Ethnography and Phenomenology Designs Assignment
Ethnography and Phenomenology Designs Assignment
Ethnography and Phenomenology Designs Assignment: In this unit, you have learned about ethnographic and phenomenological approaches to qualitative research.
For this discussion, compare and contrast these two designs in 375-425 words:
—>Compare and contrast ethnography and phenomenology.
—>Compare and contrast descriptive phenomenology and interpretative phenomenology.
—>Provide an example of a topic and how a research study might investigate it through each design: phenomenology and ethnography. Ethnography and Phenomenology Designs Assignment
**Be sure to include citations from books and articles, two sample articles are attached below!**
Ethnography and Phenomenology Designs Assignment
The Qualitative Report 2013 Volume 18, Article 17, 1-16 http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR18/higginbottom17.pdf
Guidance on Performing Focused Ethnographies with an Emphasis on Healthcare Research
Gina M. A. Higginbottom, Jennifer J. Pillay, and Nana Y. Boadu
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Focused ethnographies can have meaningful and useful application in primary care, community, or hospital healthcare practice, and are often used to determine ways to improve care and care processes. They can be pragmatic and efficient ways to capture data on a specific topic of importance to individual clinicians or clinical specialities. While many examples of focused ethnographies are available in the literature, there is a limited availability of guidance documents for conducting this research. This paper defines focused ethnographies, locates them within the ethnographic genre, justifies their use in healthcare research, and outlines the methodological processes including those related to sampling, data collection and maintaining rigour. It also identifies and provides a summary of some recent focused ethnographies conducted in healthcare research. While the emphasis is placed on healthcare research, focused ethnographies can be applicable to any discipline whenever there is a desire to explore specific cultural perspectives held by sub-groups of people within a context-specific and problem-focused framework. Keywords: Focused Ethnography, Healthcare Research, Qualitative Methodology, Guidance
Introduction
Within an ever-increasing number of qualitative research genres (e.g., classical or anthropological ethnography, ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, narrative inquiry), focused ethnographies (FE) are very suitable for healthcare research as they can be pragmatic and efficient ways to capture data on a specific topic of importance to individual clinicians or clinical specialities, and to determine ways to improve care and care processes. They are able “to address specific aspects of fields in highly differentiated organisations” (Knoblauch, 2005). This paper defines focused ethnographies, locates them within the ethnographic genre, justifies their use in healthcare research, and outlines the methodological processes including those related to sampling, data collection and maintaining rigour. It also identifies and provides a summary of some recent FE conducted in healthcare research. While the emphasis is placed on healthcare research, FE can be applicable to any discipline whenever there is a desire to explore specific cultural perspectives held by sub-groups of people within a context-specific and problem-focused framework.
What is Ethnography? Ethnography is “the work of describing culture” (Spradley, 1979) using a “process of
learning about people by learning from them” (Roper & Shapira, 2000). Ethnographers essentially study situations in real-time, thus as they occur in their natural setting, to gain an in-depth perspective. This includes the overt or explicit dimensions of culture that are known and cognitively salient to members of that culture or subculture, and covert or tacit dimensions that may not be articulated by members of the culture or subculture, but nevertheless shared (Fetterman, 2010). What most clearly distinguishes ethnography from
2 The Qualitative Report 2013
other qualitative research genres and makes it valuable for researching healthcare issues, is its link between the macro and micro, thus between everyday interactions and wider cultural formations through its emphasis on context (Savage, 2006).
The depth of comprehension sought with ethnographies typically requires multiple data collection methods including participant observation, with “cultural immersion” over an extended period of time, interviews and documentary analysis (Fetterman, 2010). Ethnographic research is shaped by the nature of the relationship between the researched and the researcher, taking into account both emic (insider view) and etic (outsider view) perspectives and therefore acknowledging the existence of multiple realities (Fetterman, 2010). In as such, the reflexive and contextual dimensions are pivotal (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1998; Savage, 2000; Fetterman, 2010). Key characteristics that all ethnographies share include (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1998, p.110):
• Scrutiny of specific social phenomena, as opposed to deductive research that
tests out hypotheses; • A propensity to elicit unstructured data as opposed to pre-coded data; • Small sample sizes which may include just one case; • Narrative description as the product of analysis that includes an unequivocal
acknowledgement of interpretation of the significance and purpose of human behaviour; and,
• No quantification of data. While ethnographers may have originally studied whole communities or cultures, there is wide agreement that the methodology is eminently suitable for exploring sub-cultures or groups of people within complex, pluralistic societies (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1998; Higginbottom, 2004b; Fetterman, 2010). Moreover, a discrete field studied by numerous disciplines, considered medical or health sciences ethnography, focuses on describing the relationships between cultural beliefs and health behaviours.