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

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

2. 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.

3. 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?”

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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

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

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

10. anthropologists studying primitive cultures • Chicago School of Sociology established in 1892 • 1920s and 1930s – the “core ethnographies” • Naturalist → → → Constructivist

11. 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

13. Mission Possible Episode 2: Dangerous Minds

14. 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)

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

16. 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)

17. Critical ethnography . . . . . . the road to greater objectivity goes through the ethnographer’s 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)

18. 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)

20. 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)

21. 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)

22. 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

23. 1980 onward • Focus on reflexivity • Postmodern perspectives • “experimental ethnographic writing”

24. Performance Ethnography • Autoethnography • Institutional Ethnography • Virtual Ethnography

25. Performance Ethnography • the re-enactment of ethnographically derived notes; turning notes from the field into texts that are performed • “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”

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

27. Autoethnography - reflecting on individual experience in the context of community- seeing one’s own part in a situation

28. Institutional Ethnography • Seeing “how it works” from the individual everyday experiences to the social institutions

29. 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).

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

31. 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.)

32. Credibility and authenticity . . . • Rigorous data collection • Making the researcher’s 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

33. 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).

34. Mission Possible Episode 3: Emilio Dangerous Minds

35. 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.

36. Phenomenological Approaches to Research “Research is a caring act” van Manen, 1999, p. 5

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

38. 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?

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

40. 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

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

42. 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

43. 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 in…being in

44. 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?”

45. 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

46. 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”

47. 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

48. Existential Phenomenology • Heidegger was Husserl’s student in the 1920’s 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 couldn’t separate or bracket themselves from it. • “What does it mean to be?” • “Being in the world”

49. 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 one’s experience” (Heidegger, 1927/1962)

50. Mission Possible Episode 4 Dangerous Minds