. The model reflects factors and forces affecting the study’s intervention implementation and effects. To build this conceptual model, we drew on our experiences and findings from this intensive, longitudinal mixed ethnographic and quantitative four-town comparative case study (2007–2012) of the sex-work establishments, the intervention conducted in them, and factors likely to explain variation in process and outcomes in the four towns. Multiple feedback loops in the sex-work establishments, women’s social networks, and the health organization responsible for implementing HIV/STI interventions in each town and at the town level directly or indirectly influenced the FC intervention. We present the conceptual system dynamics model and discuss how further testing in this and other settings can inform future community interventions to reduce HIV and STIs. PMID:24084394

Accepted monitoring or endured quarantine? Ebola contacts' perceptions in Senegal.

PubMed

Desclaux, Alice; Badji, Dioumel; Ndione, Albert Gautier; Sow, Khoudia

2017-04-01

During the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic, transmission chains were controlled through contact tracing, i.e., identification and follow-up of people exposed to Ebola cases. WHO recommendations for daily check-ups of physical symptoms with social distancing for 21 days were unevenly applied and sometimes interpreted as quarantine. Criticisms arose regarding the use of coercion and questioned contact tracing on ethical grounds. This article aims to analyze contact cases' perceptions and acceptance of contact monitoring at the field level. In Senegal, an imported case of Ebola virus disease in September 2014 resulted in placing 74 contact cases in home containment with daily visits by volunteers. An ethnographic study based on in-depth interviews with all stakeholders performed in September-October 2014 showed four main perceptions of monitoring: a biosecurity preventive measure, suspension of professional activity, stigma attached to Ebola, and a social obligation. Contacts demonstrated diverse attitudes. Initially, most contacts agreed to comply because they feared being infected. They adhered to the national Ebola response measures and appreciated the empathy shown by volunteers. Later, acceptance was improved by the provision of moral, economic, and social support, and by the final lack of any new contamination. But it was limited by the socio-economic impact on fulfilling basic needs, the fear of being infected, how contacts' family members interpreted monitoring, conflation of contacts as Ebola cases, and challenging the rationale for containment. Acceptance was also related to individual aspects, such as the professional status of women and health workers who had been exposed, and contextual aspects, such as the media's role in the social production of stigma. Ethnographic results show that, even when contacts adhere rather than comply to containment through coercion, contact monitoring raises several ethical issues. These insights should contribute to the ethics debate about individual rights versus crisis public health measures. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Life's end: Ethnographic perspectives.

PubMed

Goodwin-Hawkins, Bryonny; Dawson, Andrew

2018-01-01

In this introduction to the special issue, Life's End: Ethnographic Perspectives, we review the field of anthropological studies of death and dying. We make the argument that, largely because of its sub-disciplining into the larger field of the anthropology of religion, ritual and symbolism, the focus of anthropological research on death has been predominantly on post- rather than pre-death events, on death's beginnings rather than life's ends. Additionally, we argue that an anthropological aversion to the study of dying may also lie in the intimacy of the discipline's principal method, ethnography. Contrastingly, we argue that this very methodological intimacy can be a source of insight, and we offer this as a rationale for the special issue as a whole, which comprises eight ethnographic studies of dying and social relations at life's end from across Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America. Each of these studies is then summarized, and a rationale for their presentation around the themes of "structures of dying," "care for the dying," "hope in dying," and "ending life" is presented.

Discourse Analysis in Ethnographic Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poole, Deborah

1990-01-01

Reviews the contribution of ethnographic research to discourse analysis, focusing on discourse practices as a reflection of cultural context; educational applications and the discontinuity issue; literacy as a focus of discourse-oriented ethnographic research; and implications for applied linguistics. A 9-citation annotated and a 50-citation…

"I get by with a little help from my friends": A case study in Holy Cross and Grayling using geographic, ethnographic, and biophysical data to tell the story of climate change effects in the lower-middle Yukon River region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hollingsworth, T. N.; Brown, C.; Cold, H.; Brinkman, T. J.; Brown, D. N.; Verbyla, D.

2017-12-01

Over the last century, Alaska has warmed more than twice as rapidly as the contiguous US. Climate change in boreal Alaska has created new and undocumented vulnerabilities for rural communities. In rural areas, subsistence harvesters rely on established travel networks to access traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering areas. These routes are being affected by ecosystem disturbances, such as thermokarst and increased wildfire severity, linked to climate change. Understanding these changes requires a collaborative effort, using many different forms of data to tell a complete story. Here, we present a case study from Holy Cross and Grayling, Alaska to demonstrate the importance of cross-discipline data integration. Local subsistence users documented GPS coordinates of encountered sites of ecosystem disturbances influencing their access to subsistence areas. These knowledge holders provided the ethnographic, historical and experiential descriptions of the effects of these changes. Then, remote-sensing imagery allows us to look at how these sites change over time. Finally, we returned to collaborate with subsistence users to visit specific sites and quantify the biophysical mechanisms that describe these disturbances. In Holy Cross, we visited areas that recently burned and are undergoing rapid changes in vegetation. We describe the fire regime characteristics such as fire severity, age of site when it burned, pre-fire composition, and post-fire successional trajectory. In Grayling, we visited areas with drying water bodies and associated vegetation change. We describe the current vegetation structure and composition, looked at potential shifts in soil moisture and used repeat imagery to quantify change in water. Our case study exemplifies the power of participatory research, collaboration, and a cross-disciplinary methodology to expand our collective understanding of landscape-level climate-related changes in boreal Alaska.

Negotiating Mothering Identities: Ethnographic and Intergenerational Insights to Gender and Social Class in a High-Poverty US Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Stephanie

2012-01-01

This manuscript draws from a 4-year feminist ethnographic study of eight young girls and their caretakers in a high-poverty, predominantly White, urban community in the USA. Themes of mothers, mothering, and motherhood were dominant across 4 years of data generation and in this article I focus on the girls' and mothers' narratives to explore…