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(LeCompte & Preissle, 1993, p. 3) “Ethnographers seek to construct descriptions of total phenomena within their various contexts and to generate from these descriptions the complex interrelationships of causes and consequences that affect human behavior toward and belief about the phenomena.”
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Today’s Topic:
Characteristics of non-positivist
research
Ethnography:
“writing about people”
(LeCompte & Preissle, 1993, p. 356)
(LeCompte & Preissle, 1993, p. 3)
“Ethnographers seek to construct descriptions of total phenomena within their various contexts and to generate from these descriptions the complex interrelationships of causes and consequences that affect human behavior toward and belief about the phenomena.”
Educational ethnography provides “rich, descriptive data about the contexts, activities, and beliefs of
participants in educational settings.”
(LeCompte & Preissle, 1993, p. 8)
Characteristics of “classical” educational
ethnographies:
A small, relatively homogeneous and geographically bounded study site.
Long-term and repeated residence of the researcher at the site.
The use of participant observation as the primary data collection method, supplemented other techniques.
Characteristics, cont.: Triangulation or corroboration of data via the
use of multiple data sources. Creation of a data base, consisting primarily of
field notes. A preoccupation with the interpretive
description and explanation of the culture, life ways, an social structure of the group under investigation.
Discourse Analysis Narrative AnalysisTextual Analysis
Almost any kind of ‘text’ can be analyzed. Your text can be oral, signed, non-verbal, written, graphic, visual, linguistic, or non-linguistic.
When analyzing text, your method of analysis stems from your research
question. Your research question comes from a particular theoretical grounding within a particular field
and should be referenced to the professional literature and pre-
existing research.
Possible Data Types
• Interviews• Newspaper articles• Radio & TV programs• Oral narratives• Written journals• Natural conversations
Possible Methods of Analysis
• Thematic analysis
• Ethnography of communication
• Conversation analyses (CA)
• Collaborative biography
• Speech act theory
Example: Thematic Analysis
• “Thematic analysis, first and foremost, is about searching for patterns in data” (Shank, 2002, p. 129).
• It is a process of inductive analysis, where the “findings emerge out of the data, through the analyst’s interactions with the data” (Patton, 2002, p. 453).
Steps in Developing and Conducting a Thematic Analysis:
1. Establish a system for how you are going to about doing the thematic analysis (i.e. different colored highlighters, index cards, computer program).
2. Read and re-read the text(s).
3. Identify “salient incidents” and make notes on initial reactions and ideas.
Steps in Thematic Analysis, cont.:
4. Begin to identify initial categories.
5. Refine your categories.
6. Code (and re-code) your data.
7. Obtain “consensual validation” (member checking).
8. Re-analyze data as needed, after the member check.
Whole Group Discussion:
So now, what do you understand some of the key differences to be between:
–Qualitative and quantitative research,–Hypothesis-driven and naturalistic
research, or–Research stemming from positivist
versus naturalistic paradigms?