Ethnography- principles in practice

Oral Accounts and the role of interviewing p97-121.

• Tension- accounts of people- sources of info about selves and world live in p97.
  • Vs- accounts social products which can tell us about socio-cultural processes which are generated
• Views of importance of accounts
  • Authors
  • Accounts- what tell us about phenomena they refer
  • Analyse perspectives they imply psychosocial dynamics
• Accounts useful- not accepted on face value p98. 
• Informants to collect information ethnographer can’t
  • Or to check inferences from observations
• Comments
  • Evidence of perspectives
  • Subcultures, cultures which they belong
• Understand bias better context
  • Presuppositions
  • How produced
  • For whom
  • why
• Treat as a resource and a topic p99.

Unsolicited and solicited oral accounts

• Unsolicited- often if a misalignment between perceived values, rules etc and the actual course of events
• Other motives- relay news, gossip, integral to human social relations
• Areas useful about
  • Setting
  • Perspectives
  • Concerns
  • Discursive practices
• Good sites
  • Staffroom
    • About particular students
    • Moods
    • Characters
    • Prospects
  • Attitudes to national political events
• Often to make sure researcher understands the situation “correctly”
  • Counteract what “others” have been saying
  • Or counteract presumed interpretations of researcher
• Limitation to try solicited accounts
  • Threatening
  • Inappropriate
  • Answers of little value
    • Try to move into innocuous areas  p100.
    • Finding out “game”
    • Being “hip,” knowledgeable- understand with minimal cues
• If elite, difficult to answer- cast in light as an expert to get better answers
• Becker and Greer p101.
  • Not only solicited- fear could be misled by reactivity- effect of researchers questions on what was said
  • Co-constructed (Polter, Hepburn)
• Naturalism- non directive interviewing
  • Talk at length on their terms- open expression of perspective
• “even when the researcher plays no role at all in generating the account, one can never be sure that his or her presence was not an important influence.”
  • Answering ‘reasonably’ an unspoken question
  • Non-directive questions and unsolicited doesn’t remove bias
• Reactivity one issue of effect of audience and context generally p102.
  • No “pure” data- discover best way of interpreting- collect more to check inferences
    • Know how data effected
• Interview v. useful- often only way to get some data.- often only way to get some data,
• Observation effects how interviews interpreted and vice versa
• Different research strategies produce different data and different conclusions p103.

Selecting Informants

• Self-selection p104.
  • Therapeutic
  • Keep updated- report news v. useful (if asked to keep informed)
• People selected
  • Hide data
  • Speed?
    • Can be misleading
    • Cannot search- needed for reflexive approach
• Negotiation- often with gatekeepers first
• Snowball effect- hope individual knows names of others p105.
• Available resources and opportunity costs- selecting interviewee’s p106.
• Multiple interviews useful
  • Trace patterns of change over time
  • Further info needed- checking previous info
• Research of role
  • Suitable size at random
  • Stratified- takes account of heterogeneity
    • Needs clear boundaries and full listing of members
    • Or not able to interview many
    • Try representative
      • Ask informants what are/ not representative views
      • Comparing characteristic of sample with what is known by the population as a whole
• Representative not needed if seeking info, not perspectives
  • Follow social distribution of knowledge
  • Motives of those in roles

Informants especially sensitive to area of concern

• Outsider- vantage point- different culture, class, community
• Rookie- surprised by taken for granted status of things, no stake?
• Nouveau statused- transition between positions- tensions of experience vivid
• Naturally reflective and objective person in the field

More willing to reveal  p107.

• Naïve- of what fieldworker represents, or of own group
• Frustrated- rebel, malcontent- conscious of blocked drives and impulses
• Outs- lost power. Ins- negative facts about colleagues
• Old hand/fixture
  • No stake
  • So secure. Not jeopardized in exposing others
• Needy
  • Craves attention and support. As long as interviewer satisfies- will talk
• Subordinate
  • Adapt to superiors- insights to cushion force of authority- could be hostile, willing to “blow top”
• Also- those most likely to develop and test emerging analytic ideas
• Problems
  • Can’t interview all
  • Could take time
  • Involve cost to obtain interview
  • Not useful
    • Leverage needed
    • Speak off script
    • Emergency causes interviewee to leave
• Might need to revise on basis of experience

Interviews as participant observer p108.

• Formal interviews- understanding found might not reflect behaviour elsewhere
• Relating perspectives from interviews to actions in other settings- issue
• Artificiality- useful for seeing how they would react to different stimuli or different settings
• Useful in penetrating barriers people might put up in everyday life
• Observation and interviewing not as dissimilar as some claim p109.
  • Context
  • Effect of researcher
• Identities- can be revised during course of interview
  • Common identity- build rapport
  • What not shared- often redefined during the course of the interview
• Building rapport key
  • Especially if no previous contact made
  • Presentation of self
    • Different clothes for different age groups
    • Shared interests, biographical experiences developing new interests
    • AVOID DAMAGING INDENTITIES
• Personal information
  • Strategic and ethical to give out some
  • Questions of level of appropriate disclosure and of what
• Need to maintain interview situation- especially with relatively powerful
  • Too deferential
  • Seeking rapport too much
  • Set up to show you’re in control e.g. arrive early if it is their space p110.
• Nature/Tone
  • First few minutes key- implicit/explicit negotiation
  • Reason for interview and reassurance of confidentiality
  • Small talk
• Manner key- subject watches to see if comments appropriate- sign of judgemental reaction
  •  Gives indication of acceptance at beginning
  • Follow what is said- appropriate reaction
  • Aim to facilitate conversation
    • Give interviewee more leeway to talk on their own terms than in standardized interviews
• Alone
  • Give info they otherwise would not
    • Not necessarily always true
    • Opinions more genuine
    • More truly reflect perspectives
    • What say on other occasions (depends on orientation towards others, including researcher)
• Subject aware “speaking for posterity” – affect
• Doubt confidentiality- seek to “leak” info p111.
• More than one person present
  • Watch reactions of others
  • Join In
• Group
  • Interview more
  • Can seem less threatening- more forthcoming (overcome shy person)
  • Depends on group/ topic e.g. bullying
• Follow-up interviews often more relaxed
• Focus Group p112.
  • Works with some, not others
• Group changes what is said
  • Harder to maintain control of a topic
  • Informants prompt each other to respond
  • Helpful for some- elite, white collar criminals p113.
• Group needs to be monitored
  • Accounts created for other issues- e.g. laughter
• Where and when important p114.
  • Often can’t control
  • Classrooms not always best
  • Considerations
    • Likely distractions- work, opinions of others
    • Whose “territory”
      • Control in situation
        • E.g. stripper in a strip club- be aware of power scenarios
      • Respondent plays a game
      • Office
        • Coffee table- informal setting- comfortable
        • Desk
          • Confidence of subject
          • Adds to formality and sense of individual
      • Useful to be on their territory- adds confidence
        • Insight into how they see themselves and the world
      • Or to set interviewer in control- appropriate
• How interview fits in with subjects life
  • Not necessarily time- out for participants from their schedule
  • If talk is business- interview routine those unfamiliar behave differently
  • Responses affected by the rest of their lives and how they feel
• Telephone p117.
  • Easier access to many
  • Elicit info not otherwise forthcoming

Types of Question

• Interview structured by subject and researcher
• Normally
  • Not sure of exact questions
  • Do not ask each exactly same questions
  • List of issues to be covered
  • No fixed order of topics- let flow naturally
  • Change style of questions based on intended effect
• Non-directive- triggers to stimulate interview in a wider area
  • Sharply defined could exclude data you hadn’t thought to look for
  • Personal and community knowledge can intrude about what the interview is to be “about” p118.
    • Subjects can insist on researcher using background knowledge – children and school assumptions
• Active listening
  • How what is said relates
  • Reflects circumstances of interview- shape course to relevancy
    • Clarification of ambiguity
• Test emerging inferences with direct questions p119.
  • Or if suspect informant lying
  • Expression of doubt can lead to people trying to defy critics
  • Confrontation with existing knowledge
    • Tell all- to get “your” truth out
    • Care with elites- won’t tolerate questions
      • Persistent not belligerent
• Leading questions useful to test hypotheses or penetrate fronts p120.  
  • Assess direction of likely bias
• Lead opposite to direction expected- test
  • Keep up identity as a competent participant

Conclusion

• Interviewer-

o   social event

o   participant observer

• Interviews

o   Info on events

o   And explain discursive practices of those who produce them