Methods Day 2

8/9/2019 Methods Day 2

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DR. WILL

KURLINKUS

DAY 2: INTRODUCTION

TO QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH: ONETHNOGRAPHY


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1. Sign up for presentation days

2. Think of classroom research questions for Sandy

3. Video

PAPER WORK


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1. General impressionswhat struck you as interesting?

2. Key terms

3. Questions

1. Apply to Your Projects

2.

Apply to Your Teaching

4. Activities

GENERAL STRUCTURE


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! What is the goal of the ethnographer? Defines and

legitimizes? For who? How is this different than colonization?

Pg. 114-116. Ethnographys colonial roots.

! Avoiding value judgments: Ethnographers follow a

fundamental rule in data collection: Describe only what doeshappen, not what does not happen. Researchers

unaccustomed to working in a cross-cultural or constant

comparative frame often fall into the ethnocentric trap of

claiming: They do x and we do y, or we do x and they do not.

ETHNOGRAPHY


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! Autonomous model (103): the assumption that literacy in itself, autonomously,will have effects on other social and cognitive practices

! New Literacy Studies (James Gee, American, Anthropology and Descriptive):The NLS opposed a traditiona l psychological approach to literacy. Such anapproach viewed literacy as a cognitive phenomenon and defined it in termsof mental states and mental processing. The ability to read and the ability towrite were treated as things people did inside their heads.

!

The NLS saw literacy as something people did not just do inside their heads butinside society. It argued that literacy was not primarily a menta l phenomenon,but, rather, a sociocultural one. Literacy was a social and cultural achievementit was about ways of participating in social and cultural groupsnot just amental achievement. Thus, literacy needed to be understood and studied in itsfull range of contextsnot just cognitivebut social, cultural, historical, andinstitutional, as well.

!

activity systems (Engestrm 1987); Discourses (Gee, 1990/1996/2007);discourse communities (Bizzell, 1992); cultures (Street, 1995);communities of practices (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998); actor-actantnetworks (Latour, 2005); collectives (Latour, 2004); affinity groups oraffinity spaces (Gee, 2004) The moral was: follow the social, cultural,institutional, and historical organ izations of people (whatever you call them)first and then see how literacy is taken up and used in these organizations,along with action, interaction, values, and tools and technologies.

LITERACY


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! Multi - l iteracy (New London Group, Australiancomposition andprescriptive for production): The term Multi l iteracies immediatelyshifts us from the do minant written print text to acknowledge the many

varied ways that l iteracy is practiced in the new millennium.

! Mult iple Modes & Mult iple Cultures

!

Critical l iteracy (giving peopl e the abil ity to read texts for powerstructuresMarxist) vs. Emancipatory l iteracy (giving people the abil ity

to value themselves and rebel within powers ee Paulo Freire)

! Literacy sponsor (Deborah Brandt): Spo nsors, as I have come to thinkof them, are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract , who

enable, support, teach, or model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress,or withhold l iteracy - - and gain advantage by it in some way. Just as the

ages of radio and television accustom us to having programs brou ght tous by various commercial sponsors, it is useful to think about who orwhat underwrites occasions of l iteracy learning and use. Although theinterests of the sponso r and the sponsored do not have to converge

(and, in fact, may conflict) sponsors never theless set the terms foraccess to l iteracy and wield powerful ince ntives for compliance and

loyalty.

LITERACY


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! Starting with assets rather than lacksa way of solving

problems within the pre-existing context

! A way of solving community problems through par ticipatory

design (Kretzman and McKnight): starts with what is present

in the community; concentrates on the agenda-building andproblem-solving capacity of the residents; stresses local

determination, investment, creativity, and control.

ASSETS MAPPING


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! Scale of inqui ry : Cu l ture (does)vs . Community ( is ) vs . indiv idual/identi ty

! Cultural is rhetorical (activelycreated and sustained for areason)

! Examples?

! Fracta l Recurs iv i ty ( l inguistsIrv ine and Gal ) : The not ion refersto the fact that the di f ferenceswhich are made to be iconic areused in the creat ion of another . Integra l to the idea off racta l recurs iv i ty is that thesame opposi t ions that dist inguishgiven groups f rom one another onlarger scales can a lso be found

with in those groups. Operat ing onvar ious levels , f racta l recurs iv i tycan both create an identi ty for agiven group and further div ide i t .With in each group or subgroup,then, there is a schismogenesis(or creat ion of di f ferences) ,whereby speakers can be div idedfurther according to those same

principles .

SCALE


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1. Site Selection: Negotiation and permission seeking

2. Initial observation, field mapping and purposeful sampling

3. Focus observation

4. Closing observation: observation data gathering continues

until researchers achieve theoretical saturation--that is,

when the generic features of their new data consistently

replicate earlier ones.

INTRO TO SITE OBSERVATIONS: WHERE

MIGHT YOU OBSERVE?


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! Ethnographic interviews are open-response questions toobtain data of participant meanings--how individuals conceive

of their world and how they explain or "make sense" of theimportant events in their lives.

! Accessing the setting

!

Understanding the language and culture of the respondents

! Deciding on how to present oneself

! Locating an informant

! Field testing and refine questions, probes, intensity of pause

! Statements of the researcher's purpose and focus

!

Establishing rapport and gaining trust! Ordering questions appropriately

! Audio taping and maintaining interview records

! Collecting relevant materials

INTRO TO ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEWS:

WHO MIGHT YOU INTERVIEW?


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! Do not expect interviewees to be able to directly address your researchquestion. Instead, interviews should be structured around several focalquestions designed to cover the main aspects of the research question

! Questions should be designed to el icit an individual s experiences an dunderstanding. Asking about a specif ic experience (Can you tel l me aboutthe last t ime you voted in person in a general election, from when you gotto the pol l ing site unti l you left?) rather than a gen eral topic (What do

you f ind it to be l ike when you go to vote?) is usually more l ikely togenerate specif ic, informative responses. Of course, being specif ic onlyworks when you ask about an experience a respondent ha s had, and aswith other forms of information gathering, recent experiences are ofteneasier for a respondent to recal l accurately and in d etai l .

!

Questions should be broad and open-ended, rather than tai lored for aspecif ic type of answer.! Avoid questions that can be answered with yes or no

!

Avoid biasing responses

! Do not share your hypotheses (if applicable).

! Do not use emotional, loaded or biased language.

! Be careful about what your behavior conveys to participants (e. g., expressions ofsurprise, jumping to take notes).

INTERVIEWS


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! Unstructured interviews may be used to collect data; personal

stories tell us something of how group members perceive and

experience their conditions.

! Structured interviews permit more focused information

gathering, but may overlook aspects of the group that anunstructured interview might reveal.

! To facilitate truthful responses, the interview should be

informal or conversational in nature.

! Interviewees may be selected with intent to uncover specific

information or to gain a cross section of group members (forinstance, both high achievers and those having difficultly with

the material).

INTRO TO ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEWS:

WHO MIGHT YOU INTERVIEW?


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! Less structured interviews are most appropriate for earlystages of research because they allow interviewees to focus

on what they think is most relevant to the question, providingthe broadest set of perspectives. This approach can be

valuable in contexts where little is known about the topic (e.g.

because relatively little previous research exists), making itdifficult or impossible to develop testable hypotheses and

suggesting that more information-gathering is required.

! More structured interviews ensure that interviewees all

address the same questions, and thus that intervieweesresponses can be compared. More structured interviews

increase the likelihood that the findings of the research will

be generalizeable and/or can be used to test specifiedhypotheses.

STRUCTURING INTERVIEWS


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! Introducing questions: Can you tell me about. . . .? Do you remember an

occasion when.. .? What happened in the episode mentioned? . . .

! Fol low-up questions: Direct questioning of what has just been said

nodding mm repeating signif icant words . . . .

! Probing questions: Could you say something more about that? Can you

give a more detai led description of what happened? Do you have further

examples of this? . . .

!

Specifying questions: What did you think then? What did you actua l ly do

when you felt a mounting anxiety? How did your body react? . . .

! Direct questions: Have you ever received money for good grades? When

you mention competition do you then think of a sportsmanlike or a

destructive competition?

! Indirect questions: Projective questions such as How do you bel ieve other

pupi ls regard the competition of grades?

!

Structuring questions: indicating when a theme is exhausted by breaking

off long irrelevant answer s: I would now l ike to introduce another topic: . . .

!

Silence: By al lowing pauses the interviewees have ample time to associate

and reflect and break the si lence themselves. With signif icant informat ion.

! Interpreting questions: You then mean that. . . .? Is i t correct that you feel

that. . .?Does the expression.. . . Cover what you have just expressed?

TYPES OF INTERVIEW QUESTIONS


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The extent of spontaneous, rich, specific, and relevant answersfrom the interviewee.

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The shorter the interviewers questions and the londer theinterviewers answers, the

!

better.

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The degree to which the interviewer follows up and clarifies themeanings of the

!

relevant aspects of the answers.

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The ideal inter view is to a large extent interpreted throughout theinterview.

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The interviewer attempts to verify his or her interpretations of

the subjects answers in!

the course of the interview.

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The interview is self-communicating it is a story contained initself that hardly

! requires much extra descriptions and explanations.

THE QUALITY OF THE INTERVIEW


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!

Most qualitative interviews are one-on-one, but group interviews

can be used as well

! The purpose of a focus group interview is to get collective views

on a certain defined topic of interest from a group of people who

are known to have had certain experiences!

Focus groups enable a researcher to elicit opinions, attitudes and

beliefs held by the member s of a group

FOCUS GROUPS


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! Artifact collections are tangible manifestations of the beliefs

and behaviors that form a culture, and they describe peoples'

experience, knowledge, actions, and values. Analysis of

documents and artifact are usually supplementary to

participant observations and ethnographic interviews.! Personal documents

! Official documents

! Objects

DOCUMENT AND ARTIFACT COLLECTION

Documents

Methods Day 2