Georgia Baptist College of Nursing
of Mercer University
NUR605 Qualitative Methods of Inquiry in Nursing Research
Ethnography
Discussion Leader: Dr. Helen Hodges
1. What is the overall focus of the ethnographic methodology?
2. Describe 4 approaches to ethnography. Upon what philosophical approaches are specific methods based?
3. What is Leininger’s contribution to ethnography?
4. What does the historical and contemporary development of ethnography look like?
Herodotus (Greek) noted ______in cultures to which ______;
Renaissance
Malinowski’s 1922 study of ______
Boas (1948) study of ______
**20th century hallmark: study of ______
Key phases:
I: Boas, Malinowski, and Radcliff-Brown…founders of ______(chronicle descriptions of ______);
II: Chicago school of sociology (______as social laboratory; laid foundation for ______)
*Chicago school connected ______and ______philosophies with ______of Dewey. Who is Dewey?????
5. How is ethnography distinctive?
6. Characteristics (1-3 like other qualitative methods): 1) researcher as instrument; 2) fieldwork; 3) cyclic nature of data collection and analysis;
**4) ______; **5) ______;
**6) ______
7. Researcher as instrument seeks ______with participants: ______view (ie from the inside) vs. ______ view (from the outside);
8. Who are Informants?
9. What are considered sources of data?
10. What is reflexivity and how does it influence the ethnographer?. (Dictionary.com: (logic and mathematics) “a relation such that it holds between an element and itself; directed back on itself”)
‘The fish is the last one to know he’s in water’.
11. Fieldwork: going to the location of interest
Meanings and practices of health behaviors among…..
Physically situating oneself in the environs of the group being studied…fundamental characteristic of ethnography
Fieldwork is fundamentally dialectical: ______
1. The art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.
a. The process especially associated with Hegel of arriving at the truth by stating a thesis, developing a contradictory antithesis, and combining and resolving them into a coherent synthesis.
b. Hegel's critical method for the investigation of this process.
2.
a. The Marxian process of change through the conflict of opposing forces, whereby a given contradiction is characterized by a primary and a secondary aspect, the secondary succumbing to the primary, which is then transformed into an aspect of a new contradiction. Often used in the plural with a singular or plural verb.
b. The Marxian critique of this process.
3 dialectics (used with a sing. verb) A method of argument or exposition that systematically weighs contradictory facts or ideas with a view to the resolution of their real or apparent contradictions.
4. The contradiction between two conflicting forces viewed as the determining factor in their continuing interaction.
From www.dictionary.com Retrieved Oct 30, 2005
12. Cyclic Nature of Data Collection and Analysis: From where do research queries generally arise?
13. Focus on the Culture: sole purpose is to understand ______connected through group membership; individuals who have something in common.
Behavioral:
Cognitive:
Culture: “what people know and believe and what they do” (Roper and Shapira, 2000, p3)
14. Cultural Immersion: Depth and length of participation; study as many facets of lives as possible
15. Selection of ethnography as method:
16. Interpretations of the method:
a) holistic (study of culture as integrated whole). Inductive; describe culture in context of the whole
b) semiotic (Goodenough’s ‘ethnosciece’: rigorous, systematic focus on language; thick description (Geertz, 1973) without analysis and conclusions that merely ‘explain’ rather than understand; Inductive
c) behaviorist: focus on situational behavior; selection of cultural situations that substantiate preselected categories of data; Deductive
17: Describe how an ethnographic exploration of nursing rituals might evolve.
Spradley’s method (from Speziale & Carpenter, 2003):
1. Participant observation (gaining access
2. Ethnographic record: documenting the experience (field notes)
3. Descriptive observation (general questions [grand tour questions]…who, what, when, where) actors, activities, artifacts.
4. Domain analysis: broad categories -> domain categories
5. Focused observations
6.Taxonomic analysis: finer categories
7. Selected Observations: differences and similarities between finer categories
8. Componential analysis: attributes; language driven; units of meaning
9. Cultural themes: social conflict; types of conflict; contradictive information from the cultural group…social control; problem solving.
10. Cultural inventory
11. Write ethnography
18. Ethics: No covert participation. IRB. Informed consent, access, etc.
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