Changing Personas and Evolving Identities: The Contestation and Renegotiation of Researcher Roles in Fieldwork

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purdy, Laura; Jones, Robyn

2013-01-01

The aim of this paper is to discuss the development and evolution of particular personas adopted by researchers in the quest for rich exchanges within the social field. It analyses my role (the principal author) as a female ethnographer (and the sole female) in the world of elite male rowing. Data are drawn from personal notes, reflections and…

The Practice of Scaling down Practical Assessment Components of Agriculture in Junior Secondary Schools Curriculum: A Synthesis of Teachers Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hulela, Keba

2017-01-01

This ethnographic research study aimed at investigating factors that contributed to the decline in the number of practical assessed projects in junior secondary agricultural education assessment in Botswana. Participant-observation technique was used to gather data in the form of field notes from in-service teachers at BCA and in-school teachers…

Gender and the Education-Employment Paradox in Ethnic and Religious Contexts: The Case of Arab Americans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Read, Jen'nan Ghazal; Oselin, Sharon

2008-01-01

Education is weakly related to employment for some groups of U.S. women. As such, it may be less of a resource for reducing gender inequality than commonly believed. Drawing on ethnographic field notes and in-depth interviews with Arab Americans, we recast the motivations and consequences of female education in terms of cultural schemas and…

“The only thing I wish I could change is that they treat us like people and not like animals”: Injury and Discrimination among Latino Farmworkers

PubMed Central

Snipes, Shedra A.; Cooper, Sharon P.; Shipp, Eva M.

2017-01-01

Objective This paper describes how perceived discrimination shapes the way Latino farmworkers encounter injuries and seek out treatment. Methods After 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork, 89 open-ended, semi-structured interviews were analyzed. NVivo was used to code and qualitatively organize the interviews and field notes. Finally, codes, notes, and co-occurring dynamics were used to iteratively assess the data for major themes. Results The primary source of perceived discrimination was the “boss” or farm owner. Immigrant status was also a significant influence on how farmworkers perceived the discrimination. Specifically, the ability to speak English and length of stay in the United States were related to stronger perceptions of discrimination. Finally, farm owners compelled their Latino employees to work through their injuries without treatment. Conclusions This ethnographic account brings attention to how discrimination and lack of worksite protections are implicated in farmworkers' injury experiences, and suggests the need for policies that better safeguards vulnerable workers. PMID:27749157

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.

Negotiating policy in practice: child and family health nurses' approach to the process of postnatal psychosocial assessment.

PubMed

Rollans, Mellanie; Schmied, Virginia; Kemp, Lynn; Meade, Tanya

2013-04-08

There is growing recognition internationally of the need to identify women with risk factors for poor perinatal mental health in pregnancy and following birth. In the state of New South Wales, Australia the Supporting Families Early policy provides a framework of assessment and support for women and families and includes routine psychosocial assessment and depression screening. This study investigated the approach taken by Child and Family Health Nurses (CFHNs) following birth to assessment and screening as recommended by state policy. This was a qualitative ethnographic study that included 83 CFHN and 20 women. Observations occurred with thirteen nurses; with 20 women, in the home or the clinic environment. An additional 70 nurses participated in discussion groups. An observational tool (4D&4R) and field notes were used to record observations and analysed descriptively using frequencies. Field notes, interview data and discussion group transcripts were analysed thematically. This was a qualitative ethnographic study that included 83 CFHN and 20 women. Observations occurred with thirteen nurses; with 20 women, in the home or the clinic environment. An additional 70 nurses participated in discussion groups. An observational tool (4D&4R) and field notes were used to record observations and analysed descriptively using frequencies. Field notes, interview data and discussion group transcripts were analysed thematically. CFHNs demonstrated a range of approaches to assessment and screening. Psychosocial assessment was conducted in 50% (10 out of the 20) of the interactions observed; however, all the women were screened using the Edinburgh Depression Scale. Four major themes that represent the approach taken to the assessment process were identified: 'Engagement: getting that first bit right', 'Doing some paperwork', 'Creating comfort' and 'Psychosocial assessment: doing it another way'. Nurses utilised other skills such as observing the women interacting with their baby, taking note of non verbal communication and using intuition to develop a clinical decision. Overall, nurses' took a sensitive and caring approach to assessment and screening, however, there were differences in interpretations of the policy recommendations across the two sites. Nurses adopt a flexible, relationship-based approach to the assessment process; however, they experience tension when required to incorporate structured psychosocial assessment processes. To undertake assessment and screening effectively, CFHNs require ongoing support, training and supervision to maintain this sensitive and emotionally challenging work.

Interpreting Assessment Scores of Nonliterate Learners with Ethnographic Data.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Suzanne M.

Research findings are reported that suggest that valid interpretation of assessment scores on illiterate and preliterate learners requires the use of ethnographic data. Data from observation notes, photos, and audiotapes indicated that learners' understanding of their tasks affected their performance in assessment situations. Previous findings…

Ethnographic Exploration of Empowerment to Improve Elderly Residents' Quality of Life.

PubMed

Tabatabaei, Seyed Zia; Ebrahimi, Fatemeh; Hamzah, Azimi Bin Hj; Rezaeian, Mohsen; Kamrani, Mahnaz Akbari

2017-01-01

Evidence underscores that empowerment is central to improve the elderly residents' quality of life. In truth, empowerment is a process through which individuals gain better control over their life. The aim of this study was to explore how perceived empowerment influence on the quality of life among elderly Malay residents. A focus ethnographic approach was employed in a Malaysian residential home between May 2011 and January 2012. Data were gathered from participant observations, field notes, in-depth interviews, and exploring related documents. The analysis of the data gathered in the current study resulted in the development of three themes - social life and its requirements, caregivers' skills empowerment, and listening and supporting. Findings of the study provide new insights that are useful in charting new guideline for care providers and policy makers to improve the elderly residents' quality of life.

Beyond the male-migrant: South Africa's long history of health geography and the contemporary AIDS pandemic.

PubMed

Hunter, Mark

2010-01-01

This article begins by noting the contribution that past South African writings on health can make to the field of health geography-especially writings on male migration and syphilis from the 1940s that conceptualized space as relational. However, the second part of the article notes that the rapid rise of AIDS in the post-apartheid period influenced the problematic projecting forward of the male-migrancy model. Ethnographic and secondary data show how AIDS is embedded in under-researched social and spatial structures after apartheid. In tracing these processes the article combines anthropology, geography, and political economy to chart an interdisciplinary analysis of the uneven geographies of health.

[Field work, narrative and knowledge production in contemporary ethnographic research: a contribution to the field of health].

PubMed

Trad, Leny Alves Bomfim

2012-03-01

In this article I reflect on the peculiarities of contemporary ethnographic research, highlighting some challenges inherent to this process. The discussion focuses in particular on the following aspects: the limits imposed by the clear reduction in immersion time in the field; the challenges in learning about ethnographic work, either in the process of observation or interaction in the field, or in the task of textual production; issues of an epistemological and ethical nature that deserve particular attention on the part of practitioners of the ethnographic approach and the scientific community in general. It is especially appropriate to foster debate around the ethnographic method, addressing its peculiarities, operational complexity and potential as a tool for knowledge production, in the sphere of health/public health, bearing in mind the marked increase of this approach in this field.

Efficacy of Ethnographic Research in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sajan, K. S.; Sindhu, M.

2014-01-01

Ethnographic research is an emerging research technique in the field of education. Ethnographic research was a procedure usually used in anthropology but now it is getting popular in educational field. This kind of research relies on qualitative data, its perspective is holistic and its procedures of data analysis involve contextualization. Data…

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.

Usability Evaluation of Electronic Health Record System around Clinical Notes Usage-An Ethnographic Study.

PubMed

Rizvi, Rubina F; Marquard, Jenna L; Hultman, Gretchen M; Adam, Terrence J; Harder, Kathleen A; Melton, Genevieve B

2017-10-01

Background A substantial gap exists between current Electronic Health Record (EHR) usability and potential optimal usability. One of the fundamental reasons for this discrepancy is poor incorporation of a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach during the Graphical User Interface (GUI) development process. Objective To evaluate usability strengths and weaknesses of two widely implemented EHR GUIs for critical clinical notes usage tasks. Methods Twelve Internal Medicine resident physicians interacting with one of the two EHR systems (System-1 at Location-A and System-2 at Location-B) were observed by two usability evaluators employing an ethnographic approach. User comments and observer findings were analyzed for two critical tasks: (1) clinical notes entry and (2) related information-seeking tasks. Data were analyzed from two standpoints: (1) usability references categorized by usability evaluators as positive, negative, or equivocal and (2) usability impact of each feature measured through a 7-point severity rating scale. Findings were also validated by user responses to a post observation questionnaire. Results For clinical notes entry, System-1 surpassed System-2 with more positive (26% vs. 12%) than negative (12% vs. 34%) usability references. Greatest impact features on EHR usability (severity score pertaining to each feature) for clinical notes entry were: autopopulation (6), screen options (5.5), communication (5), copy pasting (4.5), error prevention (4.5), edit ability (4), and dictation and transcription (3.5). Both systems performed equally well on information-seeking tasks and features with greatest impacts on EHR usability were navigation for notes (7) and others (e.g., looking for ancillary data; 5.5). Ethnographic observations were supported by follow-up questionnaire responses. Conclusion This study provides usability-specific insights to inform future, improved, EHR interface that is better aligned with UCD approach.

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.

An Ethnographic Study of Health Information Technology Use in Three Intensive Care Units.

PubMed

Leslie, Myles; Paradis, Elise; Gropper, Michael A; Kitto, Simon; Reeves, Scott; Pronovost, Peter

2017-08-01

To identify the impact of a full suite of health information technology (HIT) on the relationships that support safety and quality among intensive care unit (ICU) clinicians. A year-long comparative ethnographic study of three academic ICUs was carried out. A total of 446 hours of observational data was collected in the form of field notes. A subset of these observations-134 hours-was devoted to job-shadowing individual clinicians and conducting a time study of their HIT usage. Significant variation in HIT implementation rates and usage was noted. Average HIT use on the two "high-use" ICUs was 49 percent. On the "low-use" ICU, it was 10 percent. Clinicians on the high-use ICUs experienced "silo" effects with potential safety and quality implications. HIT work was associated with spatial, data, and social silos that separated ICU clinicians from one another and their patients. Situational awareness, communication, and patient satisfaction were negatively affected by this siloing. HIT has the potential to accentuate social and professional divisions as clinical communications shift from being in-person to electronically mediated. Socio-technically informed usability testing is recommended for those hospitals that have yet to implement HIT. For those hospitals already implementing HIT, we suggest rapid, locally driven qualitative assessments focused on developing solutions to identified gaps between HIT usage patterns and organizational quality goals. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

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

An ethnographic study of nurses' experience with nursing research and its integration in practice.

PubMed

Dupin, Cécile Marie; Borglin, Gunilla; Debout, Christophe; Rothan-Tondeur, Monique

2014-09-01

To report from a study aimed at illuminating how French Registered Nurses experience and engage in nursing research in clinical practice. Nursing research in France is mainly conducted by nurses working at clinical research units rather than by dedicated nurse researchers. Education, i.e. advanced degrees, in the field of nursing research is still in its infancy and not yet consistent with the international context. Outside France, the general perception is that nursing research is a unified part of professional nursing. Consequently, in-depth knowledge about how nurses in a French clinical context might experience and engage in nursing research is still lacking. The design of this study was influenced by an ethnographic approach as described by the French anthropologists Beaud and Weber. Data, participatory observations, field notes and interviews (n = 6) were collected in a teaching hospital between April-August 2012. The field consisted of a wound-care unit and clinical research units. Collected data were analysed based on Beaud and Weber's description of analysis. Three beliefs were identified: being a unified part of a research team, being an integral part of 'crosswise - across' activities and being part of research activities. Commitment to nursing research was strengthened by patient-related issues. Based on this context, nursing research would likely benefit from the support of a naturalized reciprocity between clinical practice and research. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Exploiting the User: Adapting Personas for Use in Security Visualization Design

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

Stoll, Jennifer C.; McColgin, David W.; Gregory, Michelle L.

It has long been noted that visual representations of complex information can facilitate rapid understanding of data {citation], even with respect to ComSec applications {citation]. Recognizing that visualizations can increase usability in ComSec applications, [Zurko, Sasse] have argued that there is a need to create more usable security visualizations. (VisSec) However, usability of applications generally fall into the domain of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), which generally relies on heavy-weight user-centered design (UCD) processes. For example, the UCD process can involve many prototype iterations, or an ethnographic field study that can take months to complete. The problem is that VisSec projectsmore » generally do not have the resources to perform ethnographic field studies, or to employ complex UCD methods. They often are running on tight deadlines and budgets that can not afford standard UCD methods. In order to help resolve the conflict of needing more usable designs in ComSec, but not having the resources to employ complex UCD methods, in this paper we offer a stripped-down lighter weight version of a UCD process which can help with capturing user requirements. The approach we use is personas which a user requirements capturing method arising out of the Participatory Design philosophy [Grudin02].« less

Elusive implementation: an ethnographic study of intersectoral policymaking for health.

PubMed

Holt, Ditte Heering; Rod, Morten Hulvej; Waldorff, Susanne Boch; Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Tine

2018-01-30

For more than 30 years policy action across sectors has been celebrated as a necessary and viable way to affect the social factors impacting on health. In particular intersectoral action on the social determinants of health is considered necessary to address social inequalities in health. However, despite growing support for intersectoral policymaking, implementation remains a challenge. Critics argue that public health has remained naïve about the policy process and a better understanding is needed. Based on ethnographic data, this paper conducts an in-depth analysis of a local process of intersectoral policymaking in order to gain a better understanding of the challenges posed by implementation. To help conceptualize the process, we apply the theoretical perspective of organizational neo-institutionalism, in particular the concepts of rationalized myth and decoupling. On the basis of an explorative study among ten Danish municipalities, we conducted an ethnographic study of the development of a municipal-wide implementation strategy for the intersectoral health policy of a medium-sized municipality. The main data sources consist of ethnographic field notes from participant observation and interview transcripts. By providing detailed contextual description, we show how an apparent failure to move from policy to action is played out by the ongoing production of abstract rhetoric and vague plans. We find that idealization of universal intersectoralism, inconsistent demands, and doubts about economic outcomes challenge the notion of implementation as moving from rhetoric to action. We argue that the 'myth' of intersectoralism may be instrumental in avoiding the specification of action to implement the policy, and that the policy instead serves as a way to display and support good intentions and hereby continue the process. On this basis we expand the discussion on implementation challenges regarding intersectoral policymaking for health.

[An ethnographic approach to the concepts of health and disease in the Turkana tribe: a project to improve the health of the nomads of the Ilemi Triangle, Kenya].

PubMed

Cardós García, José Javier; Lillo Crespo, Manuel; Climent Rubio, Andrés; Hernández Urrutia, Emiliano; Mejias Moreno, Beatriz

2016-01-01

This paper aims to provide a broad view of the Turkana tribe of the Ilemi Triangle in northwestern Kenya, especially regarding the way the members of this nomadic ethnic group understand and shape their own construct of health and disease. It is based in an ethnographic study carried out in July and August 2014, including participant observation of 15 villages of the Turkana tribe, formal interviews and in-depth interviews carried out with the collaboration of two translators of the tribe and a nurse. Field notes as well videos and audio records were captured and transcribed for later analysis. Among the primary results of this study, it should be highlighted that the concepts of both health and disease differ greatly from the western approach that external projects bring with them a priori and it is likely that the lack of adherence to these projects is related to the scant cultural knowledge regarding such constructs on the part of the health professionals.

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…

Team research methods for studying intranasal heroin use and its HIV risks.

PubMed

Ouellet, L J; Wiebel, W W; Jimenez, A D

1995-01-01

Nineteen years ago Douglas (1976), a sociologist, vigorously recommended team field research. As Douglas noted, most ethnography is carried out using the "Lone Ranger" approach, which--while producing a number of excellent studies--generally limits the researcher to small groups or parts of large groups. In the few cases where field research teams were assembled (e.g., Becker et al. 1961), they tended to be homogeneous and to simply divide the group being studied between them and then essentially perform identical investigations (Douglas 1976). Douglas had a different vision. He saw the optimal field research group as heterogeneous, able to take on large projects, and able to take multiple perspectives. Such a team would have a variety of talents, experiences, and inclinations to call upon and would be more able to connect with the people being studied (e.g., by including indigenous members noted for their sociability). Douglas argued for giving greater consideration in designing research to society's conflictory nature and the desire and need for people to misinform, evade, construct false fronts, lie, and deceive themselves. According to Douglas, field research teams were an excellent means of coping with these problems. With various members using their array of talents to study a problem from multiple perspectives and through numerous webs of social cliques and networks, research teams would be particularly able to get behind people's facades and produce valid data. Though Douglas presented a compelling argument, there is little evidence of an increase in team field research, with one exception: research groups studying HIV/AIDS. The NADR program, funded by NIDA, created a number of field research teams across the United States that combined ethnographers with indigenous staff who, whatever their principal duties, could be used to assist in the research. These field research teams were also part of a survey research effort, and, in this fashion, quantitative and qualitative methods were combined to a degree uncommon in social science research. While many of these research groups have since disbanded, COIP was fortunate enough to remain in operation. The authors have described how they assembled a field research team composed of COIP members that combined ethnographers with selected indigenous staff to address a particular problem--new heroin use and its implications for HIV/AIDS. The goals the researchers set for the study would have been impossible for a single ethnographer or for a survey research team acting alone: to discern potential trends in new heroin use (though researchers were limited to studying mostly poor people); to develop fairly deep understandings regarding the study's central concerns (e.g., factors likely to influence the decision to inject heroin); and to quickly and economically collect data that were useful and valid. The authors note that all members of the research team had a host of other responsibilities; thus, this study was conducted as a sort of side job, that is, researchers had to fit it in when time and circumstances allowed. Altogether, the team field research method as applied to new heroin use in Chicago has enabled the research team to quickly and economically generate data that can be used to inform public policy on this issue (Ouellet et al. 1993; Ouellet et al., submitted). The authors believe that they can make a reasonably strong case for the following: New heroin use deserves greater study--the prevalence and incidence of use are probably sufficient to form a new cohort of potentially longtime users. New users are most likely to be found where major heroin street drug markets operate. Among youth there is a need for education about heroin--current users often report being surprised by heroin's addictiveness. Intranasal use is the predominant form of heroin administration among young, new users, and there is strong peer pressure against injection. Experimentation with injection, how

Ethical and Safety Issues in Doing Sex Work Research: Reflections From a Field-Based Ethnographic Study in Kolkata, India

PubMed Central

Sinha, Sunny

2016-01-01

While much has been said about the risks and safety issues experienced by female sex workers in India, there is a considerable dearth of information about the difficulties and problems that sex work researchers, especially female researchers, experience when navigating the highly political, ideological, and stigmatized environment of the Indian sex industry. As noted by scholars, there are several methodological and ethical issues involved with sex work research, such as privacy and confidentiality of the participants, representativeness of the sample, and informed consent. Yet, there has been reluctance among scholars to comment on their research process, especially with regard to how they deal with the protocols for research ethics when conducting social and behavioral epidemiological studies among female sex workers in India and elsewhere. Drawing on my 7 months of field-based ethnographic research with “flying” or non-brothel-based female sex workers in Kolkata, India, I provide in this article a reflexive account of the problems encountered in implementing the research process, particularly the ethical and safety issues involved in gaining access and acceptance into the sex industry and establishing contact and rapport with the participants. In doing so, it is my hope that future researchers can develop the knowledge necessary for the design of ethical and non-exploitative research projects with sex workers. PMID:27651071

Ethical and Safety Issues in Doing Sex Work Research: Reflections From a Field-Based Ethnographic Study in Kolkata, India.

PubMed

Sinha, Sunny

2017-05-01

While much has been said about the risks and safety issues experienced by female sex workers in India, there is a considerable dearth of information about the difficulties and problems that sex work researchers, especially female researchers, experience when navigating the highly political, ideological, and stigmatized environment of the Indian sex industry. As noted by scholars, there are several methodological and ethical issues involved with sex work research, such as privacy and confidentiality of the participants, representativeness of the sample, and informed consent. Yet, there has been reluctance among scholars to comment on their research process, especially with regard to how they deal with the protocols for research ethics when conducting social and behavioral epidemiological studies among female sex workers in India and elsewhere. Drawing on my 7 months of field-based ethnographic research with "flying" or non-brothel-based female sex workers in Kolkata, India, I provide in this article a reflexive account of the problems encountered in implementing the research process, particularly the ethical and safety issues involved in gaining access and acceptance into the sex industry and establishing contact and rapport with the participants. In doing so, it is my hope that future researchers can develop the knowledge necessary for the design of ethical and non-exploitative research projects with sex workers.

The Influence of Pastors' Ideologies of Homosexuality on HIV Prevention in the Black Church.

PubMed

Quinn, Katherine; Dickson-Gomez, Julia; Young, Staci

2016-10-01

Young, Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV, and Black Churches may be a source of stigma which can exacerbate HIV risk and contribute to negative health and psychosocial outcomes. Findings from this study are based on 21 semi-structured interviews with pastors and ethnographic observation in six Black Churches. Interview transcripts and field notes were analyzed in MAXQDA using thematic content analysis. Although pastors espoused messages of love and acceptance, they overwhelmingly believed homosexuality was a sin and had difficulty accepting YBMSM into their churches. The tension around homosexuality limited pastors' involvement in HIV prevention efforts, although there still may be opportunities for some churches.

Tales from the Ethnographic Field: Navigating Feelings of Guilt and Privilege in the Research Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeLuca, Jaime R.; Maddox, Callie Batts

2016-01-01

This article explores questions of reflexivity, positionality, identity, and emotion within the process of ethnographic research. We reflect on our feelings of privilege and guilt in and through our ethnographic fieldwork and discuss the ways in which these experiences encouraged reflexive thinking and a crucial interrogation of the place of 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

Appreciative Inquiry for quality improvement in primary care practices.

PubMed

Ruhe, Mary C; Bobiak, Sarah N; Litaker, David; Carter, Caroline A; Wu, Laura; Schroeder, Casey; Zyzanski, Stephen J; Weyer, Sharon M; Werner, James J; Fry, Ronald E; Stange, Kurt C

2011-01-01

To test the effect of an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) quality improvement strategy on clinical quality management and practice development outcomes. Appreciative inquiry enables the discovery of shared motivations, envisioning a transformed future, and learning around the implementation of a change process. Thirty diverse primary care practices were randomly assigned to receive an AI-based intervention focused on a practice-chosen topic and on improving preventive service delivery (PSD) rates. Medical-record review assessed change in PSD rates. Ethnographic field notes and observational checklist analysis used editing and immersion/crystallization methods to identify factors affecting intervention implementation and practice development outcomes. The PSD rates did not change. Field note analysis suggested that the intervention elicited core motivations, facilitated development of a shared vision, defined change objectives, and fostered respectful interactions. Practices most likely to implement the intervention or develop new practice capacities exhibited 1 or more of the following: support from key leader(s), a sense of urgency for change, a mission focused on serving patients, health care system and practice flexibility, and a history of constructive practice change. An AI approach and enabling practice conditions can lead to intervention implementation and practice development by connecting individual and practice strengths and motivations to the change objective.

After a child's acquired brain injury (ABI): An ethnographic study of being a parent.

PubMed

Rashid, Marghalara; Goez, Helly R; Caine, Vera; Yager, Jerome Y; Joyce, Anthony S; Newton, Amanda S

2016-11-30

To explore the meanings associated with being a parent of a child with an aquired brain injury (ABI). An ethnographic study was conducted with parents of children aged 3 to 10 years who had acquired a severe brain injury. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit parents from the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta. Data collection involved participant observation, fieldwork and semi-structured interviews. Field notes and interviews transcriptions were analysed using a thematic analysis framework and informed by symbolic interactionism theory. Six parent dyads (mothers and fathers) and 4 mothers participated in the study.Parents' meanings of `parenting' a child with severe brain injury were shaped by the injury, wide range of familial dynamics, and interactions. Six main themes related to parental meanings emerged from our data: (1) Getting `back to normal'; (2) Relying on a support system; (3) Worrying something bad may happen after the injury; (4) Going through a range of emotions following the injury; (5) Changing family dynamics after the injury; and (6) Ongoing performativity. Parents' meanings of `parenting' a child are extensively impacted by their child's functioning after the ABI. Having a greater appreciation of these experiences may be beneficial for medical professionals.

Making science education meaningful for American Indian students: The effect of science fair participation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welsh, Cynthia Ann

Creating opportunities for all learners has not been common practice in the United States, especially when the history of Native American educational practice is examined (Bull, 2006; Chenoweth, 1999; Starnes, 2006a). The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is an organization working to increase educational opportunity for American Indian students in science, engineering, and technology related fields (AISES, 2005). AISES provides pre-college support in science by promoting student science fair participation. The purpose of this qualitative research is to describe how American Indian student participation in science fairs and the relationship formed with their teacher affects academic achievement and the likelihood of continued education beyond high school. Two former American Indian students mentored by the principal investigator participated in this study. Four ethnographic research methods were incorporated: participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, search for artifacts, and auto-ethnographic researcher introspection (Eisenhart, 1988). After the interview transcripts, photos documenting past science fair participation, and researcher field notes were analyzed, patterns and themes emerged from the interviews that were supported in literature. American Indian academic success and life long learning are impacted by: (a) the effects of racism and oppression result in creating incredible obstacles to successful learning, (b) positive identity formation and the importance of family and community are essential in student learning, (c) the use of best practice in science education, including the use of curricular cultural integration for American Indian learners, supports student success, (d) the motivational need for student-directed educational opportunities (science fair/inquiry based research) is evident, (e) supportive teacher-student relationships in high school positively influences successful transitions into higher education. An overarching theme presented itself embedded within all themes: the importance of understanding the continued resiliency of the American Indian culture as it relates to success. Ultimately, for long-lasting change to occur, teachers and the community must focus on eliminating educational barriers, while supporting academic success, in order to initiate renewal and school wide change.

Being-in-the-Chemotherapy-Suite versus Being-in-the-Oncology-Ward: An Analytical View of Two Hospital Sites Occupied by People Experiencing Cancer †

PubMed Central

Hughes, Catherine; van Heugten, Kate; Keeling, Sally; Szekely, Francisc

2017-01-01

How do people with cancer occupy places within the health system during their journey through palliative care? The answer to this question was explored by the authors as part of a wider ethnographic study of eight people’s journeys from referral to palliative care services to the end of life. This article reports on findings that have emerged from ongoing analysis that has been completed in the years proceeding data collection. An ethnographic research design was used to collect data about the participants and their family members over a three-year period. Data was collected using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Over 380 transcripts based on field note entries and taped interviews were produced during the 1121 h of contact with participants and family members that made up the research period. Analysis of these texts identified two focal sites within Christchurch Hospital that were occupied by the participants. These were the Chemotherapy Suite and the Oncology Ward. Drawing on literature concerning previous anthropological analysis, research was conducted to understand how places affect people and how people affect places. The researchers have used a model outlined by the American ethnographer Miles Richardson to analyse two distinct sites within one hospital. As explained in Richardson’s article, whose title is used to model the title of this article, a sense of place becomes apparent when comparing and contrasting two sites within the same location. Richardson’s article is highly interpretative and relies not only on pre-existing theoretical frameworks but also on personal interpretation. The same approach has been used in the current article. Here, ethnographic methods require the researcher’s interpretation of how participants occupied these sites. Following this approach, the Chemotherapy Suite is presented as a place where medicine dominates illness, and appears as distinct from the Oncology Ward, where disease predominates and death is secreted away. PMID:28587264

Field Plan and Implementation Package for the Ethnographic Component of the Child and Family Mental Health Project Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macias, Jose; And Others

This report contains the field plan and implementation procedures which were utilized for the observational/focused ethnographic component of Head Start's Child and Family Mental Health (CFMH) Evaluation Project. The introductory section of the document provides the reader with an overview of the Head Start program, its mental health goals, the…

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.

The influence of pastors’ ideologies of homosexuality on HIV prevention in the Black Church

PubMed Central

Quinn, Katherine; Dickson-Gomez, Julia; Young, Staci

2016-01-01

Young, Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV and Black churches may be a source of stigma which can exacerbate HIV risk and contribute to negative health and psychosocial outcomes. Findings from this study are based on 21 semi-structured interviews with pastors and ethnographic observation in six Black Churches. Interview transcripts and field notes were analyzed in MAXQDA using thematic content analysis. Although pastors espoused messages of love and acceptance, they overwhelmingly believed homosexuality was a sin and had difficulty accepting YBMSM into their churches. The tension around homosexuality limited pastors’ involvement in HIV prevention efforts, although there still may be opportunities for some churches. PMID:27099095

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…

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

Effective Instructional Characteristics of Teachers of Junior High School Gifted Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wendel, Robert; Heiser, Sandra

1989-01-01

An ethnographic study analyzed videotapes using simulated recall procedure and comparative analysis of a student opinionnaire to determine effective characteristics of teachers of gifted junior high schools students. Desirable traits noted were humor, enthusiasm, creativity, care and respect for students, and high expectations. (MSE)

An ethnographic investigation of junior doctors' capacities to practice interprofessionally in three teaching hospitals.

PubMed

Milne, Jacqueline; Greenfield, David; Braithwaite, Jeffrey

2015-01-01

Collaborative practice among early career staff is at the bedrock of interprofessional care. This study investigated factors influencing the enactment of interprofessional practice by using the day-to-day role of six junior doctors in three teaching hospitals as a gateway to understand the various professions' interactive behaviours. The contextual framework used for the study was Strauss' theory of negotiated order. Ethnographic techniques were applied to observe the actions and interactions of participants on typical working days in their hospital environments. Field notes were created and thematic analysis was applied to the data. Three themes explored were culture, communication, and collaboration. Issues identified highlight the bounded organisational and professional cultures within which junior doctors work, and systemic problems in interprofessional interaction and communication in the wards of hospitals. There are indications that early career doctors are interprofessional isolates. The constraints of short training terms and pressure from multi-faceted demands on junior doctors can interfere with the establishment of meaningful relationships with nurses and other health professionals. The realisation of sustained interprofessional practice is, therefore, practically and structurally difficult. Enabling factors supporting the sharing of expertise are outweighed by barriers associated with professional and hospital organisational cultures, poor interprofessional communication, and the pressure of competing individual task demands in the course of daily practice.

Using peer ethnography to address health disparities among young urban Black and Latino men who have sex with men.

PubMed

Mutchler, Matt G; McKay, Tara; McDavitt, Bryce; Gordon, Kristie K

2013-05-01

We examined the effectiveness of peer ethnography to gain insider views on substance use and sex among a diverse range of high-risk substance-using Black and Latino young men who have sex with men. We recruited 9 peer ethnographers aged 21 to 24 years from youth programs for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in Los Angeles, California, and trained them in ethnography, study protocol, and human participant protection. Peer ethnographers collected 137 single-spaced pages of field notes in 2009 and 2010 derived from observation of 150 members of the target population. Peer ethnography revealed local language and phrasing and provided a window into new and different social contexts. Peers provided valuable information on current trends in substance use, revealing themes that needed to be addressed in further research, such as the use of substances during sex to "clock coin" (exchange sex for money and substances). These data enabled us to refine our recruitment strategies and ask more culturally relevant questions in a later phase of the study. The peer ethnography method can provide a sound basis for further research phases in multistage studies on numerous other social issues and with other hard-to-reach populations.

Visitors and Resident Autonomy: Spoken and Unspoken Rules in Assisted Living.

PubMed

Bennett, Colleen R; Frankowski, Ann Christine; Rubinstein, Robert L; Peeples, Amanda D; Perez, Rosa; Nemec, Mary; Tucker, Gretchen G

2017-04-01

This article explores resident autonomy in assisted living (AL) and the effects that visitors and visiting the AL have on that autonomy. We examine formal and informal policies that govern visiting in AL, stakeholders' views and enforcement of these policies, and the complex arrangements that visiting often entails in everyday life in the setting. Data are drawn from a multiyear ethnographic study of autonomy in AL. Research from multiple sites included participant observation, informal and in-depth, open-ended interviews of various stakeholders, and the writing of field notes. Research team biweekly discussions and the Atlas.ti software program facilitated coding and analysis of interview transcripts and fieldnotes. Our ethnographic data highlight complicated factors related to visitors and visiting in AL. We discuss two important aspects of visiting: (a) formal and informal policies at each setting; and (b) how resident autonomy is expressed or suppressed through rules about visiting in AL. Our data underscore the importance of resident autonomy and quality of care in relation to visitors and visiting, especially how this relationship is affected by inconsistent and confusing formal and informal visiting policies in AL. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

"A Friend Who Understand Fully": Notes on Humanizing Research in a Multiethnic Youth Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paris, Django

2011-01-01

In this article, I conceptualize ethnographic, qualitative, and social language research with marginalized and oppressed communities as "humanizing research". Humanizing research is a methodological stance, which requires that our inquiries involve dialogic consciousness-raising and the building of relationships of dignity and care for both…

Assessing the Value of Action Learning for Social Enterprises and Charities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Sue; Smith, Laurie

2017-01-01

In this paper we evaluate action learning for leaders of social enterprises and charities. Based on ethnographic research including participant observation, facilitator reflective diary notes and in-depth, qualitative interviews with participants of two action learning sets undertaken over eight months, analysed using Wenger, Trayner, and de Laat…

Personalisation and the Education Commodity: A Meta-Ethnographic Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beach, Dennis

2017-01-01

This article is based on a meta-ethnography of research about schools, school experiences and learning following the recent (post-market) introduction of personalisation policies in Swedish schools. It pays particular attention to issues of equity. Tensions between personalisation, privatisation and equity are discussed and it is noted that…

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.

Preconstructing Suspicion and Recasting Masculinity in Preschool Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pruit, John C.

2014-01-01

Although there is literature explaining how female ethnographers negotiate male-dominated research settings, there is a lack of literature explaining how male ethnographers negotiate female-dominated settings. It is, more or less, taken for granted the research settings males choose will be suitable for them. The field of early childhood…

Nature's Classroom: An Ethnographic Case Study of Environmental Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owens, Dorothea Jody

2012-01-01

This ethnographic case study examines the dynamic relationship between culture and environmental education within the context of a specific Florida-based public education program. The School District of Hillsborough County (SDHC) offers the program through a three-day field trip to the study site, Nature's Classroom, and accompanying classroom…

Teaching and Learning Color-Consciousness in a Color-Blind Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pezzetti, Karen

2016-01-01

In this ethnographic study, I draw on interviews, audiorecordings of course meetings, observation notes and student work to explore the experiences of White preservice teachers in two sections of a Social Contexts of Education course. The instructors of both sections sought to challenge students' color-blind racial ideologies. Whereas prior…

Aleut Dictionary (Unangam Tunudgusii). An Unabridged Lexicon of the Aleutian, Pribilof, and Commander Islands Aleut Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergsland, Knut, Comp.

This comprehensive dictionary draws on ethnographic and linguistic work of the Aleut language and culture dating to 1745. An introductory section explains the dictionary's format, offers a brief historical survey, and contains notes on Aleut phonology and orthography, dialectal differences and developments, Eskimo-Aleut phonological…

The Inner Representation of the Dead Child and the Worldviews of Bereaved Parents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klass, Dennis

1993-01-01

Notes that trauma of child's death challenges parents' worldview. Demonstrates how the task of affirming or remolding one's worldview is consistently intertwined with parents' continued interaction with inner representation of their dead child. Data are presented from 10-year ethnographic study of self-help group of bereaved parents. (Author/NB)

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;…

Shifting Positions in Physical Education--Notes on Otherness, Sameness, Absence and Presence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berg, Paivi

2010-01-01

This article examines the experiences of the researched and the researcher using ethnographic data from interviews with students (13-14-year-olds) and teachers and from participant observation in physical education classes at a Finnish secondary school. Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective is used as a frame of reference. In this…

The meaning of early intervention: A parent's experience and reflection on interactions with professionals using a phenomenological ethnographic approach.

PubMed

Lee, Yoon H

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to describe how a parent's partnership with professionals progresses and evolves throughout the service provisioning process. Using a phenomenological ethnographic approach, the lived reality of a family is depicted as the parent walks through different stages of the Individualized Family Service Plan process over a 6-month period. Data concerning parent-professional interactions were obtained via observation notes and document reviews whereas data regarding parent perceptions were collected through multiple individual interviews. Overall, the parent conveyed her satisfaction with actual services especially regarding the professionals' knowledge and parental advocacy. However, the parent also indicated frustration with the early intervention planning process and "obligated" partnerships with providers. In particular, the providers' lack of sensitivity was noted, and greater emotional and psychological support was suggested. The overall process of developing partnerships with professionals can be excessively intrusive to the family's lives. Future research directions are offered as a contribution for the development of improved policies for early intervention programs regarding family-centered practice, utilizing the perspectives of families.

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…

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…

["Tèt asanm pou la sante": ethnographic notes on international cooperation for health in Haiti].

PubMed

Esteves, Uliana

2016-01-01

This article discusses the functioning of a health-oriented development project pursued in an emergency situation and its impacts beyond its stated goals. The tripartite project between Brazil, Haiti, and Cuba was designed to strengthen Haiti's health and epidemiologic surveillance system, introduced in 2010 as part of the aid effort after the earthquake. An essentially ethnographic perspective is taken, with a focus on describing the practices and perspectives of the agents involved in the program. The networks of agents were mapped out, paying particular attention to translators, drivers, and journalists, who were understood as being "cooperation brokers". Finally, the article discusses the project's position in the broader context of international health initiatives in Haiti.

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…

Mexican-Heritage Children's Attention and Learning from Interactions Directed to Others

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silva, Katie G.; Correa-Chavez, Maricela; Rogoff, Barbara

2010-01-01

The study builds on ethnographic research noting an emphasis in many Indigenous communities of the Americas on learning through keen observation of and participation in ongoing community activities. Forty-four U.S. Mexican-heritage 5- to 11-year-old children whose families likely have experience with Indigenous ways more frequently attended to and…

Sometimes There Are No Notes: An Auto Ethnographic Essay of a Collaboration at the Engagement Interface

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doberneck, Diane M.; Miller, Paula K.; Schweitzer, John H.

2012-01-01

This autoethnographic essay represents the authors' critical reflection on their experiences partnering with Liz Lerman and Dance Exchange (a dance company) artists on a collaborative evaluation of "The Matter of Origins", a contemporary art and science dance performance. They describe meaningful moments in their collaboration and reexamine those…

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.

"Is it worth risking your life?" Ethnography, risk and death on the U.S.-Mexico border.

PubMed

Holmes, Seth M

2013-12-01

Every year, several hundred people die attempting to cross the border from Mexico into the United States, most often from dehydration and heat stroke though snake bites and violent assaults are also common. This article utilizes participant observation fieldwork in the borderlands of the US and Mexico to explore the experience of structural vulnerability and bodily health risk along the desert trek into the US. Between 2003 and 2005, the ethnographer recorded interviews and conversations with undocumented immigrants crossing the border, border patrol agents, border activists, borderland residents, and armed civilian vigilantes. In addition, he took part in a border crossing beginning in the Mexican state of Oaxaca and ending in a border patrol jail in Arizona after he and his undocumented Mexican research subjects were apprehended trekking through the borderlands. Field notes and interview transcriptions provide thick ethnographic detail demonstrating the ways in which social, ethnic, and citizenship differences as well as border policies force certain categories of people to put their bodies, health, and lives at risk in order for them and their families to survive. Yet, metaphors of individual choice deflect responsibility from global economic policy and US border policy, subtly blaming migrants for the danger - and sometimes death - they experience. The article concludes with policy changes to make US-Mexico labor migration less deadly. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Power of Accounts: Ethnographic Research in a Professional Educational Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coffey, Amanda

This paper explores the dynamic nature of the power relationship within social research, concentrating on the production and reproduction of a text of the field and focusing on the processes of recording, writing, and reading. It draws on ethnographic research conducted in a United Kingdom office of an international firm of chartered accountants…

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…

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…

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.

Queer in the field: on emotions, temporality, and performativity in ethnography.

PubMed

Rooke, Alison

2009-01-01

This article is a reflection on a year of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in and around a lesbian and gay community center in London. The research was concerned with the ways in which working class lesbian and bisexual women experience the meanings of their sexual identities on an everyday basis. I conducted participant observation in a variety of settings. Activities I took part in included volunteering at the center and running sexualities discussion groups, and photographic workshops with lesbian and bisexual women. In this article I explore the epistemological, ontological, and ethical dimensions of ethnographic research. I argue here that queer ethnography is not merely ethnography that has focus on researching queer lives, it is also a matter of taking queer theory seriously in order to question the conventions of ethnographic research, specifically the stability and coherence of the ethnographic self and performativity of the ethnographic self in writing and doing research. To queer ethnography then, is to bend the established orientation of ethnography in its method, ethics, and reflexive philosophical principles.

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.

Native American Youth Discourses on Language Shift and Retention: Ideological Cross-Currents and Their Implications for Language Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Teresa L.; Romero-Little, Mary Eunice; Zepeda, Ofelia

2006-01-01

This paper examines preliminary findings from an ongoing federally funded study of Native language shift and retention in the US Southwest, focusing on in-depth ethnographic interviews with Navajo youth. We begin with an overview of Native American linguistic ecologies, noting the dynamic, variegated and complex nature of language proficiencies…

Fairy Tales and Other Stories as Spiritual Guides for Children of War: An Auto-Ethnographic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feuerverger, Grace

2010-01-01

This article dares to suggest that the use of fairy tales as a pedagogical tool for children in and out of classrooms is and always will be about uplifting the human spirit: a way to survive; a pathway toward hope, especially for vulnerable children suffering from the trauma of war. (Contains 1 note.)

Male Teachers in Early Childhood Education: Self & Social Perceptions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaham, Dan

Noting that men make up only a small percentage of early childhood and day care educators, a study was conducted to assess male teachers' points of view and attitudes. The self- and social-perceptions of 5 male preschool teachers between the ages of 22 and 50 were determined through ethnographic interviews. It was found that, as a group, the male…

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…

[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.

Nurses’ Experiences of Managing and Management in a Critical Care Unit

PubMed Central

Ogle, K. Robyn; Glass, Nel

2014-01-01

In this article, we describe the major findings of an ethnographic study undertaken to investigate nurses’ experiences of managing nurses and being managed by nurses in an Australian critical care unit. Our purpose was to valorize and make space for nurses to speak of their experiences and investigate the cultural practices and knowledges that comprised nursing management discourses. Subjugated practices, knowledges, and discourses were identified, revealing how nurses were inscribed by, or resisted, the discourses, including their multiple mobile subject positions. Informed by critical, feminist, and postmodern perspectives, nine mobile subject positions were identified. Direct participant observation, participant interviews, and reflective field notes were analyzed for dominant and subjugated discourses. The major finding described is the subject position of “junior novice.” Nurses informed by dominant patriarchal and organizational discourses participated in constructing and reinscribing their own submissive identity reflected in interprofessional relations that lacked individual valuing and undermined their self-esteem. PMID:28462287

Reading, writing, and having babies: a nurturing alternative school program.

PubMed

Spear, Hila J

2002-10-01

This ethnographic study, a component of another study that examined the lived experiences of a small group of pregnant teenagers, focused on the social and learning environment of an alternative school program for pregnant and parenting female adolescents, aged 13 to 19. Field notes, participant observation, group discussion, and informal conversational data were gathered over a 16-week period. Analysis of the data revealed four major themes: nurture and positive regard, sisterhood and belonging, mentoring and sense of family, and proactive learning environment and academic pride. The girls who attended the program developed close relationships with their peers and teachers. Many of them experienced academic success for the first time and reported that pregnancy and impending motherhood motivated them to do better in school. Recommendations for a more comprehensive school-based approach to meeting the needs of pregnant and parenting teens are made, particularly after the babies are born.

The fear factor of risk - clinical governance and midwifery talk and practice in the UK.

PubMed

Scamell, Mandie

2016-07-01

Through the critical application of social theory, this paper will scrutinise how the operations of risk management help to constitute midwives׳ understandings of childbirth in a particular way. Drawing from rich ethnographic data, collected in the southeast of England, the paper presents empirical evidence to critically explore how institutional concerns around risk and risk management impact upon the way midwives can legitimately imagine and manage labour and childbirth. Observational field notes, transcribed interviews with various midwives, along with material culture in the form of documentary evidence will be used to explore the unintended consequences of clinical governance and its risk management technologies. Through this analysis the fear factor of risk in midwifery talk and practice will be introduced to provide an insight into how risk management impacts midwifery practice in the UK. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The good field trip: How elementary students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds learn science, art, and technology at a museum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martell, Sandra Toro

The Good Field Trip is a study that uses an ethnographic approach to answer the question of what learning looks like during a field trip to a museum. The study uses the Contextual Model of Learning (Falk & Dierking, 2000) to investigate elementary students' personal, physical, and sociocultural contexts of learning as well as how time affects students' thoughts and feelings about the experience. The author accompanied a group of eight students on a three and a half day camp-like experience to a museum that promotes environmental stewardship and the integration of art, science, and technology use and learning. The author videotaped the students' conversations and experiences and interviewed students before, during, and after the trip. Analyses of the videotapes were supplemented with student documents, including comic books, journal notes, and reflective essays about the trip. Findings include that not all experiences are marked as science, art, and technology; technology use does not occur; art is presented in a more formalized manner than science, which is composed of observation and the acquisition of knowledge about plants and animals; and conversations and activities resemble traditional modes of learning in school settings.

Criminalisation of clients: reproducing vulnerabilities for violence and poor health among street-based sex workers in Canada—a qualitative study

PubMed Central

Krüsi, A; Pacey, K; Bird, L; Taylor, C; Chettiar, J; Allan, S; Bennett, D; Montaner, J S; Kerr, T; Shannon, K

2014-01-01

Objectives To explore how criminalisation and policing of sex buyers (clients) rather than sex workers shapes sex workers’ working conditions and sexual transactions including risk of violence and HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Design Qualitative and ethnographic study triangulated with sex work-related violence prevalence data and publicly available police statistics. Setting Vancouver, Canada, provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of policies that criminalise clients as the local police department adopted a sex work enforcement policy in January 2013 that prioritises sex workers’ safety over arrest, while continuing to target clients. Participants 26 cisgender and 5 transgender women who were street-based sex workers (n=31) participated in semistructured interviews about their working conditions. All had exchanged sex for money in the previous 30 days in Vancouver. Outcome measures Thematic analysis of interview transcripts and ethnographic field notes focused on how police enforcement of clients shaped sex workers’ working conditions and sexual transactions, including risk of violence and HIV/STIs, over an 11-month period postpolicy implementation (January–November 2013). Results Sex workers’ narratives and ethnographic observations indicated that while police sustained a high level of visibility, they eased charging or arresting sex workers and showed increased concern for their safety. However, participants’ accounts and police statistics indicated continued police enforcement of clients. This profoundly impacted the safety strategies sex workers employed. Sex workers continued to mistrust police, had to rush screening clients and were displaced to outlying areas with increased risks of violence, including being forced to engage in unprotected sex. Conclusions These findings suggest that criminalisation and policing strategies that target clients reproduce the harms created by the criminalisation of sex work, in particular, vulnerability to violence and HIV/STIs. The current findings support decriminalisation of sex work to ensure work conditions that support the health and safety of sex workers in Canada and globally. PMID:24889853

Specimens as records: scientific practice and recordkeeping in natural history research.

PubMed

Ilerbaig, Juan

2010-01-01

For the past two decades, scholars in archival science have begun to question traditional assumptions about the nature of the record. Drawing on theories from fields such as sociology, organization theory, and science studies, and on their own ethnographic studies, they propose more inclusive definitions and widening the contexts of analysis of record making and recordkeeping. This paper continues this critical consideration of the concept of record by examining the nature of nonprototypical records in the scientific world. The paper focuses on the system of specimens and field notes established by biologist Joseph Grinnell at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (University of California, Berkeley) as a means of examining several aspects of the nature of the scientific record: materiality, representation, and the triad evidence/memory/accountability. Focusing on the creation and management of these scientific records, the paper argues that further analyses of scientific record making and recordkeeping are bound to benefit both scientific work, which depends more and more on databases and archives, as well as archival science, which is becoming more relevant beyond its traditional realm of the legal/business/administrative world.

Food for thought: an ethnographic study of negotiating ill health and food insecurity in a UK foodbank.

PubMed

Garthwaite, K A; Collins, P J; Bambra, C

2015-05-01

Emergency foodbanks have become an increasingly prominent and controversial feature of austerity in Europe and the USA. In the UK, foodbanks have been called a 'public health emergency'. Despite this, there has been no UK research examining the health of foodbank users. Through an ethnographic study, this paper is the first to explore the health and health perceptions of foodbank users via a case study of Stockton-on-Tees in the North East of England, UK during a period of welfare reform and austerity. Participant observation, field notes and interviews with foodbank users and volunteers were conducted over a seventeen month period (November 2013 to March 2015) inside a Trussell Trust foodbank. Foodbank users were almost exclusively of working age, both men and women, with and without dependent children. All were on very low incomes - from welfare benefits or insecure, poorly paid employment. Many had pre-existing health problems which were exacerbated by their poverty and food insecurity. The latter meant although foodbank users were well aware of the importance and constitution of a healthy diet, they were usually unable to achieve this for financial reasons - constantly having to negotiate their food insecurity. More typically they had to access poor quality, readily available, filling, processed foods. Foodbank users are facing the everyday reality of health inequalities at a time of ongoing austerity in the UK. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lean leadership: an ethnographic study.

PubMed

Aij, Kjeld Harald; Visse, Merel; Widdershoven, Guy A M

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to provide a critical analysis of contemporary Lean leadership in the context of a healthcare practice. The Lean leadership model supports professionals with a leading role in implementing Lean. This article presents a case study focusing specifically on leadership behaviours and issues that were experienced, observed and reported in a Dutch university medical centre. This ethnographic case study provides auto-ethnographic accounts based on experiences, participant observation, interviews and document analysis. Characteristics of Lean leadership were identified to establish an understanding of how to achieve successful Lean transformation. This study emphasizes the importance for Lean leaders to go to the gemba, to see the situation for one's own self, empower health-care employees and be modest. All of these are critical attributes in defining the Lean leadership mindset. In this case study, Lean leadership is specifically related to healthcare, but certain common leadership characteristics are relevant across all fields. This article shows the value of an auto-ethnographic view on management learning for the analysis of Lean leadership. The knowledge acquired through this research is based on the first author's experiences in fulfilling his role as a health-care leader. This may help the reader examining his/her own role and reflecting on what matters most in the field of Lean leadership.

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.

The Politics of Pleasure: An Ethnographic Examination Exploring the Dominance of the Multi-Activity Sport-Based Physical Education Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerdin, Göran; Pringle, Richard

2017-01-01

Kirk warns that physical education (PE) exists in a precarious situation as the dominance of the multi-activity sport-techniques model, and its associated problems, threatens the long-term educational survival of PE. Yet he also notes that although the model is problematic it is highly resistant to change. In this paper, we draw on the results of…

Higher satisfaction with ethnographic edutainment using YouTube among medical students in Thailand

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Purpose: At present, transformative learning is one of the most important issues in medical education, since a conventional learning environment is prone to failure due to changing patterns among students. Ethnographic edutainment is a concept that consists of reward, competition, and motivation strategies that be used to effectively engage with learners. Methods: A total 321 first-year medical students took part in ethnographic edutainment sessions in 2011. We defined four preset learning objectives and assigned a term group project using clouding technologies. Participatory evaluation was conducted to assess the delivery of and attitudes towards this method. Results: Career lifestyles in the general population and expected real-life utilization of the final product were used as motivating factors, with competition and rewards provided through a short film contest. Nineteen out of twenty groups (95%) achieved all learning objectives. Females were more satisfied with this activity than males (P<0.001). We found statistically significant differences between lecture-based sessions and field visit sessions, as well as ethnographic edutainment activity sessions and other instructional approaches (P<0.01). The results were consistent in male and female groups. Conclusion: Ethnographic edutainment is well accepted, with higher satisfaction rates than other types of teaching. The concepts of health promotion and the social determinants of health can be learned through ethnographic edutainment activities, which might help train more humanized health professionals. PMID:25043927

Higher satisfaction with ethnographic edutainment using YouTube among medical students in Thailand.

PubMed

Woratanarat, Thira

2014-07-07

At present, transformative learning is one of the most important issues in medical education, since a conventional learning environment is prone to failure due to changing patterns among students. Ethnographic edutainment is a concept that consists of reward, competition, and motivation strategies that be used to effectively engage with learners. A total 321 first-year medical students took part in ethnographic edutainment sessions in 2011. We defined four preset learning objectives and assigned a term group project using clouding technologies. Participatory evaluation was conducted to assess the delivery of and attitudes towards this method. Career lifestyles in the general population and expected real-life utilization of the final product were used as motivating factors, with competition and rewards provided through a short film contest. Nineteen out of twenty groups (95%) achieved all learning objectives. Females were more satisfied with this activity than males (P<0.001). We found statistically significant differences between lecture-based sessions and field visit sessions, as well as ethnographic edutainment activity sessions and other instructional approaches (P<0.01). The results were consistent in male and female groups. Ethnographic edutainment is well accepted, with higher satisfaction rates than other types of teaching. The concepts of health promotion and the social determinants of health can be learned through ethnographic edutainment activities, which might help train more humanized health professionals.

Sociocultural contexts and worker safety and health: findings of a study with Chinese immigrant restaurant workers.

PubMed

Tsai, Jenny; Bruck, Annie

2009-02-01

More immigrants are seeking employment in restaurants. Drawing data from an ethnographic study, this article discusses what and how sociocultural contexts shape the safety and health of immigrant restaurant workers. Eighteen Chinese immigrants from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan participated in the study. Data generation methods included a questionnaire, individual and focus group interviews, and participant observations. Ethnographic analysis revealed that immigration mechanisms, demands of English proficiency for employment, and existence of networks and ethnic communities shaped the participants' employment choices. Working hours and schedules, interpersonal relationships at work, job design and training, occupational safety and health training, and national events and economy further influenced the participants' occupational experiences and well-being. Issues were noted with job security, mental health, family relationships, and risks for occupational injuries and illnesses. Implications for occupational health nursing research and practice to reduce immigrant workers' vulnerability to poor safety and health outcomes conclude this article.

Echoes from the Field: An Ethnographic Investigation of Outdoor Science Field Trips

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boxerman, Jonathan Zvi

2013-01-01

As popular as field trips are, one might think they have been well-studied. Nonetheless, field trips have not been heavily studied, and little research has mapped what actually transpires during field trips. Accordingly, to address this research gap, I asked two related research questions. The first question is a descriptive one: What happens on…

Hey girlfriend: an evaluation of AIDS prevention among women in the sex industry.

PubMed

Dorfman, L E; Derish, P A; Cohen, J B

1992-01-01

Increasingly, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention programs have been developed to reach and influence street-based populations. Standard methods of evaluation do not fit the conditions of such programs. This article describes a process and outcome evaluation of an AIDS prevention program for sex workers in which qualitative and quantitative methods were combined in order to mediate research problems endemic to street-based populations. Methods included epidemiological questionnaires, open-ended interviews with participants, and ethnographic field notes. Process evaluation findings show that field staff who were indigenous to the neighborhood and population readily gained access to the community of sex workers and simultaneously became role models for positive behavior change. Outcome findings show that sex workers do feel at risk for AIDS, but usually from clients rather than from husbands or boyfriends. Accordingly, they use condoms more frequently with clients than with steady partners. Increasing condom use among sex workers with their steady partners remains an important challenge for AIDS prevention. Combining qualitative and quantitative research data provided a more comprehensive assessment of how to reach sex workers with effective AIDS risk reduction messages than either method could have provided alone.

A short report on knowledge exchange through research-based theatre: ‘Inside out of mind’

PubMed Central

Schneider, Justine; Lowe, Stephen; Myers, Tanya; Scales, Kezia; Bailey, Simon; Middleton, Joanne

2014-01-01

The short report describes the development from page to stage of a work of theatre based on an ethnographic study. The originating research focused on the work of health care assistants (nurse's aides) whose direct impact on the quality of life of highly dependent people is often overlooked. The research followed hospital personnel on wards specialising in the 'challenging behaviour' associated with dementia in central England. Conventional research outputs failed to engage the health care assistants themselves, so we turned to theatre to remedy this. The development of the field notes into theatre was characterised by the artistic freedom given to the playwright, in contrast to more data-led approaches to theatre making. The account of the process of creating the play, Inside Out of Mind, is followed a description of how the work was received by specialist and general audiences totalling 2000+. The discussion seeks to locate the whole enterprise in relation to the field of research-based theatre and explores how the production and its associated learning events relate to definitions of research-based theatre in the light of recent attempts to encapsulate this broad and diverse methodology. PMID:25103152

An ethnographic study of diabetes health beliefs and practices in Sri Lankan adults.

PubMed

Amarasekara, A A T D; Fongkaew, W; Turale, S; Wimalasekara, S W; Chanprasit, C

2014-12-01

Globally, type 2 diabetes is increasingly prevalent; however, unique cultural contexts in each country might affect these diabetes control behaviours. Diabetes is a serious health issue in Sri Lanka and little is known about the impact of sociocultural context on diabetes health behaviours. This first-time qualitative Sri Lankan study explored the health beliefs and practices of adults with diabetes to enhance current nursing care and medical treatment. An ethnographic approach was used to collect data through participant observations, in-depth interviews with 14 key informants in their homes and field notes. Data were analysed by thematic analysis. Findings revealed unique, informative insights into sociocultural worlds of the participants from three Sinhalese, Tamils and Moor ethnic groups. Findings are described under five themes: gaining religious support, changing food habits is a struggle, exercising is challenging, Western medicine causes long-term consequences and Ayurveda/traditional treatments can cure. In Sri Lankans, the impact of sociocultural context on glycaemic control behaviours is significant and should be taken in consideration when health professionals provide care, treatment and health education. Study informants were selected from three ethnic groups and just two communities. Further in-depth research is required using both qualitative and quantitative approaches in individual groups. Culturally relevant policies and protocols for community care and treatment of people with diabetes are urgently required in Sri Lanka to enhance cultural treatment and care and reduce the epidemic of diabetes. These policies need to take into account traditional beliefs and practices of various ethnic groups. © 2014 International Council of Nurses.

The influence of geopolitical change on the well-being of a population: the Berlin Wall.

PubMed

Héon-Klin, V; Sieber, E; Huebner, J; Fullilove, M T

2001-03-01

Social cohesion is recognized as a fundamental condition for healthy populations, but social cohesion itself arises from political unity. The history of the Berlin Wall provides a unique opportunity to examine the effects of partition on social cohesion and, by inference, on health. This ethnographic study consisted of examination of the territory formerly occupied by the Wall, formal and informal interviews with Berlin residents, and collection of cultural documents related to the Wall. Transcripts, field notes, and documents were examined by means of a keyword-in-context analysis. The separation of Berlin into 2 parts was a traumatic experience for the city's residents. After partition, East and West Germany had divergent social, cultural, and political experiences and gradually grew apart. The demolition of the Wall--the symbol and the instrument of partition--makes possible but does not ensure the reintegration of 2 populations that were separated for 40 years. The evolution of a new common culture might be accelerated by active attempts at cultural and social exchange.

Voices used by nurses when communicating with patients and relatives in a department of medicine for older people-An ethnographic study.

PubMed

Johnsson, Anette; Boman, Åse; Wagman, Petra; Pennbrant, Sandra

2018-04-01

To describe how nurses communicate with older patients and their relatives in a department of medicine for older people in western Sweden. Communication is an essential tool for nurses when working with older patients and their relatives, but often patients and relatives experience shortcomings in the communication exchanges. They may not receive information or are not treated in a professional way. Good communication can facilitate the development of a positive meeting and improve the patient's health outcome. An ethnographic design informed by the sociocultural perspective was applied. Forty participatory observations were conducted and analysed during the period October 2015-September 2016. The observations covered 135 hours of nurse-patient-relative interaction. Field notes were taken, and 40 informal field conversations with nurses and 40 with patients and relatives were carried out. Semistructured follow-up interviews were conducted with five nurses. In the result, it was found that nurses communicate with four different voices: a medical voice described as being incomplete, task-oriented and with a disease perspective; a nursing voice described as being confirmatory, process-oriented and with a holistic perspective; a pedagogical voice described as being contextualised, comprehension-oriented and with a learning perspective; and a power voice described as being distancing and excluding. The voices can be seen as context-dependent communication approaches. When nurses switch between the voices, this indicates a shift in the orientation or situation. The results indicate that if nurses successfully combine the voices, while limiting the use of the power voice, the communication exchanges can become a more positive experience for all parties involved and a good nurse-patient-relative communication exchange can be achieved. Working for improved communication between nurses, patients and relatives is crucial for establishing a positive nurse-patient-relative relationship, which is a basis for improving patient care and healthcare outcomes. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

When general practitioners meet new evidence: an exploratory ethnographic study

PubMed Central

Olsen, Ole

2017-01-01

Objective To explore how general practitioners (GPs) think and act when presented with new evidence in relation to planned home birth and a proposal to change information practices. Design Exploratory ethnographic study of GPs. The GPs were encountered one or more times during a two-year period, 2011–2013, while the author tried to set up formal focus group interviews. Dialogues about the evidence, personal experiences, values and other issues unavoidably occurred. Field notes were written concomitantly. Setting Danish GPs, primarily in Copenhagen. Subjects Fifty Danish GPs. Results The GPs reacted very differently, both spontaneously and later. Spontaneous reactions were often emotional involving private and professional experiences whereas later reactions were more influenced by rational deliberations. Approximately half the GPs (n = 18) who were asked whether they would personally hand out the local information leaflet about home birth were prepared to do so. The time lag between presentation of the evidence and the GPs’ decision to hand out the leaflets was up to one and a half year. Conclusions A significant number of GPs were prepared to change their information practices. However, for many GPs, the new evidence challenged previous perceptions, and ample time and resources for dialogue, deliberations and adaptation to local circumstances were required to accommodate change. Implications Changing information practices on a larger scale will require a systematic approach involving key stakeholders. Key Points Current awareness•Patients and pregnant women should receive evidence-based information about possible choices of care – also in relation to place of birth. Most important results•Doctors often find the new evidence supporting planned home birth counterintuitive and spontaneously react emotionally rather than rationally to the evidence.•The new evidence challenging previous views elicits fast, emotional reactions, later deliberate reflections, perhaps cognitive dissonance and, finally, for some, change in clinical practice. Significance for the readers•The findings may be applicable to other fields where an evidence-based choice between an interventionist and a conservative approach is relevant. PMID:29183265

When general practitioners meet new evidence: an exploratory ethnographic study.

PubMed

Olsen, Ole

2017-12-01

To explore how general practitioners (GPs) think and act when presented with new evidence in relation to planned home birth and a proposal to change information practices. Exploratory ethnographic study of GPs. The GPs were encountered one or more times during a two-year period, 2011-2013, while the author tried to set up formal focus group interviews. Dialogues about the evidence, personal experiences, values and other issues unavoidably occurred. Field notes were written concomitantly. Danish GPs, primarily in Copenhagen. Fifty Danish GPs. The GPs reacted very differently, both spontaneously and later. Spontaneous reactions were often emotional involving private and professional experiences whereas later reactions were more influenced by rational deliberations. Approximately half the GPs (n = 18) who were asked whether they would personally hand out the local information leaflet about home birth were prepared to do so. The time lag between presentation of the evidence and the GPs' decision to hand out the leaflets was up to one and a half year. A significant number of GPs were prepared to change their information practices. However, for many GPs, the new evidence challenged previous perceptions, and ample time and resources for dialogue, deliberations and adaptation to local circumstances were required to accommodate change. Changing information practices on a larger scale will require a systematic approach involving key stakeholders. Key Points Current awareness•Patients and pregnant women should receive evidence-based information about possible choices of care - also in relation to place of birth. Most important results•Doctors often find the new evidence supporting planned home birth counterintuitive and spontaneously react emotionally rather than rationally to the evidence.•The new evidence challenging previous views elicits fast, emotional reactions, later deliberate reflections, perhaps cognitive dissonance and, finally, for some, change in clinical practice. Significance for the readers•The findings may be applicable to other fields where an evidence-based choice between an interventionist and a conservative approach is relevant.

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.

JPRS Report, Soviet Union, Kommunist, No. 8, May 1989

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-08-11

in which ethnographic ties were combined with moral ties, an awareness of spiritual unity, and a community of historical destinies and interests...historical destinies ," noted by Klyuchevskiy. This text does not seem to include the word "nation." But what is a people which has "become a state...toward the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries. S. Karaganov pointed out the fact that the embryos of the new political thinking appeared

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.

Criminalisation of clients: reproducing vulnerabilities for violence and poor health among street-based sex workers in Canada-a qualitative study.

PubMed

Krüsi, A; Pacey, K; Bird, L; Taylor, C; Chettiar, J; Allan, S; Bennett, D; Montaner, J S; Kerr, T; Shannon, K

2014-06-02

To explore how criminalisation and policing of sex buyers (clients) rather than sex workers shapes sex workers' working conditions and sexual transactions including risk of violence and HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Qualitative and ethnographic study triangulated with sex work-related violence prevalence data and publicly available police statistics. Vancouver, Canada, provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of policies that criminalise clients as the local police department adopted a sex work enforcement policy in January 2013 that prioritises sex workers' safety over arrest, while continuing to target clients. 26 cisgender and 5 transgender women who were street-based sex workers (n=31) participated in semistructured interviews about their working conditions. All had exchanged sex for money in the previous 30 days in Vancouver. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts and ethnographic field notes focused on how police enforcement of clients shaped sex workers' working conditions and sexual transactions, including risk of violence and HIV/STIs, over an 11-month period postpolicy implementation (January-November 2013). Sex workers' narratives and ethnographic observations indicated that while police sustained a high level of visibility, they eased charging or arresting sex workers and showed increased concern for their safety. However, participants' accounts and police statistics indicated continued police enforcement of clients. This profoundly impacted the safety strategies sex workers employed. Sex workers continued to mistrust police, had to rush screening clients and were displaced to outlying areas with increased risks of violence, including being forced to engage in unprotected sex. These findings suggest that criminalisation and policing strategies that target clients reproduce the harms created by the criminalisation of sex work, in particular, vulnerability to violence and HIV/STIs. The current findings support decriminalisation of sex work to ensure work conditions that support the health and safety of sex workers in Canada and globally. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

The Growing Popularity of Prescription Opioid Injection in Downtown Montréal: New Challenges for Harm Reduction

PubMed Central

Roy, Élise; Arruda, Nelson; Bourgois, Phillipe

2011-01-01

Starting in 2007, a 2-year study based on ethnographic methodology was carried out downtown Montréal, Canada. A thematic analysis of observational and interview-based notes was conducted. Illicit prescription opioid (PO) use was widespread among street-based participants. Injection was the main mode of PO administration observed among users. Some injection practices such as “doing a wash” could pose new challenges in terms of prevention of infections. More research is needed to examine the role of illicit PO use in the development of opiate addiction and to better understand drug-using contexts that put PO users at risk of infections. The study’s limitations are noted. PMID:21370963

[Ethnographic approaches to research and intervention in mental health].

PubMed

Nunes, Mônica de Oliveira; de Torrenté, Maurice

2013-10-01

The specifics of ethnographic approaches to mental health research are examined, highlighting the motives why the type of knowledge produced by ethnography is relevant to the context of Psychiatric Reform and the biomedicalization of existence. The discussion is focused on interpretation-based ethnography in the field of mental health, stressing the theoretical and methodological foundations of a comprehensive form of apprehending the scope of mental health as an object akin to a clinic of the individual. The centrality of social and cultural aspects in the ethnographic approach and the inflexions mediated by the type of ethnographic methodological undertaking is stressed. Lastly, the ethnography of madness is seen as a fitting example that substantiates some of these characteristics. The contention is that accessing psychotic persons (and others who may speak about these experiences) from varied areas of their daily life, situated in their various social inscriptions, while confronting these interpretations with other interpretative dimensions of their social reality and within the logic linked to local psychologies, is a pertinent procedure, from whence certain aspects of an understanding of madness (or causes of its incomprehension) can emerge.

Astronomy in Buginese-Makassarese culture based on historical and ethnographical sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasanah, N.; Suriamihardja, D. A.

2016-11-01

Our research has been looking for astronomical aspects in Buginese-Makassarese culture from historical to ethnographical sources. We found from history that astronomy had been used by Buginese - Makassar society long before Islam came to South Sulawesi at early 17th century and had their own first telescope at the time of Gowa's Prime Minister, Karaeng Pattingaloang. Meanwhile from ethnographical source, utilization of astronomy penetrated not only at Islamic calendar and worship time, but also at agriculture, sailing navigation, and weather prediction. Some of our literature were taken from Lontaraq (ancient manuscript) which now the experts are not many and old, especially in the field of astronomy. It was found that Lontaraq was using lunar period to characterize local weather [called: Pananrang]. Therefore, we need to excavate immediately more about this matter before the experts reduced in number.

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.

Fieldwork in nursing research: positionality, practicalities and predicaments.

PubMed

Borbasi, Sally; Jackson, Debra; Wilkes, Lesley

2005-09-01

This paper draws on the literature to explore some of the issues of concern to nurses undertaking fieldwork in contemporary healthcare settings. The emergence of poststructuralist and postmodern perspectives has raised questions about ethnographic approaches, and problematized the role of researchers in the construction of plausible and credible ethnographic accounts. As a practice discipline, nursing needs to negotiate a thorny path between methodological purity and practical application, with nurse researchers required to take account of both philosophical and pragmatic concerns. There is general agreement that researching with an individual or group rather than researching on an individual or group is the more effective way to approach fieldwork. Feminist writers appear to have dealt with this issue best, advocating intimacy, self-disclosure, and reciprocity in encounters with research participants. The duality of the nurse researcher role; power and politics and the moral implications of fieldwork are acknowledged as factors influencing nurses in the planning and conduct of fieldwork. Nurses as researchers may be better equipped than other social researchers to deal with contingencies in the field. Laying the epistemological ground for the participant observer role during fieldwork and understanding its impact on the resultant ethnographic account is essential to methodological rigour in field research. Consideration of some of the practicalities and predicaments experienced by nurses as researchers when conducting fieldwork prior to going out into the field is an important research strategy and will facilitate methodological potency.

Ethnographic perspectives on global mental health.

PubMed

Jain, Sumeet; Orr, David M R

2016-12-01

The field of Global Mental Health (GMH) aims to influence mental health policy and practice worldwide, with a focus on human rights and access to care. There have been important achievements, but GMH has also been the focus of scholarly controversies arising from political, cultural, and pragmatic critiques. These debates have become increasingly polarized, giving rise to a need for more dialogue and experience-near research to inform theorizing. Ethnography has much to offer in this respect. This paper frames and introduces five articles in this issue of Transcultural Psychiatry that illustrate the role of ethnographic methods in understanding the effects and implications of the field of global mental health on mental health policy and practice. The papers include ethnographies from South Africa, India, and Tonga that show the potential for ethnographic evidence to inform GMH projects. These studies provide nuanced conceptualizations of GMH's varied manifestations across different settings, the diverse ways that GMH's achievements can be evaluated, and the connections that can be drawn between locally observed experiences and wider historical, political, and social phenomena. Ethnography can provide a basis for constructive dialogue between those engaged in developing and implementing GMH interventions and those critical of some of its approaches.

Ethnomathematics in Perspective of Sundanese Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdullah, Atje Setiawan

2017-01-01

This study is an exploratory research aims to find and know about a phenomenon by exploration. Therefore, the approach used in this study is ethnographic approach, an empirical and theoretical approach to get description and deep analysis about a culture based on field study. From the sustainable interviews and confirmation about field research…

Mathematics teacher professional development in and through internet use: reflections on an ethnographic study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patahuddin, Sitti Maesuri

2013-12-01

This paper is a reflection on a model for mathematics teacher professional development with respect to technology. The model was informed by three interrelated concepts: (1) a theory of teacher professional development from analysis of the field, (2) the zone theory of teacher professional learning, and (3) ethnography as a method. The model was applied in a study that focused on the uses of the Internet for primary mathematics teacher professional development, particularly to exploit the potential of the Internet for professional learning and to use it in professional work. This is illustrated through selected critical events over an eight-month ethnographic intervention in a primary mathematics classroom in Australia. Though the model is theoretically grounded, it opens up questions about the power, potential, and challenges as well as its feasibility, with respect to not only the teacher but also the ethnographer.

Implementation of Patient Decision Support Interventions in Primary Care: The Role of Relational Coordination.

PubMed

Tietbohl, Caroline K; Rendle, Katharine A S; Halley, Meghan C; May, Suepattra G; Lin, Grace A; Frosch, Dominick L

2015-11-01

The benefits of patient decision support interventions (DESIs) have been well documented. However, DESIs remain difficult to incorporate into clinical practice. Relational coordination (RC) has been shown to improve performance and quality of care in health care settings. This study aims to demonstrate how applying RC theory to DESI implementation could elucidate underlying issues limiting widespread uptake. Five primary care clinics in Northern California participated in a DESI implementation project. We used a deductive thematic approach guided by behaviors outlined in RC theory to analyze qualitative data collected from ethnographic field notes documenting the implementation process and focus groups with health care professionals. We then systematically compared the qualitative findings with quantitative DESI distribution data. Based on DESI distribution rates, clinics were placed into 3 performance categories: high, middle, and low. Qualitative data illustrated how each clinic's performance related to RC behaviors. Consistent with RC theory, the high-performing clinic exhibited frequent, timely, and accurate communication and positive working relationships. The 3 middle-performing clinics exhibited high-quality communication within physician-staff teams but limited communication regarding DESI implementation across the clinic. The lowest-performing clinic was characterized by contentious relationships and inadequate communication. Limitations of the study include nonrandom selection of clinics and limited geographic diversity. In addition, ethnographic data collected documented only DESI implementation practices and not larger staff interactions contributing to RC. These findings suggest that a high level of RC within clinical settings may be a key component and facilitator of successful DESI implementation. Future attempts to integrate DESIs into clinical practice should consider incorporating interventions designed to increase positive RC behaviors as a potential means to improve uptake. © The Author(s) 2015.

Medical students' opportunities to participate and learn from activities at an internal medicine ward: an ethnographic study

PubMed Central

Hägg-Martinell, A; Hult, H; Henriksson, P; Kiessling, A

2017-01-01

Objectives To optimise medical students’ early clerkship is a complex task since it is conducted in a context primarily organised to take care of patients. Previous studies have explored medical students’ perceptions of facilitation and hindrance of learning. However, the opportunities for medical student to learn within the culture of acute medicine care have not been fully investigated. This study aimed to explore how medical students approach, interact and socialise in an acute internal medicine ward context, and how spaces for learning are created and used in such a culture. Design and setting Ethnographic observations were performed of medical students' interactions and learning during early clerkship at an acute internal medicine care ward. Field notes were taken, transcribed and analysed qualitatively. Data analysis was guided by Wenger's theory of communities of practice. Participants 21 medical students and 30 supervisors participated. Results Two themes were identified: Nervousness and curiosity—students acted nervously and stressed, especially when they could not answer questions. Over time curiosity could evolve. Unexplored opportunities to support students in developing competence to judge and approach more complex patient-related problems were identified. Invited and involved—students were exposed to a huge variation of opportunities to learn, and to interact and to be involved. Short placements seemed to disrupt the learning process. If and how students became involved also depended on supervisors' activities and students' initiatives. Conclusions This study shed light on how an acute internal medicine ward culture can facilitate medical students' possibilities to participate and learn. Medical students' learning situations were characterised by questions and answers rather than challenging dialogues related to the complexity of presented patient cases. Further, students experienced continuous transfers between learning situations where the potential to be involved differed in a wide variety of ways. PMID:28196948

Echoes from the Field: An Ethnographic Investigation of Outdoor Science Field Trips

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boxerman, Jonathan Zvi

As popular as field trips are, one might think they have been well-studied. Nonetheless, field trips have not been heavily studied, and little research has mapped what actually transpires during field trips. Accordingly, to address this research gap, I asked two related research questions. The first question is a descriptive one: What happens on field trips? The second question is explanatory: What field trip events are memorable and why? I employed design research and ethnographic methodologies to study learning in naturally occurring contexts. I collaborated with middle-school science teachers to design and implement more than a dozen field trips. The field trips were nested in particular biology and earth sciences focal units. Students were tasked with making scientific observations in the field and then analyzing this data during classroom activities. Audio and video recording devices captured what happened during the field trips, classroom activities and discussions, and the interviews. I conducted comparative microanalysis of videotaped interactions. I observed dozens of events during the field trips that reverberated across time and place. I characterize the features of these events and the objects that drew interest. Then, I trace the residue across contexts. This study suggests that field trips could be more than one-off experiences and have the potential to be resources to seed and enrich learning and to augment interest in the practice of science.

An ethnographic object-oriented analysis of explorer presence in a volcanic terrain environment: Claims and evidence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcgreevy, Michael W.

1994-01-01

An ethnographic field study was conducted to investigate the nature of presence in field geology, and to develop specifications for domain-based planetary exploration systems utilizing virtual presence. Two planetary geologists were accompanied on a multi-day geologic field trip that they had arranged for their own scientific purposes, which centered on an investigation of the extraordinary xenolith/nodule deposits in the Kaupulehu lava flow of Hualalai Volcano, on the island of Hawaii. The geologists were observed during the course of their field investigations and interviewed regarding their activities and ideas. Analysis of the interview resulted in the identification of key domain entities and their attributes, relations among the entities, and explorer interactions with the environment. The results support and extend the author's previously reported continuity theory of presence, indicating that presence in field geology is characterized by persistent engagement with objects associated by metonymic relations. The results also provide design specifications for virtual planetary exploration systems, including an integrating structure for disparate data integration. Finally, the results suggest that unobtrusive participant observation coupled with field interviews is an effective research methodology for engineering ethnography.

Socio-Technical Perspective on Interdisciplinary Interactions During the Development of Complex Engineered Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGowan, Anna-Maria R.; Daly, Shanna; Baker, Wayne; Papalambros, panos; Seifert, Colleen

2013-01-01

This study investigates interdisciplinary interactions that take place during the research, development, and early conceptual design phases in the design of large-scale complex engineered systems (LaCES) such as aerospace vehicles. These interactions, that take place throughout a large engineering development organization, become the initial conditions of the systems engineering process that ultimately leads to the development of a viable system. This paper summarizes some of the challenges and opportunities regarding social and organizational issues that emerged from a qualitative study using ethnographic and survey data. The analysis reveals several socio-technical couplings between the engineered system and the organization that creates it. Survey respondents noted the importance of interdisciplinary interactions and their benefits to the engineered system as well as substantial challenges in interdisciplinary interactions. Noted benefits included enhanced knowledge and problem mitigation and noted obstacles centered on organizational and human dynamics. Findings suggest that addressing the social challenges may be a critical need in enabling interdisciplinary interactions

Baby Boomers in an Active Adult Retirement Community: Comity Interrupted

PubMed Central

Roth, Erin G.; Keimig, Lynn; Rubinstein, Robert L.; Morgan, Leslie; Eckert, J. Kevin; Goldman, Susan; Peeples, Amanda D.

2012-01-01

Purpose of the Study: This article explores a clash between incoming Baby Boomers and older residents in an active adult retirement community (AARC). We examine issues of social identity and attitudes as these groups encounter each other. Design and Methods: Data are drawn from a multiyear ethnographic study of social relations in senior housing. Research at this site included in-depth, open-ended interviews (47), field notes (25), and participant observation in the field (500 hr). Research team biweekly discussions and Atlas.ti software program facilitated analysis. Findings: We begin with a poignant incident that has continued to engender feelings of rejection by elders with each retelling and suggests the power and prevalence of ageism in this AARC. We identify three pervasive themes: (a) social identity and image matter, (b) significant cultural and attitudinal differences exist between Boomers and older residents, and (c) shared age matters less than shared interests. Implications: Our data clearly show the operation of ageism in this community and an equating of being old with being sick. The conflict between these two age cohorts suggests that cohort consciousness among Boomers carries elements of age denial, shared by the older old. It also challenges the Third Age concept as a generational phenomenon. PMID:22391870

A short report on knowledge exchange through research-based theatre: 'inside out of mind'.

PubMed

Schneider, Justine; Lowe, Stephen; Myers, Tanya; Scales, Kezia; Bailey, Simon; Middleton, Joanne

2014-10-01

The short report describes the development from page to stage of a work of theatre based on an ethnographic study. The originating research focused on the work of health care assistants (nurse's aides) whose direct impact on the quality of life of highly dependent people is often overlooked. The research followed hospital personnel on wards specialising in the 'challenging behaviour' associated with dementia in central England. Conventional research outputs failed to engage the health care assistants themselves, so we turned to theatre to remedy this. The development of the field notes into theatre was characterised by the artistic freedom given to the playwright, in contrast to more data-led approaches to theatre making. The account of the process of creating the play, Inside Out of Mind, is followed a description of how the work was received by specialist and general audiences totalling 2000+. The discussion seeks to locate the whole enterprise in relation to the field of research-based theatre and explores how the production and its associated learning events relate to definitions of research-based theatre in the light of recent attempts to encapsulate this broad and diverse methodology. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Gender and sexuality in the field: a female ethnographer's experience researching drug use in dance clubs.

PubMed

Perrone, Dina

2010-04-01

This article provides an account of a female ethnographer's experience accessing participants and observing drug-using behaviors in highly sexualized dance clubs. Specifically, it describes how the researcher as a gendered and sexualized self can compromise safety and inhibit access while also serving as an advantage to establishing rapport. The author describes how various methods were employed to appear as part of the cultural scene and access participants, while avoiding, and responding to, unwanted sexual advances. To address such challenges, the author provides both practical and procedural suggestions for researchers and research institutions.

The influence of geopolitical change on the well-being of a population: the Berlin Wall.

PubMed Central

Héon-Klin, V; Sieber, E; Huebner, J; Fullilove, M T

2001-01-01

OBJECTIVES: Social cohesion is recognized as a fundamental condition for healthy populations, but social cohesion itself arises from political unity. The history of the Berlin Wall provides a unique opportunity to examine the effects of partition on social cohesion and, by inference, on health. METHODS: This ethnographic study consisted of examination of the territory formerly occupied by the Wall, formal and informal interviews with Berlin residents, and collection of cultural documents related to the Wall. Transcripts, field notes, and documents were examined by means of a keyword-in-context analysis. RESULTS: The separation of Berlin into 2 parts was a traumatic experience for the city's residents. After partition, East and West Germany had divergent social, cultural, and political experiences and gradually grew apart. CONCLUSIONS: The demolition of the Wall--the symbol and the instrument of partition--makes possible but does not ensure the reintegration of 2 populations that were separated for 40 years. The evolution of a new common culture might be accelerated by active attempts at cultural and social exchange. PMID:11236400

From the teacher's eyes: facilitating teachers noticings on informal formative assessments (IFAs) and exploring the challenges to effective implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sezen-Barrie, Asli; Kelly, Gregory J.

2017-01-01

This study focuses on teachers' use of informal formative assessments (IFAs) aimed at improving students' learning and teachers' recognition of students' learning processes. The study was designed as an explorative case study of four middle school teachers and their students at a charter school in the northeastern U.S.A. The data collected for the study included a history of teaching questionnaire, video records of the teachers' IFA practices, ethnographic interviews with teachers, and field notes from classroom observations. These data were analysed from a sociolinguistic perspective focusing on the ways that classroom discourse and reflective interview conversations constructed ways of viewing assessment. The findings from the analysis of the classroom discourse showed that teachers use three different types of IFA cycles, labelled as connected, non-connected, and repeating. Teachers' reflections on video cases show that teachers can learn to view in-the-moment interactions in new ways that can guide IFAs. We concluded that teachers' perspectives on the effectiveness of IFAs are an important, but often neglected, part of building a robust, interactive classroom assessment portfolio.

Draft Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Impact Statement. Syar Industries, Inc. Mining Use Permit Application, Reclamation Plan, and Section 404 Permit Application

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-07-01

with Special Reference to Warm Springs Creek. Appendix B in: Stewart, S.B., and D.W. Pri, Notes on the Mihilakawna Porno of Dry CreeL Mimeo suppl...34The Ethnography of the Dry Creek Porno ." Report of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Bill Cox, Departnent of Fish and Game...trend, and the western Porno languages subsequently developed here.1 2 The development of these western languages coincident with the recent ethnographic

Is the Writing on the Wall for Tabletops?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pantidi, Nadia; Rogers, Yvonne; Robinson, Hugh

We describe an ethnographic study that explores how low tech and new tech surfaces support participation and collaboration during a workshop breakout session. The low tech surfaces were post-it notes and large sheets of paper. The new tech surfaces were writeable walls and a multi-touch tabletop. Four groups used the different surfaces during three phases: i) brief presentation of position papers and discussion of themes, ii) the creation of a group presentation and iii) a report back session. Participation and collaboration varied depending on the physical, technological and social factors at play when using the different surfaces. We discuss why this is the case, noting how new shareable surfaces may need to be constrained to invite participation in ways that are simply taken for granted because of their familiarity when using low tech materials.

School Bullying and Fitting into the Peer Landscape: A Grounded Theory Field Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thornberg, Robert

2018-01-01

Research on school bullying has its roots in the field of developmental and educational psychology, and appeals to the need for a theoretical and methodological widening in order to grasp its ambiguity and complexity. The article draws on ethnographic fieldwork in which 144 pupils and seven teachers participated from seven school classes in three…

Reinventing Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hopson, Rodney K.

2005-01-01

This commentary reviews "Negotiating Researcher Roles in Ethnographic Program Evaluation" and discusses the changing field of evaluation. It situates postmodern deliberations in evaluation anthropology and ethnoevaluation, two concepts that explore the interdisciplinary merger in evaluation, ethnography, and anthropology. Reflecting on Hymes's…

Playing the Field(s): An Exploration of Change, Conformity and Conflict in Girls' Understandings of Gendered Physicality in Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hills, Laura A.

2006-01-01

This paper draws on data from a year-long ethnographic study of a group of 12- to 13-year-old girls that explored the processes through which they negotiated gendered physicality within the context of physical education. Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and social fields and McNay's extension of his work underpin a discussion of three contexts where…

An Early Researcher in the Field of Education: Bernardino de Sahagun in Sixteenth-Century Mexico

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spieker, Susanne

2008-01-01

Bernardino de Sahagun (1499/1500-1590), a Franciscan missionary in the colony of New Spain, can be seen as an early researcher in the field of education. Through his ethnographic work "General History of the Things of New Spain" he has been most influential in the historiography of Meso-American pre-Hispanic cultures. This paper focuses…

The Federal Cylinder Project: A Guide to Field Cylinder Collections in Federal Agencies. Volume 1, Introduction and Inventory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Erika; And Others

Volume one of a multivolume catalog inventories 247 federal agency collections of wax cylinder recordings made by early ethnographers during 5 decades (1890-1941) of field work with Native American, traditional American, and world cultures. Native American music, chants, and linguistic samples comprise the majority of the collection. In addition…

Elevating the Role of Race in Ethnographic Research: Navigating Race Relations in the Field

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Keffrelyn D.

2011-01-01

Little work in the social sciences or in the field of education has fully explored the methodological issues related to the study of race and racism, yet qualitative researchers acknowledge that race plays (and should play) a role in the research process. Indeed, race frames and informs the context, practices and perspectives of everyday lived…

Interpersonal Fields of Play

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alcock, Sophie Jane

2017-01-01

Ethnographic methods are used to investigate infant--toddlers relationships in an early childhood setting. The metaphorical and emotionally based concepts of holding [Winnicott, D. W. (1960). "The theory of the parent-infant relationship." "International Journal of Psychoanalysis," 41, 585-595.] and container: contained [Bion,…

Analyzing railroad dispatchers' strategies : a cognitive task analysis of a distributed planning task

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-10-11

This paper describes a preliminary cognitive task analysis (CTA) that is being conducted to examine how experienced train dispatchers manage and schedule trains. The CTA uses ethnographic field observations and structured interview techniques. The ob...

PS1-10: How Can the Same Practice Be Classified as Having 2 and 900 MDs? NAMCS Data Collection in a Changing Ambulatory Care Environment

PubMed Central

Halley, Meghan; Gillespie, Katherine; Rendle, Katharine; Luft, Harold

2014-01-01

Background/Aims Since 1973, the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), administered by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has been widely used in studies of ambulatory care. With the growth in large multispecialty practices – including many members of the HMORN – there is a need to understand how NAMCS data are collected and whether current processes yield accurate and reliable data. NAMCS collects data from physicians about their practices and abstracts a sample of patient visit records. This study reports on the physician component. Methods In collaboration with NCHS, nine physicians were randomly sampled from a multispecialty clinic using standard NAMCS recruitment procedures; eight physicians were eligible and agreed to participate. Using their standard protocols, three Field Representatives (FRs) conducted NAMCS physician interviews while a trained ethnographer (MH, KR) observed and audio-recorded each interview. Transcripts and field notes were analyzed using a grounded theory approach to identify key themes. Results Data have been collected and analyzed. They are currently undergoing standard confidentiality review by NCHS. However, this process has been delayed due to the government shutdown. We fully anticipate that results will be released in time for presentation at the HMORN conference. Conclusions Though we are precluded from disseminating results at this time, we will provide a full report of our results in our HMORN conference presentation.

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…

[Ethnography and fieldwork: the crisis of representation and beyond].

PubMed

Beil-Hildebrand, Margitta B; Frei, Irena Anna

2013-02-01

Writing as a nursing researcher about the subjects that comprise the nursing profession means writing about oneself. Conducting ethnographic research on subjects within one's own professional culture and interacting with these subjects in the field poses a challenge. Ethnographic research analyses and opens out the horizon of one's own professional culture for the benefit of the potential reader. However, at the same time, the researcher's self within an ethnographic framework is called into question. In anthropology the researcher-subject relationship is deemed a special relationship, and in this article both authors reveal the precarious status of their research object. In this article an attempt is made to let the nursing subjects speak for themselves, while at the same time the authors write about their subjects' social practices an communication processes. To date there has hardly been any German research work within nursing dealing with this critical area of interest. The authors seek to provide an introduction to the constitutive parts of ethnography and the crisis of representation and beyond. In addition, they present two reflexive accounts.

Readers and Authors: Fictionalized Constructs or Dynamic Collaborations?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blakeslee, Ann M.

1993-01-01

Uses ethnographic field methods to investigate the ways that scientific authors develop an understanding of their audiences. Finds that, rather than writing a text for an abstract audience, these scientists engaged their readers in direct interactions to obtain a clearer sense of their concerns. (RS)

This is who we are: building community for HIV prevention with young gay and bisexual men in Beirut, Lebanon.

PubMed

Mutchler, Matt G; McDavitt, Bryce Way; Tran, Tu N; Khoury, Cynthia El; Ballan, Ellie; Tohme, Johnny; Kegeles, Susan M; Wagner, Glenn

2017-09-18

Young gay men in Beirut are at significantly elevated risk of HIV infection compared with the general Lebanese population. Despite nascent HIV prevention efforts in the region, there is a need for effective community-level HIV prevention interventions tailored for young gay men. This qualitative study examined internal dynamics within Beirut's gay community as a basis for developing community-level interventions. Peer ethnographers were trained to collect field notes on conversations between young gay men in public spaces in Beirut, and conducted follow-up focus groups with young gay men. Analyses revealed three major themes: (1) the need for safe spaces in which to socialise, (2) the importance of being able to locate and connect with other young gay men, and (3) ambivalence regarding a gay community that was supportive in some ways but also fragmented and often judgemental. Study findings also confirm the existence of external threats to community such as stigma, cultural and familial norms regarding heterosexuality and criminalisation of refugee status. Understanding such community dynamics and the environmental context is central to designing effective community-based HIV prevention programmes.

Transition of care for the elderly after cerebrovascular accidents--from hospital to the home.

PubMed

Rodrigues, Rosalina Aparecida Partezani; Marques, Sueli; Kusumota, Luciana; dos Santos, Emanuella Barros; Fhon, Jack Roberto da Silva; Fabrício-Wehbe, Suzele Cristina Coelho

2013-01-01

to examine the transition of care in families caring for elderly persons who suffered the first episode of a cerebrovascular accident. an instrumental ethnographic case study was used. The sample comprised 20 subjects: 10 caregivers and 10 elderly persons aged 65 or over, of both sexes, with diagnoses of first episode of cerebrovascular accident, capable of communicating, and requiring care from a main carer in their family. The data was collected through interviews, observation, existing documentation and field notes. Qualitative analysis techniques were used to codify and classify the data and to formulate significant categories, which generated typologies of care. The central idea was the Transition of Care and showed the context in three typologies: The care process for the dependent elderly person, Strategies for the care process and Impact and acceptance of the limitations. The data indicates that caring for an elderly person after a cerebrovascular accident is a challenge for the family. The data permitted it possible to elaborate a proposal for a model for the organization of the work, with a view to holistic care delivery in the health services, forming a care network, which constitutes an advance for the area of nursing.

Complicating Counterspaces: Intersectionality and the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.

PubMed

McConnell, Elizabeth A; Todd, Nathan R; Odahl-Ruan, Charlynn; Shattell, Mona

2016-06-01

The counterspaces framework articulated by Case and Hunter (2012), follows from community psychology's long-standing interest in the potential for settings to promote well-being and liberatory responses to oppression. This framework proposes that certain settings (i.e., "counterspaces") facilitate a specific set of processes that promote the well-being of marginalized groups. We argue that an intersectional analysis is crucial to understand whether and how counterspaces achieve these goals. We draw from literature on safe spaces and present a case study of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (Michfest) to illustrate the value of an intersectional analysis and explore how these processes operate. Based on 20 in-person interviews, 23 responses to an online survey, and ethnographic field notes, we show how Michfest was characterized by a particular intersection of identities at the setting level, and intersectional diversity complicated experiences at the individual level. Moreover, intersectional identities provided opportunities for dialogue and change at the setting level, including the creation of counterspaces within counterspaces. Overall, we demonstrate the need to attend to intersectionality in counterspaces, and more broadly in how we conceptualize settings in community psychology. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

Appreciative Inquiry for Quality Improvement in Primary Care Practices

PubMed Central

Ruhe, Mary C.; Bobiak, Sarah N.; Litaker, David; Carter, Caroline A.; Wu, Laura; Schroeder, Casey; Zyzanski, Stephen; Weyer, Sharon M.; Werner, James J.; Fry, Ronald E.; Stange, Kurt C.

2014-01-01

Purpose To test the effect of an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) quality improvement strategy, on clinical quality management and practice development outcomes. AI enables discovery of shared motivations, envisioning a transformed future, and learning around implementation of a change process. Methods Thirty diverse primary care practices were randomly assigned to receive an AI-based intervention focused on a practice-chosen topic and on improving preventive service delivery (PSD) rates. Medical record review assessed change in PSD rates. Ethnographic fieldnotes and observational checklist analysis used editing and immersion/crystallization methods to identify factors affecting intervention implementation and practice development outcomes. Results PSD rates did not change. Field note analysis suggested that the intervention elicited core motivations, facilitated development of a shared vision, defined change objectives and fostered respectful interactions. Practices most likely to implement the intervention or develop new practice capacities exhibited one or more of the following: support from key leader(s), a sense of urgency for change, a mission focused on serving patients, health care system and practice flexibility, and a history of constructive practice change. Conclusions An AI approach and enabling practice conditions can lead to intervention implementation and practice development by connecting individual and practice strengths and motivations to the change objective. PMID:21192206

When cultures clash: a case study of the Texaco takeover of Getty Oil and the impact of acculturation on the acquired firm

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

Altendorf, D.M.

1986-01-01

Historical surveys of merger and acquisition performance indicate that corporate combinations often do not result in the sought after financial success. An ethnographic case study of the Texaco takeover of Getty Oil was undertaken. Based on the in-depth open-ended interviews, field notes, historical accounts, corporate documents, and organizational symbols, data were analyzed using qualitative techniques explicated by Geertz and Glaser and Strauss. The analysis explored cross cultural contact, employee interpretations resulting in related behavioral and performance outcomes, and the factors influencing the type of acculturation observed. Theoretical properties emerged from descriptive accounts. An integrated theory was developed suggesting that themore » form of acculturation that occurs in the combination of two or more firms is a direct consequence of culture differences and the interpretations that the employees make of these differences. Different occurrences - events, strategies, and activities - contributed to corporate culture clash and organizational change. Results also indicated that how meaning is created and managed affects cross cultural contact, employee assessments, and acculturation. Related propositions were generated and implications for future research discussed.« less

Streets, strolls and spots: sex work, drug use and social space in Detroit.

PubMed

Draus, Paul; Roddy, Juliette; Asabigi, Kanzoni

2015-05-01

In this paper, we explore social spaces related to street sex work and illicit drug use in Detroit. We consider these spaces as assemblages (Duff, 2011, 2013; Latour, 2005) that reflect the larger moral geography (Hubbard, 2012) of the city and fulfill specific functions in the daily lives of drug using sex workers. We draw on thirty-one in-depth qualitative interviews with former street sex workers who were recruited through a court-based treatment and recovery program, as well as ethnographic field notes from drug treatment and law enforcement settings. Our interview findings reveal highly organized and routine activities that exist in a relatively stable, symbiotic relationship with law enforcement practices, employment and commuter patterns, and built environments. While the daily life of street sex work involves a good deal of individual agency in terms of moving between spaces and negotiating terms of exchange, daily trajectories were also circumscribed by economics, illicit substance use, and the objective risks of the street and the police. We consider the implications of these results for future policy directed at harm reduction in the street setting. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The paradox of control: An ethnographic analysis of opiate maintenance treatment in a Norwegian prison.

PubMed

Mjåland, Kristian

2015-08-01

Opiate maintenance treatment (OMT) is increasingly being offered in prisons throughout Europe. The benefits of OMT in prison have been found to be similar to those produced by OMT in community settings. However, prison-based OMT has been a controversial issue because of fear of the diversion of OMT medications and the development of black markets for prescription drugs such as buprenorphine and methadone. Prison-based OMT thus involves a delicate balance between the considerations of control and treatment. This article reports on an ethnographic study of a prison-based OMT programme in a closed Norwegian prison. The data include field notes from eight months of participant observation in the prison as well as qualitative interviews with 23 prisoners and 12 prison staff. Midway through the fieldwork, the prison authorities established a separate unit for OMT-enrolled prisoners to reduce the widespread diversion of buprenorphine. This "natural experiment" is explored in the analysis. The prison-based OMT programme was characterised by strict and repressive control to prevent the diversion of buprenorphine, and the control became even stricter after the establishment of the OMT unit. However, the diversion of buprenorphine increased rather than decreased after the establishment of the OMT unit. To understand this "paradox of control", the article engages with theories of legitimacy, power and resistance. The excessive and repressive control was perceived as illegitimate and unfair by the majority of study participants. In various ways, many prisoners protested, confronted and subverted the OMT programme. The increase in buprenorphine diversion is interpreted as a form of collective resistance towards the perceived unfairness of the OMT programme. The article demonstrates that an unbalanced and control-dominated approach to prison-based OMT may have the opposite effect of what is intended. Copyright © 2015 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An ethnographic study of HIV/AIDS among Ayoreo sex workers: cultural factors and risk perception.

PubMed

López-Entrambasaguas, Olga M; Granero-Molina, José; Fernández-Sola, Cayetano

2013-12-01

To describe and understand Ayoreo sex workers' perceptions of HIV/AIDS and to identify factors that may affect the prevention of risk behaviours. According to recent HIV/AIDS incidence reports, being female, indigenous and a sex worker means belonging to a maximum-risk group, left in the background in terms of strategies for the fight against HIV. Although there has been research into intervention models in these populations, it is important to detail the perceptions of the problem from the perspective of sex workers from the affected ethnic groups. This study used an ethnographic methodology that included participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The research was conducted in two phases. First, participant observation was chosen to access and observe the behaviour of Ayoreo sex workers. The second phase was a semi-structured interview with sex workers and key informants. The interviews, together with the field notes, were transcribed and analysed, following inductive strategies to find emerging themes. Here, we present the results related to four emerging themes: the cultural acceptance of sex work as a useful economic activity; the lack of concern for sexually transmitted illnesses and the stigmatisation of people who are HIV seropositive; external factors that increase vulnerability such as difficulties in using a condom; and conflictive and unbalanced relationships between the Ayoreo people and the health system and health professionals. The health- and sexual reproduction-related culture, the knowledge and attitudes of sex workers, external factors, and relationships with the health system and health professionals continue to place Ayoreo sex workers in high-risk conditions in relation to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. Employing cultural care as its base, nursing could develop programmes and interventions culturally adapted for the prevention of disease and the promotion of health in these populations. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Living with pulmonary hypertension: unique insights from an international ethnographic study

PubMed Central

Kingman, Martha; Hinzmann, Barbara; Sweet, Oliver; Vachiéry, Jean-Luc

2014-01-01

Objectives To better understand the patient's perspective of pulmonary hypertension (PH), including the impact of living with PH, disease management and treatment. Design This qualitative ethnographic study collected observational video footage, supplemented by field notes and patient diaries to assess the impact of PH on the patient's life. Setting Patients were observed and filmed in their home for up to 6 h, capturing the environment, interactions and activities of everyday life. Participants Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) or chronic thromboembolic PH who were receiving PAH-specific medication were recruited through healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patient associations in seven countries across four continents. Sampling was purposive and subgroup analysis was not intended. Results Overall, 39 patients with PH were enrolled. Many patients had a poor understanding of PH and found their ‘invisible’ disease difficult to explain to others. An important finding was the secrecy surrounding PH. Feelings of insecurity and isolation were regularly reported, and many patients admitted to hiding their symptoms. The marked improvement in symptoms after therapy initiation made assessment of disease progression more difficult as patients compared their quality of life (QoL) against pretreatment levels. Extensive planning and adherence to daily routines were required in patients’ everyday life. Conclusions Ethnography was used for the first time, in several countries, to evaluate the patient's perception of living with PH. This approach revealed key findings that would not typically be uncovered using other qualitative techniques, including the secrecy surrounding PH, the difficulties in describing the disease and the challenges in assessing disease progression. A more tailored dissemination of information from HCPs and development of a simple and understandable PH definition may be beneficial in alleviating the secrecy reported by patients. A greater appreciation of how patients perceive their disease and QoL has the potential to improve PH management. PMID:24838724

The provision of NHS health checks in a community setting: an ethnographic account.

PubMed

Riley, Ruth; Coghill, Nikki; Montgomery, Alan; Feder, Gene; Horwood, Jeremy

2015-12-10

The UK National Health Service Health Checks programme aims to reduce avoidable cardiovascular deaths, disability and health inequalities in England. However, due to the reported lower uptake of screening in specific black and minority ethnic communities who are recognised as being more at risk of cardiovascular disease, there are concerns that NHS Health Checks may increase inequalities in health. This study aimed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of community outreach NHS Health Checks targeted at the Afro-Caribbean community. This paper reports findings from an ethnographic study including direct observation of four outreach events in four different community venues in inner-city Bristol, England and follow up semi-structured interviews with attendees (n = 16) and staff (n = 4). Interviews and field notes were transcribed, anonymized and analysed thematically using a process of constant comparison. Analysis revealed the value of community assets (community engagement workers, churches, and community centres) to publicise the event and engage community members. People were motivated to attend for preventative reasons, often prompted by familial experience of cardiovascular disease. Attendees valued outreach NHS Health Checks, reinforcing or prompting some to make healthy lifestyle changes. The NHS Health Check provided an opportunity for attendees to raise other health concerns with health staff and to discuss their test results with peers. For some participants, the communication of test results, risk and lifestyle information was confusing and unwelcome. The findings additionally highlight the need to ensure community venues are fit for purpose in terms of assuring confidentiality. Outreach events provide evidence of how local health partnerships (family practice staff and health trainers) and community assets, including informal networks, can enhance the delivery of outreach NHS Health Checks and in promoting the health of targeted communities. To deliver NHS Health Checks effectively, the location and timing of events needs to be carefully considered and staff need to be provided with the appropriate training to ensure patients are supported and enabled to make lifestyle changes.

Living with pulmonary hypertension: unique insights from an international ethnographic study.

PubMed

Kingman, Martha; Hinzmann, Barbara; Sweet, Oliver; Vachiéry, Jean-Luc

2014-05-16

To better understand the patient's perspective of pulmonary hypertension (PH), including the impact of living with PH, disease management and treatment. This qualitative ethnographic study collected observational video footage, supplemented by field notes and patient diaries to assess the impact of PH on the patient's life. Patients were observed and filmed in their home for up to 6 h, capturing the environment, interactions and activities of everyday life. Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) or chronic thromboembolic PH who were receiving PAH-specific medication were recruited through healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patient associations in seven countries across four continents. Sampling was purposive and subgroup analysis was not intended. Overall, 39 patients with PH were enrolled. Many patients had a poor understanding of PH and found their 'invisible' disease difficult to explain to others. An important finding was the secrecy surrounding PH. Feelings of insecurity and isolation were regularly reported, and many patients admitted to hiding their symptoms. The marked improvement in symptoms after therapy initiation made assessment of disease progression more difficult as patients compared their quality of life (QoL) against pretreatment levels. Extensive planning and adherence to daily routines were required in patients' everyday life. Ethnography was used for the first time, in several countries, to evaluate the patient's perception of living with PH. This approach revealed key findings that would not typically be uncovered using other qualitative techniques, including the secrecy surrounding PH, the difficulties in describing the disease and the challenges in assessing disease progression. A more tailored dissemination of information from HCPs and development of a simple and understandable PH definition may be beneficial in alleviating the secrecy reported by patients. A greater appreciation of how patients perceive their disease and QoL has the potential to improve PH management. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Medical students' opportunities to participate and learn from activities at an internal medicine ward: an ethnographic study.

PubMed

Hägg-Martinell, A; Hult, H; Henriksson, P; Kiessling, A

2017-02-14

To optimise medical students' early clerkship is a complex task since it is conducted in a context primarily organised to take care of patients. Previous studies have explored medical students' perceptions of facilitation and hindrance of learning. However, the opportunities for medical student to learn within the culture of acute medicine care have not been fully investigated. This study aimed to explore how medical students approach, interact and socialise in an acute internal medicine ward context, and how spaces for learning are created and used in such a culture. Ethnographic observations were performed of medical students' interactions and learning during early clerkship at an acute internal medicine care ward. Field notes were taken, transcribed and analysed qualitatively. Data analysis was guided by Wenger's theory of communities of practice. 21 medical students and 30 supervisors participated. Two themes were identified: Nervousness and curiosity- students acted nervously and stressed, especially when they could not answer questions. Over time curiosity could evolve. Unexplored opportunities to support students in developing competence to judge and approach more complex patient-related problems were identified. Invited and involved -students were exposed to a huge variation of opportunities to learn, and to interact and to be involved. Short placements seemed to disrupt the learning process. If and how students became involved also depended on supervisors' activities and students' initiatives. This study shed light on how an acute internal medicine ward culture can facilitate medical students' possibilities to participate and learn. Medical students' learning situations were characterised by questions and answers rather than challenging dialogues related to the complexity of presented patient cases. Further, students experienced continuous transfers between learning situations where the potential to be involved differed in a wide variety of ways. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Disneyization: A framework for understanding illicit drug use in bounded play spaces.

PubMed

Turner, Tim

2018-05-17

This paper combines evidence from an ethnographic study of illicit drug use amongst tourists in Ibiza with Bryman's (2004) theoretical model of Disneyization. The principal aim was to construct a new conceptual framework that may help scholars, practitioners and policy makers make sense of dynamic patterns of illegal drug use across bounded play spaces such as tourist resorts, music festivals and nightclubs. Ethnographic fieldwork employing a grounded theory design was undertaken over three summers in tourist locations on the Balearic island of Ibiza, including nightclubs, bars, cafes, beaches, airports and hotels. Field notes from participant observation were supplemented with data from semi-structured interviews (n = 56) and secondary sources gathered from tourist marketing. The framework of Disneyization has been discussed in terms of 5 constructs: theming, hybrid consumption, branding, performative labour and atmospheres; each having a specific role in relation to understanding illicit drug use in bounded play spaces. Thus: Theming sets the stage, by physically and symbolically demarcating space with indelible themes of hedonism that open up the possibility of illicit drug use. Hybrid-consumption blurs the distinction between legal and illegal forms of intoxication, making the trading and consumption of illegal drugs appear like a natural feature of the consumer space. Branding demonstrates how participants construct intricate hierarchies of taste and credibility related to drug of choice. Performative labour re-enforces hybrid consumption, with participants working in the bounded play spaces of Ibiza immersed within the illicit drug market. Atmospheres represents the alchemic synergy of bounded play space and is important to understanding illicit drug use as a sensorial, deeply immersive but transitory experience. This research offers Disneyization as a new conceptual framework for making sense of deeply complex spatial, socio-cultural, psychological and economic processes that underpin dynamic patterns of drug use in bounded play spaces. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exploring multiple trajectories of causality: collaboration between Anthropology and Epidemiology in the 1982 birth cohort, Pelotas, Southern Brazil

PubMed Central

Béhague, Dominique P; Gonçalves, Helen

2009-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Although the relationship between epidemiology and anthropology has a long history, it has generally been comprised of the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods. Only recently have the two fields begun to converge along theoretical lines, leading to a growing mutual interest in explaining rather than simply describing phenomena. This paper aimed to illustrate how ethnographic analyses can be used to assist with the in-depth and theoretically-imbued interpretation of epidemiological results. METHODS: The anthropological analysis presented in this paper used ethnographic data collected as part of the ongoing 1982 birth cohort study, between 1997 and 2007 in Pelotas, Southern Brazil. Analyses were framed according to the results presented in two of the epidemiological articles published in this series on the determinants of mental morbidity and age of sexual initiation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The ethnographic results show that statistical associations consist of multiple pathways of influence and causality that generally correspond to the unique experiences of specific subgroups. In exploring these pathways, the paper highlights the importance of an additional set of mediating factors that account for epidemiological results; these include the awareness and experience of inequities, the role of violence in everyday life, traumatic life events, increasing social isolation and emotional introversion as a response to life's difficulties, and differing approaches towards socio-psychological maturation. Theoretical and methodological collaboration between anthropology and epidemiology is important for public health, as it has positively modified both fields. PMID:19142353

[Exploring multiple trajectories of causality: collaboration between Anthropology and Epidemiology in the 1982 birth cohort, Pelotas, Southern Brazil].

PubMed

Béhague, Dominique P; Gonçalves, Helen

2008-12-01

Although the relationship between epidemiology and anthropology has a long history, it has generally been comprised of the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods. Only recently have the two fields begun to converge along theoretical lines, leading to a growing mutual interest in explaining rather than simply describing phenomena. This paper aimed to illustrate how ethnographic analyses can be used to assist with the in-depth and theoretically-imbued interpretation of epidemiological results. The anthropological analysis presented in this paper used ethnographic data collected as part of the ongoing 1982 birth cohort study, between 1997 and 2007 in Pelotas, Southern Brazil. Analyses were framed according to the results presented in two of the epidemiological articles published in this series on the determinants of mental morbidity and age of sexual initiation. The ethnographic results show that statistical associations consist of multiple pathways of influence and causality that generally correspond to the unique experiences of specific subgroups. In exploring these pathways, the paper highlights the importance of an additional set of mediating factors that account for epidemiological results; these include the awareness and experience of inequities, the role of violence in everyday life, traumatic life events, increasing social isolation and emotional introversion as a response to life's difficulties, and differing approaches towards socio-psychological maturation. Theoretical and methodological collaboration between anthropology and epidemiology is important for public health, as it has positively modified both fields.

Restitution of the research data in ethnographic health research: issues for debate based on field research conducted in Brazil and France.

PubMed

Ferreira, Jaqueline

2015-09-01

This study examines relevant aspects about the way anthropological research data restitution has been applied in the area of health, based on data obtained from ethnographic field research conducted in Brazil and France. These experiences show that data restitution has been part of the area of research, in different forms and time frames, making it possible to extend periods spent in the field and to interact with individual respondents. This also made it possible to interact with research interlocutors and compare different points of view, adding new information and thereby enriching the research. These aspects raise important questions that require reflection, from an ethical and epistemological standpoint. One is related to the demands made on health anthropologists when they begin their field research and how they deal with these questions: how will researchers use the data they collect without worrying that this may be wrongly interpreted or used in some way to reinforce normative patterns? So, how should an anthropological debate be "translated"? Conscientious researchers will seek to validate their analysis, to discover new points of view and provoke new lines of questioning. Thus, such data should provoke reflexivity about new avenues of research and interpretations.

Research, Expressivism, and Silence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Matthew

1995-01-01

Points out the incoherence of disciplinary assumptions within the field of composition regarding the research paper. Discusses writing technologies of the research paper, and the juncture between research and composition. Proposes that an ethnographic model would provide students with tools to work in the territory between the scientific model of…

Expanding the clinical role of community pharmacy: A qualitative ethnographic study of medication reviews in Ontario, Canada.

PubMed

Patton, Sarah J; Miller, Fiona A; Abrahamyan, Lusine; Rac, Valeria E

2018-03-01

Medication reviews by community pharmacists are an increasingly common strategy to improve medication management for chronic conditions, and are part of wider efforts to make more effective use of community-based health professionals. To identify opportunities to optimize the medication review program in Ontario, Canada, we explored how providers and clients interpret and operationalize medication reviews within everyday community pharmacy practice. We conducted a qualitative ethnographic study at four pharmacies in Ontario, Canada, including non-participant observation of provider and client activities and interactions with specific attention to medication reviews, as well as brief ethnographic interviews with providers and clients, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with providers. We report on 72h of field research, observation of 178 routine pharmacist-client interactions and 29 medication reviews, 62 brief ethnographic interviews with providers and clients, and 7 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with providers. We found that medication reviews were variably conducted across the dimensions of duration, provider type, location, and interaction style, and that local contexts and system-wide developments influence their meaning and practice. Medication reviews are exemplary of policy efforts to enhance the role of community pharmacies within health systems and the scope of practice of pharmacists as healthcare professionals. Our study highlights the importance of the local structure of community pharmacy practice and the clinical aspirations of pharmacists in the delivery of medication reviews. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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)

Too Good at Fitting In: Methodological Consequences and Ethical Adjustments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berbary, Lisbeth A.

2014-01-01

When embarking on ethnographic fieldwork, a researcher must carefully consider how to present oneself when entering the field. Presentations of self become particularly important when the culture under study maintains narrowly defined expectations for personal appearance and behavior. The more defined the expectations, the more important it is for…

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,…

Report of the Anthropology Curriculum Study Project-Research Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parsons, T. W.; And Others

The study evaluated an Anthropology Curriculum Study Project course, "Patterns in Human History," used with high school students in a one year field test situation. Ethnographic and cognitive components of the curriculum were examined. The specific objective of the research was to examine the behavioral effects on students, teachers, and…

The Importance of Familiarisation When Doing Research with Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barley, Ruth; Bath, Caroline

2014-01-01

Becoming familiar with "the field" location and its inhabitants is a natural and important part of ethnographic research. However, little has been written about how operationalising a "familiarisation period" within an ethnography can form the foundation on which fieldwork can be built. By reflecting on the experience of…

Society Reschooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Street, Brian V.

2012-01-01

This essay offers a commentary on how the relationship between language and literacy practices in and out of school has been conceptualized. It draws upon two new books in the field. Shirley Brice Heath's new book, "Words at Work and Play: Three Decades in Family and Community Life," which makes use of rich ethnographic accounts of…

"Outsiders within"? Deconstructing the Educational Administration Scholar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkinson, Jane; Eacott, Scott

2013-01-01

In this paper, we weave the auto-ethnographic narratives of the two authors with Bourdieu's key concepts of "habitus," "field" and "capital," as we seek to bring to a level of explicitness the reflexive lens which has shaped our scholarly work. In particular, we examine the process of becoming educational…

Biomedicine, Psychology and the Kindergarten: Children at Risk and Emerging Knowledge Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kontopodis, Michalis

2013-01-01

This study moves in the space between two fields: science and technology studies (STS) and childhood studies; it thus belongs to the broader STS literature that investigates everyday practices outside the laboratory. The interpretation of ethnographic and bibliographic data on contemporary cardiovascular and obesity prevention in German…

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…

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…

Targeted ethnography as a critical step to inform cultural adaptations of HIV prevention interventions for adults with severe mental illness.

PubMed

Wainberg, Milton L; Alfredo González, M; McKinnon, Karen; Elkington, Katherine S; Pinto, Diana; Gruber Mann, Claudio; Mattos, Paulo E

2007-07-01

As in other countries worldwide, adults with severe mental illness (SMI) in Brazil are disproportionately infected with HIV relative to the general population. Brazilian psychiatric facilities lack tested HIV prevention interventions. To adapt existing interventions, developed only in the US, we conducted targeted ethnography with adults with SMI and staff from two psychiatric institutions in Brazil. We sought to characterize individual, institutional, and interpersonal factors that may affect HIV risk behavior in this population. We conducted 350 hours of ethnographic field observations in two mental health service settings in Rio de Janeiro, and 9 focus groups (n=72) and 16 key-informant interviews with patients and staff in these settings. Data comprised field notes and audiotapes of all exchanges, which were transcribed, coded, and systematically analyzed. The ethnography identified and/or characterized the institutional culture: (1) patients' risk behaviors; (2) the institutional setting; (3) intervention content; and (4) intervention format and delivery strategies. Targeted ethnography also illuminated broader contextual issues for development and implementation of HIV prevention interventions for adults with SMI in Brazil, including an institutional culture that did not systematically address patients' sexual behavior, sexual health, or HIV sexual risk, yet strongly impacted the structure of patients' sexual networks. Further, ethnography identified the Brazilian concept of "social responsibility" as important to prevention work with psychiatric patients. Targeted ethnography with adults with SMI and institutional staff provided information critical to the adaptation of tested US HIV prevention interventions for Brazilians with SMI.

Perception of mercury contamination by Brazilian adolescents in a gold mining community: an ethnographic approach.

PubMed

Novais, Gabriel; Câmara, Volney de Magalhães

2009-01-01

This study used ethnographic methods to examine the perception of mercury contamination by adolescents in the mining community of Poconé, Mato Grosso, Brazil. In Phase I, 53 students aged 13 to 16 years in six schools presented theatrical sketches about community health risks to generate key terms for a pile sorting activity in Phase II. Mercury was reported by four of the 15 groups (26%). In Phase II, researchers conducted semi-structured interviews and pile sorts with 31 students to assess adolescent attitudes about mercury and to generate an ethnomedical model of mercury perception. The lack of consensus evident in the model reveals that while students view mercury as an overall threat, many of them do not understand how its presence can harm human health. Few adolescents felt confident about their knowledge (3%) or could accurately explain how it was used (9%), even though many of them had relatives working as miners (55%). Further analysis of pile sort data suggests that mercury may not belong in a 'typical risks' domain. The authors argue that ethnographic methods are a useful tool for public health research, and hope that these findings can contribute to health education interventions in the field.

BEYOND TEXT: USING ARRAYS TO REPRESENT AND ANALYZE ETHNOGRAPHIC DATA

PubMed Central

Abramson, Corey M.; Dohan, Daniel

2015-01-01

Recent methodological debates in sociology have focused on how data and analyses might be made more open and accessible, how the process of theorizing and knowledge production might be made more explicit, and how developing means of visualization can help address these issues. In ethnography, where scholars from various traditions do not necessarily share basic epistemological assumptions about the research enterprise with either their quantitative colleagues or one another, these issues are particularly complex. Nevertheless, ethnographers working within the field of sociology face a set of common pragmatic challenges related to managing, analyzing, and presenting the rich context-dependent data generated during fieldwork. Inspired by both ongoing discussions about how sociological research might be made more transparent, as well as innovations in other data-centered fields, the authors developed an interactive visual approach that provides tools for addressing these shared pragmatic challenges. They label the approach “ethnoarray” analysis. This article introduces this approach and explains how it can help scholars address widely shared logistical and technical complexities, while remaining sensitive to both ethnography’s epistemic diversity and its practitioners shared commitment to depth, context, and interpretation. The authors use data from an ethnographic study of serious illness to construct a model of an ethnoarray and explain how such an array might be linked to data repositories to facilitate new forms of analysis, interpretation, and sharing within scholarly and lay communities. They conclude by discussing some potential implications of the ethnoarray and related approaches for the scope, practice, and forms of ethnography. PMID:26834296

A Guide to Field Notes for Qualitative Research: Context and Conversation.

PubMed

Phillippi, Julia; Lauderdale, Jana

2018-02-01

Field notes are widely recommended in qualitative research as a means of documenting needed contextual information. With growing use of data sharing, secondary analysis, and metasynthesis, field notes ensure rich context persists beyond the original research team. However, while widely regarded as essential, there is not a guide to field note collection within the literature to guide researchers. Using the qualitative literature and previous research experience, we provide a concise guide to collection, incorporation, and dissemination of field notes. We provide a description of field note content for contextualization of an entire study as well as individual interviews and focus groups. In addition, we provide two "sketch note" guides, one for study context and one for individual interviews or focus groups for use in the field. Our guides are congruent with many qualitative and mixed methodologies and ensure contextual information is collected, stored, and disseminated as an essential component of ethical, rigorous qualitative research.

25 CFR 169.7 - Field notes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR LAND AND WATER RIGHTS-OF-WAY OVER INDIAN LANDS § 169.7 Field notes. Field notes of the survey shall appear along the line indicating the right-of-way on the maps, unless the maps would be too crowded thereby to be easily legible, in which event the field notes may be...

American High School as a Clan: Dynamics of Organization and Leadership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owens, Robert G.

Using ethnographic methods of field work and data analysis, this study investigated one example of a comprehensive senior high school to illuminate the nature of its organizational structure and the way in which organizational control and leadership is exercised. Three principal findings emerged from theme analysis of the data. First,…

Living Proof: Transnational Black Youth Theorizing Racism, Justice, and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLoyd, Chike Jamal Brett

2014-01-01

Based on eighteen months of ethnographic research in a high school E.L.L. classroom, this study contributes to the fields of new literacies studies and critical pedagogy by showing how transnational Black youth theorize and negotiate intersections of racism, justice, and education. Drawing on a multidimensional approach for understanding how…

Pulse Check: National Trends in Drug Abuse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunt, Dana

This Pulse Check is a report of national trends in illicit drug abuse and drug markets in the United States. The report draws on conversations with ethnographers and epidemiologists working in the drug field, law enforcement agents, and drug treatment providers across the United States. Information from each of these sources is summarized in…

The Pedagogy of Controversy in the Field of China Studies: Teaching the Cultural Revolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrico, Kevin

2014-01-01

How can we as educators address complex and controversial topics in the social sciences without encouraging simplistic responses and self-reproducing binary oppositions? Drawing upon an ethnographic analysis of a first-year writing seminar on the history of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, this article proposes novel approaches to overcome…

Using Netnography to Explore the Culture of Online Language Teaching Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulavuz-Onal, Derya

2015-01-01

Netnography (Kozinets, 2010) is an ethnographic approach to study communities that exist primarily online. Engaging in online participant observation, the netnographer connects to the online community through a computer screen, and the field is located inside the screen. Although it has been used in marketing research extensively, netnography is a…

Gendering Processes in the Field of Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berg, Paivi; Lahelma, Elina

2010-01-01

In Finnish secondary schools, girls and boys are taught physical education (PE) in separate groups. A male teacher normally teaches the boys and a female teacher teaches the girls. Focusing on PE teachers' comments in two different ethnographic studies of seventh graders (13-14-year-olds), we examine the processes that reproduce or challenge the…

Negotiating Power Relations and Ethnicity in a Sociolinguistic Ethnography in Madrid

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santos, Adriana Patino

2011-01-01

One of the major dilemmas when practising critical sociolinguistic ethnography within the field of education is the ethnographer's degree of implication within the studied site (Goldstein, 2003; Martin Rojo, 2003; Unamuno, 2004). How far should the researcher intervene within the daily practices he/she is observing? This exercise of methodological…

Same Plans, Different Strategies: The Multiple Faces of Resistance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mendoza Pérez, Karmele; Morgade Salgado, Marta

2016-01-01

This article reports an ethnographic study of resistance in an informal education context: an NGO Day Centre and Hostel for socially excluded adults in Bilbao, Spain. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the field of resistance theory by focusing on a non-school setting. Our analysis uncovered four resistance strategies ("The…

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…

"Getting a Job": Vocationalism, Identity Formation, and Critical Ethnographic Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Down, Barry; Smyth, John

2012-01-01

This article examines the highly disputed policy nexus around what on the surface appears to be the helpful field of vocational education and training. Despite the promises of vocational education and training to deliver individual labour market success and global competitiveness, the reality is that it serves to residualise unacceptably large…

Discursive Shadowing in Linguistic Ethnography. Situated Practices and Circulating Discourses in Multilingual Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dewilde, Joke; Creese, Angela

2016-01-01

We consider discursive shadowing as methodology in linguistic ethnography and how it refines our analyses of participants' situated practices. In addition to the constant and extended company the researcher and key participant keep with one another in the field, shadowing in a linguistic ethnographic approach includes the ubiquitous…

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…

Ethnographies of Higher Education: Introduction to the Special Issue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pabian, Petr

2014-01-01

While acknowledging that ethnography has been a rarely adopted approach in the field of higher education research, I will try to demonstrate the contributions that ethnographies have made to higher education studies. I will introduce readers to several of the most important and interesting ethnographic studies of university settings, focusing on…

Ethnographic Inquiry: Reframing the Learning Core of Education Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ogden, Anthony C.

2006-01-01

Growth in US education abroad has been consistently strong for the past decade, surpassing 9 percent annually. Within the field of education abroad, this growth is both exciting and alarming. Education abroad helps students change learning structures, learn new paradigms and become more complex individuals. If a student's structures are not ready…

The Four Elementary Forms of Sociality: Framework for a Unified Theory of Social Relations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fiske, Alan Page

1992-01-01

A theory is presented that postulates that people in all cultures use four relational models to generate most kinds of social interaction, evaluation, and affect. Ethnographic and field studies (n=19) have supported cultural variations on communal sharing; authority ranking; equality matching; and market pricing. (SLD)

Multimodal Mapmaking: Working toward an Entangled Methodology of Place

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Kimberly

2016-01-01

This article addresses mapmaking as a multimodal method and lens for place-based ethnographic inquiry. I describe three contexts drawn from my research on and teaching of mapmaking. Drawing from my own sense-making of mapping as an embodied phenomenon, I discuss how the fields of sensory and materialist studies might expand the interpretive…

Normative Cruelties and Gender Deviants: The Performative Effects of Bully Discourses for Girls and Boys in School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ringrose, Jessica; Renold, Emma

2010-01-01

Since the 1990s the educational community has witnessed a proliferation of "bullying" discourses, primarily within the field of educational developmental social psychology. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative interview data of primary and secondary school girls and boys, this article argues that the discourse "bullying"…

Minority-World Preservice Teachers' Understanding of Contextually Appropriate Practice While Working in Majority-World Early Childhood Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madrid Akpovo, Samara; Nganga, Lydiah; Acharya, Diptee

2018-01-01

International field experiences in Kenya and Nepal supplied data for two collaborative ethnographic research projects that analyze, using the concept of contextually appropriate practice (CAP), how minority-world early childhood preservice teachers define "quality" practices. The term "minority-world" is used for educators who…

Seeing in the Dark: Embodied Cognition in Amateur Astronomy Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azevedo, Flávio S.; Mann, Michele J.

2018-01-01

We add to research on embodied cognition by investigating the observational practices of amateur astronomers. Specifically, we take an interactionist perspective and examine how the body is recruited, moment by moment, as a resource for producing and communicating meaning during field activity. The data corpus is a set of ethnographic video…

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…

Annotated checklist and database for vascular plants of the Jemez Mountains

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

Foxx, T. S.; Pierce, L.; Tierney, G. D.

Studies done in the last 40 years have provided information to construct a checklist of the Jemez Mountains. The present database and checklist builds on the basic list compiled by Teralene Foxx and Gail Tierney in the early 1980s. The checklist is annotated with taxonomic information, geographic and biological information, economic uses, wildlife cover, revegetation potential, and ethnographic uses. There are nearly 1000 species that have been noted for the Jemez Mountains. This list is cross-referenced with the US Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service PLANTS database species names and acronyms. All information will soon be available on amore » Web Page.« less

The culture ready brain

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

In this article, I examine two hypotheses of language origins: the extended mirror system hypothesis and the vocal grooming hypothesis. These conflict in several respects, partly because their authors were trained in different disciplines and influenced by different kinds of evidence. I note some ethnographic/linguistic and psychological issues which, in my view, have not been sufficiently considered by these authors, and present a ‘play and display’ hypothesis which aims to explain the evolution, not of language, but of the ‘culture ready brain’—with apologies to Arbib for so extending his original concept. In the second half of the article, I will test all three hypotheses against the available fossil, archaeological and neuroimaging evidence. PMID:20558409

Incidence and predictors of onset of injection drug use in a San Francisco cohort of homeless youth.

PubMed

Parriott, Andrea M; Auerswald, Colette L

2009-01-01

Few studies document incidence of injection drug use among homeless youth. We followed a cohort of 70 street-recruited homeless youth in San Francisco, California who had never injected drugs for six months in 2004-5. We examined initiation of injection drug use and its predictors, informed by prior ethnographic findings. Data were analyzed using exact logistic regression. 11.4% of youth initiated injection drug use. Having no high school education, being over 21 years old, and being in disequilibrium predicted initiation. Limitations, implications and suggestions for future research are noted. Funding was provided by the National Institute for Child Health and Development.

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.

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…

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.

Being a woman researcher in an Anatolian village

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

This essay represents the first editorial of the series "Recollections, Reflections, and Revelations: Ethnobiologists and their First Time in the Field". In this memoir, the author details the evolvement and intellectual progression of her research focusing on wild food plant consumption within a remote community in the high steppes of Central Anatolia during the early Nineties. The author conveys a human learning journey as a woman and an ethnobiologist, reflecting on the methodological bottlenecks and solutions during her first ethnographic experience in the field. PMID:23819702

Achieving equity through critical science agency: An ethnographic study of African American students in a health science career academy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haun-Frank, Julie

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential of a High School Health Science Career Academy to support African American students' science career trajectories. I used three key theoretical tools---critical science agency (Basu, 2007; Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2008), power (Nespor, 1994), and cultural production (Carlone, 2004; Eisenhart & Finkel, 1998) to highlight the intersections between the career trajectory implied by the Academy (its curriculum, classroom activities, and clinical experiences) and the students' pursued career trajectories. Data was collected over five months and included individual student interviews, group interviews, parent and administrator interviews, field notes from a culminating medical course and clinical internship, and Academy recruitment documents. The results of this study suggest that participants pursued a health science career for altruistic purposes and the Academy was a resource they drew upon to do so. However, the meanings of science and science person implied by the Academy hindered the possibility for many participants' to advance their science career trajectories. While the Academy promised to expose students to a variety of high-status health care roles, they were funneled into feminine, entry-level positions. This study adds to previous underrepresentation literature by contextualizing how identity-related factors influence African American students' career attainment.

The value and potential of multisited ethnography for science education research: a review of Jrène Rahm's Science in the Making at the Margin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beeman-Cadwallader, Nicole

2012-03-01

Rahm sought to illuminate how children and youth make meaning of science in three out-of-school time programs, and the identity work that is done through the trajectory of their youth toward their young adulthood. Through using multisited ethnography, she asserts that we can learn more about what the youth say about their science learning and science literacy development in these programs. She has revealed through her rich data the potential value of multisited ethnography for science education research. A similar theme of insider/outsider status to science emerged in each of the three sites. The nature of the data collected in Rahm's multisited ethnography allowed for the unveiling of the similarities in this theme, but also made evident the nuanced ways that this theme presented itself differently across the three sites. The additional potential came through in the varied data Rahm could have delved into and did not. A unique characteristic of ethnographic research, that is not necessarily present in other research methods, is that a wide array of varied data is collected. An analysis of documents, images, and observational field notes, which go beyond interview data, may provide deeper understandings previously untouched in science education.

The work of case managers as experienced by older persons (75+) with multi-morbidity - a focused ethnography.

PubMed

Hjelm, Markus; Holst, Göran; Willman, Ania; Bohman, Doris; Kristensson, Jimmie

2015-12-17

Complex health systems make it difficult for older persons (75+) with multi-morbidity to achieve continuity of care. Case management could be one way to address this difficulty. Currently, there is a need to extend the knowledge regarding case management as experienced by those utilising the services, namely older persons (75+) with multi-morbidity. The study aimed to explore older persons' (75+) with multi-morbidity experiences of case managers. The study design was qualitative and used a focused ethnographic approach. Data was collected through individual interviews with 13 older persons and by participant observations with accompanying field notes, all conducted in 2012-2013. The data revealed four themes illustrating the older persons' experiences of case managers: 1) Someone providing me with a trusting relationship; 2) Someone assisting me; 3) Someone who is on my side; and 4) Someone I do not need at present. This study illustrates the importance of establishing trusting relationships between older persons and their case managers in order to truly provide assistance. The older persons valued the case managers acting as informed but unbiased facilitators. The findings could be of help in the development of case management interventions better designed for older persons with multi-morbidity.

From the Field, to the Web, and Back Again: Incorporating Internet Methods into Language Ideology Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raymond, Chase Wesley

2015-01-01

Researchers from a variety of academic disciplines have begun to incorporate Web-based methodologies in their research agendas. Nonetheless, many of those interested in language ideologies--i.e. speakers' beliefs about language, as well as their rationalisation of those beliefs-- vehemently stand by site-specific ethnographic approaches. Rather…

Teachers and Students' Divergent Perceptions of Student Engagement: Recognition of School or Workplace Goals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jonasson, Charlotte

2012-01-01

In extant research, the concept of student engagement refers to individual behavioural patterns and traits. Recent research indicates that engagement not only should be related to the individual but also should be anchored in the social context. This ethnographic field study of students and teachers in a Danish vocational education and training…

Competing Paradigms of Educational Justice: Parent Organizing for Educational Equity in a Neoliberal Reform Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nygreen, Kysa

2016-01-01

This article examines a grassroots parent organizing effort in a large, high-poverty, urban school district. Drawing from ethnographic field research at a community-based popular education organization, the study describes how parent organizers worked to educate and mobilize Latina/o immigrant parents on issues of educational justice and equity.…

Gifted Girls' Passion for Fiction: The Quest for Meaning, Growth, and Self-Actualization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stutler, Susan Lee

2011-01-01

To illuminate the nature of the relationship that very able girls have with fiction, this is an interpretive account of the meanings that reading fiction holds for verbally gifted preadolescent girls. Ethnographic field methods were used to uncover the essences of the reading experience in the contexts of their daily lives. Data sources included…

Syrian Mothers Producing Counterstories in Co-Constructed School Spaces: Rethinking the Role of Schools in Engaging Refugee Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karsli-Calamak, Elif

2018-01-01

This ethnographically informed field study, drawing on a blend of feminist theories and cultural learning pathways framework, reveals that Syrian mothers show strong presence and readiness to take active roles when opportunities present themselves in alternative spaces in the public schools of Turkey. As mothers produce counterstories in relation…

Writing Interview Protocols and Conducting Interviews: Tips for Students New to the Field of Qualitative Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacob, Stacy A.; Furgerson, S. Paige

2012-01-01

Students new to doing qualitative research in the ethnographic and oral traditions, often have difficulty creating successful interview protocols. This article offers practical suggestions for students new to qualitative research for both writing interview protocol that elicit useful data and for conducting the interview. This piece was originally…

Understanding the evidence for historical fire across eastern forests

Treesearch

Charles M. Ruffner

2006-01-01

Evidence for historical fire across the eastern deciduous biome spans several fields, including paleoecology, fire scar analysis, witness tree studies, historical documents and ethnographic sources. In this paper I provide an overview of many of these methods as well as the limitations and examples of each. While the use of any single approach has its cautions and...

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…

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…

Maryland English Journal. Volume 28, Numbers 1-2, Fall 1993 and Spring 1994.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pula, Judith J., Ed.

1993-01-01

A semi-annual refereed publication of research and instructional practices in English/language arts and allied fields, preschool through adult levels, this volume of "Maryland English Journal" presents articles on a variety of subjects and showcases the work of young writers. Articles in volume 28, number 1 focus on ethnographic studies…

Flexible Grouping as a Means for Classroom Management in a Heterogeneous Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rytivaara, Anna

2011-01-01

This article concerns issues of classroom management in heterogeneous classrooms. Although research in the field of learning styles has yielded mixed results, there is a call for information about how they could be used to individualize instruction, especially in primary schools. This article is part of an ethnographic study aiming to examine…

Diving into Troubled Waters: Sexual Discrimination in a Male Dominated Recreational Culture.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lagache, Edouard

This paper presents results of a study of sex discrimination in the culture of scuba divers. The research grew out of class related conflicts that permitted observation in ethnographic field work, the character of gender relations in the recreational activity of scuba diving. The project was intended to investigate the role of communities of…

Social Class and the STEM Career Pipeline an Ethnographic Investigation of Opportunity Structures in a High-Poverty versus Affluent High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikischer, Andrea B.

2013-01-01

This research investigates science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) high school opportunity structures, including student experiences with math and science course sequences and progress, college guidance and counseling, and STEM extracurricular activities (Weis and Eisenhart, 2009), specifically related to STEM fields and career and…

Academic Writing: Theory and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Street, Brian V.

2015-01-01

In this paper I attempt to locate the study of academic writing in the broader field of Literacies as Social Practice. I begin with a brief summary of recent theories of Literacies as Social Practice and then recount some of the ethnographic methods for studying these. I then discuss the application of these concepts to academic writing in Higher…

Challenging Points of Contact among Supervisor, Mentor Teacher and Teacher Candidates: Conflicting Institutional Expectations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katz, Laurie; Isik-Ercan, Zeynep

2015-01-01

Grounded in an ethnographic logic of inquiry utilizing the concept of languaculture, this study explores how cultural differences between a field-based team and the university supervisor led to unanticipated challenges and points of conflict in an early childhood teacher education program in Midwestern United States. By examining points of contact…

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…

"Let Them See a Different Path": Social Attitudes towards Sport, Education and Development in Samoa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwauk, Christina Ting

2016-01-01

Drawing on ethnographic data collected over 12 months of field research, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature on sport for development (SFD) by giving voice to alternative constructions of the educative potential of SFD. It does this by exploring the social attitudes of youth, educators, community leaders and government…

Through a Gender Lens: Explaining North-Eastern Thai Women's Participation in Adult Literacy Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walter, Pierre

2004-01-01

This ethnographic study employs a gender perspective to understand the motivations of eight women literacy learners participating in a village-based functional literacy programme in rural North-eastern Thailand. Field research took place over six months of periodic residence in a North-eastern Thai village, and involved participant observation,…

Scientists at Play in a Field of the Lord

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, David E.

2010-01-01

The Answers in Genesis Creation Museum opened in May of 2007. During the opening day, a loosely affiliated group of scientists joined in a Rally for Reason as they termed it to protest the museum's potential effect on science in the United States. This paper discusses ethnographic data collected before and during the rally. Scientist narratives…

Locating Narratives in Postmodern Spaces: A Cyber Ethnographic Field Study of Informal Music Learning in Online Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waldron, Janice

2011-01-01

Once an area of debate, there is now general consensus among media and social science researchers that online communities represent community in the traditional sense of the term, albeit with some important epistemological differences. If one considers online communities as genuine functioning communities situated in a legitimate cultural context,…

"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…

The Coded Schoolhouse: One-to-One Tablet Computer Programs and Urban Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crooks, Roderic N.

2016-01-01

Using a South Los Angeles charter school of approximately 650 students operated by a non-profit charter management organization (CMO) as the primary field site, this two-year, ethnographic research project examines the implementation of a one-to-one tablet computer program in a public high school. This dissertation examines the variety of ways…

"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…

Hierarchy, Complicity and Culture in the Library and Information Science Preservation Agenda: Observations from Romania

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klimaszewski, Cheryl; Bader, Gail E.; Nyce, James M.

2013-01-01

This paper argues that researchers involved in cultural heritage preservation need to adopt a more inclusive ethnographic research methodology that pays special attention to how power, class, and status shape the communities we study. Based on observations from field research in Ghimes-Faget, Romania, we discuss why the Hungarian ethnic identity…

The Implicit Construction of "Children at Risk": On the Dynamics of Practice and Programme in Development Screenings in Early Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bollig, Sabine; Kelle, Helga

2013-01-01

This article presents findings from an ethnographic study on preventive paediatric check-ups in Germany. In accordance with system-theoretical and governmentality approaches (referencing Foucault), preventive check-ups are conceptualised as fields where risk concepts related to children's development are applied, produced and reworked. In order to…

Just like My Nanny: Troubling Teacher's Social Identities in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tan, Edna

2013-01-01

Teacher-researcher narrative accounts are essential and insightful for the science education field, yet they are few and far-between. In this forum, I engage in dialogue with Nicole Grimes's auto-ethnographic narrative on the affordances her femme-Caribbean identity allowed for some students to engage more deeply in science. While I agree with and…

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

Strategies and Perceptions of Students' Field Note-Taking Skills: Insights from a Geothermal Field Lesson

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dohaney, Jacqueline; Brogt, Erik; Kennedy, Ben

2015-01-01

Field note-taking skills are fundamental in the geosciences but are rarely explicitly taught. In a mixed-method study of an introductory geothermal field lesson, we characterize the content and perceptions of students' note-taking skills to derive the strategies that students use in the field. We collected several data sets: observations of the…

An interactional ethnographic study of the construction of literate practices of science and writing in a university science classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sena, Nuno Afonso De Freitas Lopes De

An interactional ethnographic study informed by a sociocultural perspective was conducted to examine how a professor and students discursively and interactionally shaped the basis for engaging in the work of a community of geologists. Specifically, the study examined the role the Question of the Day, an interactive writing activity in the lecture, in affording students opportunities for learning the literate practices of science and how to incorporate them in thinking critically. A writing-intensive, introductory oceanography course given in the Geological Sciences Department was chosen because the professor designed it to emphasize writing in the discipline and science literacy within a science inquiry framework. The study was conducted in two phases: a pilot in 2002 and the current study in the Spring Quarter of 2003. Grounded in the view that members in a classroom construct a culture, this study explored the daily construction of the literate practices of science and writing. This view of classrooms was informed by four bodies of research: interactional ethnography, sociolinguistics sociology of science and Writing In the Disciplines. Through participant observation, data were collected in the lecture and laboratory settings in the form of field notes, video, interviews, and artifacts to explore issues of science literacy in discourse, social action, and writing. Examination of participation in the Question of the Day interactive writing activity revealed that it played a key role in initiating and supporting a view of science and inquiry. As the activity permitted collaboration, it encouraged students to engage in the social process to critically explore a discourse of science and key practices with and through their writing. In daily interaction, participants were shown to take up social positions as scientist and engage in science inquiry to explore theory, examine data, and articulately reformulate knowledge in making oral and written scientific arguments. The activity was also shown to provide the professor with a valuable resource to inform his instructional practice, which resulted in enriching the experience of science of students by aligning lectures to address particular concerns. Implications for theory, the teaching of Writing across the Curriculum, and science instruction are discussed.

Ethnographic case study of a high school science classroom: Strategies in stem education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sohn, Lucinda N.

Historically, science education research has promoted that learning science occurs through direct physical experiences. In recent years, the need for best practices and student motivation have been highlighted in STEM research findings. In response to the instructional challenges in STEM education, the National Research Council has provided guidelines for improving STEM literacy through best practices in science and mathematics instruction. A baseline qualitative ethnographic case study of the effect of instructional practices on a science classroom was an opportunity to understand how a teacher and students work together to learn in an International Baccalaureate life science course. This study was approached through an interpretivist lens with the assumption that learning science is socially constructed. The following were the research questions: 1.) How does the teacher implement science instruction strategies in the classroom? 2.) In what ways are students engaged in the classroom? 3.) How are science concepts communicated in the classroom? The total 35 participants included a high school science teacher and two classes of 11th grade students in the International Baccalaureate program. Using exploratory qualitative methods of research, data was collected from field notes and transcripts from a series of classroom observations, a single one-on-one interview with the teacher and two focus groups with students from each of the two classes. Three themes emerged from text coded using initial and process coding with the computer assisted qualitative data analysis software, MAXQDA. The themes were: 1.) Physical Forms of Communication Play Key Role in Instructional Strategy, 2.) Science Learning Occurs in Casual Environment Full of Distractions, and 3.) Teacher Persona Plays Vital Role in Classroom Culture. The findings provided insight into the teacher's role on students' motivation to learn science. The recommendation for STEM programs and new curriculum is a holistic and sustainable model for development and implementation. This approach brings together the researcher and practitioner to design effective and specific programs tailored to student needs. The implication of using an effective team model to plan and coordinate individualized STEM initiatives is a long-term commitment to overall STEM literacy, thereby fostering increased access to STEM careers for all learners.

Collecting Practice-level Data in a Changing Physician Office-based Ambulatory Care Environment: A Pilot Study Examining the Physician induction interview Component of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

PubMed

Halley, Meghan C; Rendle, Katharine A; Gugerty, Brian; Lau, Denys T; Luft, Harold S; Gillespie, Katherine A

2017-11-01

Objective This report examines ways to improve National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) data on practice and physician characteristics in multispecialty group practices. Methods From February to April 2013, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) conducted a pilot study to observe the collection of the NAMCS physician interview information component in a large multispecialty group practice. Nine physicians were randomly sampled using standard NAMCS recruitment procedures; eight were eligible and agreed to participate. Using standard protocols, three field representatives conducted NAMCS physician induction interviews (PIIs) while trained ethnographers observed and audio recorded the interviews. Transcripts and field notes were analyzed to identify recurrent issues in the data collection process. Results The majority of the NAMCS items appeared to have been easily answered by the physician respondents. Among the items that appeared to be difficult to answer, three themes emerged: (a) physician respondents demonstrated an inconsistent understanding of "location" in responding to questions; (b) lack of familiarity with administrative matters made certain questions difficult for physicians to answer; and (c) certain primary care‑oriented questions were not relevant to specialty care providers. Conclusions Some PII survey questions were challenging for physicians in a multispecialty practice setting. Improving the design and administration of NAMCS data collection is part of NCHS' continuous quality improvement process. All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.

Reclaiming the Disengaged? A Bourdieuian Analysis of Work-Based Learning for Young People in England

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Ron

2011-01-01

This paper uses Bourdieu's concept of field to analyse findings from an ethnographic study of Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in England. Entry to Employment is a work-based learning programme which aims to re-engage young people with "barriers to learning" inhibiting access to further education, training or employment. The paper…

The Emergent Charter School Model for Ninth Grade Mildly Disabled United States Students: Extending to Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vincent, Emmanuel Teah

2009-01-01

An ethnographic, descriptive research methodology was used to explore the service delivery of three U.S. charter schools (one independent and two dependent secondary public charter schools) in Southern New England, United States as they relate to grade nine mildly disabled special needs students. Field research was also conducted in Costa Rica and…

Ten Theses of the Joy of Learning at Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rantala, Taina; Maatta, Kaarina

2012-01-01

The aim of this paper is to decipher the essence of the joy of learning and the ways to enhance it at school. In the field of educational psychology, research on feelings is lacking, and the little that does exist has focused more on negative rather than positive feelings. The present paper is based on ethnographic and observational research of a…

Soziale Welten von Schulern und Schulerinnen. Uber Populare, Padagogische und Szientifische Ethnographien (Social World of Male and Female Students -- On Popular, Pedagogical and Scientific Ethnographies).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zinnecker, Jurgen

2000-01-01

Provides a survey on projects, authors, topics, and methods in recent ethnographic studies carried out in Germany and elsewhere. Describes embedding scientific student ethnography into a field of discourse. Concludes with a prognosis relating to the future perspectives of this segment of educational research. (CMK)

Snake oil, silver buckshot, and people who hate us: metaphors and conventional discourses of wood-based bioenergy in the rural southeastern United States

Treesearch

Sarah Hitchner; John Schelhas; J. Peter  Brosius

2016-01-01

Multiple experiences and sources of information influence ideas about wood-based bioenergy, and people often use similar language to reference various discourses (e.g., energy independence, rural development, environmental sustainability). We collected data during ethnographic research in three primary and three secondary field sites in the southeastern...

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…

Ethnographic Research and Globalization: A Discussion of Joseph Tobin's Model of Video-Cued Multivocal Ethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watras, Joseph

2014-01-01

Joseph Tobin made an impact on the field of comparative education in 2009 when he used a unique form of ethnography to illuminate the effects of world-wide forces, such as modernization, on schools in specific countries. Earlier, in 1989, he published "Preschool in Three Cultures" with co-authors David Wu and Dana Davidson. The…

"The Grapes of Wrath": Scrapbooks and Artifacts. Ethnographic Field Studies in Fiction. Learning Page Lesson Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Specht, Linda; Lackey, David

This three-week high school American Literature lesson plan guides students to show how cultural artifacts from "The Grapes of Wrath" support one of the book's many themes. The teacher's guide describes the five lessons that constitute this lesson plan: (1) ethnography; (2) photo analysis; (3) oral history; (4) material artifacts and…

Pupil's Opportunities to Influence Activities: A Study of Everyday Practice at a Swedish Leisure-Time Centre

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haglund, Björn

2015-01-01

The focal point of this article is a discussion of pupils' opportunities to make their voices heard and influence the activity in a Swedish leisure-time centre. The study comprises six weeks of ethnographically inspired field work including data from participating observations and walk-and-talk conversations. Two voluntary activities, referred to…

Learning to Read from a Social Practice View: Ethnography, Schooling and Adult Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Street, Brian

2016-01-01

This paper looks at some issues around "learning to read" from the viewpoint of a social practice concept of literacy for both child and adult literacy. This calls for an ethnographic approach that, although increasingly common in the field of adult literacy, is less common in the policy and practice of schooling; there, a more…

Thick Description of the Teacher-Student Relationship in the Educational Context of School: Results of an Ethnographic Field Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raufelder, Diana; Bukowski, William M.; Mohr, Sonja

2013-01-01

Complexities of essential aspects of the teacher-student relationship were identified in a group of German adolescents and their teachers through participant observation. It is already known that the determinants of the teacher-student relationship cannot be simply categorized and analyzed as univariate features. Using Clifford Geertz?s concept of…

[Sexuality, bodily experiences, and gender: an ethnographic study of persons living with HIV in Greater Metropolitan Buenos Aires, Argentina].

PubMed

Grimberg, Mabel

2009-01-01

Based on the results of an ethnographic study on daily experience with HIV in Greater Metropolitan Buenos Aires, Argentina, the article discusses behavioral approaches that reduce the sexuality of persons living with HIV to an issue of safety and protection. By articulating a social construction perspective and the notion of hegemony, the author proposes that sexuality can be understood as a process of individual and social construction shaped by power relations and social regulations. The analysis of the experiences of living with HIV in marginalized populations shows how chronic social inequality, violence, discrimination, and stigmatization generate particular characteristics of sexual issues. These social processes become driving forces that shape sexual experience as a field of danger, repression, and restriction rather than pleasure and exploration. Finally, daily confrontation with social metaphors places strain on gender relations, practices, and identities.

Deceased loved ones in the dreams of mentally retarded adults.

PubMed

Turner, J L; Graffam, J H

1987-11-01

Dream reports were collected over a 10-year period as part of an ethnographic study of mentally retarded employees in a sheltered workshop. Deceased loved ones, usually parents or other family members, figured prominently as characters in many of these dreams. Dreams about the dead were often recurring and elicited salient emotional reactions from the dreamers. The various forms that these dreams take and their characteristic thematic content were described for 154 dreams by 60 dreamers. Some of the percepts and feelings that reflect the dreamers' understanding of their dreams were also noted. Findings reveal that the dream life of retarded adults is much more rich and diverse than previous studies suggest. Clinical implications and the occurrence of similar dreams among nonretarded persons were discussed.

Trauma Affecting Asian-Pacific Islanders in the San Francisco Bay Area

PubMed Central

Bith-Melander, Pollie; Jindal, Charulata; Efird, Jimmy T.

2017-01-01

Trauma is a transgenerational process that overwhelms the community and the ability of family members to cope with life stressors. An anthropologist trained in ethnographic methods observed three focus groups from a non-profit agency providing trauma and mental health services to Asian Americans living in the San Francisco Bay Area of United States. Supplemental information also was collected from staff interviews and notes. Many of the clients were immigrants, refugees, or adult children of these groups. This report consisted of authentic observations and rich qualitative information to characterize the impact of trauma on refugees and immigrants. Observations suggest that collective trauma, direct or indirect, can impede the success and survivability of a population, even after many generations. PMID:28895918

Evaluation of a user guidance reminder to improve the quality of electronic prescription messages.

PubMed

Dhavle, A A; Corley, S T; Rupp, M T; Ruiz, J; Smith, J; Gill, R; Sow, M

2014-01-01

Prescribers' inappropriate use of the free-text Notes field in new electronic prescriptions can create confusion and workflow disruptions at receiving pharmacies that often necessitates contact with prescribers for clarification. The inclusion of inappropriate patient direction (Sig) information in the Notes field is particularly problematic. We evaluated the effect of a targeted watermark, an embedded overlay, reminder statement in the Notes field of an EHR-based e-prescribing application on the incidence of inappropriate patient directions (Sig) in the Notes field. E-prescriptions issued by the same exact cohort of 97 prescribers were collected over three time periods: baseline, three months after implementation of the reminder, and 15 months post implementation. Three certified and experienced pharmacy technicians independently reviewed all e-prescriptions for inappropriate Sig-related information in the Notes field. A physician reviewer served as the final adjudicator for e-prescriptions where the three reviewers could not reach a consensus. ANOVA and post hoc Tukey HSD tests were performed on group comparisons where statistical significance was evaluated at p<0.05. The incidence of inappropriate Sig-related information in the Notes field decreased from a baseline of 2.8% to 1.8% three months post-implementation and remained stable after 15 months. In addition, prescribers' use of the Notes decreased by 22% after 3 months and had stabilized at 18.7% below baseline after 15 months. Insertion of a targeted watermark reminder statement in the Notes field of an e-prescribing application significantly reduced the incidence of inappropriate Sig-related information in Notes and decreased prescribers' use of this field.

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…

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.

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…

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.

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…

Towards a World in which Many Worlds Fit? Zapatista Autonomous Education as an Alternative Means of Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shenker, Sarah Dee

2012-01-01

This paper examines the Zapatista schools which arose in 1996 in the state of Chiapas in Mexico as a pillar of Zapatista autonomy and also as a result of the indigenous communities' dissatisfaction with the government's bilingual education programme. Based on ethnographic field work, the author reveals the objectives of the schools as being the…

The Official Knowledge and Adult Education Agents: An Ethnographic Study of the Adult Education Team of a Local Development-Oriented Nongovernmental Organization in the North of Portugal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loureiro, Armando Paulo Ferreira; Cristovao, Artur Fernando Arede Correia

2010-01-01

Nongovernmental organizations, particularly those related to development work (local development-oriented nongovernmental organizations; LDNGO), and their agents have been assuming, in Portugal, an important role in the field of adult education. These organizations develop with the State, at the national level, and with supranational institutions…

From Symbols, Stories and Social Artifacts to Social Architecture and Agency: The Discourse of Learning and the Decline of "Organizational Culture" in the "New Work Order."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siegel, Irwin H.

The concept of organizational culture has been central to the development of concepts, such as the learning organization and organizational learning, which are important within the field of adult education. However, the functionalist models of organizational culture, which have often relied on ethnographic and/or anecdotal studies of organizations…

Extending the Field of College Access: A Critical Ethnography on the Organizational Habitus of College-Going in an Urban Catholic High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Paul Joseph

2013-01-01

Through a critical ethnographic methodology, this dissertation study utilizes a P-20 lens in analyzing the organizational habitus of college-going in an urban Catholic high school in South Texas. The primary theoretical framework of this study is Bourdieuian Social Reproduction Theory, which supports the study's impetus to demonstrate how school…

Talking Circles for Adolescent Girls in an Urban High School: A Restorative Practices Program for Building Friendships and Developing Emotional Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schumacher, Martha Ann

2012-01-01

Restorative Practices and Restorative Justice programs in schools are a new and emerging field. Meeting in Circles to build community, resolve conflict, and learn interactively are core components of these programs. This ethnographic study, which took place February 2010 to December 2011, evaluates 12 small, out-of-classroom Talking Circles for 60…

Conceptual Crossroads: Methods and Ethics in Ethnographic Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fetterman, David M.

1986-01-01

The delicacy required of ethnographic work is nowhere more evident and more necessary than at the conceptual crossroads where methods and ethical decision making intersect. This paper addresses moments of decision and puts them into perspective by locating them within the lifecycle of ethnographic evaluation. (LMO)

Macrocognition in the Healthcare Built Environment (mHCBE): A Focused Ethnographic Study of "Neighborhoods" in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

PubMed

O'Hara, Susan; Klar, Robin Toft; Patterson, Emily S; Morris, Nancy S; Ascenzi, Judy; Fackler, James C; Perry, Donna J

2018-04-01

The objectives of this research were to describe the interactions (formal and informal), in which macrocognitive functions occur and their location on a pediatric intensive care unit, to describe challenges and facilitators of macrocognition using space syntax constructs (openness, connectivity, and visibility), and to analyze the healthcare built environment (HCBE) using those constructs to explicate influences on macrocognition. In high reliability, complex industries, macrocognition is an approach to develop new knowledge among interprofessional team members. Although macrocognitive functions have been analyzed in multiple healthcare settings, the effect of the HCBE on those functions has not been directly studied. The theoretical framework, "macrocognition in the healthcare built environment" (mHCBE) addresses this relationship. A focused ethnographic study was conducted including observation and focus groups. Architectural drawing files used to create distance matrices and isovist field view analyses were compared to panoramic photographs and ethnographic data. Neighborhoods comprised of corner configurations with maximized visibility enhanced team interactions as well as observation of patients, offering the greatest opportunity for informal situated macrocognitive interactions (SMIs). Results from this study support the intricate link between macrocognitive interactions and space syntax constructs within the HCBE. These findings help increase understanding of how use of the framework of Macrocognition in the HCBE can improve design and support adaptation of interprofessional team practices, maximizing macrocognitive interaction opportunities for patient, family, and team safety and quality.

Ethnographic Methods in Academic Libraries: A Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramsden, Bryony

2016-01-01

Research in academic libraries has recently seen an increase in the use of ethnographic-based methods to collect data. Primarily used to learn about library users and their interaction with spaces and resources, the methods are proving particularly useful to academic libraries. The data ethnographic methods retrieve is rich, context specific, and…

Somewhere between What Is and What If: Fictionalisation and Ethnographic Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reed, Malcolm

2011-01-01

Fictionalisation seems to render ethnographic inquiry suspect as research appropriate to the social sciences because it subverts a claim of realism or objectivity. This leads some ethnographers to propose alternative criteria for validation, such as participation and evocation, which offer alignment with realism; others suggest that scientific…

Return Interviews and Long Engagements with Ethnographic Informants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tobin, Joseph; Hayashi, Akiko

2017-01-01

This paper uses examples from research conducted in preschools in Japan, China, and the United States to illustrate the features and virtues of return interviews with informants with whom ethnographers have long research engagements. Return interviews and long research engagements are powerful research strategies that help the ethnographers ask…

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…

The Form and Flow of Teaching Ethnographic Knowledge: Hands-On Approaches for Learning Epistemology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corte, Ugo; Irwin, Katherine

2017-01-01

A glance across ethnographic methods terrain reveals multiple controversies and divisive critiques. When training graduate students, these debates and controversies can be consequential. We offer suggestions for teaching graduate ethnographic methods courses that, first, help students understand some of the common epistemological debates in the…

Finding a Way out of the Ethnographic Paradigm Jungle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roy, Subhadip; Banerjee, Pratyush

2012-01-01

In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a hybrid ethnographic paradigm, taking the best points from the different approaches of ethnographic research. The pioneering proponents of ethnography differed in their conceptualization of the method, resulting in the development of three distinct schools of thought-holistic, semiotic and…

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…

Robotics as science (re)form: Exploring power, learning and gender(ed) identity formation in a "community of practice"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurner, Sheryl Marie

"Robotics as Science (re)Form" utilizes qualitative research methods to examine the career trajectories and gender identity formation of female youth participating as members of an all-girl, academic team within the male-dominated environment of the FIRST Robotics competition. Following the constant comparative approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), my project relies upon triangulating ethnographic data drawn from extensive field notes, semi-structured interviews, and digital and video imagery compiled over two years of participant observation. Drawing upon the sociolinguistic "community of practice" (CoP) framework (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), this study maps the range of gendered "identities" available to girls involved in non-traditional academic and occupational pursuits within a local context, and reveals the nature, structure and impact of power operating within this CoP, a significantly underdeveloped construct within the language and gender literature. These research findings (1) contribute to refining theories of situated or problem based learning with a focus on female youth (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998); (2) reveal affordances and barriers within the local program design that enable (and preclude) women and minority youth entering the engineering pipeline; and (3) enrich our understanding of intragroup language and gendered "practices" to counter largely essentializing generalizations based upon quantitative analysis. Keywords: Robotics, gender, identity formation, science, STEM, communities of practice

Revising laboratory work: sociological perspectives on the science classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jobér, Anna

2017-09-01

This study uses sociological perspectives to analyse one of the core practices in science education: schoolchildren's and students' laboratory work. Applying an ethnographic approach to the laboratory work done by pupils at a Swedish compulsory school, data were generated through observations, field notes, interviews, and a questionnaire. The pupils, ages 14 and 15, were observed as they took a 5-week physics unit (specifically, mechanics). The analysis shows that the episodes of laboratory work could be filled with curiosity and exciting challenges; however, another picture emerged when sociological concepts and notions were applied to what is a very common way of working in the classroom. Laboratory work is characterised as a social activity that is expected to be organised as a group activity. This entails groups becoming, to some extent, `safe havens' for the pupils. On the other hand, this way of working in groups required pupils to subject to the groups and the peer effect, sometimes undermining their chances to learn and perform better. In addition, the practice of working in groups when doing laboratory work left some pupils and the teacher blaming themselves, even though the outcome of the learning situation was a result of a complex interplay of social processes. This article suggests a stronger emphasis on the contradictions and consequences of the science subjects, which are strongly influenced by their socio-historical legacy.

Bed rest from the perspective of the high-risk pregnant woman.

PubMed

Gupton, A; Heaman, M; Ashcroft, T

1997-01-01

To describe the experience of prolonged bed rest from the perspective of women during high-risk pregnancies. A focused ethnographic study that used interviews, participant diaries, and field notes as data sources. Participants were obtained from an acute-care hospital antepartum unit and an antepartum home care program. Twenty-four women with complications of pregnancy requiring prolonged bed rest (range, 7-50 days). A model of the stress process in pregnant women on bed rest emerged from the data analysis. Stressors were grouped into situational (sick role, lack of control, uncertainty, concerns regarding fetus's well-being, and being tired of waiting), environmental (feeling like a prisoner, being bored, and having a sense of missing out), and family (role reversal and worry about older children) categories. Two main mediators of stress were social support and coping. Families, friends, and professionals were perceived as sources of support. Women used coping strategies, such as keeping a positive attitude, taking it 1 day at a time, doing it for the baby, getting used to it, setting goals, and keeping busy. Manifestations of stress were evidenced by adverse physical symptoms, emotional reactions, and altered social relationships. Prolonged bed rest is a stressful experience for pregnant women at high risk. Understanding the stress process in pregnant women confined to bed rest may assist nurses in developing interventions to reduce stressors and enhance mediators.

The role of technology in critical care nursing.

PubMed

Crocker, Cheryl; Timmons, Stephen

2009-01-01

This paper is a report of a study to identify the meaning for critical care nurses of technology related to weaning from mechanical ventilation and to explore how that technology was used in practice. The literature concerned with the development of critical care (intensive care and high dependency units) focuses mainly on innovative medical technology. Although this use of technology in critical care is portrayed as new, it actually represents a transfer of technology from operating theatres. An ethnographic study was conducted and data were collected on one critical care unit in a large teaching hospital over a 6-month period in 2004. The methods included participant observation, interviews and the collection of field notes. The overall theme 'The nursing-technology relation' was identified. This comprised three sub-themes: definition of technology, technology transferred and technology transformed. Novice nurses took a task-focussed approach to weaning, treating it as a 'medical' technology transferred to them from doctors. Expert nurses used technology differently and saw its potential to become a 'nursing technology'. Nurses need to examine how they can adapt and to 'reconfigure' technology so that it can be transformed into a nursing technology. Those technologies that do not fit with nursing may have no place there. Rather than simply extending and expanding their roles through technology transfer, nurses should transform those technologies that preserve the essence of nursing and can contribute to a positive outcome for patients.

Wash and Wean: Bathing Patients Undergoing Weaning Trials During Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation

PubMed Central

Happ, Mary Beth; Tate, Judith A.; Swigart, Valerie A.; DiVirgilio-Thomas, Dana; Hoffman, Leslie A.

2010-01-01

BACKGROUND Bathing is a fundamental nursing care activity performed for or with the self-assistance of critically ill patients. Few studies address caregiver and/or patient-family perspectives about bathing activity during weaning from prolonged mechanical ventilation. OBJECTIVE To describe practices and beliefs about bathing patients during weaning from prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV). METHODS Secondary analysis of qualitative data (observational field notes, interviews, and clinical record review) from a larger ethnographic study involving 30 patients weaning from PMV and the clinicians who cared for them using basic qualitative description. RESULTS Bathing, hygiene, and personal care were highly valued and equated with “good” nursing care by families and nurses. Nurses and respiratory therapists reported “working around” bath time and promoted conducting weaning trials before or after bathing. Patients were nevertheless bathed during weaning trials despite clinicians expressed concerns for energy conservation. Clinicians’ recognized individual patient response to bathing during PMV weaning trials. CONCLUSION Bathing is a central care activity for PMV patients and a component of daily work processes in the ICU. Bathing requires assessment of patient condition and activity tolerance and nurse-respiratory therapist negotiation and accommodation with respect to the initiation and/or continuation of PMV weaning trials during bathing. Further study is needed to validate the impact (or lack of impact) of various timing strategies for bathing PMV patients. PMID:20561877

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.

An Ethnographic Investigation of Attitude Development in Vocational Education: The Importance of Ethnographic Meaning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Claus, John F.

An ethnographic, case-study complement to a statewide survey in New York State attempted to shed light on the interwoven personal, social, economic, and program factors underlying secondary vocational education students' reports of improved attitudes. The survey assessed whether the state's two-year, half-day, separate-facility vocational programs…

43 CFR 3861.1-3 - Plats and field notes of mineral surveys.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Plats and field notes of mineral surveys...) BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) MINERAL PATENT APPLICATIONS Surveys and Plats § 3861.1-3 Plats and field notes of mineral surveys. When the patent is issued...

43 CFR 3861.1-3 - Plats and field notes of mineral surveys.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Plats and field notes of mineral surveys...) BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) MINERAL PATENT APPLICATIONS Surveys and Plats § 3861.1-3 Plats and field notes of mineral surveys. When the patent is issued...

43 CFR 3861.1-3 - Plats and field notes of mineral surveys.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Plats and field notes of mineral surveys...) BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) MINERAL PATENT APPLICATIONS Surveys and Plats § 3861.1-3 Plats and field notes of mineral surveys. When the patent is issued...

43 CFR 3861.1-3 - Plats and field notes of mineral surveys.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Plats and field notes of mineral surveys...) BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) MINERAL PATENT APPLICATIONS Surveys and Plats § 3861.1-3 Plats and field notes of mineral surveys. When the patent is issued...

Contextualizing Gay-Straight Alliances: Student, Advisor, and Structural Factors Related to Positive Youth Development Among Members

PubMed Central

Poteat, V. Paul; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Calzo, Jerel P.; Gray, Mary L.; DiGiovanni, Craig. D.; Lipkin, Arthur; Mundy-Shephard, Adrienne; Perrotti, Jeff; Scheer, Jillian R.; Shaw, Mathew P.

2014-01-01

Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) may promote resilience. Yet, what GSA components predict wellbeing? Among 146 youth and advisors in 13 GSAs (58% lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning; 64% white; 38% received free/reduced-cost lunch), student (demographics, victimization, attendance frequency, leadership, support, control), advisor (years served, training, control) and contextual factors (overall support or advocacy, outside support for the GSA) that predicted purpose, mastery, and self-esteem were tested. In multilevel models, GSA support predicted all outcomes. Racial/ethnic minority youth reported greater wellbeing, yet lower support. Youth in GSAs whose advisors served longer and perceived more control and were in more supportive school contexts reported healthier outcomes. GSA advocacy also predicted purpose. Ethnographic notes elucidated complex associations and variability in how GSAs operated. PMID:25176579

The Combined Use of Computers and Audio Tape Recorders in Storing, Managing, and Using Qualitative Verbal Ethnographic Data. [Revised].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dow, James

Ways in which computers and audio tape recorder techniques were used to record, index, and present data collected during two summers of field work in a rural area of Mexico are described. The research goal was to study the Otomi Indian shamans. Two computers were used: the Honeywell 6800 DPS-2 and the Osborne-1 microcomputer. The database system…

An Engineer, an Architect, and an Anthropologist Walk into a Conference Room...

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aiken, Jo

2016-01-01

Ethnographers are urged to "be there", in the field, in order to gain insight about a particular culture. When the field is unreachable, or does not yet exist, the applied anthropologist must adapt their methods accordingly while maintaining the integrity of their research. The space industry presents a unique case study for such a dilemma. Drawing on Bourdieu's 1977 reflection on the structural constraints and the forming of unconscious schemes of thought imposed by the material world on the body, this paper considers the effect of the presence and absence of place in applied, collaborative anthropological work.

Slicing the Onion Ethnographically: Layers and Spaces in Multilingual Language Education Policy and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornberger, Nancy H.; Johnson, David Cassels

2007-01-01

In this article, we take up the call for more multilayered and ethnographic approaches to language policy and planning (LPP) research by sharing two examples of how ethnography can illuminate local interpretation and implementation. We offer ethnographic data collected in two very different institutions--the School District of Philadelphia and the…

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…

Conceptualising the Use of Facebook in Ethnographic Research: As Tool, as Data and as Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Sally

2013-01-01

This article proposes a three-part conceptualisation of the use of Facebook in ethnographic research: as a tool, as data and as context. Longitudinal research with young adults at a time of significant change provides many challenges for the ethnographic researcher, such as maintaining channels of communication and high rates of participant…

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…

Workflow in clinical trial sites & its association with near miss events for data quality: ethnographic, workflow & systems simulation.

PubMed

de Carvalho, Elias Cesar Araujo; Batilana, Adelia Portero; Claudino, Wederson; Reis, Luiz Fernando Lima; Schmerling, Rafael A; Shah, Jatin; Pietrobon, Ricardo

2012-01-01

With the exponential expansion of clinical trials conducted in (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and VISTA (Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, and Argentina) countries, corresponding gains in cost and enrolment efficiency quickly outpace the consonant metrics in traditional countries in North America and European Union. However, questions still remain regarding the quality of data being collected in these countries. We used ethnographic, mapping and computer simulation studies to identify/address areas of threat to near miss events for data quality in two cancer trial sites in Brazil. Two sites in Sao Paolo and Rio Janeiro were evaluated using ethnographic observations of workflow during subject enrolment and data collection. Emerging themes related to threats to near miss events for data quality were derived from observations. They were then transformed into workflows using UML-AD and modeled using System Dynamics. 139 tasks were observed and mapped through the ethnographic study. The UML-AD detected four major activities in the workflow evaluation of potential research subjects prior to signature of informed consent, visit to obtain subject́s informed consent, regular data collection sessions following study protocol and closure of study protocol for a given project. Field observations pointed to three major emerging themes: (a) lack of standardized process for data registration at source document, (b) multiplicity of data repositories and (c) scarcity of decision support systems at the point of research intervention. Simulation with policy model demonstrates a reduction of the rework problem. Patterns of threats to data quality at the two sites were similar to the threats reported in the literature for American sites. The clinical trial site managers need to reorganize staff workflow by using information technology more efficiently, establish new standard procedures and manage professionals to reduce near miss events and save time/cost. Clinical trial sponsors should improve relevant support systems.

Workflow in Clinical Trial Sites & Its Association with Near Miss Events for Data Quality: Ethnographic, Workflow & Systems Simulation

PubMed Central

Araujo de Carvalho, Elias Cesar; Batilana, Adelia Portero; Claudino, Wederson; Lima Reis, Luiz Fernando; Schmerling, Rafael A.; Shah, Jatin; Pietrobon, Ricardo

2012-01-01

Background With the exponential expansion of clinical trials conducted in (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and VISTA (Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, and Argentina) countries, corresponding gains in cost and enrolment efficiency quickly outpace the consonant metrics in traditional countries in North America and European Union. However, questions still remain regarding the quality of data being collected in these countries. We used ethnographic, mapping and computer simulation studies to identify/address areas of threat to near miss events for data quality in two cancer trial sites in Brazil. Methodology/Principal Findings Two sites in Sao Paolo and Rio Janeiro were evaluated using ethnographic observations of workflow during subject enrolment and data collection. Emerging themes related to threats to near miss events for data quality were derived from observations. They were then transformed into workflows using UML-AD and modeled using System Dynamics. 139 tasks were observed and mapped through the ethnographic study. The UML-AD detected four major activities in the workflow evaluation of potential research subjects prior to signature of informed consent, visit to obtain subject́s informed consent, regular data collection sessions following study protocol and closure of study protocol for a given project. Field observations pointed to three major emerging themes: (a) lack of standardized process for data registration at source document, (b) multiplicity of data repositories and (c) scarcity of decision support systems at the point of research intervention. Simulation with policy model demonstrates a reduction of the rework problem. Conclusions/Significance Patterns of threats to data quality at the two sites were similar to the threats reported in the literature for American sites. The clinical trial site managers need to reorganize staff workflow by using information technology more efficiently, establish new standard procedures and manage professionals to reduce near miss events and save time/cost. Clinical trial sponsors should improve relevant support systems. PMID:22768105

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 state of limbo: the politics of waiting in neo-liberal Latvia.

PubMed

Ozoliņa-Fitzgerald, Liene

2016-09-01

This article presents an ethnographic study of politics of waiting in a post-Soviet context. While activation has been explored in sociological and anthropological literature as a neo-liberal governmental technology and its application in post-socialist context has also been compellingly documented, waiting as a political artefact has only recently been receiving increased scholarly attention. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at a state-run unemployment office in Riga, this article shows how, alongside activation, state welfare policies also produce passivity and waiting. Engaging with the small but developing field of sociological literature on the politics of waiting, I argue that, rather than interpreting it as a clash between 'neo-liberal' and 'Soviet' regimes, we should understand the double-move of activation and imposition of waiting as a key mechanism of neo-liberal biopolitics. This article thus extends the existing theorizations of the temporal politics of neo-liberalism. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2016.

Linnaeus' study of Swedish swidden cultivation: Pioneering ethnographic work on the 'economy of nature'.

PubMed

Dove, Michael R

2015-04-01

Carl Linnaeus' work on the 'economy of nature' was a major early development in what became the modern field of ecology. This analysis suggests that a key subject of this work that has been ignored or misunderstood for 250 years is the rural livelihoods, especially swidden (or slash-and-burn) agriculture, which Linnaeus studied during his expeditions through rural Sweden. Rereading his reports in the light of modern work on swiddens, political ecology, and the history of science affords a new appreciation of Linnaeus' insights into traditional systems of resource exploitation. The logic of nutrient cycling in swidden agriculture and its utilization of natural dynamics to serve human ends exemplify the principles of the 'economy of nature', and gave Linnaeus a philosophical basis for understanding and defending this system of agriculture as well as other rural resource use systems in Sweden. This analysis sheds new light on Linnaeus' ethnographic work, his view of folk environmental knowledge, and his often derided identification with Sweden's ethnic peoples.

Using ethnography to investigate life scientists' information needs.

PubMed Central

Forsythe, D E

1998-01-01

Designing information resources that actually meet the information needs of individuals requires detailed knowledge of these needs. This poses a challenge for developers. Because the meaning of particular terms can vary by field, professional knowledge differs to some extent in different disciplines, and the questions that people ask assume a certain amount of unarticulated background knowledge, understanding the information needs of life scientists is not a trivial undertaking. One source of help in meeting this challenge is ethnography, a set of research methods and an associated conceptual stance developed and used by anthropologists for investigating uncontrolled real-world settings. Drawing on the author's experience in using ethnographic techniques to study clinicians' information needs, this paper describes why such research is necessary, why it requires particular research methods, what an ethnographic perspective has added to the study of information needs, and what this broader approach has revealed about the types of information sought by clinicians in the course of their daily practice. PMID:9681177

Clinical ethics issues in HIV care in Canada: an institutional ethnographic study.

PubMed

Kaposy, Chris; Greenspan, Nicole R; Marshall, Zack; Allison, Jill; Marshall, Shelley; Kitson, Cynthia

2017-02-06

This is a study involving three HIV clinics in the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Manitoba. We sought to identify ethical issues involving health care providers and clinic clients in these settings, and to gain an understanding of how different ethical issues are managed by these groups. We used an institutional ethnographic method to investigate ethical issues in HIV clinics. Our researcher conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews, compiled participant observation notes, and studied health records in order to document ethical issues in the clinics, and to understand how health care providers and clinic clients manage and resolve these issues. We found that health care providers and clinic clients have developed work processes for managing ethical issues of various types: conflicts between client-autonomy and public health priorities ("treatment as prevention"), difficulties associated with the criminalization of nondisclosure of HIV positive status, challenges with non-adherence to HIV treatment, the protection of confidentiality, barriers to treatment access, and negative social determinants of health and well-being. Some ethical issues resulted from structural disadvantages experienced by clinic clients. The most striking findings in our study were the negative social determinants of health and well-being experienced by some clinic clients - such as experiences of violence and trauma, poverty, racism, colonization, homelessness, and other factors affecting well-being such as problematic substance use. These negative determinants were at the root of other ethical issues, and are themselves of ethical concern.

Achieving Affective and Behavioral Outcomes in Culture Learning: The Case for Ethnographic Interviews

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bateman, Blair E.

2004-01-01

This study sought to extend previous research on ethnographic interviews as a method of culture learning in foreign language classes by employing a qualitative case study methodology. Fifty-four university students in a first-year Spanish course worked in pairs to conduct a series of three ethnographic interviews with a native speaker of Spanish.…

Research with Rawness: The Remembering and Repeating of Auto/Biographical Ethnographic Research Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sagan, Olivia

2007-01-01

This paper explores the auto/biographicity of ethnographic research, describing the way in which our research pursuits can be seen as the replaying of past agendas. It looks specifically at the auto/biographic interview as part of the ethnographic data collected, positing it as the site of co-construction of new memory, and the re-enactment of…

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…

Apes, skulls and drums: using images to make ethnographic knowledge in imperial Germany.

PubMed

Petrou, Marissa H

2018-03-01

In this paper, I discuss the development and use of images employed by the Dresden Royal Museum for Zoology, Anthropology and Ethnography to resolve debates about how to use visual representation as a means of making ethnographic knowledge. Through experimentation with techniques of visual representation, the founding director, A.B. Meyer (1840-1911), proposed a historical, non-essentialist approach to understanding racial and cultural difference. Director Meyer's approach was inspired by the new knowledge he had gained through field research in Asia-Pacific as well as new forms of imaging that made highly detailed representations of objects possible. Through a combination of various techniques, he developed new visual methods that emphasized intimate familiarity with variations within any one ethnic group, from skull shape to material ornamentation, as integral to the new disciplines of physical and cultural anthropology. It is well known that photographs were a favoured form of visual documentation among the anthropological and ethnographic sciences at the fin de siècle. However, in the scholarly journals of the Dresden museum, photographs, drawings, tables and etchings were frequently displayed alongside one another. Meyer sought to train the reader's eye through organized arrangements that represented objects from multiple angles and at various levels of magnification. Focusing on chimpanzees, skulls and kettledrums from Asia-Pacific, I track the development of new modes of making and reading images, from zoology and physical anthropology to ethnography, to demonstrate how the museum visually historicized humankind.

Field Science Ethnography: Methods For Systematic Observation on an Expedition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clancey, William J.; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The Haughton-Mars expedition is a multidisciplinary project, exploring an impact crater in an extreme environment to determine how people might live and work on Mars. The expedition seeks to understand and field test Mars facilities, crew roles, operations, and computer tools. I combine an ethnographic approach to establish a baseline understanding of how scientists prefer to live and work when relatively unemcumbered, with a participatory design approach of experimenting with procedures and tools in the context of use. This paper focuses on field methods for systematically recording and analyzing the expedition's activities. Systematic photography and time-lapse video are combined with concept mapping to organize and present information. This hybrid approach is generally applicable to the study of modern field expeditions having a dozen or more multidisciplinary participants, spread over a large terrain during multiple field seasons.

Access to and use of research by rural nurses.

PubMed

Winters, C A; Lee, H J; Besel, J; Strand, A; Echeverri, R; Jorgensen, K P; Dea, J E

2007-01-01

The use of relevant research findings to inform clinical practice is important for nurses, regardless of setting. Although there have been studies addressing the use of research among various practitioners, little is known about how nurses in rural areas access health information (specifically research findings), nor how such findings are incorporated into daily practice. The purpose of this study was to explore rural nurses' access, use and perceived usefulness of research for rural practice. The study was conducted in a sparsely populated state located in the western part of the USA. An ethnographic method was chosen to answer the research questions for this descriptive study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 rural nurses from nine communities by graduate nursing students enrolled in a rural nursing course following in-class instruction and practice. Field notes taken by the students supplemented the interview data. The students' notes included a windshield survey or description of the context and location within which the participants lived and/or practiced as well as the interviewers' observations, thoughts and impressions about the research project. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Once transcribed, the interview narratives, windshield data and field notes were analyzed by the students for common themes; the students then wrote and submitted papers to the faculty addressing the themes that emerged from their interviews. The analysis conducted by the faculty members included four sources of data: transcriptions of interviews; field notes; windshield data; and students' papers. The process of identifying themes was facilitated by using the software program NUD*IST (QSR International; Melbourne, VIC, Australia). Demographic information was entered into the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS Inc; Chicago, IL, USA) to compile descriptive information about the sample. Twenty-seven female and two male nurses participated in the study. The nurses' ages ranged from 31-72 years and their experience in nursing spanned 3-50 years with a range of 1 to 35 years in rural nursing. The interviews revealed that most of the nurses used the term 'research' to mean 'gathering information'. When asked how often they used 'research' the responses ranged from 2-3 times per day to 2-3 times per month. The preferred means of obtaining information was asking a colleague. Additional resources included work-place journals, books, in-services, conferences and the internet. Twenty-three of the nurses reported having internet access at work; 25 had internet access at home. Supportive supervisors and articles in general nursing journals were identified as helpful. Barriers to using research included: lack of knowledge of research methods; lack of time at work or at home to look up information; and the lack of computers and internet access on the nursing units. When computers were available, the nurses reported that poor computer literacy decreased their ability to quickly find and evaluate information. Additional barriers included diminishing financial support from employers and the long travel distances required to attend conferences. The nurses reported finding little clinical research specifically related to rural practice. Education and mentorship is needed about how to evaluate the types and strength of evidence, access research using the internet, interpret findings, and incorporate evidence in clinical practice. Interventions that foster the appreciation and use of research by staff nurses and managers are needed in order to build an evidence based culture. Research is needed, specifically as related to rural clinical practice.

Patients' approaches to students' learning at a clinical education ward--an ethnographic study.

PubMed

Manninen, Katri; Henriksson, Elisabet Welin; Scheja, Max; Silén, Charlotte

2014-07-02

It is well known that patients' involvement in health care students' learning is essential and gives students opportunities to experience clinical reasoning and practice clinical skills when interacting with patients. Students encounter patients in different contexts throughout their education. However, looking across the research providing evidence about learning related to patient-student encounters reveals a lack of knowledge about the actual learning process that occurs in encounters between patients and students. The aim of this study was to explore patient-student encounters in relation to students' learning in a patient-centered health-care setting. An ethnographic approach was used to study the encounters between patients and students. The setting was a clinical education ward for nursing students at a university hospital with eight beds. The study included 10 observations with 11 students and 10 patients. The observer followed one or two students taking care of one patient. During the fieldwork observational and reflective notes were taken. After each observation follow-up interviews were conducted with each patient and student separately. Data were analyzed using an ethnographic approach. The most striking results showed that patients took different approaches in the encounters with students. When the students managed to create a good atmosphere and a mutual relationship, the patients were active participants in the students' learning. If the students did not manage to create a good atmosphere, the relationship became one-way and the patients were passive participants, letting the students practice on their bodies but without engaging in a dialogue with the students. Patient-student encounters, at a clinical education ward with a patient-centred pedagogical framework, can develop into either a learning relationship or an attending relationship. A learning relationship is based on a mutual relationship between patients and students resulting in patients actively participating in students' learning and they both experience it as a joint action. An attending relationship is based on a one-way relationship between patients and students resulting in patients passively participating by letting students to practice on their bodies but without engaging in a learning dialogue with the students.

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

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…

Digging over that old ground: an Australian perspective of women's experience of psychosocial assessment and depression screening in pregnancy and following birth.

PubMed

Rollans, Mellanie; Schmied, Virginia; Kemp, Lynn; Meade, Tanya

2013-04-09

There is increasing recognition of the need to identify risk factors for poor mental health in pregnancy and following birth. In New South Wales, Australia, health policy mandates psychosocial assessment and depression screening for all women at the antenatal booking visit and at six to eight weeks after birth. Few studies have explored in-depth women's experience of assessment and how disclosures of sensitive information are managed by midwives and nurses. This paper describes women's experience of psychosocial assessment and depression screening examining the meaning they attribute to assessment and how this influences their response. This qualitative ethnographic study included 34 women who were observed antenatally in the clinic with 18 midwives and 20 of the same women who were observed during their interaction with 13 child and family health nurses after birth in the home or the clinic environment. An observational tool, 4D&4R, together with field notes was used to record observations and were analysed descriptively using frequencies. Women also participated in face to face interviews. Field note and interview data was analysed thematically and similarities and differences across different time points were identified. Most participants reported that it was acceptable to them to be asked the psychosocial questions however they felt unprepared for the sensitive nature of the questions asked. Women with a history of trauma or loss were distressed by retelling their experiences. Five key themes emerged. Three themes; 'Unexpected: a bit out of the blue', 'Intrusive: very personal questions' and 'Uncomfortable: digging over that old ground', describe the impact that assessment had on women. Women also emphasised that the approach taken by the midwife or nurse during assessment influenced their experience and in some cases what they reported. This is reflected in the themes titled: 'sensitivity and care' and 'being watched'. The findings emphasise the need for health services to better prepare women for this assessment prior to and after birth. It is crucial that health professionals are educationally prepared for this work and receive ongoing training and support in order to always deliver care that is empathetic and sensitive to women who are disclosing personal information.

Digging over that old ground: an Australian perspective of women’s experience of psychosocial assessment and depression screening in pregnancy and following birth

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background There is increasing recognition of the need to identify risk factors for poor mental health in pregnancy and following birth. In New South Wales, Australia, health policy mandates psychosocial assessment and depression screening for all women at the antenatal booking visit and at six to eight weeks after birth. Few studies have explored in-depth women’s experience of assessment and how disclosures of sensitive information are managed by midwives and nurses. This paper describes women’s experience of psychosocial assessment and depression screening examining the meaning they attribute to assessment and how this influences their response. Methods This qualitative ethnographic study included 34 women who were observed antenatally in the clinic with 18 midwives and 20 of the same women who were observed during their interaction with 13 child and family health nurses after birth in the home or the clinic environment. An observational tool, 4D&4R, together with field notes was used to record observations and were analysed descriptively using frequencies. Women also participated in face to face interviews. Field note and interview data was analysed thematically and similarities and differences across different time points were identified. Results Most participants reported that it was acceptable to them to be asked the psychosocial questions however they felt unprepared for the sensitive nature of the questions asked. Women with a history of trauma or loss were distressed by retelling their experiences. Five key themes emerged. Three themes; ’Unexpected: a bit out of the blue’, ‘Intrusive: very personal questions’ and ‘Uncomfortable: digging over that old ground’, describe the impact that assessment had on women. Women also emphasised that the approach taken by the midwife or nurse during assessment influenced their experience and in some cases what they reported. This is reflected in the themes titled: Approach: ’sensitivity and care’ and ’being watched’. Conclusions The findings emphasise the need for health services to better prepare women for this assessment prior to and after birth. It is crucial that health professionals are educationally prepared for this work and receive ongoing training and support in order to always deliver care that is empathetic and sensitive to women who are disclosing personal information. PMID:23570282

Are sports overemphasized in the socialization process of African American males? A qualitative analysis of former collegiate athletes' perception of sport socialization .

PubMed

Beamon, Krystal K

2010-01-01

Scholars have noted that an elevated level of sports socialization in the family, neighborhood, and media exists within the African American community, creating an overrepresentation of African American males in certain sports. As a result, African American males may face consequences that are distinctly different from the consequences of those who are not socialized as intensively toward athletics, such as lower levels of academic achievement, higher expectations for professional sports careers as a means to upward mobility, and lower levels of career maturity. This study examines the sport socialization of African American male former collegiate athletes through in-depth ethnographic interviews. The results show that the respondents' perceptions were that their socializing agents and socializing environment emphasized athletics above other roles, other talents, and the development of other skills.

Producing "science/fictions" about the rural and urban poor: Community-based learning at a medical college in South India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arur, Aditi Ashok

This dissertation is an ethnographic case study of a community-based teaching program (CBTP) in public health at a medical college in South India that explored how the CBTP produced particular ways of seeing and understanding rural and urban poor communities. Drawing from critical, feminist, and postcolonial scholars, I suggest that the knowledge produced in the CBTP can be understood as "science/fictions", that is, as cultural texts shaped by transnational development discourses as well as medical teachers' and students' sociospatial imaginations of the rural and urban poor. I explored how these science/fictions mediated medical students' performative actions and interactions with a rural and an urban poor community in the context of the CBTP. At the same time, I also examined how knowledge produced in students' encounters with these communities disrupted their naturalized understandings about these communities, and how it was taken up to renarrativize science/fictions anew. Data collection and analyses procedures were informed by critical ethnographic and critical discourse analysis approaches. Data sources includes field notes constructed from observations of the CBTP, interviews with medical teachers and students, and curricular texts including the standardized national textbook of public health. The findings of this study illustrate how the CBTP staged the government and technology as central actors in the production of healthy bodies, communities, and environments, and implicitly positioned medical teachers and students as productive citizens of a modern nation while rural and urban poor communities were characterized sometimes as empowered, and at other times as not-yet-modern and in need of reform. However, the community also constituted an alternate pedagogical site of engagement in that students' encounters with community members disrupted students' assumptions about these communities to an extent. Nevertheless, institutionalized practices of assessment, and epistemological and ontological understandings of the nature of science tended to privilege the standardized curriculum and popular cultural stereotypes as scientific knowledge thereby excluding the place-based narratives of local communities, medical students, and teachers. This study, therefore, argues that interactions with local communities in community-based education and development programs cannot democratize knowledge production in medical education without a simultaneous engagement with post-foundational epistemologies in the social sciences and humanities.

Field Surveys, IOC Valleys. Volume III, Part I. Cultural Resources Survey, Dry Lake Valley, Nevada.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-08-01

and from* Catherine Fowler, Great Basin ethnographer and bibliographer. Personnel from Facilitators, Inc. and HDR provided information on contemporary...Caliente (see Figure 1-6 above). Together with Muleshoe Valley to the north, it occupies a surficially closel trough in the Basin and Range physiographic...province of the Great Basin (Eakin, ; Fenneman, 1931). It is bounded on the east by the Burnt Springs, Ely, Highland, and aristol ranges. The Chief

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…

Working and Learning in a Field Excursion.

PubMed

Hole, Torstein Nielsen

2018-06-01

This study aimed to discern sociocultural processes through which students learn in field excursions. To achieve this aim, short-term ethnographic techniques were employed to examine how undergraduate students work and enact knowledge (or knowing) during a specific field excursion in biology. The students participated in a working practice that employed research methods and came to engage with various biological phenomena over the course of their work. A three-level analysis of the students' experiences focused on three processes that emerged: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. These processes derive from advances in practice-oriented theories of knowing. Through their work in the field, the students were able to enact science autonomously; they engaged with peers and teachers in specific ways and developed new understandings about research and epistemology founded on their experiences in the field. Further discussion about the use of "practice" and "work" as analytical concepts in science education is also included.

Exploring Integration in Action: Competencies as Building Blocks of Expertise.

PubMed

Mylopoulos, Maria; Borschel, Debaroti Tina; O'Brien, Tara; Martimianakis, Sofia; Woods, Nicole N

2017-12-01

Competency frameworks such as the CanMEDS roles and the ACGME core competencies may lead to the implicit assumption that physicians can learn and practice individual competencies in isolation. In contrast, models of adaptive expertise suggest that the integration of competencies reflects the capabilities of an expert physician. Thus, educational programming aimed at teaching discrete roles or competencies might overlook expert physician capabilities that are central to patient care. To develop expertise, learning opportunities must reflect expert capabilities. To better understand the relationship between competency-based medical education and expert development, the authors sought to explore how integrated competencies are enacted during patient care by postgraduate medical trainees. Using a cognitive ethnographic approach, in 2014-2015 the authors conducted observations and-to refine and elaborate these observations-ad hoc informal interviews with 13 postgraduate trainee participants. Data collection resulted in 92 hours of observation, 26 patient case portraits, and a total of 220 pages of field notes for analysis. Through analysis, the authors identified and examined moments when postgraduate trainees appeared to be simultaneously enacting multiple competencies. The authors identified two key expert capabilities in moments of integrated competence: finding complexity and being patient-centered. They described two mechanisms for these forms of integration: valuing the patient's narrative of their illness, and integrated understanding. Understanding integrated competencies as the building blocks of expert capabilities, along with recognizing the importance of mechanisms that support integration, offers an opportunity to use existing competency-based frameworks to understand and teach adaptive expertise.

Clinical learning environments: place, artefacts and rhythm.

PubMed

Sheehan, Dale; Jowsey, Tanisha; Parwaiz, Mariam; Birch, Mark; Seaton, Philippa; Shaw, Susan; Duggan, Alison; Wilkinson, Tim

2017-10-01

Health care practitioners learn through experience in clinical environments in which supervision is a key component, but how that learning occurs outside the supervision relationship remains largely unknown. This study explores the environmental factors that inform and support workplace learning within a clinical environment. An observational study drawing on ethnographic methods was undertaken in a general medicine ward. Observers paid attention to interactions among staff members that involved potential teaching and learning moments that occurred and were visible in the course of routine work. General purpose thematic analysis of field notes was undertaken. A total of 376 observations were undertaken and documented. The findings suggest that place (location of interaction), rhythm (regularity of activities occurring in the ward) and artefacts (objects and equipment) were strong influences on the interactions and exchanges that occurred. Each of these themes had inherent tensions that could promote or inhibit engagement and therefore learning opportunities. Although many learning opportunities were available, not all were taken up or recognised by the participants. We describe and make explicit how the natural environment of a medical ward and flow of work through patient care contribute to the learning architecture, and how this creates or inhibits opportunities for learning. Awareness of learning opportunities was often tacit and not explicit for either supervisor or learner. We identify strategies through which tensions inherent within space, artefacts and the rhythms of work can be resolved and learning opportunities maximised. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Infant Feeding Decision-Making and the Influences of Social Support Persons Among First-Time African American Mothers.

PubMed

Asiodu, Ifeyinwa V; Waters, Catherine M; Dailey, Dawn E; Lyndon, Audrey

2017-04-01

Background While breast milk is considered the gold standard of infant feeding, a majority of African American mothers are not exclusively breastfeeding their newborn infants. Objective The overall goal of this critical ethnographic research study was to describe infant feeding perceptions and experiences of African American mothers and their support persons. Methods Twenty-two participants (14 pregnant women and eight support persons) were recruited from public health programs and community based organizations in northern California. Data were collected through field observations, demographic questionnaires, and multiple in-person interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes. Results Half of the mothers noted an intention to exclusively breastfeed during the antepartum period. However, few mothers exclusively breastfed during the postpartum period. Many participants expressed guilt and shame for not being able to accomplish their antepartum goals. Life experiences and stressors, lack of breastfeeding role models, limited experiences with breastfeeding and lactation, and changes to the family dynamic played a major role in the infant feeding decision making process and breastfeeding duration. Conclusions for Practice Our observations suggest that while exclusivity goals were not being met, a considerable proportion of African American women were breastfeeding. Future interventions geared towards this population should include social media interventions, messaging around combination feeding, and increased education for identified social support persons. Public health measures aimed at reducing the current infant feeding inequities would benefit by also incorporating more culturally inclusive messaging around breastfeeding and lactation.

Mediation of adoption and use: a key strategy for mitigating unintended consequences of health IT implementation.

PubMed

Novak, Laurie L; Anders, Shilo; Gadd, Cynthia S; Lorenzi, Nancy M

2012-01-01

Without careful attention to the work of users, implementation of health IT can produce new risks and inefficiencies in care. This paper uses the technology use mediation framework to examine the work of a group of nurses who serve as mediators of the adoption and use of a barcode medication administration (BCMA) system in an inpatient setting. The study uses ethnographic methods to explore the mediators' work. Data included field notes from observations, documents, and email communications. This variety of sources enabled triangulation of findings between activities observed, discussed in meetings, and reported in emails. Mediation work integrated the BCMA tool with nursing practice, anticipating and solving implementation problems. Three themes of mediation work include: resolving challenges related to coordination, integrating the physical aspects of BCMA into everyday practice, and advocacy work. Previous work suggests the following factors impact mediation effectiveness: proximity to the context of use, understanding of users' practices and norms, credibility with users, and knowledge of the technology and users' technical abilities. We describe three additional factors observed in this case: 'influence on system developers,' 'influence on institutional authorities,' and 'understanding the network of organizational relationships that shape the users' work.' Institutionally supported clinicians who facilitate adoption and use of health IT systems can improve the safety and effectiveness of implementation through the management of unintended consequences. Additional research on technology use mediation can advance the science of implementation by providing decision-makers with theoretically durable, empirically grounded evidence for designing implementations.

Niyith NiyithWatmam [corrected] (the quiet story): exploring the experiences of Aboriginal women who give birth in their remote community.

PubMed

Ireland, Sarah; Wulili Narjic, Concepta; Belton, Suzanne; Kildea, Sue

2011-10-01

to investigate the beliefs and practices of Aboriginal women who decline transfer to urban hospitals and remain in their remote community to give birth. an ethnographic approach was used which included: the collection of birth histories and narratives, observation and participation in the community for 24 months, field notes, training and employment of an Aboriginal co-researcher, and consultation with and advice from a local reference group. a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, Australia. narratives were collected from seven Aboriginal women and five family members. findings showed that women, through their previous experiences of standard care, appeared to make conscious decisions and choices about managing their subsequent pregnancies and births. Women took into account their health, the baby's health, the care of their other children, and designated men with a helping role. narratives described a breakdown of traditional birthing practices and high levels of non-compliance with health-system-recommended care. standard care provided for women relocating for birth must be improved, and the provision of a primary maternity service in this particular community may allow Aboriginal Women's Business roles and cultural obligations to be recognised and invigorated. International examples of primary birthing services in remote areas demonstrate that they can be safe alternatives to urban transfer for childbirth. A primary maternity service would provide a safer environment for the women who choose to avoid standard care. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ethics, effectiveness and population health information interventions: a Canadian analysis.

PubMed

Greyson, Devon; Knight, Rod; Shoveller, Jean A

2018-02-19

Population health information interventions (PHIIs) use information in efforts to promote health. PHIIs may push information to a target audience (communication), pull information from the public (surveillance), or combine both in a bidirectional intervention. Although PHIIs have often been framed as non-invasive and ethically innocuous, in reality they may be intrusive into people's lives, affecting not only their health but their senses of security, respect, and self-determination. Ethical acceptability of PHIIs may have impacts on intervention effectiveness, potentially giving rise to unintended consequences. This article examines push, pull, and bidirectional PHIIs using empirical data from an ethnographic study of young mothers in Greater Vancouver, Canada. Data were collected from October 2013 to December 2014 via naturalistic observation and individual interviews with 37 young mothers ages 16-22. Transcribed interviews and field notes were analyzed using inductive qualitative thematic analysis. Both push and pull interventions were experienced as non-neutral by the target population, and implementation factors on a structural and individual scale affected intervention ethics and effectiveness. Based on our findings, we suggest that careful ethical consideration be applied to use of PHIIs as health promotion tools. Advancing the 'ethics of PHIIs' will benefit from empirical data that is informed by information and computer science theory and methods. Information technologies, digital health promotion services, and integrated surveillance programs reflect important areas for investigation in terms of their effects and ethics. Health promotion researchers, practitioners, and ethicists should explore these across contexts and populations.

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.

Field Note--From MSW to J-O-B: Using Field Seminar to Prepare Students for Employment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deck, Stacy M.; Miller, Justin Jay; Conley, Cynthia L.

2017-01-01

Social work field education is expected to help students transition from the classroom to the practice setting. Yet, few social work programs adequately provide career development support to increase students' employability. This Field Note presents practical, relevant and immediate strategies for implementing the MSW to J-O-B curriculum…

An Ethnographically Informed Participatory Design of Primary Healthcare Information Technology in a Developing Country Setting.

PubMed

Shidende, Nima Herman; Igira, Faraja Teddy; Mörtberg, Christina Margaret

2017-01-01

Ethnography, with its emphasis on understanding activities where they occur, and its use of qualitative data gathering techniques rich in description, has a long tradition in Participatory Design (PD). Yet there are limited methodological insights in its application in developing countries. This paper proposes an ethnographically informed PD approach, which can be applied when designing Primary Healthcare Information Technology (PHIT). We use findings from a larger multidisciplinary project, Health Information Systems Project (HISP) to elaborate how ethnography can be used to facilitate participation of health practitioners in developing countries settings as well as indicating the importance of ethnographic approach to participatory Health Information Technology (HIT) designers. Furthermore, the paper discusses the pros and cons of using an ethnographic approach in designing HIT.

Listening to community health workers: how ethnographic research can inform positive relationships among community health workers, health institutions, and communities.

PubMed

Maes, Kenneth; Closser, Svea; Kalofonos, Ippolytos

2014-05-01

Many actors in global health are concerned with improving community health worker (CHW) policy and practice to achieve universal health care. Ethnographic research can play an important role in providing information critical to the formation of effective CHW programs, by elucidating the life histories that shape CHWs' desires for alleviation of their own and others' economic and health challenges, and by addressing the working relationships that exist among CHWs, intended beneficiaries, and health officials. We briefly discuss ethnographic research with 3 groups of CHWs: volunteers involved in HIV/AIDS care and treatment support in Ethiopia and Mozambique and Lady Health Workers in Pakistan. We call for a broader application of ethnographic research to inform working relationships among CHWs, communities, and health institutions.

Health insurance in India: what do we know and why is ethnographic research needed.

PubMed

Ahlin, Tanja; Nichter, Mark; Pillai, Gopukrishnan

2016-01-01

The percentage of India's national budget allocated to the health sector remains one of the lowest in the world, and healthcare expenditures are largely out-of-pocket (OOP). Currently, efforts are being made to expand health insurance coverage as one means of addressing health disparity and reducing catastrophic health costs. In this review, we document reasons for rising interest in health insurance and summarize the country's history of insurance projects to date. We note that most of these projects focus on in-patient hospital costs, not the larger burden of out-patient costs. We briefly highlight some of the more popular forms that government, private, and community-based insurance schemes have taken and the results of quantitative research conducted to assess their reach and cost-effectiveness. We argue that ethnographic case studies could add much to existing health service and policy research, and provide a better understanding of the life cycle and impact of insurance programs on both insurance holders and healthcare providers. Drawing on preliminary fieldwork in South India and recognizing the need for a broad-based implementation science perspective (studying up, down and sideways), we identify six key topics demanding more in-depth research, among others: (1) public awareness and understanding of insurance; (2) misunderstanding of insurance and how this influences health care utilization; (3) differences in behavior patterns in cash and cashless insurance systems; (4) impact of insurance on quality of care and doctor-patient relations; (5) (mis)trust in health insurance schemes; and (6) health insurance coverage of chronic illnesses, rehabilitation and OOP expenses.

Ethnography in community psychology: promises and tensions.

PubMed

Case, Andrew D; Todd, Nathan R; Kral, Michael J

2014-09-01

Community psychology recognizes the need for research methods that illuminate context, culture, diversity, and process. One such method, ethnography, has crossed into multiple disciplines from anthropology, and indeed, community psychologists are becoming community ethnographers. Ethnographic work stands at the intersection of bridging universal questions with the particularities of people and groups bounded in time, geographic location, and social location. Ethnography is thus historical and deeply contextual, enabling a rich, in-depth understanding of communities that is aligned with the values and goals of community psychology. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the potential of ethnography for community psychology and to encourage its use within the field as a method to capture culture and context, to document process, and to reveal how social change and action occur within and through communities. We discuss the method of ethnography, draw connections to community psychology values and goals, and identify tensions from our experiences doing ethnography. Overall, we assert that ethnography is a method that resonates with community psychology and present this paper as a resource for those interested in using this method in their research or community activism.

Experience affects immediate early gene expression in response to conspecific call notes in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus).

PubMed

Hahn, Allison H; Guillette, Lauren M; Lee, Daniel; McMillan, Neil; Hoang, John; Sturdy, Christopher B

2015-01-01

Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) produce numerous vocalizations, including the acoustically complex chick-a-dee call that is composed of A, B, C, and D notes. D notes are longer in duration and lower in frequency than the other note types and contain information regarding flock and species identification. Adult wild-caught black-capped chickadees have been shown to have similar amounts of immediate early gene (IEG) expression following playback of vocalizations with harmonic-like acoustic structure, similar to D notes. Here we examined how different environmental experiences affect IEG response to conspecific D notes. We hand-reared black-capped chickadees under three conditions: (1) with adult conspecifics, (2) with adult heterospecific mountain chickadees, and (3) without adults. We presented all hand-reared birds and a control group of field-reared black-capped chickadees, with conspecific D notes and quantified IEG expression in the caudomedial mesopallium (CMM) and caudomedial nidopallium (NCM). We found that field-reared birds that heard normal D notes had a similar neural response as a group of field-reared birds that heard playback of reversed D notes. Field-reared birds that heard normal D notes also had a similar neural response as birds reared with adult conspecifics. Birds reared without adults had a significantly reduced IEG response, whereas the IEG expression in birds reared with heterospecifics was at intermediate levels between birds reared with conspecifics and birds reared without adults. Although acoustic characteristics have been shown to drive IEG expression, our results demonstrate that experience with adults or normal adult vocalizations is also an important factor. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Field Botany and Creative Writing: Where the Science of Writing Meets the Writing of Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Killingbeck, Keith

2006-01-01

Merging science and writing to enhance both subjects was the objective of a venture known as "Plant Notes." At first, teacher-written notes served as the inspiration for this writing assignment. Later, eclectic student-written novellas, poems, song lyrics, mnemonic devices, and field trip recollections made their way into "Plant Notes" and stole…

Publications - GMC 396 | Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical

Science.gov Websites

DGGS GMC 396 Publication Details Title: Drill records, logs, reports, field notes, and cross sections Bibliographic Reference Andover Ventures, Inc., 2011, Drill records, logs, reports, field notes, and cross

Front-Row Seat at the IPY: The Field Notes Electronic Newsletter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rithner, P. K.; Zager, S. D.; Garcia-Lavigne, D. N.

2007-12-01

As employees of Polar Field Services/VPR, the arctic logistics provider to the US National Science Foundation, we bear witness to the exploration, documentation, and celebration of the International Polar Year (IPY). Our front- row vantage point (logisticians working with field scientists) offers us a rare opportunity to report on developments at the frontiers of polar research and to describe how scientists work in the Arctic. Our reporting mechanism is field notes, a weekly (summer) to monthly (winter) electronic digest of information about the IPY research we support. Each issue showcases a short "cover" piece highlighting science projects or profiling arctic program participants. In addition, field notes offers news updates, short interviews, and blog-style dispatches contributed by researchers and support personnel. Wherever possible, we include URLs so readers may find more information via the Web: we link to an online database of projects we maintain for the NSF, to university Web sites, project blogs, and so on. We aim to inform the interested layperson about the myriad of activity in the IPY. We like to show that arctic science is interesting, relevant--and a great adventure. We've found field notes to be an excellent outreach venue. By no means a slick media outlet, field notes is published "on the side" by a small but dedicated group of employees who are endlessly fascinated by, and who enjoy an engaging perspective on, contemporary arctic research. Newsletter

Australian letters to the editor on tobacco: triggers, rhetoric, and claims of legitimate voice.

PubMed

Smith, Katherine Clegg; McLeod, Kim; Wakefield, Melanie

2005-11-01

News coverage of tobacco issues influences both individual behavior change and policy progression. Thus, media advocacy is increasingly recognized as important for promoting public health. Letters to the editor (LTE) are a basic form of media advocacy, serving to demonstrate community sentiment on a given issue. Such letters are yet to receive systematic analytic consideration. The authors conducted an ethnographic content analysis of LTE on tobacco issues from a sample of 11 Australian daily newspapers over a 3-year period (2001 to 2003, N=361). They argue that letters are artifacts of active engagement in a public debate and note that various stakeholders adopt similar strategies to pursue their objectives. They illustrate how identifying personal and collective identities is crucial in the assertion of legitimacy of voice in LTEs. Better understanding is needed of both the particular issues that spark public engagement, and the salient rhetoric employed by advocates of disparate positions.

PROMISES THEY CAN KEEP: LOW-INCOME WOMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARD MOTHERHOOD, MARRIAGE, AND DIVORCE

PubMed Central

Cherlin, Andrew; Cross-Barnet, Caitlin; Burton, Linda M.; Garrett-Peters, Raymond

2009-01-01

Using survey data on low-income mothers in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio (n = 1,722) supplemented with ethnographic data, we test 3 propositions regarding mothers’ attitudes toward childbearing, marriage, and divorce. These are drawn from Edin & Kefalas (2005) but have also arisen in other recent studies. We find strong support for the proposition that childbearing outside of marriage carries little stigma, limited support for the proposition that women prefer to have children well before marrying, and almost no support for the proposition that women hesitate to marry because they fear divorce. We suggest that mothers’ attitudes and preferences in these 3 domains do not support the long delay between childbearing and marriage that has been noted in the literature. Throughout, we are able to study attitudes among several Hispanic groups as well as among African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites. PMID:19885381

Listening to Community Health Workers: How Ethnographic Research Can Inform Positive Relationships Among Community Health Workers, Health Institutions, and Communities

PubMed Central

Closser, Svea; Kalofonos, Ippolytos

2014-01-01

Many actors in global health are concerned with improving community health worker (CHW) policy and practice to achieve universal health care. Ethnographic research can play an important role in providing information critical to the formation of effective CHW programs, by elucidating the life histories that shape CHWs’ desires for alleviation of their own and others’ economic and health challenges, and by addressing the working relationships that exist among CHWs, intended beneficiaries, and health officials. We briefly discuss ethnographic research with 3 groups of CHWs: volunteers involved in HIV/AIDS care and treatment support in Ethiopia and Mozambique and Lady Health Workers in Pakistan. We call for a broader application of ethnographic research to inform working relationships among CHWs, communities, and health institutions. PMID:24625167

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.

One century later: the folk botanical knowledge of the last remaining Albanians of the upper Reka Valley, Mount Korab, Western Macedonia.

PubMed

Pieroni, Andrea; Rexhepi, Besnik; Nedelcheva, Anely; Hajdari, Avni; Mustafa, Behxhet; Kolosova, Valeria; Cianfaglione, Kevin; Quave, Cassandra L

2013-04-11

Ethnobotanical surveys of the Western Balkans are important for the cross-cultural study of local plant knowledge and also for obtaining baseline data, which is crucial for fostering future rural development and eco-tourism initiatives in the region. The current ethnobotanical field study was conducted among the last remaining Albanians inhabiting the upper Reka Valley at the base of Mount Korab in the Mavrovo National Park of the Republic of Macedonia.The aims of the study were threefold: 1) to document local knowledge pertaining to plants; 2) to compare these findings with those of an ethnographic account written one century ago and focused on the same territory; and 3) to compare these findings with those of similar field studies previously conducted in other areas of the Balkans. Field research was conducted with all inhabitants of the last four inhabited villages of the upper Reka Valley (n=17). Semi-structured and open interviews were conducted regarding the perception and use of the local flora and cultivated plants. The uses of ninety-two plant and fungal taxa were recorded; among the most uncommon uses, the contemporary use of young cooked potato (Solanum tuberosum) leaves and Rumex patientia as a filling for savory pies was documented. Comparison of the data with an ethnographic study conducted one century ago in the same area shows a remarkable resilience of original local plant knowledge, with the only exception of rye, which has today disappeared from the local foodscape. Medicinal plant use reports show important similarities with the ethnobotanical data collected in other Albanian areas, which are largely influenced by South-Slavic cultures.

One century later: the folk botanical knowledge of the last remaining Albanians of the upper Reka Valley, Mount Korab, Western Macedonia

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Ethnobotanical surveys of the Western Balkans are important for the cross-cultural study of local plant knowledge and also for obtaining baseline data, which is crucial for fostering future rural development and eco-tourism initiatives in the region. The current ethnobotanical field study was conducted among the last remaining Albanians inhabiting the upper Reka Valley at the base of Mount Korab in the Mavrovo National Park of the Republic of Macedonia. The aims of the study were threefold: 1) to document local knowledge pertaining to plants; 2) to compare these findings with those of an ethnographic account written one century ago and focused on the same territory; and 3) to compare these findings with those of similar field studies previously conducted in other areas of the Balkans. Methods Field research was conducted with all inhabitants of the last four inhabited villages of the upper Reka Valley (n=17). Semi-structured and open interviews were conducted regarding the perception and use of the local flora and cultivated plants. Results and conclusion The uses of ninety-two plant and fungal taxa were recorded; among the most uncommon uses, the contemporary use of young cooked potato (Solanum tuberosum) leaves and Rumex patientia as a filling for savory pies was documented. Comparison of the data with an ethnographic study conducted one century ago in the same area shows a remarkable resilience of original local plant knowledge, with the only exception of rye, which has today disappeared from the local foodscape. Medicinal plant use reports show important similarities with the ethnobotanical data collected in other Albanian areas, which are largely influenced by South-Slavic cultures. PMID:23578063

The verification of ethnographic data

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Anthropologists are increasingly required to account for the data on which they base their interpretations and to make it available for public scrutiny and re-analysis. While this may seem straightforward (why not place our data in online repositories?), it is not. Ethnographic ‘data’ may consist of everything from verbatim transcripts (‘hard data’) to memories and impressions (‘soft data’). Hard data can be archived and re-analysed; soft data cannot. The focus on hard ‘objective’ data contributes to the delegitimizing of the soft data that are essential for ethnographic understanding, and without which hard data cannot be properly interpreted. However, the credibility of ethnographic interpretation requires the possibility of verification. This could be achieved by obligatory, standardised forms of personal storage with the option for audit if required, and by being more explicit in publications about the nature and status of the data and the process of interpretation. PMID:29081713

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.

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.

The verification of ethnographic data.

PubMed

Pool, Robert

2017-09-01

Anthropologists are increasingly required to account for the data on which they base their interpretations and to make it available for public scrutiny and re-analysis. While this may seem straightforward (why not place our data in online repositories?), it is not. Ethnographic 'data' may consist of everything from verbatim transcripts ('hard data') to memories and impressions ('soft data'). Hard data can be archived and re-analysed; soft data cannot. The focus on hard 'objective' data contributes to the delegitimizing of the soft data that are essential for ethnographic understanding, and without which hard data cannot be properly interpreted. However, the credibility of ethnographic interpretation requires the possibility of verification. This could be achieved by obligatory, standardised forms of personal storage with the option for audit if required, and by being more explicit in publications about the nature and status of the data and the process of interpretation.

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

Labor Migration, Drug Trafficking Organizations, and Drug Use: Major Challenges for Transnational Communities in Mexico.

PubMed

García, Víctor; González, Laura

2009-06-01

In our article, we present the recent findings of our ethnographic field study on drug use and the emergence of a drug use culture in transnational communities in Mexico. Transnational communities are part of a larger migratory labor circuit that transcends political borders and are not restricted to a single locality. Transnational migrants and returning immigrants link the multiple localities through their social networks. In southern Guanajuato, Mexico, using a transnational migration paradigm, we examined the manner in which transnational migration and drug trafficking organizations are contributing to a growing drug problem in these communities. We found that transnational migrants and returning immigrants, including deported workers, introduce drugs and drug use practices, and contribute to the creation of a drug use culture within the communities. The social conditions in the community that foster and proliferate drug use are many: the erosion of the traditional family, truncated kinship bases, and new social formations. These conditions are all consequences of migration and emigration. Recent drug cartel activities are also contributing to this growing drug problem. The cartels have aggressively targeted these communities because of availability of money, existing drug use, a drug use culture, and the breakdown of traditional deterrents to substance abuse. Although a number of communities in three municipalities were part of our study, we focus on two: Lindavista, a rancho, Progreso, a municipal seat. Our field study in Mexico, one of four sequential ethnographic field studies conducted in Guanajuato and Pennsylvania, was completed over a six month period, from September, 2008, through February, 2009, using traditional ethnography. The four field studies are part of a larger, ongoing, three-year bi-national study on drug use among transnational migrants working in southeastern Pennsylvania. This larger study, near its third and final year, is funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

Labor Migration, Drug Trafficking Organizations, and Drug Use: Major Challenges for Transnational Communities in Mexico

PubMed Central

González, Laura

2009-01-01

In our article, we present the recent findings of our ethnographic field study on drug use and the emergence of a drug use culture in transnational communities in Mexico. Transnational communities are part of a larger migratory labor circuit that transcends political borders and are not restricted to a single locality. Transnational migrants and returning immigrants link the multiple localities through their social networks. In southern Guanajuato, Mexico, using a transnational migration paradigm, we examined the manner in which transnational migration and drug trafficking organizations are contributing to a growing drug problem in these communities. We found that transnational migrants and returning immigrants, including deported workers, introduce drugs and drug use practices, and contribute to the creation of a drug use culture within the communities. The social conditions in the community that foster and proliferate drug use are many: the erosion of the traditional family, truncated kinship bases, and new social formations. These conditions are all consequences of migration and emigration. Recent drug cartel activities are also contributing to this growing drug problem. The cartels have aggressively targeted these communities because of availability of money, existing drug use, a drug use culture, and the breakdown of traditional deterrents to substance abuse. Although a number of communities in three municipalities were part of our study, we focus on two: Lindavista, a rancho, Progreso, a municipal seat. Our field study in Mexico, one of four sequential ethnographic field studies conducted in Guanajuato and Pennsylvania, was completed over a six month period, from September, 2008, through February, 2009, using traditional ethnography. The four field studies are part of a larger, ongoing, three-year bi-national study on drug use among transnational migrants working in southeastern Pennsylvania. This larger study, near its third and final year, is funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse. PMID:20927201

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.

Ethnographic Techniques in Educational Evaluation: An Illustration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fetterman, David

1980-01-01

Describes the ethnographic component of a multidisciplinary evaluation, conducted by the RMC Research Corporation, of the Career Intern Program for dropouts. Includes discussion of participant observations, interviewing techniques, triangulation, unobtrusive measures, data recording, and equipment. (Part of a theme issue entitled…

Ethnographic Auditing: A New Approach to Evaluating Management.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fetterman, David M.

1990-01-01

Ethnographic auditing combines concepts of ethnography, evaluation, and traditional auditing to evaluate university management. It is another tool in the institutional researcher's repertoire that enables the researcher to interpret cultural aspects of the organization to facilitate its academic mission. (MSE)

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.

Institutional Ethical Review and Ethnographic Research Involving Injection Drug Users: A Case Study

PubMed Central

Small, Will; Maher, Lisa; Kerr, Thomas

2014-01-01

Ethnographic research among people who inject drugs (PWID) involves complex ethical issues. While ethical review frameworks have been critiqued by social scientists, there is a lack of social science research examining institutional ethical review processes, particularly in relation to ethnographic work. This case study describes the institutional ethical review of an ethnographic research project using observational fieldwork and in-depth interviews to examine injection drug use. The review process and the salient concerns of the review committee are recounted, and the investigators’ responses to the committee’s concerns and requests are described to illustrate how key issues were resolved. The review committee expressed concerns regarding researcher safety when conducting fieldwork and the investigators were asked to liaise with the police regarding the proposed research. An ongoing dialogue with the institutional review committee regarding researcher safety and autonomy from police involvement, as well as formal consultation with a local drug user group and solicitation of opinions from external experts, helped to resolve these issues. This case study suggests that ethical review processes can be particularly challenging for ethnographic projects focused on illegal behaviours, and that while some challenges could be mediated by modifying existing ethical review procedures, there is a need for legislation that provides legal protection of research data and participant confidentiality. PMID:24581074

Access to and use of sexual and reproductive health services provided by midwives among rural immigrant women in Spain: midwives’ perspectives

PubMed Central

Otero-Garcia, Laura; Goicolea, Isabel; Gea-Sánchez, Montserrat; Sanz-Barbero, Belen

2013-01-01

Background There is insufficient information regarding access and participation of immigrant women in Spain in sexual and reproductive health programs. Recent studies show their lower participation rate in gynecological cancer screening programs; however, little is known about the participation in other sexual and reproductive health programs by immigrant women living in rural areas with high population dispersion. Objectives The objective of this study is to explore the perceptions of midwives who provide these services regarding immigrant women's access and participation in sexual and reproductive health programs offered in a rural area. Design A qualitative study was performed, within a larger ethnographic study about rural primary care, with data collection based on in-depth interviews and field notes. Participants were the midwives in primary care serving 13 rural basic health zones (BHZ) of Segovia, a region of Spain with high population dispersion. An interview script was designed to collect information about midwives’ perceptions on immigrant women's access to and use of the healthcare services that they provide. Interviews were recorded and transcribed with participant informed consent. Data were analyzed based on the qualitative content analysis approach and triangulation of results with fieldwork notes. Results Midwives perceive that immigrants in general, and immigrant women in particular, underuse family planning services. This underutilization is associated with cultural differences and gender inequality. They also believe that the number of voluntary pregnancy interruptions among immigrant women is elevated and identify childbearing and childrearing-related tasks and the language barrier as obstacles to immigrant women accessing the available prenatal and postnatal healthcare services. Conclusions Immigrant women's underutilization of midwifery services may be linked to the greater number of unintended pregnancies, pregnancy terminations, and the delay in the first prenatal visit, as discerned by midwives. Future research should involve samples of immigrant women themselves, to provide a deeper understanding of the current knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the immigrant population regarding reproductive and sexual health to provide better health services. PMID:24206651

Inadequate environment, resources and values lead to missed nursing care: A focused ethnographic study on the surgical ward using the Fundamentals of Care framework.

PubMed

Jangland, Eva; Teodorsson, Therese; Molander, Karin; Muntlin Athlin, Åsa

2018-06-01

To explore the delivery of care from the perspective of patients with acute abdominal pain focusing on the contextual factors at system level using the Fundamentals of Care framework. The Fundamentals of Care framework describes several contextual and systemic factors that can impact the delivery of care. To deliver high-quality, person-centred care, it is important to understand how these factors affect patients' experiences and care needs. A focused ethnographic approach. A total of 20 observations were performed on two surgical wards at a Swedish university hospital. Data were collected using participant observation and informal interviews and analysed using deductive content analysis. The findings, presented in four categories, reflect the value patients place on the caring relationship and a friendly atmosphere on the ward. Patients had concerns about the environment, particularly the high-tempo culture on the ward and its impact on their integrity, rest and sleep, access to information and planning, and need for support in addressing their existential thoughts. The observers also noted that missed nursing care had serious consequences for patient safety. Patients with acute abdominal pain were cared for in the high-tempo culture of a surgical ward with limited resources, unclear leadership and challenges to patients' safety. The findings highlight the crucial importance of prioritising and valuing the patients' fundamental care needs for recovery. Nursing leaders and nurses need to take the lead to reconceptualise the value of fundamental care in the acute care setting. To improve clinical practice, the value of fundamentals of care must be addressed regardless of patient's clinical condition. Providing a caring relationship is paramount to ensure a positive impact on patient's well-being and recovery. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Ethnographic analysis on the use of the electronic medical record for clinical handoff.

PubMed

Nelson, Philippa; Bell, Anthony J; Nathanson, Larry; Sanchez, Leon D; Fisher, Jonathan; Anderson, Philip D

2017-12-01

The objective of this study was to understand the social elements of clinical and organizational interactions of the key stakeholders in the specific context of an electronic dashboard used by the emergency department (ED) and inpatient medicine teams at the time of clinical referral and handover. An electronic handover function is utilised at the ED-inpatient interface at this institution and has given clinicians the ability to better communicate, monitor the department and strive to improve patient safety in streamline the delivery of care in the acute phase. This study uses an ethnographic qualitative research design incorporating semistructured interviews, participant observation on the ED floor and fieldwork notes. The setting for this research was in the ED at a tertiary University affiliated hospital. Triangulation was used to combine information obtained from multiple sources and information from fieldwork and interviews refined into useable chunks culminating in a thematic analysis. Thematic analysis yielded five central themes that reflected how the clinical staff utilised this IT system and why it had become embedded in the culture of clinical referral and handover. Efficient time management for improved patient flow was demonstrated, value added communication (at the interpersonal level), the building trust at the ED-inpatient interface, the maintenance of mutual respect across medical cultures and an overall enhancement of the quality of ED communication (in terms of the information available). A robust electronic handover process, resulted in an integrated approach to patient care by removing barriers to admission for medical inpatients, admitted via ED. The value proposition for patients was a more complete information transfer, both within the ED and between departments.

Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory as Cultural Centre

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mickaelian, A. M.; Farmanyan, S. V.

2016-12-01

NAS RA V. Ambartsumian Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory is presented as a cultural centre for Armenia and the Armenian nation in general. Besides being scientific and educational centre, the Observatory is famous for its unique architectural ensemble, rich botanical garden and world of birds, as well as it is one of the most frequently visited sightseeing of Armenia. In recent years, the Observatory has also taken the initiative of the coordination of the Cultural Astronomy in Armenia and in this field, unites the astronomers, historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, culturologists, literary critics, linguists, art historians and other experts.

Cogenerating fluency in urban science classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lavan, Sarah-Kate

This critical ethnographic study employed the use of cogenerative dialogue (Roth & Tobin, 2002) as a means to allow participants of a science classroom to reflect on and transform classroom structures while at the same time create opportunities for all stakeholders to develop collective responsibility for teaching and learning. The research was situated in a science classroom in an inner city charter high school that was both a challenging place for the teacher (Jen Beers) and an oppressive place for the students as all struggled to reconcile issues related to power hierarchies and significant differences in social and cultural histories. As a result, cultural misinterpretations and the undervaluing of students' cultural capital served as a foundation for learning. This study examined the various fields and forms of practice that created opportunities for refining teaching practices and at the same time afforded the development of collective responsibility by addressing the roles, identities and agency of all classroom participants. Specifically, I asked the following questions: (1) How can co-generative dialogue can be used to involve all classroom participants in creating a learning community? (2) How does this shape the identities and roles of the participants who were involved? and (3) How do the changed roles and practices lead toward science fluency? The framework of cultural sociology, specifically the dialectical relationship of structure and agency, interaction ritual theory (Collins, 2003) and research on dispositions (Boykin, 1986), provided analytic tools to investigate the practices of the various stakeholders and the classroom structures as well as the historical and cultural contexts surrounding them. Multiple data resources such as field notes, videotape, interviews and artifacts were drawn on from two fields (the science classroom and cogenerative dialogues) to elicit and support findings at micro, meso and macroscopic levels. The major findings of the study reveal that the transformation of the classroom, and consequently teacher and student practices, were recursively tied to the conversations members held in the cogenerative dialogues. The evolving classroom structures afforded individuals and community members a variety of dispositions (e.g., orality, affect, communalism, verve, movement, and expressive individualism) from which to access and employ in producing, reproducing, and transforming culture in and out of the science classroom.

Maintaining Research Documents with Database Management Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrington, Stuart A.

1999-01-01

Discusses taking notes for research projects and organizing them into card files; reviews the literature on personal filing systems; introduces the basic process of database management; and offers a plan for managing research notes. Describes field groups and field definitions, data entry, and creating reports. (LRW)

Stages of drug market change during disaster: Hurricane Katrina and reformulation of the New Orleans drug market.

PubMed

Dunlap, Eloise; Graves, Jennifer; Benoit, Ellen

2012-11-01

In recent years, numerous weather disasters have crippled many cities and towns across the United States of America. Such disasters present a unique opportunity for analyses of the disintegration and reformulation of drug markets. Disasters present new facts which cannot be "explained" by existing theories. Recent and continuing disasters present a radically different picture from that of police crack downs where market disruptions are carried out on a limited basis (both use and sales). Generally, users and sellers move to other locations and business continues as usual. The Katrina Disaster in 2005 offered a larger opportunity to understand the functioning and processes by which drug markets may or may not survive. Utilizing a variety of qualitative data including ethnographic field notes, in-depth interview transcripts, and focus group transcripts, we investigate the operation of the New Orleans drug market before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. Our data clearly indicate that drug markets go through a series of stages in the wake of disaster in which they disintegrate and then reconstitute themselves. In the case of New Orleans, the post-Katrina drug market was radically different from the pre-Katrina drug market. Ultimately this manuscript presents a paradigm which uses stages as a testable concept to scientifically examine the disintegration and reformulation of drug markets during disaster or crisis situations. It describes the specific processes - referred to as stages - which drug markets must go through in order to function and survive during and after a natural disaster. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prescription Opioid Use, Misuse, and Diversion among Street Drug Users in New York City

PubMed Central

Rees Davis, W.; Johnson, Bruce D.

2008-01-01

Objective The use of heroin, cocaine, and other drugs is well researched in New York City, but prescription opioids (POs) have been overlooked. This study documents patterns of PO use, misuse, and diversion among street drug users, and begins to indicate how drug culture practices interact with the legitimate therapeutic goals of PO prescriptions (e.g. pain management). Methods Staff completed interviews inquiring about the reasons for use of POs and illicit drugs with 586 street drug users. Ethnographers wrote extensive field notes about subjects’ complex patterns of PO use. Results Methadone was used (71.9%) and sold (64.7%) at a higher level than OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet, used by between 34% and 38% of the users and sold by between 28% and 41% of the sellers. Recent PO use is associated with the recency of using heroin and cocaine (p<.001). Half of the heroin/cocaine sellers sold POs, and one quarter of the PO sellers only sold POs. Subjects were classified into four groups by whether they diverted POs or used POs to relieve pain or withdrawal rather than for euphoria. This classification was associated with frequency of PO use, whether POs were obtained from doctors/pharmacies or from drug dealers and family members, and those mostly likely to use POs for pain and withdrawal. Conclusions POs are an important component of street drug users’ drug-taking regimes, especially those who are Physically III Chemical Abusers (PICA). Future research is needed to model PO use, misuse, and diversion among this population. PMID:17913395

Prescription opioid use, misuse, and diversion among street drug users in New York City.

PubMed

Davis, W Rees; Johnson, Bruce D

2008-01-01

The use of heroin, cocaine, and other drugs is well researched in New York City, but prescription opioids (POs) have been overlooked. This study documents patterns of PO use, misuse, and diversion among street drug users, and begins to indicate how drug culture practices interact with the legitimate therapeutic goals of PO prescriptions (e.g. pain management). Staff completed interviews inquiring about the reasons for use of POs and illicit drugs with 586 street drug users. Ethnographers wrote extensive field notes about subjects' complex patterns of PO use. Methadone was used (71.9%) and sold (64.7%) at a higher level than OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet, used by between 34% and 38% of the users and sold by between 28% and 41% of the sellers. Recent PO use is associated with the recency of using heroin and cocaine (p<.001). Half of the heroin/cocaine sellers sold POs, and one quarter of the PO sellers only sold POs. Subjects were classified into four groups by whether they diverted POs or used POs to relieve pain or withdrawal rather than for euphoria. This classification was associated with frequency of PO use, whether POs were obtained from doctors/pharmacies or from drug dealers and family members, and those mostly likely to use POs for pain and withdrawal. POs are an important component of street drug users' drug-taking regimes, especially those who are Physically Ill Chemical Abusers (PICA). Future research is needed to model PO use, misuse, and diversion among this population.

Gender Transitions in Later Life: A Queer Perspective on Successful Aging

PubMed Central

Fabbre, Vanessa D.

2015-01-01

Purpose of the Study: Most understandings of successful aging are developed within a heteronormative cultural framework, leading to a dearth of theoretical and empirical scholarship relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) older adults. This study explores the experiences of transgender persons who contemplate or pursue a gender transition in later life in order to develop culturally diverse conceptualizations of health and wellness in older age. Design and Methods: Using the extended case method, in-depth interviews were conducted with male-to-female-identified persons (N = 22) who have seriously contemplated or pursued a gender transition past the age of 50. In addition, 170hr of participant observation was carried out at 3 national transgender conferences generating ethnographic field notes on the topics of aging and gender transitions in later life. Results: Interpretive analyses suggest that many transgender older adults experience challenges to their gender identities that put their emotional and physical well-being at risk. Contemporary queer theory is used to understand these experiences and argue that greater attention to experiences of queer “failure” and negotiating “success on new terms” may be integral aspects of growth and development for transgender older adults. Implications: The Baby Boom generation is aging in a post-Stonewall, LGBTQ civil rights era, yet gerontology’s approach to gender and sexual identity has largely been formulated from a heteronormative perspective. A framework for understanding older transgender persons’ experiences informed by queer theory offers a new orientation for conceptualizing successful aging in the lives of marginalized gender and sexual minorities. PMID:25161264

A passive positioning alarm used by persons with dementia and their spouses – a qualitative intervention study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Increasingly, information and communication technology is being used to support persons with dementia living at home and their relatives. The aim of the present intervention study was to describe and explore the use and experiences of using a passive positioning alarm, over time, in daily life among persons with dementia and their spouses. Methods Using an ethnographically inspired approach, five couples, each including a person with Alzheimer´ s disease and his/her spouse living in their own home, were repeatedly observed and interviewed regarding their experiences of using a passive positioning alarm. Interview text transcripts and field notes were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results The main findings show changes over time, where testing and checking the passive positioning alarm successively led to trust in the alarm and in one own´s ability to use it. These components were a prerequisite for the couples to perceive the value of the alarm. Conclusions A passive positioning alarm for persons with dementia and their spouses needs to be packaged as a “service” with flexibility for each user and based on user needs, abilities, knowledge and skills. Using a passive positioning alarm can be a valuable support that allows persons with dementia to be alone outdoors and can increase safety and security for them and their spouses. The present study contributes to our understanding of what prerequisites need to be in place and what barriers need to be dealt with before successful implementation can occur. PMID:23384329

Rural food insecurity: When cooking skills, homegrown food, and perseverance aren't enough to feed a family.

PubMed

Buck-McFadyen, Ellen V

2015-03-12

More than 1 in 10 Canadians experience food insecurity, and a growing number of families rely on food banks each month. This ethnographic study aimed to give voice to rural families about their experiences with food insecurity while situating the findings within the broader social, political and economic context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who had children living at home, and interviewer observations within the food bank were recorded as field notes. Content analysis was combined with the constant comparison method of data analysis to identify common themes regarding the experience of living with food insecurity and the influence of public policy. Seven female participants described the emotional toll that food insecurity had on their well-being and relationships, with stress and depression common to many women. Strategies used to stretch resources included cooking from scratch, growing produce, stocking up on sale items, hunting and fishing, and paying half-bills. Many participants described going without food so that their children could eat first, and three participants went without prescription medications. Rurality and social programs were identified as both supports and barriers to overcoming food insecurity. Participants in this study were highly skilled in attempting to feed their families with limited resources, although this proved inadequate to overcome their food insecurity. This highlights the need for policy initiatives to address the root causes of food insecurity and health inequities, including access to rural employment and high-quality child care, drug benefits and guaranteed annual income programs.

Mediation of adoption and use: a key strategy for mitigating unintended consequences of health IT implementation

PubMed Central

Anders, Shilo; Gadd, Cynthia S; Lorenzi, Nancy M

2012-01-01

Objective Without careful attention to the work of users, implementation of health IT can produce new risks and inefficiencies in care. This paper uses the technology use mediation framework to examine the work of a group of nurses who serve as mediators of the adoption and use of a barcode medication administration (BCMA) system in an inpatient setting. Materials and methods The study uses ethnographic methods to explore the mediators' work. Data included field notes from observations, documents, and email communications. This variety of sources enabled triangulation of findings between activities observed, discussed in meetings, and reported in emails. Results Mediation work integrated the BCMA tool with nursing practice, anticipating and solving implementation problems. Three themes of mediation work include: resolving challenges related to coordination, integrating the physical aspects of BCMA into everyday practice, and advocacy work. Discussion Previous work suggests the following factors impact mediation effectiveness: proximity to the context of use, understanding of users' practices and norms, credibility with users, and knowledge of the technology and users' technical abilities. We describe three additional factors observed in this case: ‘influence on system developers,’ ‘influence on institutional authorities,’ and ‘understanding the network of organizational relationships that shape the users' work.’ Conclusion Institutionally supported clinicians who facilitate adoption and use of health IT systems can improve the safety and effectiveness of implementation through the management of unintended consequences. Additional research on technology use mediation can advance the science of implementation by providing decision-makers with theoretically durable, empirically grounded evidence for designing implementations. PMID:22634157

Naturalness as an ethical stance: idea(l)s and practices of care in western herbal medicine in the UK.

PubMed

Nissen, Nina

2015-01-01

An association of non-biomedical healthcare with appeals to nature and naturalness, and an invocation of a rhetoric of gentleness, goodness, purity and moral power has been noted previously, and some scholars argue that nature has taken on a meaning broadly opposed to the rational scientific order of modernity. Drawing on an ethnographic study of women's practice and use of western herbal medicine (WHM) in the UK, the intertwining of the perceived naturalness of WHM with distinct care practices points to a further avenue for exploration. To examine patients' and herbalists' discourses of the naturalness of WHM and associated idea(l)s and practices of care, understandings of nature and a feminist ethics of care are utilized as analytical frameworks. The analysis presented suggests that, through WHM, patients and herbalists become embedded in a complex spatio-temporal wholeness and web of care that intertwines past, present and future, self and others, and local and global concerns. In the emerging 'ordinary ethics of care', naturalness constitutes a sign of goodness and of a shared humanity within the organic world, while care, underpinned by idea(l)s of natural and holistic care practices, links human and non-human others. Thus, the naturalness of WHM, as perceived by some patients and herbalists, engages and blends with a continually unfolding field of relationships in the lifeworld(s), where care practices, caring relations and collective wellbeing may constitute an ethical stance that raises deeper questions about the significance of relationality, the values of care/caring and the mutual involvement of nature and human being(s).

From ``wiggly structures'' to ``unshaky towers'': problem framing, solution finding, and negotiation of courses of actions during a civil engineering unit for elementary students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roth, Wolff-Michael

1995-12-01

The present study was designed to investigate problem- and solution-related activity of elementary students in ill-defined and open-ended settings. One Grade 4/5 class of 28 students engaged in the activities of the “Engineering for Children: Structures” curriculum, designed as a vehicle for introducing science concepts, providing ill-defined problem solving contexts, and fostering positive attitudes towards science and technology. Data included video recordings, ethnographic field notes, student produced artefacts (projects and engineering logbooks), and interviews with teachers and observers. These data supported the notion of problems, solutions, and courses of actions as entities with flexible ontologies. In the course of their negotiations, students demonstrated an uncanny competence to frame and reframe problems and solutions and to decide courses of actions of different complexities in spite of the ambiguous nature of (arte)facts, plans, and language. A case study approach was chosen as the literary device to report these general findings. The discussion focuses on the inevitably ambiguous nature of (arte)facts, plans, and language and the associated notion of “interpretive flexibility.” Suggestions are provided for teachers on how to deal with interpretive flexibility without seeking recourse to the didactic approaches of direct teaching. But what happens when problems and solutions are negotiable, when there are no longer isolated problems which one tries to solve but problems which maintain complex linkages with ensembles of other problems and diverse constraints, or when problems and solutions are simultaneously invented? (Lestel, 1989, p. 692, my translation)

Health beliefs and practices in rural El Salvador: an ethnographic study.

PubMed

Rutherford, Mary S; Roux, Gayle M

2002-01-01

To investigate the health practices and lifeways of rural villagers in a remote area of El Salvador who had been displaced by the recent civil war. The purpose of the study was to explore their view on health and experiences of loss during the war. Ethnography (Spradley, 1980, 1999; Agar, 1996). The participants included any resident of three rural Salvadoran villages who were 18 years of age and over. Participants included nine families, with a total of twelve participants. Data collection included participant observation, audiotaped interviews, demographic information, and field notes. One of the Spanish-speaking key informants acted as the interpreter. The content of all data was analyzed for recurrent themes. All nine families were displaced to refugee camps in Honduras during the civil war. Two cultural themes that emerged from the data were: 1) War: "We lost everything; we had to leave running," and 2) Health: "It's in God's hands." It is a challenge to encourage culture-specific care that acknowledges Salvadoran herbal remedies, strength of spirit, and a belief that a Supreme Being controls their lives. The health practices of the participants were shaped by their experiences of suffering from loss of family members during the war, displacement from their homes, and lack of potable water and environmental sanitation. To make a positive impact and effect change on health services in these rural areas, efforts should be directed toward democratic and community-based social and economic development within the context of the cultural system. Recent earthquakes (2001) have intensified the need for improvement in environmental factors including potable water.

Short-Term Intercultural Psychotherapy: Ethnographic Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seeley, Karen M.

2004-01-01

This article examines the challenges specific to short-term intercultural treatments and recently developed approaches to intercultural treatments based on notions of cultural knowledge and cultural competence. The article introduces alternative approaches to short-term intercultural treatments based on ethnographic inquiry adapted for clinical…

Ethnographic/Qualitative Research: Theoretical Perspectives and Methodological Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, E. Dean

This paper examines the metatheoretical concepts associated with ethnographic/qualitative educational inquiry and overviews the more commonly utilized research designs, data collection methods, and analytical approaches. The epistemological and ontological assumptions of this newer approach differ greatly from those of the traditional educational…

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)

Teaching Qualitative Methods: A Face-to-Face Encounter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keen, Mike F.

1996-01-01

Considers the complete ethnographic project as a strategy for teaching qualitative methods. Describes an undergraduate class where students chose an ethnographic setting, gathered and analyzed data, and wrote a final report. Settings included Laundromats, bingo halls, auctions, karaoke clubs, and bowling leagues. (MJP)

The heroines of their own stories: Insights from the use of life history drawings in research with a transnational migrant community

PubMed Central

Hirsch, Jennifer S.; Philbin, Morgan M.

2016-01-01

In this paper, we discuss how Life History Drawings can serve as a valuable method for global health research. The introduction discusses qualitative approaches to concepts such as reliability, validity and triangulation, and situates the use of participatory visual methods within the broader field of participatory research. The paper reports on an experience using life history drawings as part of extended ethnographic research in rural Mexico and among Mexican migrants living in Atlanta. The primary method for that parent project was comparative ethnographic research, which included life histories collected from 13 pairs of women over 15 months of participant observation. Early in the research, the drawings contributed to a major reorientation in the direction of the research project. The insights generated through analysis of the life history drawings exemplify how this participatory research technique can direct attention to social processes that feel salient to community members. In this case, they called attention to the enormity of social change in this community over one generation, reorienting the study from one focused on change causes by migration to one that focused on two trajectories of change: generational and migration-related. PMID:27109003

["'Vazanteiros' in motion": the process of "environmentalization" of their territorial fights in the context of ecological modernization policies].

PubMed

Anaya, Felisa Cançado

2014-10-01

This text presents the process of environmentalization of the social campaigns of Pau Preto, Pau de Légua and Quilombo da Lapinha in the north of the State of Minas Gerais that culminated in their being re-named as "'Vazanteiros' in Motion." The analysis of the territorial environmental conflict examines it from the perspective of Political Ecology and Critical Sociology. Documents from public environmental and judicial institutions were analyzed as well as meeting and research reports referring to the process of social mobilization and political formation of the "Vazanteiros in Motion." Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted from 2006 to 2012 and the different actors involved in the conflict were interviewed. The "extended-case method" or "situational analyses" were also used in order to demonstrate the ethnographic social events from a procedural and historical perspective. The results revealed the contradictions in sustainable development ideology, which made it possible to consolidate the agribusiness in that region through the creation of parks for irrigated fruit production projects as an environmental compensation strategy and the emergence of an important social movement of territorial claims in the environmental field.

"This does my head in". Ethnographic study of self-management by people with diabetes

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Self-management is rarely studied 'in the wild'. We sought to produce a richer understanding of how people live with diabetes and why self-management is challenging for some. Method Ethnographic study supplemented with background documents on social context. We studied a socio-economically and ethnically diverse UK population. We sampled 30 people with diabetes (15 type 1, 15 type 2) by snowballing from patient groups, community contacts and NHS clinics. Participants (aged 5-88, from a range of ethnic and socio-economic groups) were shadowed at home and in the community for 2-4 periods of several hours (total 88 visits, 230 hours); interviewed (sometimes with a family member or carer) about their self-management efforts and support needs; and taken out for a meal. Detailed field notes were made and annotated. Data analysis was informed by structuration theory, which assumes that individuals' actions and choices depend on their dispositions and capabilities, which in turn are shaped and constrained (though not entirely determined) by wider social structures. Results Self-management comprised both practical and cognitive tasks (e.g. self-monitoring, menu planning, medication adjustment) and socio-emotional ones (e.g. coping with illness, managing relatives' input, negotiating access to services or resources). Self-management was hard work, and was enabled or constrained by economic, material and socio-cultural conditions within the family, workplace and community. Some people managed their diabetes skilfully and flexibly, drawing on personal capabilities, family and social networks and the healthcare system. For others, capacity to self-manage (including overcoming economic and socio-cultural constraints) was limited by co-morbidity, cognitive ability, psychological factors (e.g. under-confidence, denial) and social capital. The consequences of self-management efforts strongly influenced people's capacity and motivation to continue them. Conclusion Self-management of diabetes is physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially demanding. Non-engagement with self-management may make sense in the context of low personal resources (e.g. health literacy, resilience) and overwhelming personal, family and social circumstances. Success of self-management as a policy solution will be affected by interacting influences at three levels: [a] at micro level by individuals' dispositions and capabilities; [b] at meso level by roles, relationships and material conditions within the family and in the workplace, school and healthcare organisation; and [c] at macro level by prevailing economic conditions, cultural norms and expectations, and the underpinning logic of the healthcare system. We propose that the research agenda on living with diabetes be extended and the political economy of self-management systematically studied. PMID:22458767

Rocks and Rhymes!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Julie; Dickinson, Gail; Horton, Danielle

2010-01-01

Field-note poetry is the product of the authors' efforts to combine current research in learning and cognition with integrated geoscience and language arts activities. In this article, they present a fun and effective activity that teaches students how to record detailed field notes and sensory observations that become the framework and…

Educational Evaluation: Ethnography in Theory, Practice, and Politics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fetterman, David M., Ed.; Pitman, Mary Anne, Ed.

Ten essays on the use of ethnography in educational assessment are presented. Overview essays include: (1) "Beyond the Status Quo in Ethnographic Educational Evaluation" (David M. Fetterman) and (2) "The Ethnographic Evaluator" (David M. Fetterman). Theoretical papers include: (3) "Theory in Education Evaluation: Or,…

Ethnography of Communication: Cultural Codes and Norms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carbaugh, Donal

The primary tasks of the ethnographic researcher are to discover, describe, and comparatively analyze different speech communities' ways of speaking. Two general abstractions occurring in ethnographic analyses are normative and cultural. Communicative norms are formulated in analyzing and explaining the "patterned use of speech."…

Dilemmas and Deliberations in Reflexive Ethnographic Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Janean Valerie

2014-01-01

This paper traces insights into the challenges and dilemmas experienced whilst researching students' interpretations and understandings of the Behaviour Management in Schools policy in Western Australia. Journal records, supported by student transcripts, are woven together in a reflexive ethnographic journey--from the beginning phase of searching…

How to Conduct Ethnographic Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sangasubana, Nisaratana

2011-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of conducting ethnographic research. Methodology definition and key characteristics are given. The stages of the research process are described including preparation, data gathering and recording, and analysis. Important issues such as reliability and validity are also discussed.

A beginner's guide to ethnographic observation in nursing research.

PubMed

Conroy, Tiffany

2017-03-22

Background Observation is mentioned in most ethnographic textbooks, but specific details about how it should be conducted and the practicalities to be considered in ethnographic nursing research are not always explicit. This paper explores the experiences of and challenges faced by a novice nurse researcher who used observation to collect data. Aim To provide a novice researcher's perspective of observation in ethnographic nursing research and to highlight the associated challenges. Discussion Challenges that arose in observation began with determining which perspective to take, followed by rehearsing observation, developing and maintaining a constructive relationship with the observation site, being aware of the influence of the observer, managing interactions between the observed and the observer, and responding to ethical issues. Conclusion Novice nurse researchers considering using observation to collect data should be aware of the potential challenges they might encounter. Implications for practice The information presented in this paper will enable novice researchers to anticipate these issues and develop strategies to prevent or address them.

The Clinical Ethnographic Interview: A user-friendly guide to the cultural formulation of distress and help seeking

PubMed Central

Arnault, Denise Saint; Shimabukuro, Shizuka

2013-01-01

Transcultural nursing, psychiatry, and medical anthropology have theorized that practitioners and researchers need more flexible instruments to gather culturally relevant illness experience, meaning, and help seeking. The state of the science is sufficiently developed to allow standardized yet ethnographically sound protocols for assessment. However, vigorous calls for culturally adapted assessment models have yielded little real change in routine practice. This paper describes the conversion of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV, Appendix I Outline for Cultural Formulation into a user-friendly Clinical Ethnographic Interview (CEI), and provides clinical examples of its use in a sample of highly distressed Japanese women. PMID:22194348

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…

Constructing the Historical Ethnography of Childhood through Oral History.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barman, Jean

The intersection of the ethnographer's method of participant observation and the historian's central concern with chronology provides a potentially useful approach for construction of a historical ethnography of childhood through oral history. The first stage of ethnographic activity, fieldwork centered in participant observation, is not unlike…

A Role for Soft Systems Methodology in ELT Projects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holliday, Adrian

1990-01-01

Discusses the uses for soft systems methodology (SSM) in English language training (ELT) projects. It is suggested that ethnographic techniques may help in achieving the understanding needed to start an ELT project while SSM may provide a useful means for structuring ethnographic findings. (Author/VWL)

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…

Institutional ethical review and ethnographic research involving injection drug users: a case study.

PubMed

Small, Will; Maher, Lisa; Kerr, Thomas

2014-03-01

Ethnographic research among people who inject drugs (PWID) involves complex ethical issues. While ethical review frameworks have been critiqued by social scientists, there is a lack of social science research examining institutional ethical review processes, particularly in relation to ethnographic work. This case study describes the institutional ethical review of an ethnographic research project using observational fieldwork and in-depth interviews to examine injection drug use. The review process and the salient concerns of the review committee are recounted, and the investigators' responses to the committee's concerns and requests are described to illustrate how key issues were resolved. The review committee expressed concerns regarding researcher safety when conducting fieldwork, and the investigators were asked to liaise with the police regarding the proposed research. An ongoing dialogue with the institutional review committee regarding researcher safety and autonomy from police involvement, as well as formal consultation with a local drug user group and solicitation of opinions from external experts, helped to resolve these issues. This case study suggests that ethical review processes can be particularly challenging for ethnographic projects focused on illegal behaviours, and that while some challenges could be mediated by modifying existing ethical review procedures, there is a need for legislation that provides legal protection of research data and participant confidentiality. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ethnocultural variations in mental illness discourse: some implications for building therapeutic alliances.

PubMed

Alverson, Hoyt S; Drake, Robert E; Carpenter-Song, Elizabeth A; Chu, Edward; Ritsema, Mieka; Smith, Beverly

2007-12-01

In the delivery of mental health services over the past decade, the field has attempted to shift from paternalism to client-centered care, in which treatment and recovery are based on client-practitioner collaboration. Such a shift requires that providers elicit and work with clients' discursive accounts of their illness experiences and understand these accounts in the context of clients' ethnocultural backgrounds. The purpose of this ethnography was to elucidate ethnocultural aspects of illness accounts and interactions with the mental health system. Over 18 months, 25 ethnically diverse, unemployed, inner-city residents with severe and long-term mental disorders participated in an ethnographic (participant observation) study of illness accounts and their relationship to sociocultural background. Field ethnographers shared in activities with participants at many of their regular haunts, engaging in observation, conversation, and informal interviewing in many real-world contexts and settings. The study revealed significant differences between the ways that European Americans, African Americans, and Puerto Rican Americans discursively constructed their illness experiences and their interactions with the mental health system. The clients' narratives of their illness experiences provided valuable information, which clinicians could use to open up topics for discussion, insert themselves into an engaging relationship with clients, and link clinical advice or guidance with the clients' own conceptions of how mental illness fits into their larger lived world. To develop a working therapeutic partnership with clients, mental health service providers must become aware through context-sensitive, context-informed dialog of the differences in how individual clients "en-story," communicate, and experience their illnesses.

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…

An Outsider's Ethnographic Thoughts about Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agar, Michael

2014-01-01

This article gives Michael Agar's email responses to two questions put by Gavin Melles: "What are your thoughts on the advantages and dangers of developments in applied anthropology for ethnographic and anthropology practice?" and "What are your impressions of the potential and actual use of ethnography in design?" The…

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…

Use of Ethnographic Fiction in Social Justice Graduate Counselor Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chung, Rita Chi-Ying; Bemak, Fred

2013-01-01

Ethnographic fiction is a technique for educating counseling students about the relationship of social justice to counseling practice. Preliminary data indicate it is an effective tool, with counseling students (N = 48) reporting an increased understanding and appreciation of clients' life experiences from a holistic perspective. Furthermore,…

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…

Ethnographic Eyes: A Teacher's Guide to Classroom Observation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frank, Carolyn

This book extends ethnography beyond the work of university researchers to include classroom teachers, student teachers, and teacher educators. It provides ways for student teachers and others to develop lenses for seeing the patterns and practices of life within classrooms. The book describes how developing "ethnographic eyes" can help student…

Ethnography 2.0: Writing with Digital Video

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, M. L.

2009-01-01

This article investigates how digital video technology can be used in ethnographic research and considers the implications of digital production, presentation and dissemination of ethnographic educational research knowledge. In this article, I introduce the term Ethnography 2.0 and address some of the issues that emerged from my decision to use…

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)

Japan's Teacher Acculturation: Critical Analysis through Comparative Ethnographic Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howe, Edward R.

2005-01-01

Cross-cultural teaching and research in Canada and Japan is reported. Ethnographic narrative methods were used to examine Japan's teacher acculturation. Canada's teachers are largely required to work in isolation, to learn their practice through trial and error. There is little provision for mentorship and insufficient time to reflect. 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…

"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…

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…

Social Representations of Inclusion and Stratification: Ethnographic Research within Two Israeli Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuval, Smadar; Orr, Emda

2009-01-01

Based on "Social representations theory", this ethnographic research examines the processes by which two Israeli elementary schools represented some children, but not others, as "weak" students and in need of remedial teaching. This approach differs from most current research regarding children with disabilities, which mainly…

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…

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'…

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)

Power and Agency in Language Policy Appropriation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, David Cassels; Johnson, Eric J.

2015-01-01

In this article we proffer a theoretical model for analyzing power in language policy processes and incorporate ethnographic data to illustrate the usefulness of the model. Grounded in an ethnographic project in the US state of Washington, we examine how nominally identical school district-level programs, which are funded under the same…

Crossing the Threshold Mindfully: Exploring Rites of Passage Models in Adventure Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norris, Julian

2011-01-01

Rites of passage models, drawing from ethnographic descriptions of ritualized transition, are widespread in adventure therapy programmes. However, critical literature suggests that: (a) contemporary rites of passage models derive from a selective and sometimes misleading use of ethnographic materials, and (b) the appropriation of initiatory…

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…

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…

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…

Reliable and Valid Stories?--Turning Ethnographic Data into Narratives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishop, Wendy

Ethnographic research projects have surged in recent years and are well represented in Research in the Teaching of English (RTE) bibliographies. However, methods texts were written for social scientists and anthropologists, not for writing researchers. Methods texts and rhetoric programs' general grounding in positivistic research imply that…

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…

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…

An Ethnographic Case Study on the Phenomena of Blended Learning Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tiell, Lauren Renae

2017-01-01

This study determined the teacher-perceived experiences within the blended learning environment to fill a void in previous data. The three research questions defined blended learning, explained strengths and challenges, and provided feedback on teaching programs. This qualitative case study used an ethnographic framework through interviews,…

Why Baby Why: Howard Broomfield's Documentation of the Dunne-za Soundscape.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ridington, Robin

1988-01-01

Examines the acoustic environment and aural culture of the Dunne-za of northeastern British Columbia. Discusses the changing soundscape of a northern hunting people, techniques for recording and cataloging an ethnographic soundscape archive, and the use of audio actualities in producing ethnographic audio documentaries. (Author/SV)

Hypermedia Ethnography in Educational Settings: Possibilities and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coffey, Amanda; Renold, Emma; Dicks, Bella; Soyinka, Bambo; Mason, Bruce

2006-01-01

This paper considers some of the methodological implications of undertaking and representing multimedia and digital, ethnographic work. It explores some of the challenges and opportunities of working with and across a range of media, and explores some of the consequences of bringing hypermedia applications to ethnographic work. The paper draws on…

Student Perceptions of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Geologic Note-taking with iPads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dohaney, J. A.; Kennedy, B.; Gravley, D. M.

2015-12-01

During fieldwork, students and professionals record information and hypotheses into their geologic notebook. In a pilot study, students on an upper-level volcanology field trip were given iPads, with an open-source geology note-taking application (GeoFieldBook) and volunteered to record notes at two sites (i.e., Tongariro Volcanic Complex and Orakei Korako) in New Zealand. A group of students (n=9) were interviewed several weeks after fieldwork to reflect on using this technology. We aimed to characterise their experiences, strategies and examine the perceived benefits and challenges of hardcopy and digital note-taking. Students reported having a diverse range of strategies when taking notes but the most common strategies mentioned were: a) looking for/describing the differences, b) supporting note-taking with sketches, c) writing everything down, and d) focusing first on structure, texture and then composition of an outcrop. Additionally, students said they that the strategies they used were context-dependent (i.e., bedrock mapping versus detailed outcrop descriptions). When using the iPad, students reported that they specifically used different strategies: varying the length of text (from more to less), increasing the number of sites described (i.e., preferring to describe sites in more spatial detail rather than summarising several features in close proximity), and taking advantage of the 'editability' of iPad notes (abandoning rigid, systematic approaches). Overall, the reported advantages to iPad note-taking included allowing the user to be more efficient, organised and using the GPS mapping function to help them make observations and interpretations in real-time. Students also reported a range of disadvantages, but focused predominantly on the inability to annotate/draw sketches with the iPad in the same manner as pen and paper methods. These differences likely encourage different overall approaches to note-taking and cognition in the field environment, and we suggest to instructors that using pen and paper note-taking first, and then introducing new technology may encourage both systematic and efficient evaluation of field areas.

The presence of field geologists in Mars-like terrain

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcgreevy, Michael W.

1992-01-01

Methods of ethnographic observation and analysis have been coupled with object-oriented analysis and design concepts to begin the development of a clear path from observations in the field to the design of virtual presence systems. The existence of redundancies in field geology and presence allowed for the application of methods for understanding complex systems. As a result of this study, some of these redundancies have been characterized. Those described are all classes of continuity relations, including the continuities of continuous existence, context-constituent continuities, and state-process continuities. The discussion of each includes statements of general relationships, logical consequences of these, and hypothetical situations in which the relationships would apply. These are meant to aid in the development of a theory of presence. The discussion also includes design considerations, providing guidance for the design of virtual planetary exploration systems and other virtual presence systems. Converging evidence regarding continuity in presence is found in the nature of psychological dissociation. Specific methodological refinements should enhance ecological validity in subsequent field studies, which are in progress.

Cognitive chrono-ethnography lite.

PubMed

Nakajima, Masato; Yamada, Kosuke C; Kitajima, Muneo

2012-01-01

Conducting field research facilitates understanding human daily activities. Cognitive Chrono-Ethnography (CCE) is a study methodology used to understand how people select actions in daily life by conducting ethnographical field research. CCE consists of measuring monitors' daily activities in a specified field and in-depth interviews using the recorded videos afterward. However, privacy issues may arise when conducting standard CCE with video recordings in a daily field. To resolve these issues, we developed a new study methodology, CCE Lite. To replace video recordings, we created pseudo-first-personview (PFPV) movies using a computer-graphic technique. The PFPV movies were used to remind the monitors of their activities. These movies replicated monitors' activities (e.g., locomotion and change in physical direction), with no human images and voices. We applied CCE Lite in a case study that involved female employees of hotels at a spa resort. In-depth interviews while showing the PFPV movies determined service schema of the employees (i.e., hospitality). Results indicated that using PFPV movies helped the employees to remember and reconstruct the situation of recorded activities.

From Disabled Students to Disabled Brains: The Medicalizing Power of Rhetorical Images in the Israeli Learning Disabilities Field.

PubMed

Katchergin, Ofer

2017-09-01

The neurocentric worldview that identifies the essence of the human being with the material brain has become a central paradigm in current academic discourse. Israeli researchers also seek to understand educational principles and processes via neuroscientific models. On this background, the article uncovers the central role that visual brain images play in the learning-disabilities field in Israel. It examines the place brain images have in the professional imagination of didactic-diagnosticians as well as their influence on the diagnosticians' clinical attitudes. It relies on two theoretical fields: sociology and anthropology of the body and sociology of neuromedical knowledge. The research consists of three methodologies: ethnographic observations, in-depth interviews, and rhetorical analysis of visual and verbal texts. It uncovers the various rhetorical and ideological functions of brain images in the field. It also charts the repertoire of rhetorical devices which are utilized to strengthen the neuroreducionist messages contained in the images.

Emotion work, ethnography, and survival strategies on the streets of Yogyakarta.

PubMed

Stodulka, Thomas

2015-01-01

Anthropological research with street-related children, adolescents, and young adults raises epistemological, methodical, and ethical predicaments. In this article, I illustrate the advantages of an anthropology that acknowledges the ethnographer's emotions as valuable data when conducting research with marginalized communities. By drawing on my own experiences when conducting long-term fieldwork, I argue that systematic self-reflexivity and an emotionally aware epistemology enhance both the anthropologist's emotional literacy and his or her understanding of informants and interlocutors. The integration of the ethnographer's emotions in the analysis and interpretation of ethnographic data can assist in formulating anthropological theory, challenging the limits of traditional empiricism, and raising emotions to a category of epistemic value.

The field-space metric in spiral inflation and related models

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

Erlich, Joshua; Olsen, Jackson; Wang, Zhen

2016-09-22

Multi-field inflation models include a variety of scenarios for how inflation proceeds and ends. Models with the same potential but different kinetic terms are common in the literature. We compare spiral inflation and Dante’s inferno-type models, which differ only in their field-space metric. We justify a single-field effective description in these models and relate the single-field description to a mass-matrix formalism. We note the effects of the nontrivial field-space metric on inflationary observables, and consequently on the viability of these models. We also note a duality between spiral inflation and Dante’s inferno models with different potentials.

Getting into trouble: perspectives on stress and suicide prevention among Pacific Northwest Indian youth.

PubMed

Strickland, C June; Cooper, Michelle

2011-07-01

Suicide rates among Indian youth in the United States are two to three times the national average. Although researchers have identified related risk and protective factors, they have limited understanding of the perspectives of youth at risk. In this descriptive, ethnographic study in a Pacific Northwest tribe, the goal was to gain an understanding of the life experiences of the youth. Focus groups and observations were conducted with 30 Indian youth aged between 14 and 19 years in a Pacific Northwest tribe. Youth were asked to talk about their stressors, sense of family/community support, and hopes for the future. Youth reported major stress and noted that friends and family were both a support and also a source of stress. They hoped for strengthening of cultural values, economic development, and opportunities to give their talents to the tribe. These findings provide further insight about suicide risk among Indian youth and advance the understanding of suicide prevention in a transcultural setting.

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…

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…

Critical Bifocality and Circuits of Privilege: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory and Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weis, Lois; Fine, Michelle

2012-01-01

In this article, Lois Weis and Michelle Fine introduce critical bifocality as a way to render visible the relations between groups to structures of power, to social policies, to history, and to large sociopolitical formations. In this collaboration, the authors draw upon ethnographic examples highlighting the macro-level structural dynamics…

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.…

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,…

Language and Cultural Immersion: An Ethnographic Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Jane

2004-01-01

This paper focuses on an evaluative, ethnographic case study of an English language and cultural immersion programme for Hong Kong university students. Prior to a five-week sojourn in England, the 15 English majors completed a survey and interview to determine their expectations and concerns. While in Oxford, they took courses in an English…

Ethnographic Approach to Second Life in Education: A Focus on Technological Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sponsiello, Marta; Gallego-Arrufat, María-Jesús

2016-01-01

This paper moves from the data collected during an ethnographic research conducted in Second Life, which focuses on the observation of different technological difficulties in educational experiences. The main research interests focused on the social dynamics of educational experiences in Second Life and the opportunity to develop a proper research…

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…

"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…

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…

"Sis Cat" as Ethnographer: Self-Presentation and Self-Inscription in Zora Neale Hurston's "Mules and Men."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boxwell, D. A.

1992-01-01

Examines Zora Neale Hurston's work, particularly her collection of folklore and ethnography of the American South, "Mules and Men." Looks at the author's role, the ways the ethnographer inscribes herself into the text, and speculates about Hurston's understanding of the limits of the impersonal researcher. (JB)

Culturally Specific Texts, Culturally Bound Audiences: Ethnography in the Place of Its Reception.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arora, Poonam; Irving, Katrina

1991-01-01

Continues questioning the position of the ethnographer as filmmaker in relation to those of whom the filmmaker speaks, while arguing that attention be given to the position of those to whom the filmmaker speaks. Refocuses attention on the effects of the ethnographic film in the place of its reception. (PRA)

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…

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…

An Ethnographic Case Study of the Administrative Organization, Processes, and Behavior in a Model Comprehensive High School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimman, Richard N.

Using ethnographic case study methodology (involving open-ended interviews, participant observation, and document analysis) theories of administrative organization, processes, and behavior were tested during a three-week observation of a model comprehensive (experimental) high school. Although the study is limited in its general application, it…

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…

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…

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…

Emerging Voices: Resituating Expertise--An Activity Theory Perspective on Representation in Critical Ethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stinnett, Jerry

2012-01-01

Ethnography has consistently faced ethical questions since the earliest postmodern critiques of the ethnographer's claims to objectivity in descriptive research. Concerns of how to represent ethically the ethnographic Other, to engage in activist research, and to foster collaboration among researchers and participants persist even in the age of…

Moving Pictures: From Ethnographic to Autoethnographic Documentary in the Internationalization of the Geography Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hay, Iain

2017-01-01

Documentary films have often taken a pivotal role in strategies to internationalize (geography) curricula and classrooms, being used as a method of bringing the world to the classroom. These documentaries overwhelmingly take ethnographic form. Problematically, the documentary gaze is characteristically that of an outside film crew and narrator…

Korean-American Student Perceptions on Literacy and Identity: Perspectives from an Ethnographic Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, Jeonghee; Godina, Heriberto; Ro, Yeon Sun

2014-01-01

This ethnographic case study examines perceptions of literacy and identity for a Korean-American student in a third-grade classroom. The researchers examine how teachers can misinterpret Asian identity in the classroom due to perceptions related to the "Model Minority Myth" and other stereotypical representations of Asian culture. By…

Ethnographic Decision Tree Modeling: A Research Method for Counseling Psychology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beck, Kirk A.

2005-01-01

This article describes ethnographic decision tree modeling (EDTM; C. H. Gladwin, 1989) as a mixed method design appropriate for counseling psychology research. EDTM is introduced and located within a postpositivist research paradigm. Decision theory that informs EDTM is reviewed, and the 2 phases of EDTM are highlighted. The 1st phase, model…

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…

Exploring Some Ethical Dilemmas and Obligations of the Ethnographer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barbour, Andrew

2010-01-01

This paper focuses on the ethical position of the ethnographer when encountering unethical activities. Ethnography affords a rich insight into cultures, often behind previously secure doors but it is also a demanding science. Our gatekeepers control our access and our relationships with them can determine our destiny. This paper offers an exchange…

Teaching as a Social Practice: The Experiences of Two Moroccan Adult Literacy Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erguig, Reddard

2012-01-01

This article offers an ethnographic case study of two Adult Basic Education (ABE) teachers' characteristics and their literacy instruction. It draws on the New Literacy Studies tradition and used ethnographic tools (in-depth interviews, classroom observation and the think-aloud protocol) to explore the characteristics of two ABE teachers and…

A Self-Ethnographic Investigation of Continuing Education Program in Engineering Arising from Economic Structural Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaihlavirta, Auri; Isomöttönen, Ville; Kärkkäinen, Tommi

2015-01-01

This paper provides a self-ethnographic investigation of a continuing education program in engineering in Central Finland. The program was initiated as a response to local economic structural change, in order to offer re-education possibilities for a higher educated workforce currently under unemployment threat. We encountered considerable…

Framing Hip Hop: New Methodologies for New Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dimitriadis, Greg

2015-01-01

This article revisits the central impulse behind early advocacy for ethnographic approaches to hip hop--that critics should try as much as possible to limit their own certainties around what hip hop can and might mean. While ethnographic approaches can engender the kinds of personal dislocations that allow for this negotiation, they do not…

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…

Reforming the Japanese Preschool System: An Ethnographic Case Study of Policy Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayashi, Akiko; Tobin, Joseph

2017-01-01

This is an ethnographic study of how two Japanese kindergartens are implementing the "yohoichigenka" policy aimed at reforming the Japanese early childhood education system. The cases of these two kindergartens demonstrate what happens when a top-down mandate reaches the level of individual programs. The programs creatively find ways of…

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…

Proxy-Produced Ethnographic Work: What Are the Problems, Issues, and Dilemmas Arising from Proxy-Ethnography?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinussen, Marie; Højbjerg, Karin; Tamborg, Andreas Lindenskov

2018-01-01

This article addresses the implications of researcher-student cooperation in the production of empirical material. For the student to replace the experienced researcher and work under the researcher's supervision, we call such work proxy-produced ethnographic work. Although there are clear advantages, the specific relations and positions arising…

Disassembling the Classroom--An Ethnographic Approach to the Materiality of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roehl, Tobias

2012-01-01

The ethnography of education is challenged by the materiality of the classroom. Ethnographic accounts of school lessons mostly highlight language and interaction and offer no suitable methodology for researching objects and their role in the classroom. Moreover, objects are part of complex and interwoven assemblages involving human actors,…

77 FR 15799 - Notice of Intent To Repatriate a Cultural Item: San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-16

... no records at the Treganza Museum concerning acquisition of this item. Based on ethnographic research... rattlesnake dance during both Yokut and Tubatulabal spring ceremonies. Based on consultation, ethnographic research, and museum records, the basket is culturally affiliated with the Santa Rosa Indian Community of...

Potentials of Physical Activity Promotion in Preschools--An Overview of Results of an Ethnographic Observation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pape, Natalie; Sterdt, Elena; Azouagh, Karima; Kramer, Silke; Walter, Ulla; Urban, Michael; Werning, Rolf

2016-01-01

This article addresses exemplary differences between preschools with systematic physical activity (PA) programmes and preschools without PA programmes in Germany. Two preschools from each group were visited in the context of a focused ethnographic observation to examine the educational practice, PA and social behaviour of preschool children. 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…

Trading Spaces: An Educator's Ethnographic Exploration of Adolescents' Digital Role-Play

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haynes-Moore, Stacy

2015-01-01

In this work, the author examines a digital role-play in which participants composed an alternate version of "The Hunger Games" (Collins, 2008). Participants imagined characters and posted more than 400 scenes in the online collaboration. The author draws upon ethnographic methods (Merriam, 2009) to describe her participant-observer…

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,…

"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,…

Cultural, Ethnographical and Religious Context of Georgian Folklore

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jijelava, Badri; Holbrook, Jarita; Simonia, Irakli

2017-05-01

The culture of Georgia is rooted in the ancient religions which is traceable in the ethnographic data of the present day. The people who inhabited this area worshipped the star Arcturus in the Bootes constellation. This connection to Arcturus is reflected in the local folklore about the ploughman, oxen, dog and wolf.

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…

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…

Developmental, Ethnographic, and Demographic Perspectives on Fatherhood: Summary Report of the Conference (Bethesda, Maryland, June 11-12, 1996).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greene, Angela Dungee; Hearn, Gesine; Emig, Carol

This report summarizes presentations and findings from a 1996 conference on "Developmental, Ethnographic, and Demographic Perspectives on Fathers." Part 1 of the report describes the characteristics of the developmental psychology, the ethnography, and the family demography aspects of fatherhood. Part 2 examines the multiple dimensions…

"Who Are You, and What Are You Doing Here": Methodological Considerations in Ethnographic Health and Physical Education Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jachyra, Patrick; Atkinson, Michael; Washiya, Yosuke

2015-01-01

In the pursuit of understanding declining levels of participation from scholastic Health and Physical Education (HPE), ethnographic research has been increasingly utilised as a tool to explore the intersubjective and intrasubjective meaning-making processes that concurrently invite or dissuade participation. Despite the ostensible epistemological…

Latina/o Parent Organizing for Educational Justice: An Ethnographic Account of Community Building and Radical Healing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nygreen, Kysa

2017-01-01

This article describes a parent organizing effort with Latina/o immigrant parents in a large, high-poverty, racially and linguistically diverse urban school district. Drawing from ethnographic research and the theoretical framework of "mujerismo," it examines the relational processes of community building and radical healing that…

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…

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…

Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory as Cultural Centre

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mickaelian, A. M.; Farmanyan, S. V.

2017-07-01

NAS RA V. Ambartsumian Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory is presented as a cultural centre for Armenia and the Armenian nation in general. Besides being scientific and educational centre, the Observatory is famous for its unique architectural ensemble, rich botanical garden and world of birds, as well as it is one of the most frequently visited sightseeing of Armenia. In recent years, the Observatory has also taken the initiative of the coordination of the Cultural Astronomy in Armenia and in this field, unites the astronomers, historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, culturologists, literary critics, linguists, art historians and other experts. Keywords: Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, architecture, botanic garden, tourism, Cultural Astronomy.

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.

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.

Ethnography for Teachers' Professional Development: Japanese Approach of Investigation on Classroom Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matoba, Masami; Sarkar Arani Mohammed Reza

2006-01-01

In this paper, we examine how journal and ethnography field notes in Jugyou Kenkyu (lesson study) help teachers to understand the diverse range of talents and abilities of their students. Especially, we focus on how ethnography field note and reflective papers (karate) help teachers to change their assumptions about student learning. The data…

The Role of Ethnographic Interviewing in Climate Change Evaluation Research: Investigating Intended and Unintended program effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lloro-Bidart, T.

2012-12-01

Ethnographic interviewing is an under-utilized tool in climate change evaluation research, even though it has the potential to serve as a powerful method of data collection. The utility of the ethnographic interview lies in its ability to elicit responses from program participants describing what a program is in practice, shedding light on both intended and unintended program impacts. Drawing on evaluation work involving a federally-funded climate change grant at the University of California, Riverside, I will discuss how to design an ethnographic interview protocol in an effort to share "best practices" with other climate change evaluators. Particular attention will be given to applying ethnographic approaches to various program types, even those differing from the one discussed. I will share some of the concrete findings from my work on this grant, to serve as examples of the kinds of data evaluators can collect when employing an ethnographic approach to interviewing. UC Riverside's climate change grant is multi-faceted, however the component studied ethnographically was a science fair mentoring program. About twenty K-12 students from high poverty, ethnically diverse schools who expressed an interest in participating in science fair were paired up with graduate student mentors to simultaneously research climate change and design authentic science fair projects to compete at various levels. Since one of the stated goals of the grant is to "stimulate…students to consider climate science as a career track through experiential education activities" I was particularly interested in how student experiences with the project might differ from school science which has historically "pushed out" ethnically diverse students like those in many of Riverside's schools. (In the program students are able to interact one-on-one with a mentor and in school settings there is typically one teacher for more than thirty students). I also sought to understand student perceptions of the project design and implementation and how these perceptions might influence their thinking about science as a career. Further, I aimed to explore how mentor pedagogical philosophies might impact student experiences with the projects, since the scholarly literature supports the idea that teaching practices are linked to student success and interest in science. The key to ethnographic interviewing, which sets it apart from survey research and other interviewing styles is that the evaluator or researcher designs guided, yet open-ended questions, allowing informants to discuss what is important to them. This type of questioning affords the researcher the opportunity to ascertain whether or not the grant met some of its intended goals and impacts, while simultaneously granting participants the freedom to discuss unintended impacts not anticipated by the principal investigator and evaluator.

Advocating Commodification: An Ethnographic Look at the Policing of Irish as a Commercial Asset

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brennan, Sara C.

2018-01-01

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in two towns in the Republic of Ireland, this article explores the local negotiation, endorsement, and contestation of two community-level Irish language advocacy organizations' attempts to regulate the use of Irish in business by mobilizing discourses of language commodification to position Irish as a commercial…

From the Form to the Face to Face: IRBs, Ethnographic Researchers, and Human Subjects Translate Consent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Metro, Rosalie

2014-01-01

Based on my fieldwork with Burmese teachers in Thailand, I describe the drawbacks of using IRB-mandated written consent procedures in my cross-cultural collaborative ethnographic research on education. Drawing on theories of intersubjectivity (Mikhail Bakhtin), ethics (Emmanuel Levinas), and translation (Naoki Sakai), I describe face-to-face…

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…

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…

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…

An Ethnographic-Case Study of Beliefs, Context Factors, and Practices of Teachers Integrating Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Angers, Julie; Machtmes, Krisanna

2005-01-01

This ethnographic-case study explored the beliefs, context factors, and practices of three middle school exemplary teachers that led to a technology-enriched curriculum. Findings suggest that these middle school teachers believe technology is a tool that adds value to lessons and to students learning and motivation. Due to a personal interest in…

The Normativity of the Helping Child--Meta-Ethnographic Perspectives on Individualised Learning in Age-Mixed Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huf, Christina; Raggl, Andrea

2017-01-01

This paper discusses possibilities of synthesising ethnographic data. This discussion implies a critical appraisal of the methodology of "Meta-Ethnography." Taking Noblit's and Hare's concept of Meta-Ethnography as a starting point to develop their own practice of synthesising data, the paper suggests to reconsider the possibility to…

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…

A Brief History of an Ethnographic Database: The HRAF Collection of Ethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roe, Sandra K.

2007-01-01

Since 1950, the Human Relations Area Files, Inc. has produced what is currently known as the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography. This article explores the reasons why it was created and describes the structure of this complex collection of ethnographic works. Over time, this resource has been produced in four different formats: paper slips,…

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…

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…

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…

"Reflexivity Is Kicking Our Asses": Tensions in Foregrounding Photographs in a Multimodal Ethnographic Analysis of Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chaffee, Rachel; Luehmann, April Lynn; Henderson, Joseph

2016-01-01

Bringing multimodal and ethnographic approaches together, this paper seeks to identify key considerations, limitations, and implications of using photographs as primary data. We offer a concrete example of an approach that capitalizes on a systematic look at how different modes work together to foreground unique aspects of participation, while…

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

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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…

Debating Race, Race-ing Debate: An Extended Ethnographic Case Study of Black Intellectual Insurgency in U.S. Intercollegiate Debate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, David Kent

2014-01-01

The following study is an extended ethnographic case study of a "black intellectual insurgency" within the predominantly white space of the U.S. intercollegiate policy debate activity. A growing number of black students are entering the debate activity and insisting that "whiteness" be confronted and interrogated and that…

Empire at the Margins: Compulsory Mobility, Hierarchical Imaginary, and Education in China's Ethnic Borderland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Peidong

2014-01-01

This paper presents an ethnographic interpretation of education as a social technology of state sovereign power and governing in the borderlands of contemporary China. Illustrated with snapshots from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Pumi (Premi) ethnic village located along China's south-western territorial margins, it is argued that the…

Problematising Ethnography and Case Study: Reflections on Using Ethnographic Techniques and Researcher Positioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker-Jenkins, Marie

2018-01-01

This paper was prompted by the question, what do we mean by conducting "ethnography"? Is it in fact "case study" drawing on ethnographic techniques? My contention is that in many cases, researchers are not actually conducting ethnography as understood within a traditional sense but rather are engaging in case study, drawing on…

Missing Stories: The Messy Processes, Multifaceted Risks, & Multiple Roles of Critical Ethnographers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Joy; Thompson, Candace; Nash, Kindel; Rodriguez, Sophia

2016-01-01

In this article, four critical ethnographers reflect on dilemmas that arose during individual research projects. We grappled with the question: What does critical ethnography require from us as we work to represent stories that emerge in contexts where students and/or teachers have been marginalized? After engaging in a three-year process of…