tailieunhanh - Ethnography as an inquiry process in social science research

This article is an attempt to present the concept of ethnography as a qualitative inquiry process in social science research. The paper begins with the introduction to ethnography followed by the discussion of ethnography both as an approach and a research method. It then illustrates how ethnographic research is carried out using various ethnographic methods that include participant observation, interviewing and collection of the documents and artifacts. Highlighting the different ways of organizing, analyzing and writing ethnographic data, the article suggests ways of writing the ethnographic research. | ETHNOGRAPHY AS AN INQUIRY PROCESS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE Research Ganga Ram Gautam ABSTRACT This article is an attempt to present the concept of ethnography as a qualitative inquiry process in social science research. The paper begins with the introduction to ethnography followed by the discussion of ethnography both as an approach and a research method. It then illustrates how ethnographic research is carried out using various ethnographic methods that include participant observation interviewing and collection of the documents and artifacts. Highlighting the different ways of organizing analyzing and writing ethnographic data the article suggests ways of writing the ethnographic research. THE INQUIRY PROCESS Inquiry process begins consciously and or subconsciously along with the beginning of human life. The complex nature of our life problems and challenges that we encounter both in personal and professional lives and the several unanswered questions around us make us think and engage in the inquiry process. Depending upon the nature of the work that one does and the circumstances around them people choose the inquiry process that fits into their inquiry framework that is built upon the context they are engaged in. This inquiry process in education is termed as research and research in education has several dimensions. The inquiry process in education is also context dependent and it is driven by the nature of the inquiry questions that one wants to answer. UNDERSTANDING Ethnography Ethnography as a form of qualitative research has now emerged as one of the powerful means to study human life and social behavior across the globe. Over the past fifteen years there has been an upsurge of ethnographic work in British educational research making ethnography the most commonly practiced qualitative research method. This interest in ethnography was sparked by the advent of the new sociology . Young 1971 which concentrated on the taken for granted categories of everyday .