Ethnography and Phenomenology

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• Ethnography and Phenomenology
• . . . and a little Ethnomethodology
• Dangerous Minds Mission

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Beginning of the Mission Episode 1 (Setting the
Scene)

• Dangerous Minds
• Observe the introductory scene and jot down words
  or phrases that describe your observations,
  reactions, assumptions and connections.

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Ethnography . . .

• is the study and description of a social or
  cultural group
• involves first-hand, face-to-face experience in
  the everyday lives of the people being studied
• is also used to refer to the written product
• is used to explore and describe What is going on
  here?

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The ethnographer . . .

• is the primary research instrument
• is immersed in the setting through Participant
  Observation
• may use other data collection methods such as
  interviews and document review

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• The ethnographer inhabits a kind of in-between
  world, simultaneously native and strange. They
  must become close enough to the culture being
  studied to understand how it works, and yet be
  able to detach from it sufficiently to be able to
  report on it. (Hines, 2000, p.5)

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Assumptions

• There are multiple realities
• People are viewed as meaning-makers and the
  emphasis is on how people interpret and construct
  their cultural worlds
• Society and culture can only be studied from the
  inside the natural states

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Doing Ethnography . . .

• What is the problem or topic of interest?
• the driving force behind the research endeavor
• Consult secondary sources
• Identify a naturally occurring setting
• Sampling
• Relationships

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Doing ethnography. . .

• Data collection through participant observation,
  interviews, document review
• Field notes, audio and visual recordings
• Data analysis
• Report writing
• Verification

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History and Foundations

• Origin in anthropology
• Reaction to positivist perspectives
• Cultural relativism
• Reality is constructed and multiple realities
  exist

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• anthropologists studying primitive cultures
• Chicago School of Sociology established in 1892
• 1920s and 1930s the core ethnographies
• Naturalist ? ? ? Constructivist

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• Symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1937)
• The organization of everyday life around events
  and actions that act as symbols
• Social interaction is studied through
  face-to-face interactions and is regarded as the
  vehicle for creation and change of symbolic orders

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Mission Possible Episode 2

• Dangerous Minds

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Your Mission (should you choose to
accept it)

• Your mission is to think about potential
  interests that will provide the basis for your
  research in this setting, and how you might
  conduct your research.
• (This slide will not self-destruct in 60 seconds)

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Critical ethnography . . .

• goes beyond description to empowering those who
  are being researched
• involves directly with and for oppressed groups

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Critical ethnographers . . .

• began advocating for cultural critiques of modern
  society and its institutions.
• seek to empower those who are being researched
• Worked the divide between the powerful and the
  powerless (Foley Valenzuela)

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Critical ethnography . . .

• . . . the road to greater objectivity goes
  through the ethnographers critical reflections
  on her subjectivity and intersubjective
  relationships. For most critical ethnographers,
  in a class society marked by class, racial, and
  sexual conflict, no producers of knowledge are
  innocent or politically neutral.
• (Foley Valenzuela, 2005)

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Critical ethnographies

• cultural critiques
• make the public aware of social inequalities and
  injustices
• activist anthropology
• Direct involvement in political movements, court
  cases, and aggressive organizing activities
• (See Foley Valenzuela, 2005)

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• The difficult thing to explain about how middle
  class kids get middle class jobs is why others
  let them. The difficult thing to explain about
  how working class kids get working class jobs is
  why they let themselves. (Willis, 1977)

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• The dual role that I now play as both researcher
  and advocate constitutes a major break with my
  original training as a social scientist. I have
  found a way of doing social science that goes
  beyond the insipid, apolitical positivism that I
  learned in graduate school. At this point, it
  gives me enormous personal satisfaction to
  continue using my privileged status as a scholar
  to support and promote a social justice agenda.
• (Foley Valenzuela, 2005, p.232)

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1970s 1980s blurred genres

• Ethnography expanded to include many subtypes
  with different theoretical orientations (e.g.
  symbolic interactionism, critical theory,
  feminist theory)
• thick description (Geertz, 1973)
• Increased focus on the role of the researcher

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1980 onward

• Focus on reflexivity
• Postmodern perspectives
• experimental ethnographic writing

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• Performance Ethnography
• Autoethnography
• Institutional Ethnography
• Virtual Ethnography

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Performance Ethnography

• the re-enactment of ethnographically derived
  notes turning notes from the field into texts
  that are performed
• walk a mile in someone elses shoes

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• A good performance text must be more than
  cathartic it must be political, moving people
  to action, reflection, or both (Denzin, 2003).

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Autoethnography - reflecting on individual
experience in the context of
community- seeing ones own part in a situation
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Institutional Ethnography

• Seeing how it works from the individual
  everyday experiences to the social institutions

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Virtual Ethnography

• explores ways in which the use
• of the internet is made
• meaningful in local contexts
• Ethnography can be used to develop an enriched
  sense of meaning of the technology and the
  cultures which enable it and are enabled by it
  (Hines, 2000).

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• While there is a wide diversity of approaches to
  ethnographic research, they share a fundamental
  commitment to developing a deep understanding
  through participant observation.

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Critiques

• Ethnography does not have the objectivity and
  validity of the harder sciences
• Time consuming
• Role of participant observer Native vs. Stranger
• Interpretation through the lens/standpoint of the
  ethnographer
• Ethnography addresses the richness and complexity
  of social life and provides depth of description
• Cultures are studied in their natural states
  (rather than in contrived experimental scenarios,
  surveys, etc.)

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Credibility and authenticity . . .

• Rigorous data collection
• Making the researchers presence known
• The use of multiple perspectives
• Verification of the accuracy of the account
• Reflexivity
• Explicitly reporting on the researcher
  perspectives, values, and beliefs
• Contextualizing observations and providing in
  depth descriptions

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Background for the mission . . .

• You are researchers who believe that there are no
  universal truths or laws that can be generalized
  across all cultures and social groups. Rather,
  you view people as meaning-makers and you seek to
  understand how people interpret and construct
  their particular cultural world. You believe
  that, as an ethnographer, you need to immerse
  yourself in this culture in order to truly
  understand and describe it.
• (critique it, empower the participants, perform
  it, map it).

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Mission Possible Episode 3 Emilio

• Dangerous Minds

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Your Mission . . .

• . . . is to discuss what research interests you
  may have and how ethnography may contribute to
  knowledge in a way that may help teachers,
  educational institutions, other researchers and
  the public to improve the outcomes for kids like
  Emilio.

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Phenomenological Approaches to Research

• Research is a caring act
• van Manen, 1999, p. 5

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• Phenomenology is the study of the meaning of an
  experience. It seeks to gain an understanding of
  everyday experiences (van Manen, 1990)

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• Phenomenological research asks the question
• What is it like to have a certain experience?
• What is it like to be a mother in prison?
• What is the experience of a beginning teacher?
• What is the experience of being diagnosed with
  breast cancer?
• What is the experience of homelessness?
• What is it like to grow up in poverty?

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• Phenomenology is concerned with observing
  everyday experiences and then describing these
  experiences as they are presented in
  consciousness.

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Phenomenological Examples

• A phenomenological study of chronic pain
• The lived experience of postpartum depression
• A phenomenological exploration of the nature of
  spirituality and spiritual care
• Studying children Phenomenological insights
• Breast cancer survival
• Lived experience of hot-air ballooning

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• Epistemologically phenomenology rejects the
  natural sciences as an appropriate foundation for
  human science inquiry
• The approach is based on personal perspective and
  interpretation

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Historical Foundations

• Phenomenology traces its roots to the 19th
  century European philosophical tradition and
  sought to give credence to ordinary conscious
  experience
• Began its journey in philosophy
• During last 30 years, this approach has been
  widely used in applied research in many
  disciplines

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Two Philosophical Frameworks

• Direct Approach (Transcendental)
• Husserl
• Researcher looks in on phenomena
• Indirect Approach (Existential)
• Heidegger
• Researcher gets inside social context of
  phenomenon
• Imagine a lake, looking inbeing in

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Case studies.

• Moustakas (1961) was one of the first researchers
  to create a text that portrayed a lived
  experience. He used reflections and stories of
  the experience of loneliness while being with his
  seriously ill daughter. He used reflections from
  his diary.
• Hobson (2001) wrote of her experience in a
  palliative cancer ward. Her thesis used an
  existential approach with rich descriptions,
  observations, etc. Her question was What is it
  like to be an acute care nurse in a cancer ward?
  

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Two Dominant Schools of Phenomenological Research

• The Utrecht School
• Broad research investigating children and
  adolescent experiences
• Max van Manen
• The Duquesne School
• Emerged from psychology
• Giorgi

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Transcendental Phenomenology

• Edmund Husserl (1859-1931) a German math
  professor came up with the notion of describing
  the essence of an experience in the manner in
  which it is presented in consciousness
• Husserl reflected that to truly understand a
  phenomenon one needed to (bracket themselves) or
  suspend all biases and assumptions
• Being

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• Husserl used the term Epoche to describe this
  bracketing of prior assumptions. His motto was
  To the things themselves
• Husserl claimed that this approach provided a
  more open, non-judgemental description of the
  phenomenon

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Existential Phenomenology

• Heidegger was Husserls student in the 1920s but
  questioned his mentor believing that bracketing
  was idealistic and impossible
• Heidegger approached phenomenology with an
  ontological stance believing that observers were
  part of the world and couldnt separate or
  bracket themselves from it.
• What does it mean to be?
• Being in the world

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Existential Phenomenology

• The self and consciousness are not separate.
• The researcher embeds biases and assumptions in
  the research process (not bracketed) and is an
  interested actor, not a detached observer
• Heidegger said one cannot stand outside the
  pre-understandings and historicality of ones
  experience (Heidegger, 1927/1962)

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Mission Possible Episode 4

• Dangerous Minds

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Your Mission (should you choose to
accept it)

• For this mission you will be divided into two
  groups
• Being Group Look through the lens of the
  teacher and describe what you see. You believe in
  Husserls transcendental phenomenology and know
  that to truly understand the phenomena of
  teaching, you must bracket or suspend all biases
  and assumptions.
• Being in the world Group Look through the lens
  of the teacher and describe what you see. Your
  mentors, Heidegger and Gadamer, have helped you
  to understand that bracketing is idealist and
  impossible so you investigate the phenomena of
  teaching as being a part of the world. You will
  acknowledge your biases and assumptions and with
  this in mind, describe what you see. Jot down
  what your descriptions.

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Hermeneutic Phenomenology

• First used in interpretation of biblical texts
• Hermeneutic is a Greek word meaning hermeneuo
  to interpret
• Hermeneutic phenomenology is concerned with how
  people interpret their lives and make meaning of
  their experiences (Gadamer, 1989)

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3 Philosophical Assumptions of Hermeneutic
Phenomenology

• Two prominent philosophers Heidegger and Gadamer
• Hermeneutic Circle (Heidegger) - researcher moves
  from whole to part and back again and again
• Fusion of Horizons (Gadamer) - shared
  understandings through dialogue and questioning,
  co-constructing data

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Strengths of Phenomenology

• Rich, first person accounts in conversation and
  interviews
• Data is gathered in multiple ways
• Cuts through the clutter of taken-for-granted
  assumptions
• Researcher is personally involved, interested
• Holistic, caring methodology
• Writing of stories creates rich text to recreate
  lived experience

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Challenges of Phenomenology

• Ethical issues due to the close relationship of
  participants and researcher
• Enormous amount of data, messy to organize and
  interpret
• Responsibility to accurately reflect the truth
• Researcher must be mature, good listener,
  excellent writer
• Can be difficult to gain trust of participants.
• Can be uncomfortable if research exposes or
  challenges the status quo
• Can be robust in reporting individual cases, but
  must be tentative when suggesting their extent to
  a general population

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Criteria to Ensure Quality Research

• Does not use the terms validity or reliability,
  rather it focuses on rigor, authenticity and
  believeablity
• Create texts that are authentic, credible, true
  to the voices of the participants
• Use direct quotes from the participants to
  enhance authenticity and anecdotes
• Have participants comment on what is heard in
  interviews and read early drafts
• Write, write, write and rewrite. One needs to
  craft a document that reflects the lived
  experience of what was observed

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A little bit about. Ethnomethodology

• Harold Garfinkel (b 1917) founded the approach
  which looks at how we make sense of everyday
  interactions
• Garfinkel demonstrates that the routine,
  taken-for-granted aspects of social reality are
  skillful accomplishments
• Seen-but-unnoticed rules
• Ethnomethodology is interested in micro-social
  interactions and language

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• In everyday life, we use many social skills that
  we are only dimly aware of (attend a football
  game, travel on a bus, walk down the street)
• Example a courtroom.words and understandings
  like verdict sentence a sense of justicea
  researcher would look at patterns and methods,
  pauses in speech

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Ethnomethodology

• Depends on phenomenology to help describe how we
  create our world
• Interest of this methodology is the sense-making
  practices we use to understand our social world
• Study of common-sense knowledge, procedures,
  actions of ordinary people - how the folks act
  and interact
• Deals with the practical reasoning that people
  must and do use (driving a car, reading a map)

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• Ethnomethodologys most famous research method is
  Conversational Analysis
• Most famous modern day ethnomethodologist is
  Jerry Seinfeld - ordinary people in everyday
  interactions

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Mission Possible Episode 5 Raoul

• Dangerous Minds
• Scene Police Car scene

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Your Final Mission

• You are a researcher who will look at an event to
  recognize what the students in the scene are
  talking about without actually saying it.
• Think about an underlying pattern that is known
  to the students in their everyday life, the
  seen-but-unnoticed rules

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Reflect on the Mission

• What are my interests?
• What is the lived experience?
• Whats going on here?
• How are the people making sense of their world?
• What beliefs and theoretical backgrounds am I
  bringing to this field of research?
• Why is it important to me to understand?

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Gangstas Paradise

• What are my interests?
• What is the lived experience?
• Whats going on here?
• How are the people making sense of their world?
• What beliefs and theoretical backgrounds am I
  bringing to this field of research?
• Why is it important to me to understand?

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• They say I got ta learn, but nobodys here to
  teach me
• If they cant understand it, how can they reach
  me?
• I guess they cant - - I guess they wont
• I guess they front thats why I know my life is
  out of luck, fool

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• The story is never complete.one can only provide
  an interpretive view, a textual glimpse, or
  snapshot at a certain time, place, and by a
  certain researcher into the lived experience