19. Ethnography
Paper
How to Improve Ethnographic Research: Extension of Situational Analysis by the Spatial Dimension
Radim Šíp, Denisa Denglerova
Tomas Bata University, Czech Republic
Presenting Author: Šíp, Radim;
Denglerova, Denisa
The main goal of this contribution is to present a methodological innovation that expands the analytical potential of ethnographic research. As we know, under certain conditions ethnographic research is able to provide "fuzzy generalizations" (Bassey, 1999; Hammersley, 2001), which lead to the transferability of knowledge from one environment or context to others (Gomm, Hammersley, & Foster, 2000). Nonetheless, it is not easy to bridge the gap between individual characteristics that are made visible by the ethnographic approach and the understanding of a whole situation (i.e. actors and actants interacting in and with the given environment), which is needed in order to provide the research with applicable generalization. That is why we combined ethnographic techniques of gathering data with situational analysis (SA).
SA provides us with cartographic tools (Clarke, 2003; 2005) that allow the viewing of the researched environment together with its actors and actants as a dynamic system (Rockwell, 2005; Thelen & Smith, 1998). This is in accord with situational epistemology set by Dewey and developed by his followers (Dewey, 1992, lw.12; Johnson, 2007). SA thus enables researchers to describe a system in which there are no simple linear causal relationships, and yet it is possible to capture the laws and regularities given by the so-called "pragmatic cause" (Rockwell, 2005). This makes it possible to describe such a system and predict its future development without overly idealizing and reducing the initial analytical units of the entire system (quantitative methodology) or focusing on individual non-generalizable cases (qualitative methodology).
A dynamic system is characterized by: 1) the ongoing interactions of actors and actants with each other and with its environment, 2) the complexity of the interactions, and 3) feedback loops that permanently change the "essence" of relationships, and thus the "essence" of the very system elements (Thompson, 2007). The concurrence of the characteristics gives rise to the emergence of new system properties. However, the two-dimensional nature of the cartographic tools of SA does not allow the visualization and subsequent analysis of these emergent processes.
Relational maps allow researchers to find relationships between the basic units of analysis (the so-called "elements"). These relationships (so-called "mechanisms") explain how individual elements contribute to the character of the central element and how they, in this way, influence the whole situation (Clarke, 2005; 2014; Clarke & Montini, 2014). During the construction of the relational map, researchers are led to identify one element as central and in relation to it determine the mechanisms on the basis of which the researched situation is characterized.
This fact, however, leads to methodologically significant questions: How to properly determine the central element? Why this and not that element should be depicted as the central element? When we started to think about the very methodological principle on the basis of which SA is constructed, we realized that by using SA we cannot display the relationships among mechanisms. These relations are manifestations of emergent processes that play a key role in understanding any dynamic system. Thus, we realized that we are limited by the very two-dimensional principle of representation of SA. Inspired by Bachelard's insight into tool-knowledge continuity (1998), the theory of conceptual metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; 1999), and the texts about other related themes (see below), we proposed an extension of SA with a three-dimensional representation. In our research, this allowed us to detect processes of de/synchronization.
Without this innovation, the process of de/synchronization would not be detected and no usable generalization could be presented. The proposed methodological innovation helps researchers doing ethnographic research to construct fuzzy generalizations that strengthen the credibility and applicability of their theories.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedWe combined an ethnographic approach and situational analysis during our research on inclusive schools, seeking an answer to the main research question: What implicit or explicit processes enable schools to build an inclusive environment (Šíp et al., 2022)? Through the mapping procedure, we made up the relational map for each school. In this stage of the analysis, we met the methodological difficulty described above.
Why should we choose this and not that element as central? This act of choice will have a significant impact on the results of the research, but there is no clear procedure for taking this step. At this stage, we started experimenting with placing one element after the other in the central position. We thus obtained a set of different perspectives on the whole situation, and each of them characterized the situation from a little different angle. Nevertheless, we felt that there is a significant continuity between them that we had not yet been able to determine. At this moment we realized that the problem might reside in the methodological tools we used.
We needed to extend SA in order to be capable of making an abstract ascent that would allow us to see different representations as variations of the same general principle that directs the system. To do this, we reviewed the theoretical literature on the relationships between the process of mapping and what is mapped. Thus we studied texts on relations between epistemological tools of inquiry and the understanding that came thereof (Bachelard, 1985; Dewey, 1992, lw.12), on corporeal roots of symbolic meaning (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999; Gibbs, 2005; Johnson, 2007; Iacoboni, 2009), on enacted mind theory (Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1993; Thompson, 2007), etc. The texts share one important ground: there is a continuity between what is experienced and how experience is mapped. Inquiring into phenomena in their constant change, we need the proper projection of data to be able to catch its persistent activity patterns. Expansion of SA by spatial projection enables us to detect the general pattern which in this case was the process of de/synchronization of mechanisms.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe detected process reveals the relationships between the individual mechanisms that determine a situation. If the mechanisms are synchronized with each other, their influence on the whole situation is harmonized and strengthened, and the school determined by them takes a clear shape. In this case, the shape of an inclusive environment. On the contrary, if the mechanisms are in a process of desynchronization, their positive influence weakens, the shape has an indistinct form and the school, despite all the efforts it makes in relation to building a pro-inclusive environment, moves away from this ideal.
In this phase of the research, we did not only answer the specific question of why the schools we examined are successful in building a pro-inclusive environment, we also pinpointed a more general rule. We found a general rule that allows us to beneficially describe completely different environments than schools (e.g. hospital environments, military environments, scientific laboratory environments, etc.). These processes condition the rise of emergent properties of dynamic systems that cannot be understood by seeing how individual mechanisms are presented in the relational map of SA.
We would not have been able to discover this general rule if we had not extended the two-dimensional nature of the representation of SA with a third dimension, which enabled us to glimpse the nature and significance of the interrelationships of mechanisms.
ReferencesBachelard, G. (1985). The New Scientific Spirit. Boston: Beacon Press.
Bassey, M. (1999) Case Study Research in Educational Settings. Buckingham: Open University Press
Dewey, J. (1992). The Collected works of John Dewey. L. A. Hickman (Ed.). Charlottesville VA: InteLex Corporation.
Gibbs, R. W. (2005). Embodiment and cognitive science. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Gomm, R., Hammersley, M. & Foster, P. (eds.) (2000) Case Study Method: Key Issues, Key Texts. London: Sage.
Hammersley, M. (2001) On Michael Bassey’s Concept of Fuzzy Generalisation, Oxford Review of Education, 27(2): 219–25.
Clarke, A. E. (2005). Situational Analysis. Grounded Theory after the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Clarke, A. E. (2014). Grounded Theory: Critiques, Debates, and Situational Analysis. In Clarke, A. E. & Charmaz, K. (Eds.), Grounded Theory and Situational Analysis. Volume I. History, Essentials and Debates in Grounded Theory (pp. 225 ̶ 251). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication Ltd.
Clarke, A. E., & Montini, X. (2014). The Many Faces of RU486: Tales of Situated Knowledges and Technological Contestations. In Clarke, A. E. & Charmaz, K. (Eds.), Grounded Theory and Situational Analysis. Volume IV. History, Essentials and Debates in Grounded Theory (pp. 275–308). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication Ltd.
Iacoboni, M. (2009). Mirroring People. New York: Picador.
Johnson, M. (2007). The meaning of the body. Chicago & London: The Chicago University Press.
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh. The embodied mind and its chalange to western thought. New York: Basic Books.
Rockwell, W. T. (2005). Neither Brain nor Ghost. A Nondualist Alternative to the mind-brain identity theory. Cambridge, London: The MIT Press.
Šíp, R. et al. (2022). Na cestě k inkluzivní škole. Interakce a norma [Towards Inclusive Schools. Interaction and Norm]. Brno: MUNIPress.
Thelen, E., & Smith, L. B. (1994). Dynamic system approach to the development of cognition and action. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Thompson, E. (2007). Mind in Life. Biology, Phenomenology, and the Science of Mind. Cambridge (MA), London: Harvard UP.
Varela, F., Thompson, E. & Rosch, E. (1993). The Embodied Mind. Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.
19. Ethnography
Paper
Short Term Ethnography and its Value in Relation to Education Research
Ruth Unsworth
York St John University, United Kingdom
Presenting Author: Unsworth, Ruth
In this paper, I explore the benefits and challenges offered to education research by a short-term ethnographic approach. Short-term ethnography is being increasingly used in the fields of education and medical education, emerging under a variety of labels, such as ‘rapid ethnography’, ‘micro-ethnography’ (Pink and Morgan, 2013) or ‘focused ethnography’ (Andreassen et al, 2020). Drawing on a body of international short-term ethnographic studies, as well as on my own experiences and data from the field, I explore this approach and its value for the researcher of education. I first detail the key epistemological assumptions and ethnographic methods at the core of short-term ethnography, explicating certain differences the approach entails in relation to longer ethnographies, partciularly around the selection of a focus of study and common differences in researcher positionality. After explicating the approach, I consider the benefits and challenges that a short-term ethnographic approach offers to education research. I describe a perspective of education as a conglomerate of practices which are multi-faceted and episodic (Nespor, 1987; Kind, 2016). I draw on this perpscetive to argue the value of studying 'episodes' through short-term rich ethnographic explorations. Finally, I explore issues pertaining to researcher positionality in short-term ethnographic studies. I consider the common consequences of tendencies, in taking a short-term approach, for researchers to be familiar with the field (Andreassen et al, 2020), and the simultaneous drawbacks and benefits this entails. It is hoped that this paper will offer food for thought for researcher of education in the usage of short-term ethnographic methods, raising awareness of the value and challenges offered by this increasingly popular approach.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedIn exploring the benefits and challenges offered to education research by a short-term ethnographic approach, I draw on my own experiences and data from the field. Specifically, I draw upon field journals from a four-month long study of the practices existent within an English primary school (providing education for pupils aged 3-11 years). I relate this data to a body of international literature from the fields of education and medical education which employs a short-term ethnographic approach.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsI argue the value of a short-term ethnographic approach to education research and also explicate the challenges that this approach offers the education researcher.
ReferencesAndreassen, P., Christensen, M. K., & Møller, J. E. (2020). Focused ethnography as an approach in medical education research. Medical Education, 54(4), 296–302.
Nespor, J. (1987). The role of beliefs in the practice of teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies 19 (4): 317-328
Kind, V. (2016). Preservice Science Teachers’ Science Teaching Orientations and Beliefs About Science. Science Education, 100(1), 122–152.
Pink, S., & Morgan, J. (2013). Short-term ethnography: Intense routes to knowing. Symbolic Interaction, 36(3), 351–361.
19. Ethnography
Paper
Teaching an Ethnographic Stance; An Opportunity for Change-making
Sarah Robinson1, Wesley Shumar2
1Aarhus University, Denmark, Denmark; 2Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA
Presenting Author: Robinson, Sarah;
Shumar, Wesley
As we have become more experienced ethnographers, we have come to understand being genuinely curious and interested in how the ‘other’ perceives the world, what we call the ‘ethnographic stance’, has begun to permeate our everyday interactions with people in all areas of our lives. This sensitivity towards other humans has not only made us humbler about their (and our) different perceptions of the world, but it has helped us to understand that the ethnographic stance also provides an opening towards understanding how problems arise, what they involve, and perhaps even how to solve them.
When we started out as HE teachers, we sought to engage our students with what we were passionate about. As we became more experienced, we realized that it is better to engage students with what they are passionate about. When they become aware of their passion, what was important to them and what they would like to change, they engaged with learning as a (transformative) process.
The process of being both researchers and teachers has led to us becoming more experienced learners. As we became more experienced learners, we realized that our ethnographic stance has equipped us to not only be more open to other’s perceptions of the world and of important burning issues, but that this has often led to insights that allow for transformation and changes in authentic practices.
Over a number of years, one of the authors developed an innovative learning design, called the change-maker model (Robinson, 2020) that, rather than beginning with knowledge, begins with the student. A central method in the change-maker model is the ethnographic stance. This involves igniting curiosity about the world, equipping students to critically reflect with others and analyze both the practices they encounter and connect with the practitioners they meet along the way. Through this learning design, students are empowered towards transformative learning and change-making. Students become central to the practices they engage with while at the same time developing sensitivity towards those they interact with.
Like many institutions in contemporary society, higher education has become more focused on instrumental reason (Taylor, 1991). For so many policy makers and higher education administrators in Europe, and other parts of the world, their vision of the university is creating a workforce for the economy and creating new innovative products and services (Wright et al. 2020). But the original Humboldt vision, was a much broader vision of what the university could be, with its emphasis on the relationship between open and free exploration and communication and the processes of creating new knowledge. That original Humboldtian vision was central to many of the advancements in the modern world. Ironically, we now have a much more restricted vision, that the elites of the world hope will usher in a new phase of growth in knowledge and the creation of new and expanding forms of value that are good for people and society. This instrumental market vision is the very thing that will rob universities of their creative potential. Rather we pursue a more literal return to a Humboldtian vision through the change maker model. We argue that the ethnographic stance can help students, and faculty, become change-makers.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedWe describe the phases of the change-maker model and show how they are ethnographic. Rather placing knowledge centrally to teaching it is instead the student who comes into focus. Who is the student, what do they know, what can they do and what is important (of value) to them? By asking such questions, the student begins to reflect on and articulate their identity in relation to others. In the second phase, students begin to work in groups with the central elements of collaboration developing meaningful relationships. They find that diversity is a strength and that by being able to listen to what others say, find out how communication is a vehicle to find common interests and values. They are able to reflect on and articulate their own positioning in relation to others, both in their group but also towards the practitioners they meet outside the university. The third phase, discovery, requires the group to identify organizations that they are interested in and who could potentially be disciplinary partners. Having investigated organizational practices surrounding the issues they are interested in, through participant observation and interviews they then imagine what the practices might look like if the issues did not exist. In the fourth phase, experimentation, the group designs and tinker with prototypes, test assumptions and work closely with practitioners. The last phase, consolidation, sees the presentation of the project, the results and an articulation of the learning gained.
The change-maker model has been developed to focus on the process of learning rather than on learning as outcomes. While the broad goal of ‘creating value for others’ will always be linked to meaningful learning, what is learned along the way, and how the learner is ‘transformed’, is determined by the learner themselves.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIf the ethnographic stance is something that we can incorporate into our teaching – what does that mean and how would you as a teacher do it? What would you need to think about in order to bring the processual nature of learning into the consciousness of students? We challenge the reader to think about what teaching an ethnographic stance could contribute to the learning experience of students. In a world where knowledge is readily accessible, having knowledge is not the issue, however being able to act on that knowledge is. Ethnography is, at its core, about engagement, interactions, relationships, sensitivity and ethical and moral judgements. To be able to use an ethnographic approach critical thinking is required. When the individual reflects on those experiences, a number of things are triggered e.g., ‘disciplinary wonder’ (Barnett, 2004) a ‘social imaginary’ (Mills, 2000), an ‘interpretive craft’ (Van Maanen, 2011).
ReferencesBarnett, R. (2004) Learning for an unknown future Higher Education Research and Development 23 (3) 247-260
Mills, C.W. (2000) The Sociological Imagination; Fortieth Anniversary Edition Oxford University Press London
Robinson, S. (2020) Ethnography for engaging students with higher education and societal issues in C. Wieser and A. Pilch Ortega (eds.) Ethnography in Higher Education Springer pp. 93-110
Taylor, C. (1991). The Ethics of Authenticity. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Van Maanen, J. (2011) Ethnography as work; Some rules of engagement Journal of Management Studies 48 (1) 218-234
Wright, S., Carney, S., Krejsler, J. B., Nielsen, G. B., Ørberg, J. W. (2020). Enacting the University: Danish University Reform in an Ethnographic Perspective. Springer Nature B. V. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1921-4
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